Weekly reads: 3-25 to 4-3: Classroom reads and Completed books

Help save pangolins!

Classroom Reads

Our reading has slowed down somewhat as the end of the semester approaches. Human-Animal Studies is discussing Prideof Baghdad this week, a sobering graphic novel that expands the definition war casualties to include animals and makes the reader think about the suffering human beings inflict – not only other humans, but on almost everything else in the world. We’re also working our way through Poached. Each chapter considers the plight of a currently heavily trafficked animal. This week we will talking about pangolins, rhinoceroses, and the earless monitor lizard. 

Shakespeare moves on to Merchant of Venice this week. The last class I taught Merchant to hated it, so I’m curious to see what this group makes of it. I’ve lumped it in with Tempest as a “problem play” since it has elements of both tragedy and comedy.

Completed Books

Despite being stranded in bed with strep throat– or maybe because of it? – I’ve finished a good number of books this week… even if I’ve made very little progress in War and Peace (don’t tell my sister).

Richard III – I always reread Richard when my students watch the movie. I came to it very late on the recommendation of a colleague, so it’s fresher to me than many other Shakespeare plays. I just read an article that offered that it might be read as a comedy, too. That’s an intriguing idea! The lines that stuck out to me in this sickness were these: 

“The King is sickly, weak and melancholy…”

“O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
And overmuch consumed his royal person…”

My evil diet currently consists of Ritz crackers and Coca-Cola, but I plan to mend my ways once I’m well and the semester ends. Hopefully my “overconsumed” self can narrow out a bit!

Because you’ll never meet me – This is a great and terrible book. It reminded me of A Monster Calls with some of its themes and the sheer amount of emotional damage it did, but it also reminded me of one of my great favorites: Almost Like Being in Love. It’s an epistolary novel between two boys who are both confined in strange situations. One is “allergic” to electricity, so he and his mom have to live off the grid in the woods and he longs for teenage normalcy (the internet, Hot Pockets, etc.). The other is in Germany and suffers from a disability/ deformity that makes him a freak in the eyes of his peers. He, too, longs for acceptance and they form a sort of super duo in their letters.

 

An Anonymous Girl – I had high hopes for this book because I enjoyed the authors’ debut: The Wife between Us. This one tried to approach the same level of twists but none of the characters were likeable, many of the “thrills” were predictable, and the ending felt rushed (and maybe a little cheap). An okay beach read, but not one I’ll return to. A very similar work is As Long as We Both Shall Live. I was initially very drawn in, but soon came to dislike pretty much every character before a similarly cheap, unbelievable ending. 

The Mere Wife – This is such a clever work, from the title which plays with the definition of mere, to its commentary on homelessness, PTSD, sexuality, and our treatment of the past. The language is lyrical and bloody, the characters engaging (even if Willa is never quite sympathetic), and it does all this while being a modern, feminist take on Beowulf!