Sufacing by Margaret Atwood

This novel was listed on last year's AP Literature and Composition test and I had never read it. I am a huge Margaret Atwood fan and this novel did not disappoint, but it did get mightly dark. The main character travels to a remote island off of the coast of Canada to investigate her father's disappearance. She ends up drifting farther and farther from her old life and reconnecting with many dark secrets of her past.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

This was our book club selection for August. I haven't read much Graham Greene and I enjoyed this somewhat. The narrator is an author who is having an affair with the wife of an acquaintance. The book is more about Catholicism and belief than it is about love.

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook

This book has been playing in my ipod this summer while I run in the park. I did jump the gun and go to see the movie before I finished listening to the book. It was an entertaining story about a middle aged woman going back into the dating world. I could relate on a few levels.

West of Kabul, East of New York by Tamin Ansary

This book was recommended by a parent of one of last year's AP students as a good companion to Kite Runner. It is a memoir by an Afghan American who became famous by sending an email that circulated wildly after the terrorist attacks on September 11th. It was poignant reading and I intend to use it with my classes as a follow-up to their summer reading.

Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

So my summer of Steinbeck is almost over. I bought a copy of Winter of Our Discontent in California at the Steinbeck Center after finding that my cousin's daughter wrote about this novel on her AP Lit test this year. It did not disappoint. I am still under the spell of Steinbeck's prose - nothing else this summer, Oates aside, has quite compared. There are pages of one-liner super quotes in this late novel of Steinbeck's.

A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates

When I did my Masters Thesis on Joyce Carol Oates in the 1980s, I thought I could keep up with her writing by reading everything she wrote for the rest of my life. How WRONG was I. This book, I may have read in its original form back in the day, but Oates decided to rewrite the novel a few years ago for a reissued publication. A Garden of Earthly Delights is the story of Clara, the daughter of a share cropper. I decided the early section of the book would make a good companion to The Grapes of Wrath for my AP students. I really enjoyed this book. I read most of it at Burr Oak State Park while vacationing with my husband's family to celebrate Grandpa Lackey's 80h birthday.