Attention Class of 2012!

I know that the THS website is undergoing a redesign this summer.  So I don't know what's available there, or posted there.  But it's possible that some of you may go here looking for summer reading.

The books are the same as last year, but this is the wrong blog.  This is last year's blog.  You need to go here to post: http://thssummerreading2011.blogspot.com/.

What to Do Now

Well, you've gotten this far, which is the first step.

As you proceed with your reading, I'd like you to leave some comments.  Scroll down the page until you come to the book you're reading.  Click on "Comments" at the end.  Leave your comment.  I'll look in occasionally, but what this should be is a place for you to meet and share ideas with your classmates.

I expect everyone to post at least once for each book.  That's the minimum.  That will get you 37/50 (or less if your entries are extremely brief).  The more entries you make, the more involved you are, the higher your score will be.

Entries will not be accepted after 12 midnight on August 31st (the night before the first day of school).


That's the easy part, the fun part.  Now for the more difficult assignment (that's why they call it honors):  a Formal Academic Essay (aka the "Five-Paragraph Essay).  Think 3-5 pages.  This will be due by 3:00 p.m. on Friday, September 2.  [This is different from what you got on the handout.  It's the end of the day on the first Friday of class.]

Suggested topics:

1. Compare Josie Hogan to Eustacia Vye.  At first glance they couldn't be more different.  (And don't forget, "contrast" is always implicit in "compare".)  On the other hand, they are both willful women trying to make their ways in a basically misogynistic world.  What obstacles do they face?  What strategies and tactics do they employ?  What lessons can young women learn today from their successes and failures?
2. Jim 'n' Clym -- the problem with mothers.  This one narrows the field considerably.  AS is often the case whne crafting an essay, one can eliminate large portions of the texts involved.  Clym's mother, although only a supporting character, is the pivot point on which a lot of the plot turns.  Jim's mother doesn't appear in the play at all, yet she certainly wields a huge influence on Jim's psyche.
3. The bad boyfriend: Aaron & Wildeve.  Consider the impact that Wildeve and Aaron have on Eustacia and Nico, respectively, as the women try to navigate their ways through their particular troubles.
4. The impetuous heroine: Nico & Eustacia.  Both of these ladies are young and inexperienced, and reluctant to ask for help.  What tactics or strategies do they employ.  What factors contribute to, or hinder, their successes.
5. Your choice.  Stipulations are that you must include two works, and one of them must be The Return of the Native.  Be sure to choose a topic that can be dealt with in 3-5 pages.

Arresting Quotations

One of the cool things about college is that you get to write in our books.  You're even supposed to.  (That is if all your books won't be electronic.)  It's a carry-over from college, but when I read, I like to underline passages that I like --and make notes in the margin ("marginalia").  It can be a little conversation with the author, or to other readers.

In the comments for this section, I invite you to share any quotations that strike your fancy.  I'll go first.

Not only was Aaron so cool that he could afford to drive the world's most uncool vehicle, but he'd made it seem so cool that other kids had started asking their moms for their hand-me-down, high-mileage vans.

If you want to, add a little explanation of why it appeals to you.

[By the way -- and I may be one of the few people in America to whom this matters -- but "quote" is a verb.  "Quotation" is the noun form.  You find a passage that you'd like to quote from -- then put the quotation into the yearbook.]

What Else Will You Be doing with your Summer?

I was hoping to be rowing crew again in Middletown, but I've just been informed that I have a "diseased Achilles heel".  It's not as bad as it sounds, but I'm looking at spending the next month in a big, stupid boot like the one you may have seen Mr. Parzych wearing.  (Mine doesn't click, fortunately).

I should still be able to work on my yard and garden, which I enjoy doing.  I'll be watching the Red Sox out  on my screen porch, and at Fenway one more time, and I'll probably get out to Beehive Field in New Britain when Portland comes through.
 

On the cultural side, there's always the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.  I'll be there.  Feel free to come up and say "hi!".


And we hope to get away to the Cape for a week.


What will you all be up to?

What Else Will You Be Reading this Summer?

I always look forward to the end of the school year because it means that I'll have time to do a little reading.  Books that I have piled up so far include:

1. Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?  by James Shapiro.  Shapiro's consensus, oddly enough, is that William Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.  (A lot of people don't buy that.)
2. Home, by Marilynne Robinson.  I read her Gilead a couple of years ago.  This book takes a  minor character and plot line from that novel and retells it from that characters point of view.
3. The Taqwacores, by Michael Muhammad Knight.  It's been described as a Muslim Catcher in the Rye.  Who could resist a description like that?

So what about you?  I hope that I'm not taking up all your summer reading time.  (Moon is short, and Goldengrove should be a relatively quick read.  Return of the Native is the only one you might have to grind through.)

Goldengrove

Margaret, are you grieving. . . begins Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem which gives this novel its name.  (You'll find the entire poem in the book. If you love it, try this one.  Or this.  Or this.)

This book I read when it came out, thinking that maybe once it got to paperback it would make a good summer reading selection.  I gave the first couple of pages to my spring semester honors class, and they all said "We love it."  It's all about loss, grief, desire, self-discovery, family dynamics, and lots more.

Here are a couple of optional supplemental readings:

1. An article about the author, entitled "In Praise of Prose".  (It mostly mentions her other works, but you should find it insightful.)
2. An article about Shakespeare's Hamlet, focusing on the melancholy prince as grief-stricken over the death of his father.  (I have a lot of issues with the play, but it is still Hamlet, after all, and we'll be covering it some fashion early in the semester.)
3. Hamlet itself.  (If you're done early with your summer reading -- I know how dedicated you Honors kids are [wryly ironic smiley face goes here] -- and want to get a headstart.)

Oh -- and here's what Nico looks like after she gets her haircut.








(It's Jean Seberg.)

A Moon for the Misbegotten

A Moon for the Misbegotten

When it comes to standing ovations, I'm old-fashioned. I think they should be reserved for truly outstanding performances. Nothing bugs me more than people who sit in their seat a while, then decide "Yea, I guess it's worth a standing ovation." If you're not absolutely propelled out of your seat by a performance, then sit down.

When I saw A Moon for the Misbegotten a few years ago at the Hartford Stage Company, I leapt to my feet at the final curtain.

Here's why -- the love story, between Jim Tyrone and Josie Hogan, is beautiful, complex, and tormented. Now you take Romeo and Juliet: he was hot for her, she was hot for him; not much of a story, really. I can't tell you now about the nature of the characters or the relationship -- you'll have to discover that for yourself.


The play is set in Connecticut, of course. And the playwright, Eugene O'Neill is a Connecticut native. And he's a heavyweight.

Be sure to leave your name when you leave your response.