I did read a few things that I really enjoyed this year. Here's the very brief recap:
Number of books: 45
Number of novels: 26
Non-fiction: 19
Read-alouds: 8. Five Little Peppers and Redwall both took a long time. I did enjoy reading Redwall once I got into it. Fun to read aloud with different accents. Will probably read another in the series.
Favorites: Mansfield Park, The Professor's House, A Room With a View, I Surf Therefore I Am, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. Very different books enjoyed for different reasons.
Least favorites: Morrissey, Graced and Gifted, The Fault in Our Stars. Boring and overrated, all three. Ok, maybe The Fault in Our Stars wasn't boring, but it was so overrating and objectionable as a young adult book because of the love scene. Just leave it out. It's a YA book for goodness sake. Middle schoolers are grossed out by that kind of stuff.
Again not much spiritual reading. Again no Shakespeare or Dickens. But Trollope, which took a good deal of time, was like Dickens. And I've been dipping in and out of a book of essays of spiritual writing. Nonetheless, my reading goals for 2015 will remain the same: More Shakespeare, Dickens, and read alouds. Try to read closer to 50 books - not on a good start to that goal. And do more reading that will feed my soul instead of just entertain - although most of these classics do feed my soul.
Again not much spiritual reading. Again no Shakespeare or Dickens. But Trollope, which took a good deal of time, was like Dickens. And I've been dipping in and out of a book of essays of spiritual writing. Nonetheless, my reading goals for 2015 will remain the same: More Shakespeare, Dickens, and read alouds. Try to read closer to 50 books - not on a good start to that goal. And do more reading that will feed my soul instead of just entertain - although most of these classics do feed my soul.
Now it is past the middle of January, and I haven't finished a book. I've been reading my grandfather's biography and my literature book. I recently was reading the racy Kate Chopin story "The Storm" and doing some internet research on her life, when I discovered an amazing coincidence - I know her great-granddaughter! She teaches the docent classes for art class presenters at our kids' school. What things you can find on the internet! I sent her a fan letter via email, even though according to her remarks at the Kate Chopin International Society meeting last spring, she never met her great grandmother and really never read her books until she was in college. But the truth is Chopin was not very well known until she was rediscovered in the late 60s. I was given a book with "The Awakening" in it as a graduation gift from my high school English teacher. It struck me as incredibly sad and romantic, but I didn't understand the controversial reception it first received. Now I read her stories with mixed feelings - I am uncomfortable with the frankness with which she writes about sexual tensions - but nonetheless, I appreciate her artistry with words and the fact that she could write like this and support herself and 6 small children after her husband died. A strong woman she must have been.
4 comments:
As a former middle schooler, I would not have been grossed out by the love scenes, but rather quite mesmerized, and inspired to close reading--which is another argument to leave the love scenes out.
I keep hearing about The Fault In Our Stars, but I'm not sure I want to commit to reading it. My girls aren't likely to be interested in it any time soon, but I wanted to clarify because several of my kids in religion class have read it and loved it -- are these love scenes with unmarried teenagers?
Yes, Mrs. Darwin! The main characters, teen cancer patients, go to Amsterdam and have sex in their hotel room while the mom of the girl is in the other room, apparently knowing and condoning because one of them is going to die. Greene's other books apparently also have quite a bit of promiscuity. He's a talented writer, and the book has a good message about hope and friendship and the power of suffering - and a couple reflections on the power of storytelling that writerly, imaginative people would appreciate, so I can understand why it has been a bestseller. I like to read what is popular so I know what my kids might pick up - and my 16 year old read it because his friends who are girls pushed it on him in their fandom, but we talked about that scene and how it colored the whole book for me because it perpetuates the idea that sex is something you do because you love someone and it feels good - not because it is a sign of a covenanted and committed love that is life-giving and unifying.
It's a short read, and I would recommend reading it if you thought your girls were going to come across it, but it already has faded somewhat out of public notice, but there are plenty of better ways to spend a couple hours.
Betty, your middle school posse would have been passing around a dog-eared copy for sure.
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