As 2020 comes to a close, I wanted to share some recent reads with you.  In the past six months, I’ve enjoyed a pretty wide variety of books: nonfiction about race, poker, tennis, and a serial killer; literary and award winning fiction; YA thrillers; and a book about Bigfoot. 

I enjoy sharing my reading life with you and putting up a top ten list every six months.  Simply put, I think talking about our reading matters.  Creating this list also forces me to be more reflective, to think about what books I liked best and why.

Before I get to the list, two housekeeping items are in order.  First, we will be re-configuring the site soon.  Please note we will keep all the resources and materials for the old course.  But, as the old course no longer exists, we will delete some informational pages that no longer pertain to this current course.  Again, you will still be able to access any lessons or materials from the “old” course, but you won’t find anything about Further Oral Activities!

Second, David and I would like to sincerely thank you for your continued support.  We appreciate it!  Your feedback and comments also help us get better at providing you what you need to be successful in teaching this course.

If you are on break, may it be restful and rejuvenating; if you are celebrating a holiday soon, may it be joyous; and to all of you, may you remain healthy and safe.

Best,

Tim

Caste: The Origins of our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson

Caste is a must read!  In it, Wilkerson looks at three caste systems (in the US, Germany, and India).  She spends most of her time talking about the US, and it's eye-opening about how we should be talking more about caste instead of race.  This is a piece of nonfiction that is essential reading right now. 

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

This won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction last year and for good reason.  The ending is one of the best I've read in a long, long time.  While I found The Underground Railroad more inventive and more engrossing as a piece of art, this novel was almost a thriller in the ways it kept me turning pages.  It follows the story of Elwood, a young African-American male in the Jim Crow South who gets sent to the Nickel Academy for a crime he didn't commit.  The novel revolves around that "school" and the atrocities that occur there.  I love the way Whitehead weaves in Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin among others.  But most of all, it's about Elwood and his story as he tries to better himself in a society that is doing everything it can to keep him down.

Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry is a lot of fun to read.  It reminds me of a cross between Waiting for Godot and Lincoln in the Bardo.  Two Irish mobsters/gangsters are waiting at a port in Spain for a boat from Tangier to arrive.  They are searching for Dilly, the daughter of one of the main characters.  The novel flashes back often to the two men and their life in the drug trade.  But most of all, it's the conversations between the men - often hilariously funny, other times heartbreakingly sad - that makes this novel worth reading.  It's hard though (the structure and the narration) and read it only if you are in the mood for a challenge.

Stokes of Genius by L. Jon Wertheim

Strokes of Genius is Wertheim’s account of the 2008 Men’s Wimbledon Championship match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.  Often considered the best tennis match ever played, Wertheim details not only the match, but he also provides wonderful insight into these two tennis greats.  I loved learning little facts and titbits about them both and their background, but it was the way in which Wertheim controlled the tension of the match (even though we already know the outcome) that left me thoroughly enjoying the book.

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

If you are looking for fun and light Young Adult literature, look no further.  One of Us is Lying is a delight of a book.  Five teenagers spend an afternoon in detention.  One of them dies there.  Who killed Simon, one of the teens?  The rest of the novel tries to answer this question.  I think what I liked most about the novel was that I was convinced, just convinced that I knew who the killer was.  Truth: I didn’t even come close!

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

This book haunted me.  The details of the individual rapes and murders in this piece of nonfiction, and McNamara’s search for the Golden State Killer, is harrowing.  McNamara is also just an incredible writer.  Her prose is lucid, but unforgiving.  I was both wanting more and wanting to escape from the story she was telling.  It’s not an easy read because of the content, but this is just an incredible piece of nonfiction.   

Devolution by Max Brooks

I enjoyed Max Brook’s novel World War Z and the historical account of the zombie apocalypse.  This novel, similar in terms of narrative structure and style, re-tells the story of Bigfoot.  Trapped in a remote area of Washington State after a volcanic explosion, a remote eco-community is put to the test when, well, Bigfoot arrives.  Told as a series of diary entries interspersed with interviews from others in the wider community, Devolution is a romp of a read.  It also has some biting social criticism of our more romantic fantasies when it comes to the natural world.  Brooks doesn’t hold back here: nature will eat you up and spit you out.   

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

Given to me by our Korean literature teacher (thanks Mi-Sook!), I devoured this book in days.  It’s an easy, short read in terms of style and language.  It’s much more complex and troubling in terms of content.  Jiyoung is a new mom and a millennial trying to have it all in Korea in 2016.  The problem: Korean society – time and time again – is pushing her down.  The novel follows her life from her childhood to present day.  It is the accumulative effect of everything she has had to face as a woman that’s just so saddening.  While a few moments provoke outrage in the reader, most are more mundane, and because they just don’t stop, you become overwhelmed, like Jiyoung.    

The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova

The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova is a wonderful memoir about poker. I thought I would learn more about poker. Spoiler: I didn’t.  Instead, it's a memoir about becoming a pro poker player.  Even more than that, the memoir delves into the convergence between skill/talent/knowledge versus chance/luck. It's a great read especially if you realize from the beginning it’s not going to teach you how to win the pot at your next card night.

Tie: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

You’ll find My Sister, the Serial Killer is a wonderful thriller that you’ll read in an afternoon.  It’s a delight: fun in a dark sense.  On the other hand, Patchett just writes such beautiful sentences in The Dutch House, but the plot dragged a bit for me. 

Books I would like to read over break: Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline, How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, and Wow, No Thank You: Essays by Samantha Irby