Monday, November 29, 2010

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

PossessionBooks Completed Last Week
Possession, by A.S. Byatt. I've read this at least one other time before, and seen the movie twice. It's one of my favorite books of the last century. A fascinating literary mystery that involves two scholars attempting to solve the mystery of two dead poets who appeared to have an as before unknown love relationship with one another. It took me months to finish this book -- it's not an easy read, but a satisfying one. Try it if you are a literature geek and love a good intellectual/literary thriller. Last week I also read The Color of Water, by James McBride. I had to read this book for a college class I'm teaching (the college class is the reason this blog has been on hiatus for awhile -- I've been too busy learning how to teach college!). It's one of the most fascinating memoirs I've ever read, about a black man and his white mother. The story is an intriguing one, and it's well written. It's one of those books that makes me want to head out to the library and check out all the books I can find by the author!

Books I'm Currently Reading
The Color of Water was the last book I had to read for my class this semester, so now I'm going a bit crazy reading books on my own. I've got a bunch going at once: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, by Rhonda Janzen, which is about a woman who grew up Mennonite and returns to the community of her youth after a divorce. So far this book is funny and poignant, and I like it a lot. I'm also reading The Ghost of Meter, by Annie Finch, which is a highly technical book about poetic craft; The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Caslas, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece, by Eric Siblin; Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barret Browning; and What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain. Whew. It'll take me awhile to finish all these I'm sure, especially with finals coming up and grades due!

Click here to participate in It's Monday! What Are You Reading