Feel Good About Summer Reading
It's summer and if you are anything like me, you're desperate to get your nose into a non-curriculum book. So I'm not going to dump a pile of textbooks on you that will help you improve instruction, tighten classroom management, erase the marker board more completely. Nope, I'm going to make a few suggestions of books that will make you fall in love with humanity again. Books that will make you Feel Good About life.
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
This book is a classic, but in case you haven't read it, it's a short, inspiring story about a boy on journey from Spain to Egypt to find fulfillment. He finds it exactly where you'd expect: the journey itself. This is a quick read, but immensely satisfying and perfect for boating or beaching. It's also a great family read-aloud.
*if you love The Alchemist, you must read The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. Another classic.", another boy, another journey, another family read-aloud much more fanciful. The Little Prince asks its readers to appreciate the value of that which cannot be seen. A lovely story to share.
Habibi by Craig Thompson
Not for the young'uns, not for your classroom library, just for you. This story is a graphic novel and it is luxuriously long (though I tore through it in an evening). It is, first, a love story but it cuts to the soul of what love is. What does it mean to love, to be loved, to be a lover? It tries to define womanhood and masculinity in complex and interesting ways. It demands the reader rethink what it means to be a family. But more than anything, this book shows us the healing power of one another as characters get lost and found in strange places with strange and loving people. I promise, if you stick with this book, you will find it a deeply rewarding read.
*if you enjoy Habibi, read Craig Thompson's other
behemoth, Blankets. Again, not for
young'uns, but a lovely story told as intricately with pictures as with words.
It follows a brief love between two high school misfits and their strange and
troubling lives. Ultimately its reader comes to understand the connecting
threads among us all that give meaning and joy to life.
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
I read this book last summer and finished it more quickly than I had planned to. It is a story about two women whose lives intersect in traumatic and touching ways. Little Bee in an immigrant from West Africa to England, seeking asylum as a refugee from incredible violence, violence that her co-protagonist witnessed and yet is oddly disconnected from. The story is an island of peace amid violence and reminds its readers of the great power we have to do good in one another’s lives.
I read this book last summer and finished it more quickly than I had planned to. It is a story about two women whose lives intersect in traumatic and touching ways. Little Bee in an immigrant from West Africa to England, seeking asylum as a refugee from incredible violence, violence that her co-protagonist witnessed and yet is oddly disconnected from. The story is an island of peace amid violence and reminds its readers of the great power we have to do good in one another’s lives.
*if you enjoy Little Bee, spend another afternoon
reading I Am Nujood: Age Ten and Divorced. Unlike Little
Bee, which is fiction inspired by current events, I am Nujood is a work of non-fiction. It is written by Nujood herself, and it linguistically
simple. It opens a window into Yemeni
culture that reveals the simple and beautiful as well as the terrible and
unjust. But, it is intensely redeeming
and empowering.
True Grit by Charles Portis
This is an American story, truly, read it over the Fourth of July. It's set in Oklahoma, back when it was simply "the Indian territories" and follows a young girl seeking revenge but finding something better. It is a love story to the American West and will having you laughing the entire time. When you finish it, watch the movie -the new one, with Jeff Bridges.
This is an American story, truly, read it over the Fourth of July. It's set in Oklahoma, back when it was simply "the Indian territories" and follows a young girl seeking revenge but finding something better. It is a love story to the American West and will having you laughing the entire time. When you finish it, watch the movie -the new one, with Jeff Bridges.
*If you like True Grit, think about reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's set
in the present day on a frantic road trip through Illinois and Wisconsin. The
characters are a ragtag group of old-world gods brought to America in the
hearts and minds of immigrants struggling to be remembered, much less, worshiped There's a love story, a journey, history, myth and magic, something
for everyone. The end is spectacular and if there was one book I would
want amnesia for, this is it.
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I know it's a movie and if you haven't already read the book, you've seen the film or had some jerk tell you the ending. But the thing is, the book is better -I know, I know, that's what everyone says. But this time it's really true. And if you've seen how glorious the movie is, you'll understand what a big promise I'm making. The author's not (which you must read) promises the reader a story that will make you believe in god -and it does. Pi Patel is a teenager, is a child, is a married man in his forties (the timeline is a bit flexible). But throughout, he is a soul in search of a meaningful relationship with god. It comes when everything else has been stripped away. The scenes omitted from the movie are rich and meaningful and the insipid love story in the movie is thankfully nowhere to be found in the book. This is a book you'll be anxious to talk about, so get a friend to read it with you!
I know it's a movie and if you haven't already read the book, you've seen the film or had some jerk tell you the ending. But the thing is, the book is better -I know, I know, that's what everyone says. But this time it's really true. And if you've seen how glorious the movie is, you'll understand what a big promise I'm making. The author's not (which you must read) promises the reader a story that will make you believe in god -and it does. Pi Patel is a teenager, is a child, is a married man in his forties (the timeline is a bit flexible). But throughout, he is a soul in search of a meaningful relationship with god. It comes when everything else has been stripped away. The scenes omitted from the movie are rich and meaningful and the insipid love story in the movie is thankfully nowhere to be found in the book. This is a book you'll be anxious to talk about, so get a friend to read it with you!
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