On reading, and waiting too long to blog about it

This fall, I re-entered the classroom to teach a couple of sections of freshman writing at the local community college. It was my first time back in 17 years, and I was continuing to homeschool two high schoolers as well, so needless to say it consumed lots of time and attention.

Nevertheless, I found some time to read. The problem is that now, when I sit down to make note of the books here, I only remember two of them. Sigh.

The first was The Scent of Water, my (at least) third reading of my favorite Elizabeth Goudge novel. This book served as my happy, enchanted place to go amid the stresses of getting started with the semester and getting my feet under me as a teacher. Two former reviews are on my book review page, and I didn’t really have anything to add but another layer of enjoyment.

The second was The House on Beartown Road, a memoir about a woman who took care of her father for a few years as he descended into Alzheimers. For those of us who are watching, or have watched, a loved one tipping into this descent, it is a moving book that chronicles the ravages of the disease while somehow managing to find the moments of beauty and humor. In addition to the personal connection I have with the experience of watching a parent in steep decline, the book is connected to my locale; its author lived in my area of upstate New York while living and writing her story.

A third “read” comes to me, now that I’m thinking back over the past few months. I initially didn’t think of it because I listened on Audible, but All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr can also be included in my list of titles from the fall. A sprawling and ultimately heartbreaking novel that takes place during World War 2, the tale weaves together several characters’ stories in ways that were somehow confusing when listened to — rather than read. The tale isn’t told predictably or chronologically, so getting the paper copy as a reference helped. I suppose one has to acknowledge that this is a “great book,” but I found the ending very unsatisfying.

If we’re counting audiobooks, I can add in Austen’s Emma and Sense and Sensibility, and Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron — all rereads.

I’m currently reading Donald Miller’s Building a Storybrand, a book about marketing based on the framework of storytelling. Yes, once or twice this semester, I complained to my husband that in a freshman writing class, I’m selling a product many of my immediate customers don’t really want. They take the class because it’s required, not because they want to learn how to write academic essays. In response, he gave me this book, and it’s interesting to imagine my way into a whole different direction one could go with my skill set. (It’s also fascinating to think about how different this book is from Donald Miller’s other book, Blue Like Jazz.)

During Advent I’ve been enjoying three devotional reads along with my Bible reading: Frederick Buechner’s Listening to Your Life, Dennis Kinlaw’s This Day with the Master, and Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas. Each of these has enriched the Christmas season for me and kept it from slipping by without registering the wonder and significance of the Incarnation.

I know there have been other books, but what comes to mind is a list of unfinished reads from the past few months: Alan Jacobs’s Original Sin: A Cultural History, Elizabeth Goudge’s Gentian Hill, George W. Bush’s Decision Points (a reread). To my two high schoolers I’m reading Till We Have Faces and enjoying it more than in previous readings.

Writing texts have occupied a fair amount of my reading attention, too. Last semester I used They Say, I Say with Readings, a book that has some very real strengths but that didn’t focus enough on the actual writing process. I had to churn out handouts at a record pace and probably have enough to create my own book! While the text does do a great job of demystifying academic writing, I felt it didn’t guide students through the process of creating their own writing projects.

I checked out several other possible texts for next semester and ultimately ended up choosing Reading Critically, Writing Well. This text not only addresses critical reading (which, I’ve learned, does need to be taught); it also provides much more guidance for students to work through the writing process for each assignment, from analyzing examples to brainstorming to drafting to revising. The downside is that it’s more expensive, but since it includes a handbook in the back that covers MLA and APA, students don’t have to buy a separate handbook — so the cost evens out that way.

I received Virgil Wander, Leif Enger’s newest novel, for Christmas, so I’m looking forward to diving into that one next. Hopefully it’ll live up to its predecessors, Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young and Handsome! Note to self: don’t wait so long next time to record your impressions of the book.