High School books

[YOhio]

Growing up in rural Utah I loved reading Chaim Potok and imagining the Jewish neighborhoods in New York. Les Miserables gave context to studies of revolutionary France. The Jungle took me to the slaughterhouses of Chicago that existed before it became a great city.

At some point I'd like to re-read some of those books to see if they were as good as I remembered.

Did you read any books in High School or Junior High that stick out as especially influential?

[creekster]

Originally Posted by YOhio

Did you read any books in High School or Junior High that stick out as especially influential?

Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut has influenced me profoundly in many ways.

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by creekster

Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut has influenced me profoundly in many ways.

I haven't read it, but I'd be interested in reading why it influenced you so much.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by YOhio

I haven't read it, but I'd be interested in reading why it influenced you so much.

It wouldn't be that intersting, I assure you. In short, Vonnegut sort of fostered an intellectual awakening in me and caused me to start down the road of deciding what it is that I believe, and why, and whether those beliefs have any value. Typical teen sort of stuff. Plus, I tend to be cynical and so does he. I also like his writing style.

So it goes.

[BarbaraGordon]

The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman really moved me.

Waiting for Godot introduced me to absurdism and also scared the hell out of me.

I highly recommend Grendel by John Gardner.

I remember being fascinated by Sophocles and the notion of character-driven fate.

I tore through all of Hemingway. Probably too fast to do any of it justice. Loved Hemingway.

[Surfah]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman really moved me.

I have read The Awakening probably 3 or 4 times now and I hate that book. In fact my senior course was 19th Century American Women's Lit. and I did my senior paper on that book and my thesis was centered around Edna, a supposed champion of feminists, really was just a shallow and selfish woman whose actions culminate in the most selfish of acts, suicide. I chose that mostly because I believe it and also because I was one of 3 guys in the course and thought that the peer reviews would be entertaining as the class had so much estrogen I was starting to develop gynecomastia by the end of the year.

The Yellow Wallpaper is very interesting as it was really groundbreaking in it's subject and treatment of mental illness. I like this choice very much.

To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book of all time. Atticus Finch is my hero and I love Scout.

Robert Cormier was a favorite author. I Am the Cheese and The Chocolate War are great books that really affected me as a youth.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton and My Antonia by Willa Cather were very influential.

William Golding's Lord of the Flies created such emotion in me that I almost stopped reading after Roger killed Piggy. Along these lines Deathwatch by Robb White was intriguing.

The Giver is another book that I think is standard in most HS classes now that I read in college after my little brother introduced it to me. I really enjoyed this novel.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by surfah33

my thesis was centered around Edna, a supposed champion of feminists, really was just a shallow and selfish woman whose actions culminate in the most selfish of acts, suicide.

The Yellow Wallpaper is very interesting as it was really groundbreaking in it's subject and treatment of mental illness. I like this choice very much.

I totally agree on Edna. I was moved by the misery and prison that she envisioned herself in. But my prof was always insisting that the end was a victory. But I still wonder, a victory for whom??

I don't think I've ever met anyone else who's read the Yellow Wallpaper.

Were you an English major? What era did you emphasize?

[Surfah]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

I totally agree on Edna. I was moved by the misery and prison that she envisioned herself in. But my prof was always insisting that the end was a victory. But I still wonder, a victory for whom??

I don't think I've ever met anyone else who's read the Yellow Wallpaper.

Were you an English major? What era did you emphasize?

I did get my BA in English. 19th Century American Women's Literature was my emphasis. But American women's literature in general is what I read most, aside from the requisite classes. Wharton, Cather, Chopin, Jewett, Woolf, Jackson, Dickinson, etc. Two of my favorite novels are The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster and Hope Leslie by Catharine Maria Sedgwick.

I ended up taking a 200 level class from a professor I really enjoyed. And this was his specialty so I ended up taking 4 classes from him I think including my senior course of study.

Not 19th century, but Flannery O'Connor is one of my favorite authors of all time. Her short stories are amazing and her novel Wise Blood is a work of art. If you haven't read her I highly recommend her. I'd start with her short stories:

A Good Man is Hard to Find
Good Country People
Everything that Rises Must Converge

[Mormon Red Death]

[QUOTE=surfah33;67172]I did get my BA in English. 19th Century American Women's Literature was my emphasis. But American women's literature in general is what I read most, aside from the requisite classes. /QUOTE]

Boy you were/are trying to get a lot of smart chicks..

Learn to play the guitar or piano....that would probably work better

[il Padrino Ute]

[QUOTE=Mormon Red Death;67175]

Originally Posted by surfah33

I did get my BA in English. 19th Century American Women's Literature was my emphasis. But American women's literature in general is what I read most, aside from the requisite classes. /QUOTE]

Boy you were/are trying to get a lot of smart chicks..

Learn to play the guitar or piano....that would probably work better

Chicks dig the long ball.