Currently Reading and Rereading

After L.S.'s research paper last year, I decided that I had been remiss in my reading, having never opened a book by Barbara Kingsolver. Like many of my high school students, I chose The Bean Trees because it was the shortest Kingsolver in the store. I have enjoyed this quick read about a girl who grows up in rural Kentucky and wants to escape her hometown and avoid pregnancy. (Could it be growing up in Bellefontaine, Ohio?) Still, she ends up with a child in the most unusual of ways and learns the importance of motherhood (which I dig) and finding your sense of place (but not in a Barry Lopez'ish kind of way).


If you pay any attention to me at all, you know that I am almost obsessed with Sherman Alexie. To celebrate his forthcoming trip to Cleveland, I am rereading a number of his books, starting with the short story collection The Toughest Indian in the World. If you would like to hear Alexie speak, you can attend Cleveland Public Library's Writers and Readers event on November 18 at 2:00. Sherman Alexie is the author featured on that Sunday. I recommend that you read either Flight or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, both out this year and featuring a young main character.