January and February Reading List 2012
The end of semester grading, a trip to The Hague with the MUN team, a trip to the States to see family, and the start of a new semester have me a bit behind.
The hardest part of not getting the monthly book review done, is that I tend to leave out books that I have read! So as I try and remember everything that I have thumbed through or read on my Nook (and the Nook really helps me to keep track!) let's see what the last 60 days had me interested in.
1. "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez-- If I were counting the number of times I have read this book in the last two months, this book would be on the list four times! I've been teaching it in my grade 11 classes, so I've been reading it over and over, in sections and in starts. As I said, I'm teaching it, so of course I think it's wonderful! Each time I read a passage, I discover something new about how Marquez crafted his story telling. If I could just get my students to understand that really understanding a book takes multiple readings...
2. "The Strange Case of Finley Jane" by Kady Cross-- This is a short little eBook that is a prequill to a larger novel. The story is set in a steam punk world and the main character is a strong (literally and metaphorically strong) girl. There is some mystery as to how the girl comes across her unnaturally speed and strength, but she also has a good heart and defends those who can not defend themselves. This is a VERY quick read (90 ebook pages or so) and would be a good fit for early high school students or something to fill a rainy afternoon.
3. "I Am Half Sick of Shadows" by Alan Bradley-- This is another of the charming Flavia de Luce novels that is one of my addictions. Bradley has Flavia snowed in for Christmas and a troop of actors descend on the house. It seems that the estate is being used to film a movie, and there is (of course) a murder that takes place that Flavia is compelled to stick her nose into help solve. In addition to all of the charming dialogue between the sisters, who tend to be at one another's throats, the reader gets a peak into what Colonel de Luce has been doing to try and save Buckshaw from ruin.
4. "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides-- Set in the 1980's, this novel deals with the idea of marriage and why so many people think that marriage is the natural course of life after college. There are three main characters that take turns as the narrative point of view, two men and a woman, and they create a strange love triangle that spans most of the northern hemisphere. This novel hits on my love for Jane Austin, and the question that many modern adults deal with: do I need to be crazy to get married, or do I just need to be crazy to get married to YOU? Although this book is not for kids or struggling readers, it is captivating and maintains the same writing style that earned Eugenidies the Pulitzer Prize for "Middlesex" a few years ago.
5. "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness-- I was a bit misled by the title-- it's not that witches are discovered in this book... it is that witches discover something that is big and important. This book is hailed as the adult "Twilight" but I don't know if I'd go that far. There are vampires, and witches, and daemons, and some steamy not-sex scenes (you'll have to read the book to see what I mean by that), but I was not hooked into this story the way "Twilight" hooked me. Not that this won't hook you-- It really is a page turner, but not in the same way. Although this is not great literature, it is a book that will engage your mind, and make you wonder about how magic and reality intermingle.
6. "Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs-- This is a fantastic book that smudges the edges of reality and magic. In the same way that "Night Circus" left me wanting more, this book creates a world filled with true evil and goodness. The most interesting part of this book was the focus of visual story telling that was painstakingly woven into each chapter of the text. This book has a TON of antique pictures, mostly of circus sideshow acts or illusions, which have been used to create parts of the plot. Teaching IB Lit and Lang has me interested in how different text types, like these sorts of visual texts, can be used to enrichen the reading experience. This is innovative story telling for the 21st century reader.
7, "Five Flavors of Dumb" by Antony John-- I picked this one up from the TAC library because I thought the title was interesting. I ended up reading to the end because the premise of the story was really intriguing: a deaf girl becomes a manager of a band. This is not your typical teenage book that is concerned with dances, and football games, and vampires, this book deals with serious issues of friendship, parent and child relationships, and living in a hearing world without the ability to hear. I can see this book as a good choice for a literature circle, a reading group, or a whole class read. The reading level would not be too difficult for most grade 10 readers, and the story is interesting enough that I think grade 12 students would not feel slighted if they were asked to read it.
The hardest part of not getting the monthly book review done, is that I tend to leave out books that I have read! So as I try and remember everything that I have thumbed through or read on my Nook (and the Nook really helps me to keep track!) let's see what the last 60 days had me interested in.
1. "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez-- If I were counting the number of times I have read this book in the last two months, this book would be on the list four times! I've been teaching it in my grade 11 classes, so I've been reading it over and over, in sections and in starts. As I said, I'm teaching it, so of course I think it's wonderful! Each time I read a passage, I discover something new about how Marquez crafted his story telling. If I could just get my students to understand that really understanding a book takes multiple readings...
2. "The Strange Case of Finley Jane" by Kady Cross-- This is a short little eBook that is a prequill to a larger novel. The story is set in a steam punk world and the main character is a strong (literally and metaphorically strong) girl. There is some mystery as to how the girl comes across her unnaturally speed and strength, but she also has a good heart and defends those who can not defend themselves. This is a VERY quick read (90 ebook pages or so) and would be a good fit for early high school students or something to fill a rainy afternoon.
3. "I Am Half Sick of Shadows" by Alan Bradley-- This is another of the charming Flavia de Luce novels that is one of my addictions. Bradley has Flavia snowed in for Christmas and a troop of actors descend on the house. It seems that the estate is being used to film a movie, and there is (of course) a murder that takes place that Flavia is compelled to stick her nose into help solve. In addition to all of the charming dialogue between the sisters, who tend to be at one another's throats, the reader gets a peak into what Colonel de Luce has been doing to try and save Buckshaw from ruin.
4. "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides-- Set in the 1980's, this novel deals with the idea of marriage and why so many people think that marriage is the natural course of life after college. There are three main characters that take turns as the narrative point of view, two men and a woman, and they create a strange love triangle that spans most of the northern hemisphere. This novel hits on my love for Jane Austin, and the question that many modern adults deal with: do I need to be crazy to get married, or do I just need to be crazy to get married to YOU? Although this book is not for kids or struggling readers, it is captivating and maintains the same writing style that earned Eugenidies the Pulitzer Prize for "Middlesex" a few years ago.
5. "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness-- I was a bit misled by the title-- it's not that witches are discovered in this book... it is that witches discover something that is big and important. This book is hailed as the adult "Twilight" but I don't know if I'd go that far. There are vampires, and witches, and daemons, and some steamy not-sex scenes (you'll have to read the book to see what I mean by that), but I was not hooked into this story the way "Twilight" hooked me. Not that this won't hook you-- It really is a page turner, but not in the same way. Although this is not great literature, it is a book that will engage your mind, and make you wonder about how magic and reality intermingle.
6. "Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs-- This is a fantastic book that smudges the edges of reality and magic. In the same way that "Night Circus" left me wanting more, this book creates a world filled with true evil and goodness. The most interesting part of this book was the focus of visual story telling that was painstakingly woven into each chapter of the text. This book has a TON of antique pictures, mostly of circus sideshow acts or illusions, which have been used to create parts of the plot. Teaching IB Lit and Lang has me interested in how different text types, like these sorts of visual texts, can be used to enrichen the reading experience. This is innovative story telling for the 21st century reader.
7, "Five Flavors of Dumb" by Antony John-- I picked this one up from the TAC library because I thought the title was interesting. I ended up reading to the end because the premise of the story was really intriguing: a deaf girl becomes a manager of a band. This is not your typical teenage book that is concerned with dances, and football games, and vampires, this book deals with serious issues of friendship, parent and child relationships, and living in a hearing world without the ability to hear. I can see this book as a good choice for a literature circle, a reading group, or a whole class read. The reading level would not be too difficult for most grade 10 readers, and the story is interesting enough that I think grade 12 students would not feel slighted if they were asked to read it.
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