Got an opinion about any of the six finalists for CSUN's 2012-2013 Common Reading? Share your opinion on the submission page. Note: this blog is moderated, so you won't see your opinion until it's approved for posting.
Brief opinions work best.
Ask me anything Submit your opinionUrrea is on a book tour and blogging as he goes. Sample:
“My wife and I used to joke that the best way to deal with family and your home town was to maintain a 1,000-mile buffer zone. But what you’re really staying away from is the poverty and the struggle of the old days.”
His home town: Tijuana, Mexico.
Los Angeles Times article by Brian Bennett, Nov. 21, 2011, describing “the Shadow Wolves, a team of eight American Indian trackers who stalk drug smugglers though the desolate canyons and arroyos of the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation.” This landscape is the setting for The Devil’s Highway.
I vote for Outliers. What a great—and interesting—book, with so much to offer our freshmen, I think. I like the way Gladwell talks about circumstances and “luck,” and how he characterizes the nature of “getting things done” (for lack of a better term). Yep, that one has MY vote for sure. I’m recommended this book to many people in the past, all of whom have enjoyed it.
(Submitted by Audrey Thacker)
I nominated Me Talk Pretty One Day for a few reasons:
1. The text is well written, witty, poignant, funny, touching and thought provoking.
2. Since each chapter is a different story or essay, it’s easy to pick and choose specific parts of the texts to focus on without losing continuity of a plot.
3. Sedaris’ essays discuss a variety of issues that our students can relate to and learn from. A few topics include his attempt to learn a different language (perhaps this will put into perspective many of the language challenges students face), ethical decisions, and dealing with multicultural issues, the complexity of relationships with family and friends, questions of identity and career choices. All provide interesting fodder for freshman discussion.
4. The text would work across the disciplines and every department could find something that would relate to their course curriculum.
5. It’s a manageable page limit and, again, easy to break up into smaller sections. The language is also easily accessible, yet college-level.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and was inspired to read more of his work…sometimes laughing out loud while reading it.
(Submitted by Alexa Dimakos)
I think (here at the 11th hour) that there are some clear frontrunners, especially if the goal is to grab young readers and keep them reading: Outliers (What can’t Gladwell write about and make interesting?); Me Talk Pretty One Day (Sedaris is laugh-out-loud-funny, poignant—the whole nine yards); The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (The non-fiction book of the last two years, it raises all kinds of fascinating topics/questions); The Help (Readable, fun, popular, meaningful). And to that list I add two books that just sound fascinating from their descriptions: The Known World and Next: A Novel.
(Submitted by Dorothy Barresi)Out of the books nominated thus far, The Help seems to be one of those books that fits the selection criteria quite well. First off, it’s highly readable and not difficult to get through. I think most freshman consider “required” reading to be rather intimidating in nature. This book is definitely not that.
Thanks for reading.
Submitted by Tina Reed.
A funny, raucous tale of six freshman students starting their studies at a Wizarding University that has fallen on hard times. I particularly like the way that the novel captures academic politics and the feeling of stretching one’s wings in an exciting new environment (that isn’t always entirely friendly to one’s ambitions). Some of the students must deal with parents who don’t want them to be at the university (for a variety of reasons) and all of the students are dealing with family issues of various kinds, so there’s also a lot that I think our students will identify with in the exploration of family relationships. It’s light and fun, but not fluffy—there’s LOTS to talk about.
I just reread this recently and kept thinking how much fun it would be for the freshman students to read. I know that not everyone likes fantasy, but when I taught the first book in my childhood and the fantastic class, students who really really didn’t like fantasy thoroughly enjoyed it because it is at all a typical high fantasy (though it looks like it is from the cover). One of the things that would be fun to talk about, in fact, is the issue of genre and how Jones takes a great deal of pleasure in dismantling genre expectations. (more so in the first book, but also in this one).
(Submitted by Jackie Stallcup)
I’m using Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers in my large Introduction to Sociology class this semester and the students love it. One freshman even asked his parents to buy him other books written by Gladwell for his birthday. Gladwell discusses many sociological concepts and refers to sociological theorists so the book is an excellent supplement to a sociology text. Its contents have also helped facillitate many interesting discussions. All in all the book is informative, entertaining and accessible to freshmen.
(Submitted by Kris Kouri)
From Erin Delaney: seven reasons she just nominated One Amazing Thing:
I just finished reading One Amazing Thing last night, and I’d like to nominate it for the freshman common reading. I think it’s a good fit for us for a few reasons:
1. It has an international, multicultural focus that we haven’t really explored yet. The book features a diverse group of characters, all of whom want to visit India for a variety of reasons.
2. The book is made up of the characters’ stories, which means that most readers will be able to find at least one interesting. It also helps us to break up the book if we decide not to teach the whole thing.
3. Many of the stories lack a resolution. This gives the students the opportunity to discuss how the stories could end.
4. The book discusses some contemporary social issues, such as terrorism and prejudice. It also discusses natural disasters and our response to them.
5. The book shows how a group of strangers form a community. I think this is a really apt topic for our freshmen to discuss.
6. (This is more from my perspective as an English teacher) The book is beautifully written. I especially liked the way the characters analyzed each other’s stories. After one character would tell his or her story, the other characters would each be thinking about different aspects of the story. It’s a great literary analysis lesson about how we choose to focus on different aspects of the text and how we interpret them differently.
7. Lastly, from a practical perspective, it’s not terribly long or difficult to read in terms of vocabulary or style. However, it is still a book for “grown ups” because of the challenging issues it discusses.
I really enjoyed the book.
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