First Impressions

[lilyfriend]

I've attended the first class of each course now, so let's get to it.

Engl 215: The class format intrigues me. It's the equivalent of Engl 250 at Camosun, and it's not quite what I was expecting. But I think I'm pleased by that?? There's going to be a lot of in-class writing, that doesn't need to be turned in. Idea is just to get you writing. And

Comments

[lilyfriend]

I'll just post it here! Or I could still email it, if you wanted too. :)

Required Books:

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
(Everyone's seen this book.. orange with a little dog cut-out in the cover!)

A choice between:
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The Lottery by Beth Goobie
(These both sounded interesting, but I'm leaning towards The Lottery, just from the way he described them, I'll peek at both when I go to buy them.)

A choice between: (These are the graphic novels)
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegleman
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
(Maus is gonna have to do something pretty amazing to win me over when I look through them, because I was really drawn in by his description of Persepolis. I've heard of Spiegleman, of course, and Maus sounded good too, but I don't think it has a chance. hehe)

Then we'll have to choose a text for a group presentation, in a specific literary genre down the road. So when I get my group and find out what genre we're doing, I'll ask for recommendations if there's not already something I'm in love with. :)

[intertext]

Thanks! I've read many of them - of the graphics, I actually preferred Maus. I like the art style of Persepolis, but Maus has a much greater impact. The Curious Incident is WONDERFUL - one of the most amazing pieces of sustained pov's I've ever read. By coincidence, I'm actually reading his next novel right now - it's quite good, but it would be hard to top that one. I've liked other things by Nancy Farmer better than that one, but that's worth reading. It's an interesting selection... The Giver is really really good. There's a sequel, too, which has caused a certain amount of kerfuffle in the childlit world for reasons that I won't reveal here. I'll be interested to hear what you think as you read.

[lilyfriend]

Do you think I should get Maus instead? I wasn't going to make a decision on either until I'd taken a glance through them, but I liked the sound of Persepolis more. I liked the look of the art style too.

I'll have to get the sequel to The Giver. My Challenge English class in high school had the best books, the one that I read over and over again still. The Giver is one of them. Our teacher read it to us, 10 or 15 mins a day, usually at the beginning of the class. It's such a neat story to get into. The other that I really liked from that class was The Chrysalids. I found a copy of that at a used bookstore in Nanaimo a few years back. It's falling apart. I love it. hehe :)

[intertext]

oh, definitely get the sequel (or sequels, I'm not sure...) - the kerfuffle is based on the fact that the sequel seems to make answer some of what was ambiguous in The Giver... I LOVE The Chrysalids. It's a great book. I need to read it again sometime soon.

I can't really advise re Maus vs Persepolis. It's a question of a young girl's vision of Iran (Iraq?) vs something about the Holocaust. But Maus is ultimately "better," I think. eek. That's loading value on you, but that's just mho. It's hard for me to see how you could only read part I, though.