Long Summer, Short Stories

(Picture courtesy of NY Times "Paper Cuts" blog)

Things move fast these days.  Someone recently mentioned to me "it's mid-April, which means it's almost May, which means it's almost summer."  Yikes!  Is that true?  I'm still in the midst of (extremely unusual for Southern California) April wind and rain storms, the heart of hay fever, and school plays and projects.  Summer seems awfully far away.  But I looked at my calendar for my Rediscovering the Classics class and was shocked to find that there are only two meetings left of our "school year."  My forward looking friend is correct, summer is almost upon us.

I have a love/hate relationship with summer.  I hate how dry my flower beds get. I hate sweating when I take the dog for a walk at 8am.  I hate that my oldest daughter stays up all night and sleeps all day, I hate using the air conditioner, and worrying about Southern California wildfires. And I hate, hate, hate putting on all that sunscreen before beach days and pool dates.  That said... I really think that when it comes to summer it's more good than bad.  I love that I don't have to wake up at a certain time to get the kids to school, I love not making school lunches, I love having my girls home with me, I love barbecuing and traveling and going to the beach and seeing Shakespeare in the park.  And I love, love, love having all that time to read.

Now, most people hear "summer reading" and they think "light reading": fluffy novels, chick lit, magazines.  Somehow people got the impression that reading in the summer heat (at the beach, by the pool, in the lounge chair with your Mai-Tai) was way too taxing, and that the general public needed a break from all that heavy classical reading they do during the year.  Really?  Well, I'm not sure I agree, but I can understand how a thick book like Anna Karenina might not be the one you want weighing down your beach bag or requiring you pay the extra carry-on fee at the airport. Somewhere between People Magazine and War and Peace there must be a summer reading alternative.  Well there is... Short Stories!

Hell Freezes Over... And I Watch Football

Two weeks ago I traveled up to the Bay Area to spend my mom's birthday weekend with her. She had managed to get 4 tickets to the Cal Berkley vs. Stanford football game and was taking me and my two brothers to see it. I'm not a big football fan (in fact, the most I know about football is that the season takes place sometime in the fall, and not to go grocery shopping on Superbowl weekend), but I am a big fan of spending time with my mom and brothers, so off I went with a song in my heart (and a flask in my pocket.)

Well, my football fan friends (all two of them) will be happy to know that not only did I enjoy the time with my family; I also enjoyed the game... A lot! I was surprised at how quickly I was drawn into the action. I found myself yelling, cheering, booing, swearing--even standing up and clapping when my (randomly chosen) team got a touchdown. It made me think about how sports hold a unique place in our culture... The teams and players are our modern day Greek heroes; those larger-than-life gladiators who make us feel as if each game is an open door of possibility; where the unexpected is anticipated and our own small acts of faith can help turn the tide from certain defeat to glorious victory.

It's heady stuff.

Betrayed By My Kindle: A Story of Love and Loss

I have a Kindle and I love it. My Kindle doesn't raise eyebrows when I'm impatient and want a new book right now. My Kindle doesn't make me feel guilty for taking up valuable shelf space with fluffy non-classics, or spending money to satisfy my vampire obsessed inner teenager. My Kindle is understanding of my obsessive-compulsive need to read the last chapter first, and it encourages me to mark pages and make notes in my books. Now don't misunderstand me, my Kindle doesn't keep me from buying actual paper and ink books, or forcing my poor family to wander through labyrinthine shelves and stacks to get from one room to another--but it has made a bit of a dent in my need for shelf space and it has made me very happy.

Last week, however, my Kindle betrayed me.

9 Books in 9 Months--Unveiled!

I wrote a few weeks ago about my "Rediscovering the Classics" class, which is beginning its third year this September. In fact, this weekend we had our first meeting where we talked about what the year may bring and I unveiled the list of books we will be reading. The list is (I hope) a mix of well-known favorites and lost treasures ready to be unearthed again.

Anybody who knows me knows that I have strong opinions about how the classics are taught in school. One of my criticisms is that students are thrown into books whose vocabulary, terms and language--although it may still be English--are so antiquated that the students are intimidated and even feel that the story has no relevance to their lives anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth! These books are classics because the language is often hauntingly beautiful and because the stories themselves deal with timeless themes. But sometimes students need to ease gradually into these older works of literature, so that the language and vocabulary is not such a shock. So you may notice that (with one or two exceptions) we read the books in backwards chronological order based on the date of publication.

And now, without further ado, here is the list. I hope you will enjoy it, and maybe even read along with us. I would love to hear your comments!

I Sit Down for a Conversation with Stephen King...

...and Neil Gaiman, and Christopher Moore, and Alexander McCall Smith, and Stephanie Meyer, and...

No, I don't have some secret "in" with all my favorite writers--oh how I wish I did!--my conversations with these authors (and many others) are all compliments of Borders media "Borders Presents"; a collection of short interviews with authors you love, authors you like, and some authors you don't even know.

So, thanks to Borders online I got to spend a lazy Sunday drinking coffee and watching interviews with some of my favorite authors; it was sheer delight! I always love hearing or reading interviews with authors because the topics of conversation are the subjects that are closest to my heart, and which I rarely get to discuss: writing techniques, where ideas come from, whether or not it's possible to write fiction that is not at least in some way autobiographical, truth in fiction, the elusive muse, etc., etc., etc.