dsader.snowotherway.org

There is an increasing appetite among STJ bloggers for fresh books to read. At the STJ Library blog the list of books read and reviewed keeps increasing, however, I fear the lack of choice in our current library stacks may soon inhibit this momentum.

So, I’d like to try something to abate/assuage my fears.

In my vision, I’d like to have a solid list of “teen recommended books” in my hand that I’d like to have the library acquire … some day.

So here’s what I’d like you to do:

1. Create a single “Top 10″ post identifying and justifying in a sentence or two a top 10 list of books you would like to read.
2. For each text you list, be sure the link has the book’s ISBN-10 number (ie. link to the book at amazon.ca).
3. identify at least one Canadian author
4. identify at least one “non-fiction” title
5. justify your choice of text after considering course focus questions
6. Bonus: Add a “Showcase Widget” to your sidebar that does the same.
7. Optional Extra Bonus: Create a “Listmania” or “Wishlist” list at Amazon.ca
8. pingback or leave comment with a link to your post here

I’ve added a few widgets to the Library blog with links to libraries, resources, and reviews to help get you started. However, I personally find Amazon’s “listmania” feature quite useful.

Shirley Jackson regarding the letters she received after publishing The Lottery …

Curiously, there are three main themes which dominate the letters of that first summer–three themes which might be identified as bewilderment, speculation, and plain old-fashioned abuse. In the years since then, during which the story has been anthologized, dramatized, televised, and even–in one completely mystifying transformation–made into a ballet, the tenor of letters I receive has changed. I am addressed more politely, as a rule, and the letters largely confine themselves to questions like what does this story mean? The general tone of the early letters, however, was a kind of wide-eyed, shocked innocence. People at first were not so much concerned with what the story meant; what they wanted to know was where these lotteries were held, and whether they could go there and watch.

Assignment 1
Work with a partner to complete task A and B.
Task A. Imagine you live in 1948 have just read The Lottery (originally published in The New Yorker, June 28, 1948).

Write a letter to Shirley Jackson.

Task B. Imagine you are Shirley Jackson and you have just read a letter from your audience in response to “The Lottery” during the summer of 1948.

Write a letter in response to that letter.

Assignment 2
Write a post examining the cause and function of violence in your life in 2009.

• 30-2: select appropriate detail from your personal experience to include in your analysis
• 30-1: select appropriate detail (image–
  >symbol–>archetype) from The Lottery to include in your analysis

English 30: reading these, making these, writing these, discussing these
Religious Studies 25: reading, writing, discussing these
English 10: reading these, writing these, making these
English 9: reading these, writing these, and making these