Still reading Les Mis, meticulously, and taking notes.
In the meantime, we started listening to a book on CD on our daily drives -- the first in the Raven Cycle Series by Maggie Stiefvater. It was interesting, and I wanted to know what happened next, so then I binge-read the 4 books. The series is fantastical but the main characters are well-drawn and believable. Overall it was an enjoyable experience.
Before that I has picked up Neil Gaiman's American Gods at the library and started it. Not sure if I will finish it, but maybe. I am interested in the story but the writing is too....boy. Maybe I prefer women writers, maybe I prefer YA when it comes to fantasy, maybe it's just not my thing. But maybe I will finish it anyway just to see what happens. But like with Game of Thrones, I will not be watching the TV adaptation. Boy writing gone TV is definitely not my thing.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Summer Break and the Reading is Easy
I have been doing quite a lot of reading lately, some pulled from the summer reading lists of my various students and some from my own prep for next year's classes.
So far, I have read
1) City of Glass by Paul Auster but this is the graphic novel version
2) The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir written and drawn by Thi Bui
3) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
4) Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deveare Smith
5) Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
I liked #1 but loved #2 -- it was a surprising find about the life of a woman born in Vietnam who family came to the US as war refugees! Both are summer reading for other classes in the English department. #3 was a re-read but it was just as good as the first time around. #4 has been on my list for a while, and it just made me reaffirm my belief in ADS's genius. #5 is not as good as Operating Instructions -- probably because when I read that I was a young(ish) parent and that book saved me in some ways so it is up on a pedestal unreachable by other books in comparison -- but AL always has some gems about life that I'd write down in an inspirational quote book if I had one.
Next on the list is Victor Hugo's masterpiece Les Miserables. I am reading the unabridged version translated by Lee Fahnestock. It's quite the undertaking and may take me all summer, and I may intersperse it with other things. I am taking notes as I go to help me thinking about the direction of the winter musical.
So far, I have read
1) City of Glass by Paul Auster but this is the graphic novel version
2) The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir written and drawn by Thi Bui
3) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
4) Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deveare Smith
5) Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
I liked #1 but loved #2 -- it was a surprising find about the life of a woman born in Vietnam who family came to the US as war refugees! Both are summer reading for other classes in the English department. #3 was a re-read but it was just as good as the first time around. #4 has been on my list for a while, and it just made me reaffirm my belief in ADS's genius. #5 is not as good as Operating Instructions -- probably because when I read that I was a young(ish) parent and that book saved me in some ways so it is up on a pedestal unreachable by other books in comparison -- but AL always has some gems about life that I'd write down in an inspirational quote book if I had one.
Next on the list is Victor Hugo's masterpiece Les Miserables. I am reading the unabridged version translated by Lee Fahnestock. It's quite the undertaking and may take me all summer, and I may intersperse it with other things. I am taking notes as I go to help me thinking about the direction of the winter musical.
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