Animal Farm was a classic. I read it for English Lit. in high school.
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Animal Farm was a classic. I read it for English Lit. in high school.
In the last two weeks, I have read the first two books in the "Shopaholic" series. I'm currently reading "Shopaholic ties the Knot." My wife got these and loved them so much she asked me to read them. I now better appreciate my wife's comparatively less egregious shopping habits.
Eric
That's when I was supossed to read it,but alas i was going through my 'lazy trying to be cool' phase. What a waste. Anyway, I just finished it.The ending caught me off guard.Funny. Very mch like today we often forget the messages written on the wall and are quickto believe what they tell us. Just started Lord of the flies.Yeah ,Dianahann ,I'd say Lord of the Flies is probably not the best reading assignment to give to a Jr high school class. There will always be a kid or two who might get it,but for the most part from what I've covered so far they're only going to scrape the surface and I agree Piggy is getting a raw deal. I did see the original movie (great)and the remake(not so great,as often is the case) so no one will ruin the end for me if they talk about it :)Quote:
Originally Posted by leogirl_21
I finished The Bean Trees and really liked it.
The Bean Trees is a great book from what I remember. Are you going to follow up with Pigs in Heaven? I read that in high school and remember liking it.
Never knew there was a follow-up. Thanks charstar for the info, I will look into it.Quote:
Originally Posted by charstar813
I was never assigned "1984" in school, so I'm just now trying to catch up and read it. But I've left it at my mother's house and only pick it up when I'm there, so I haven't got very far.
I did read "Lord of the Flies" in high school, but I didn't like it very much. :shrug And we never got assigned "Animal Farm" either. What kind of crappy AP English was I in?! :ohno :laugh
Actually, speaking of books I read in school, I highly recommend "Storming Heaven" by Denise Giardina. It's a fictionalized story built around real events: the battle between coal mine owners in West Virginia and those who wanted to unionize them -- around the 1920's or so -- and the coal miners who were caught in the middle. It's loosely based in the same era of history, and the same events, as the movie "Matewan."
It's a fascinating part of history, to me. :nerd :laugh
I recall reading Animal Farm in 8th grade one of the kids in the class just wasnt getting it but had picked the book because it had a low page count. Liberal Ap English teacher that year, we could pick our novels...any way he said "who does that pig think he is..." Perhaps by accident he hit on a truth....
We read 1984, Animal Farm, Logan's Run and Farenheit 451 in a super-cool English class I had in junior high with this awesome, politically radical teacher with flaming red hair who wasn't stuffy (she'd come to teach in jeans and a tee-shirt) and actually talked to us like we were adults. I never, ever forgot her or that class. Don't we all have at least one really inspiring teacher like that? *sigh*
Anyhoo, right now I'm starting to read Noa Noa, Paul Gauguin's journal recording the painter's experiences in Tahiti in the late 19th century. While not completely unproblematic (in terms of its exoticizing, Orientalist point of view), I've always been fascinated by the way he just escaped completely from European society, which he saw as "filthy" and corrupt, in search of true, unspoiled paradise. It's also interesting to read because I have visited French Polynesia, so I enjoy being able to picture the places he mentions.
Last summer, I had to read every novel by James Fenimore Cooper for a paper I was giving, this summer I don't want to tread on such pedantic ground, can any one suggest a novel with the light wit of Sid perleman, the optimism of Martin Amis and the language of Thomas Hardy....
In short, the opposite of Cooper.....:lol