Since finishing Lincoln at Gettysburg, I have been reading the Geraldine Brooks novel, March, which the Tompkins Country Public Library has selected for their community read this year. It was an imaginative and inventive story that blended fact and fiction. Real people like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau make cameo appearances and interact with fictional characters. A good read.
What are you reading now? I have heard from my colleagues that many of you did not like reading Lincoln at Gettysburg, and I have even heard some complain that students just don't read anymore. Can this be true? In our digital age of instance information, do books still matter?
At my Reading Project small group discussion two weeks ago I asked my students what books they would like to see selected for future Reading Projects. Their suggestions included such classics as Brave New World, Catch 22, A Tale of Two Cities, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and 1984. (How many of these have you read?)
More recent books recommended were The Things They Carried and the current bestseller Three Cups of Tea. Three of the students suggested that we read The Kite Runner and another requested that we read the graphic novel, Persepolis. Hmm. Reading a graphic novel for the Project could be quite interesting.
Many of these students were biology majors and they had two non-fiction book recommendations as well: Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA and The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. Seems to me that these students still read.
There are just so many good books out there. So let me ask all of you the same question:
What books would you recommend we read for next year's Reading Project?

Anne Kenney




Recent Comments