Comments | clutchoff: Calling Smart Friends

clutchoff

Calling Smart Friends

Apr 28, 2008 07:38

Hello all, I need my smart friends. I am doing an independent novel project with my 10th grade World Lit students and I would like a few suggestions. I have an extensive list of authors for the kids to choose from but I would like to add to it. I think the list was made six years ago and I know there are many more brilliant authors from around ( Read more... )

Comments 17

backlon April 28 2008, 13:24:49 UTC

Jose Saramago. All the Names might be a little tough, but Blindness would be great (though there's violence in there...).

Michael Chabon. Kav and Clay too long, but perhaps Yiddish Policeman's Union or Wonder Boys (though wonder boys is a little too free with the drugs)

Fatima Mernissi. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood. "Harem" as "Group of Moroccan women" more than "house of ill repute"

clutchoff April 28 2008, 17:25:46 UTC

You just gave me a few books for my summer list. Thanks:)

backlon April 29 2008, 19:08:11 UTC

world authors nixes Chabon. If it's an honors course you could add naipaul. If they've read Heart of Darkness I highly recommend Season of Migration to the North.

a_crude_wisdom April 28 2008, 14:25:35 UTC

How old are the kids? And what sort of novels are you looking for?

clutchoff April 28 2008, 17:22:21 UTC

These kids are 15 or 16. It is an honors class but sometimes that doesn't mean much. It can be any genre.

Go ahead... say nerd classics don't count... newskull April 28 2008, 15:20:49 UTC

Douglas Adams
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Walter Michael Miller
William Gibson
Neal Stephenson

Re: Go ahead... say nerd classics don't count... clutchoff April 28 2008, 17:22:51 UTC

I have plenty of nerds in my class. They'll be happy for these suggestions.

Re: Go ahead... say nerd classics don't count... newskull April 28 2008, 17:55:41 UTC

You might want to be careful letting the RS & RAW book out. It's kind of pro-everything-you've-got-a-professional-obligation-to-be-anti-.

Forgot: newskull April 28 2008, 15:44:43 UTC

If Cormac McCarthy isn't on there, he should be.

This would be easier if we could see the list.

Re: Forgot: clutchoff April 28 2008, 18:43:42 UTC

Cormac was born in Rhode Island.
Just pretend I don't have anything on the list yet. It was made a few years ago so I wanted to see what people came up with on their own. I am getting some good ideas. Thanks

Re: Forgot: newskull April 28 2008, 18:50:24 UTC

Oh, so they can't be American? In that case my above list gets shortened to just William Gibson and Douglas Addams.

mplsmuse April 28 2008, 16:21:01 UTC

Isabel Allende is the only one coming to mind off-hand. She is Chilean and her website is here: http://www.isabelallende.com/

House of the Spririts (her first book and most famous) is a great book - beautiful prose and epic storyline. Ines of my Soul is one of her latest and is waiting patiently for me to be done with class this semester so that I can read for fun again.

clutchoff April 28 2008, 17:25:12 UTC

Inez of my Soul is a great book, but cheering for the woman who essentially enslaved a whole race of people is at times hard to read. You love her and then realize if this book was written from a different perspective you may hate her. Well written though. I went to see Allende speak about this book, and let's just say, I wish she and I were best friends.