Four Summer Reads:

("Reading by the Brook" Winslow Homer 1879)

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Started about a week BEFORE seeing Midnight in Paris, but was able to appreciate the movie 100 times more because I was in the middle of reading it. I didn't realize it had been fifty years since headlines across the country looked like THIS. Either way, these coincidences have pushed me into reading this American master of story. (I think)

The Orphan Sister by Gwendolen Gross

You can read a lot of my thoughts about this book if you click on the link. I wrote about it exclusively at my "Student" blog.

Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven by Karen Salyer McElmurray

The prose is dense, something I expected because I know Karen (not only is she one of my current professors, she is also my Thesis Advisor). This is her first novel, and I really like the structure of it. In place of "chapters" each character has sections told in years and dates. The first few sections match up perfectly with the last section. Very chilling.

Uncensored by Joyce Carol Oates

Because this is a book of critical essays, I only focused on the ones that deal with novels/stories I have read. It is interesting to see what JCO honed in on concerning Sylvia Plath, Richard Yates, Alice Sebold, and Emily Brontë. She also writes about the short story, the form I work with--in two essays. When I'm more familiar with some of her other topics, I will revisit this book.