Musings on my recent reading...

Besides getting married and teaching summer session online, this summer I reread Margaret Atwood's wonderful The Handmaid's Tale, which always seems fresh to me, every time I read it. I really enjoy teaching it as well, because of it's full of rich language and philosophical underpinning, but still presents enough post-apocalypse mythology to engross most students. I also taught Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, which is not only my favorite war book, but an excellent exploration of the always tricky dichotomy: truth/fiction.

Outside of what I read for work, I mainly spent the summer having trouble settling into a book. I read David Nichols One Day and was totally engrossed. I've always been a fan of chick lit, but like it even better when I find a book that has something in common with the genre, but also something in common with "literary fiction," which this book does. I definitely recommend it; my only reservation is with the ending, which I found disappointing. I won't spoil it, but it wasn't what I expected (maybe a good thing?).

I read Stephanie Meyer's new Twilight novella in preparation for Eclipse on the big screen. I'm getting ready to take a character writing workshop this fall, and I saw this as an interesting character writing exercise. I also read Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls, because I've been dabbling more an more in YA fiction, thinking it might be something I would like to try writing. I thought this book was beautiful and painful, and though I'm glad my teen years are past, I could see my past self reading this book.

I've done a lot of starting and stopping this summer, but I'm going to make another push for writing in the book blog. I'm setting a goal of once a week. Now it seems that this blog is more a story about me trying to write in a blog than a blog about books, but that might be interesting...maybe...