Sunday Salon: Prioritizing
Ah, priorities.
It has been a rather slow week over here at The Scarlet Letter. As the semester starts to pick up, it becomes more and more difficult to ignore the call of the 80 or so ungraded assignments in my inbox. So, reading time becomes more and more scarce. I have been doing some things this week though, and trying to keep to my goal of finishing a book every week, even if that means picking up something shorter and buzzing through it, which is what I happened to do this week.
The only book that I read this week was Elizabeth Scott, Living Dead Girl. I am not planning on traditionally reviewing this book, but I decided to read it in response to the decision by Bitch Magazine to remove it from their list of 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader.
I chose to read this book along with the other two books removed from the list (Jackson Pearce, Sisters Red and Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels), so that I could do my own feminist analysis of the books and evaluate whether they seem to be justifiably removed from the list. I'm pretty excited about doing this, and about doing some critical reading for a purpose- something I haven't done much of since graduate school. So, eventually there will be an atypical post about these three books, together. What I can say now about the hullabaloo over at Bitch Media, is that, whether or not these books were justifiably removed, if they aren't fit for the list, they shouldn't have been there in the first place.
As for other reading related activity, I'm right in the thick of Swamplandia and I'm enjoying it, although it isn't a quick read. I'm also getting into The Memory Palace. However, like I said, I'm prioritizing my grading this week, so it might be another slow one. Hopefully, I'll have some new and exciting reviews up soon.
It has been a rather slow week over here at The Scarlet Letter. As the semester starts to pick up, it becomes more and more difficult to ignore the call of the 80 or so ungraded assignments in my inbox. So, reading time becomes more and more scarce. I have been doing some things this week though, and trying to keep to my goal of finishing a book every week, even if that means picking up something shorter and buzzing through it, which is what I happened to do this week.
I chose to read this book along with the other two books removed from the list (Jackson Pearce, Sisters Red and Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels), so that I could do my own feminist analysis of the books and evaluate whether they seem to be justifiably removed from the list. I'm pretty excited about doing this, and about doing some critical reading for a purpose- something I haven't done much of since graduate school. So, eventually there will be an atypical post about these three books, together. What I can say now about the hullabaloo over at Bitch Media, is that, whether or not these books were justifiably removed, if they aren't fit for the list, they shouldn't have been there in the first place.
As for other reading related activity, I'm right in the thick of Swamplandia and I'm enjoying it, although it isn't a quick read. I'm also getting into The Memory Palace. However, like I said, I'm prioritizing my grading this week, so it might be another slow one. Hopefully, I'll have some new and exciting reviews up soon.
I can so sympathize with putting all else on a back burner in order to evaluate students' writing. And I'm so grateful for your link to the list of 100 Feminist YA books: fabulous! My next TBR filter, for sure. And I'm anxious to read your reviews of "The Demoted": I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteAdmiring your blog,
L