Recent Reads

Some of the Scrabble night gals (Betsy, Ginny, Susan, Susie, Barb, Maureen, Rebecca, me, joined by Ginny's friend Rikki) started a book club in February, and we've read some good stuff:

• The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt (Good, controversial)
• Lily, Marilynne Robinson (I loved it, not everyone did)
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami (Strange, and I was bored because I thought it was too thin)
• The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters (Fine, but not my favorite of Waters's novels--I'd recommended it!)
• H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald (Wonderful! But I'm just 50 pages into it)

I also have read a few non-sabbatical things on my own recently:

• One Stayed at Welcome, Maud Hart Lovelace and Delos Lovelace (1934)
• I read the original 1934 edition that I found while browsing the new Highland Library shelves. It's a sweet story of settling Minnesota, a town called Welcome, in the 1850s. 
• The Lodger, Marie Belloc Lowndes (1913)

  

  Pocket in The Lodger

• I also picked up this old book (I read the 1935 edition) while I was browsing because its title reminded me of The Paying Guests: it has some similarities (a London couple has to invite a lodger because they need the income), but it's also a kind of mystery about killer on the loose. The internet tells me that quite a few movies have been made based on it: in 1927, a silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and with a changed ending; in 1944, with some slight changes in plot and names; in 2009, set in Hollywood this time.
• We are Water, Wally Lamb (2013)
• Barb Z recommended this novel, saying it's one of her top-five of all time. It's good, with interesting characters, good writing, and dramatic plotting, but the ending gets a bit too preachy for my taste (did Lamb really need to explain just exactly how the title is a metaphor??).

The best teachers and professors article: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/08/the_best_teachers_and_professors_resemble_parental_figures_they_provide.html

 

Crazy parent email from last fall

Julie,

I believe you have discriminated against my daughter, SaBreina White. That is something I DO NOT TOLERATE.

SaBreina informed me that you claim she and Sara were disruptive in class - over Sara looking at her cell phone for time. Where you docked her 9 points. You also informed SaBreina that YOU were embarrassed because you had to "call them" out in class over this situation. SaBreina did NOT have her cell phone on her and did NOT disrupt class.

Apparently you have also split the two girls up into different classes due to your claim of the girls being disruptive. Unprofessional. This isn't high school.

Also - your choice of language and calling students inappropriate names has been brought to my attention. Yes, most students in the class are adults, but not all. You have implied that students are dumb with the comments you make... which disrupts the class and makes students feel inadequate.

SaBreina has a big personality, therefore there she may in fact be vocal on her opinions. That should not be counted against her.

SaBreina is considering dropping this class because of you bullying her. This makes me very angry, that a teacher would be the problem, not the actual work. I believe a teacher should build students and their confidence up, not tear them down.

And yes, I am fully aware that you and my daughter have exchanged emails. That is why I, her mother, have decided to step in.

I look forward to your response and the schools stance on discrimination.

Carmel J. White

651-276-4812

Wonderful student email

This morning's email--what a gem.

Last night's American Nature Writers class was the "report out" for students' Field Observations. I invited the editor-in-chief of the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine because she's interested in hearing new voices in the magazine.

Hi Julie, ​

Yesterday's class was awesome! Thank you for creating a space that allows us to be authentic.  It was nice to have Kathleen about of our class to hear her feedback which lines up with yours and the gentle way you encourage us to do and be more. 

Love, love, love the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer Booklet.

I have attached my Field Note Reflection Paper.

See you next week!

Student

More cleaning up email

Student emails:

1)
Julie,

I just got a call my daughter got poked in the eye with a stick and it is scratched. I wont make I have to take her to the hospital. Please let me know what will be due on Wednesday. 

Thank you,
Student

2)
Hey Professor Daniels,

Sorry to have send this late notice but I have an family emergency so I won't be able to make it to class today. I apologize for the lack of performance but I am definitely getting the assignments. 

3)
My name is Student Lastname I start class on Monday with you. My FASFA hasn't come in yet so I am just letting you know I won't have any supplies until I get fanatical aid comes in. Thank you, see you Monday!

4)
Professor Daniels,

Thank you for getting back to me. My daughters knee is on the mend with physical therapy now. I completely forgot about emailing you on your Century email. My apologies.

To add insult to injury (literally) while my daughter was laid up on the couch, she spilled her entire bowl of soup on my lap top while she was playing games and didn't know what to do so she just closed it ad waited for me to get home from work. After it dried out, I learned that it is not going to be working again. I was able to get  new computer today, about an hour ago. The insult part is that I had y reading journals saved on it. I can re type them not a big deal but I wasn't using the "template". I have not had to do anything like this before, so if you wouldn't mind if after class I can chat with you a bit to make sure I am understanding it all. In your previous email it stated to state it to the original journal entry... Are we supposed to be doing two entries, or is that if we write it our first?

I kinda feel like a lost puppy with this right now. haha. Hoping you can help me so I am understanding what all I need to be doing properly.

Thank you,

Student Lastname

Save this

I am cleaning out my email inbox and I found this message from a year ago: I want to save it.

LIT 342 Thank You!
This is Terry Vu.  Thank you for replying. After reading Tim O'Brien " In the Field ", I feel a little bit change in me.  I like the sentence in the story that say "When a man died, there had to be blame". (p 2742) I guess  when I failed the essay, I blame your harsh grading style.  I could blame my work that require manditory 60 hours weekly. I could blame that I have to spend too much time with my son or go to the inlaw every Sunday.  Anyways, I appologize for blamming you.  I know my paper deserve a F, but hoping for a F+ instead of an F-.  That is what I meant, not that I expect to get an C or something like that.  50% is motivating.  30% is killing me slowly. hehe.  Anyway, have a wonderful week.
Terry

I needed this

Last night was the final class meeting for my Intro to GLBT Studies class: students planned a potluck, so we had a lot of cookies and pop, and although I did some teaching, mostly we celebrated and shared what we'd learned.

One student who's been struggling to come to class (and complete assignments!) said something that surprised me when it was her turn to talk: she said that she hasn't ever been one to speak up in class, but she's felt safe to do so in our class. That experience has enabled her to speak up in her other classes, too: she's gotten brave.

I felt proud about that! And then this morning, I checked into the class's webpage, and I found this message from her:

Subject: A letter to my favorite class <3 br="br">

First of all, I want to say that I feel so blessed to have met each and every one of you. You are all beautiful people. This class has meant so much to me, probably more than any of you will ever know. Like I said in tonights class, because of you all I was able to break from my shell and show you who I really am. Thank you so much for always accepting my thoughts and opinions with open arms. This class has had a tremendous impact on me as a person, and I will always carry that with me. You all will remain in my heart forever. Thank you, Julie for providing such a wonderful learning environment, and being a marvelous teacher. You are an amazing woman. Thank you all.

Much love,

[Student] (:

A Student's Plea

I have my FYComposition students write about our college's Common Blook on a blog. Those posts are supposed to be about any aspect of what they've read in that book, The Grace of Silence this year.

Here's one student's post from a couple of weeks ago: he's older, maybe 45, from Ethiopia, and was certain to tell me what was wrong with President Obama and why he voted for Romney. The irony: he has now dropped the class because of my "grading system," even though he has had trouble following directions all semester (writing essays on topics he wants to write about instead of the assignments I've given; giving me the impression that he'd followed my advice to sign up for an ESOL Directed Grammar Study course but not doing it; posting about all kinds of things, not the common book, as you see below):


Keepup

Learning English language is my goal at Century College. The language is harder than any three other languages I speak, write, and read. However, I believe English language is the most important language too. Because, it is the 3rd most popular and modernize language that many people uses today to communicate to each other. You the native speaker you should proud of this, speaking the language. Please, develop it, share it and keep it.

Some resreachs has been done. For example, the Saint Ignatius high school of OH, showes, The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages

"The Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) Ethnologue Survey (1999) lists the following as the top languages by population:
(number of native speakers in parentheses)

1. Chinese* (937,132,000)
2. Spanish (332,000,000)
3. English (322,000,000)
4. Bengali (189,000,000)
5. Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000)
6. Arabic* (174,950,000)
7. Portuguese (170,000,000)
8. Russian (170,000,000)
9. Japanese (125,000,000)
10. German (98,000,000)
11. French* (79,572,000)."

.So please, keep developing it, sharing it and keeping well it. Because many people need it, not just you.

And please help us to learn better and be inpatient with us too. I appreciate that.

Finished and Ongoing

I just finished a book that I'd ordered because I'm teaching Shakespeare: The Shakespeare Thefts is a slight, popular, short-chaptered personal reflection on the author's search for original First Folios. Eric Rasmussen and his team have found and examined 232, and they speculate about others that have been lost or stolen.

I'm also reading Darby Nelson's For Love of Lakes, which is another short-chaptered personal reflection about his experience with lakes, especially Minnesota lakes. I hope to add some of his chapters in my Nature Writers class this fall.

Quick Reads

The Ellen Hart mysteries that I've read in the last few days are fun, escapist things for me. The first one, The Mirror and the Mask, I realized that I'd read before, but I couldn't remember what happened! The twists and turns (the second step-daughter accidently killed her mother; the step-father really *is* the biological father of the first step-daughter) pile up at the end, so they're forgettable (I remembered the exposition, not the climax).

The second mystery, which I read entirely yesterday after Jane left (I wanted to get into a different world because I was feeling sad at her departure), was partially familiar to me, but I don't think I ever finished it: The Cruel Ever After. I never get Hart's titles: even when they become a refrain in the book, they don't make good sense.

Finally, I finished a graphic novel this morning: Moving Pictures is a slight volume, but the drawings captivate me.

I should probably read it a few more times so that I get the conflict better, with more specificity. Sure, I get that it's French curators hiding paintings during the rise of Hitler, but what, exactly, is the tough decision that the protagonist, Ila, has to make?

Unfortunately, the pictures aren't complex enough for me to want to linger with them, unlike any of Bechdel's work, which rewards re-reading.

Now I have to decide which books to take on my "up north" trip: both to Bemidji for Gram's funeral and to Montreal for Zoe's performance. We'll see.

For fun

Just finished a British murder mystery: The Stately Home Murder by Catherine Aird. I just love the English syntax and allusions: so many literary references, including Shakespeare and nursery rhymes. I only got a few.

Reading Around

I finished the young adult novel Rage tonight: the voice is compelling (first-person, present-tense narrator), and the scenarios remind me that high school can be SO awful for so many people.

Also, I've been reading around in a food book I found fallen behind my cookbooks: Eat More, Weigh Less insists on a low-fat diet, which is fine, although Pollan would argue with Ornish's focus on nutrients. The book also has recipes, and many look good to me.

I love TED talks: Ornish's updated findings are interesting.

Latest Reads

This morning, I finished Hunting the Witch, a murder-mystery by local author Ellen Hart. I've read a bunch that include her regular sleuth, Jane Lawless, although I have to admit that I don't really remember all the titles. But I like the familiar landscape (Jane owns a restaurant in Linden Hills) and the romantic problems: yep, this series is my "trash reading"!

My thoughtful reading this week has been Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. I turned down corners of may pages, wanting to use them in class next year. I heard him speak at the Edina Barnes & Noble, maybe about 5 years ago, with Zoe. He might have been talking about this book!

Worth Reading

This article called "A Message to Girls About Religious Men Who Fear You" is by Soraya Chemaly, a writer for Huffington Post.

THis paragraph is a good one:

Your very existence makes them anxious. And their anxiety is particularly high because you have something no generation of girls has had before -- globally connected communities of men and women who support your equality and freedom. Like guns, germs and steel, this transformative technology, which enables me to write to you here, alters geography, changes societies and dismantles systems of control -- it makes the world a smaller place and it creates, even if slowly in some places, positive change for girls like you. You see, until now, these men could count on, indeed they could ensure, that you and the women around you were house-bound and isolated. Many of you still are. But now, there are millions and millions and millions people who are thinking about you and challenging these men every single day. You have the speed of light on your side and unless someone permanently turns the lights out, those days are gone. So, although you might feel like you are alone, you are not.

Worth Reading

Up at Jane's, I finished Wicked and left if for Jane and Kelsie (who promptly photographed the book and posted it to facebook!). The story's definitely imaginative and delightful, although the ending is weak and anticlimactic.

On Jane's deck, I also began (again) Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. I'll keep working through that as I continue my book-a-week (at least) project.

Because it doesn't seem as though I can read one book at a time, I'm also taking bites out of another antique book I found, probably with Lisa last year: Catholicism and the American Mind was published in 1928. Interestingly, what I've read so far (that we Americans should accept those mysterious Catholics in our midst) could be applied to Muslims today.

Short and Sweet

I know that I said I wanted plot, but instead I read through a slender 1940s volume called And the Greeks. Its subtitle is A Book of Hellenic Recipes and Culinary Lore Collected, Edited and Arranged by Allan Ross MacDougall, author of The Gourmet's Almanac.


MacDougall was a friend of Edna St. Vincent Millay (her biographer and letters editor), Isadora Duncan (her manager, correspondent, and biographer), Kay Boyle (correspondent), Djuna Barnes (correspondent), William Carlos Williams: lots of the folks I studied for my MA thesis. It seems as though he was an activist for women's suffrage in England: he must be the student mentioned here in a 1912 news article.


Here's a blurb about MacDougall from the New York Public Library's dance collection:


Allan Ross Macdougall, an American writer born in 1893 [and died in 1956--took me a while to find that date!], lived and worked in Paris in the 1920's His subjects were wide in range, from the performing arts to the decorative arts for the periodical Arts and Decoration, and sometimes perfume and make-up for the magazines Charm and Beauty. A member of Isadora Duncan's circle, he wrote an essay entitled “Isadora: an essay in the biography of an American dancer” which was eventually published in 1960 as Isadora; a revolutionary in art and love. With Irma Duncan, he co-wrote a partial biography of Isadora Duncan entitled Isadora Duncan's life in Soviet Russia and her last years, published in 1929.

Reading

On Monday, I finished T.C. Boyle's When the Killing's Done: don't think I'll read another by him. The story was fairly interesting for the first half, but it ended like a bad murder-mystery with an escaped rattlesnake (one of ten that had been in burlap bags on a boat that got crashed by a giant ship) peeking at humans celebrating their eradication of wild pigs from a California island. Yeah, irony.

Boyle's prose is excessively detailed, calling attention to his ability to notice details, like exactly how many ounces of vodka in drunken mother's glass. And most of his characters were women, imperfectly realized, who vacillated between the female stereotype (worried about make-up and hair) and the male stereotype (competitive to a fault).

Next, I began a series of short stories that Ricardo left for me (at least I think that's where I got the book): Say You're One of Them is set in awful Africa, and I couldn't stand the first story about a 12-year-old prostitute supporting her family, told from her little eight-year-old brother's point-of-view. I also tried the last story, again a child protagonist, who witnesses her Tutsi mother's murder by her Hutu father. The brutality is supposed to be humanized by the child protagonists, but for me the stories just reinforce the *lack* of humanity that people attribute to Africans. I think it supports racism, and I don't know why Oprah picked it for one of her book club offerings.

So after that, I began again the Mark Doty memoir Firebird. I've tried it before--I love his poetry--but again, the narrative point-of-view bothers me: the excessive detail that doesn't add up to anything but an awareness of the narrator's powers of cataloging observation. But I dipped around in it, reading beginnings and middles of chapters, finishing the ending because I wasn't sure I'd be able to read the chapters chronologically.

I've gotta find a novel, I guess, that'll pull me along. Faulkner awaits, as does Sinclair's The Jungle. I know Toni Morrison has a new novel, Home, and I don't think I've read her last one, A Mercy, on sabbatical when I was reading all of Morrison. So I guess I'll get started on one of them or go to the library.

It's summertime!

Book A Week

Since my "summer vacation" started this week, I figure I should have some kind of project. I decided to read at least a book a week: easy! This week, I've read Lives of the Monster Dogs, a Half-Price Books purchase I made last December because I thought Lisa might like it. I finished it at her house on Thursday.

Today, I picked up a book that a Metro State student left me last year! I'd forgotten that a student, a woman I think, proposed that we read T.C. Boyle in American lit. S/he left me the book When the Killing's Done: not a title I'd usually pick up. One of the reasons I'm not interested in the whole Hunger Games phenomenon: to me, children killing children is not entertainment.

So the books are going to be those that are around me that I should have read all the way through (The Jungle, A Sand County Almanac) and those I've bought or been given and haven't yet read (they're all over my house).

Stay tuned: I'll post finished titles to the right.

Grades posted

Officially, I'm off contract. I should really clean out my office, and hope to do so sometime next week, but I have no more grading to do, no more student writing to read: yay.

Another student email

Community college students have such complicated lives. Here's one story. 


"Sarah" was in my Engl 90 class, a developmental level writing class designed to get students ready for Comp 1. "Sarah" was doing pretty well; she often stayed to herself in class, tucked up at a corner computer near my desk, checking her phone for text messages all the time, writing pretty thoughtful prose.


I wrote an email to her (see the bottom), and she responded today:

Hello Ms. Daniels,

I apologize that it took me so long to respond back to this email. I have been extremely busy lately trying to get myself together. I meant to get in contact with you to tell you my situation but I guess now will be the perfect time. I had to withdraw from all of my classes due to the high level of stress I was dealing with. Not only that but I am far out in [suburb] at a battered womens shelter. After being done with being a victim of domestic violence I had to escape as soon as possible. Although ever since I withdrew from all of my courses I have regretted it so much because I really did want to finish the semester off the right way. But don't think I won't go back to college it's just going to be put on the back burner right now. I still have my dreams of earning my degree in medical field. Well I appreciate the concern and thought I tell you where I'm at in my life right now. I enjoyed taking your course ans you're a wonderful instructor to be around. Also one last thing I was wondering if you would be a reference for The Salvation Army [Housing] Program? I am hoping and praying I get accepted into this program so I can get my life back on track. 

Sincerely, 

"Sarah Student" 

________________________________________
From: julie.daniels@century.edu [julie.daniels@century.edu]
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 3:56 PM
To: "Sarah Student"
Subject: Engl 90

Dear "Sarah",

I just noticed that you dropped our course! Why? I hope everything is okay because you were on track to pass the class.

Please let me know how you are.

Sincerely,
Julie