Saturday, June 28, 2008

thirty-two books

These are the books I've read for school this year ... and the list doesn't even include Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows!

Anthologies and books about writing:
Vivian Gornick, The Situation and the Story
Philip Lopate, The Art of the Personal Essay
Perl and Schwartz, Writing True
The Fourth Genre
Cort Conley and Annie Dillard, editors, Modern American Memoir
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Greg Wolfe, The New Religious Humanism
Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer

Common readings (required, but good requirements)
Four Quartets, T.S.Eliot
Robert Alter, Genesis, A Translation
Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners
Flannery O’ Connor, The Complete Stories
Augustine, Confessions
Dante, The Divine Comedy

Chosen Readings in Creative NonFiction, new
Patricia Hampl, I Could Tell you Stories
Scott Russell Sanders, Private History of Awe
Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk
Linda Buturian, World Gone Beautiful
Vivian Gornick, Fierce Attachments
Leslie Leyland Fields, Island of Grace
Nancy Mairs, Voice Lessons
Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy
Haven Kimmle, She Got Up Off The Couch
Nancy Mairs, Remembering the Bonehouse

Chosen Readings in Creative Nonfiction, "old friends"
David James Duncan, God Laughs and Plays
Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
David James Duncan, My Story as Told by Water
Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water

Chosen Readings in Fiction
Haven Kimmel, The Solace of Leaving Early
Haven Kimmel, Something Rising Light and Swift
Haven Kimmel, The Used World
Annie Dillard, The Maytrees

I'll read thirty more for next year-- the list looks good.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww, I read Fierce Attachments this past quarter. What did you think of it? I was kind of enchanted.
Emily

Denise said...

Have you read The Situation and the Story? It's an amazing read.

Gornick presents people with incredible honesty. I like her pacing, the surprises (the childhood friend turned boyfriend turned zealot!). The end is just right: she stays because she stays. I find her tone impressive, forceful, and her sentences are astonishing. I'll read more of her memoir.

See me for the full report! Would it be fun to trade annotations? Of course, then I'll find out that yours are smarter than mine.

Rock in the Grass (Pete Grassow) said...

you're amazing!