Tag: School Reading List

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Posted June 28, 2020 in Reviews // 4 Comments

When I read this book in high school, I remember two things very distinctly. Firstly, I remember really enjoying it. Second, I remember believing fully that Phineas loved Gene. These are the memories I took away from this book, and I haven’t touched it in fifteen years. But I wanted to read it again. And now I think… I think A Separate Peace is a great book and I enjoyed it. And, try to look for LGBTQ+ undertones as I might, I don’t think there are any. There is so much to unpack in A Separate Peace. There’s a lot of underlying […]

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Posted December 13, 2019 in Reviews // 2 Comments

Watership Down is one of those books that was required reading in high school, and thus has a bit of stigma attached to it for that reason alone. I’ve been thinking about rereading it for a time – for me, this was Freshman English in 2003, half my lifetime ago! I didn’t remember much about it other than a lot of discussions about allegory and metaphors, and Richard Adam’s supposed conversations about politics and society within the rabbit communities. All that made me chuckle, because re-reading it, it opened with a note from Adams about how Watership Down came about, and […]

THE WORST SUMMER READING EVER – or – “Dune”, My Memories

Posted August 19, 2017 in Reading // 10 Comments

Summer reading can be THE WORST. Have you ever had a summer reading assignment for a class starting in the fall that you just HATED? Okay, so most people don’t like being told which books they MUST read, but I’ve always been a reader and picked up a lot of books willingly. Most my summer reading books (which, yes, I did do! #bibliophile) were okay books, ones that I don’t remember specifically. There is one I DO remember. Dune. It was for the Science Fiction & Fantasy English Honors class, and I WAS SO EXCITED FOR THIS CLASS OH MY […]

1984 by George Orwell

Posted February 13, 2017 in Reviews // 4 Comments

I think this book is better approached by an adult than a high school freshman. The philosophical undertones are much more difficult to relate to as a hopeful 14-year-old than a cynical adult. I’m glad I revisited this one. George Orwell paints a believable picture of what sometimes feels like a quickly approaching future. Characters You have three characters that really matter: Winston, Julia, and O’Brien. None of them are likable – Winston is the perfect vision of a disgruntled middle-aged man; Julia is a sex-crazed, flighty young woman; and O’Brien is a shadowy figure who is utterly deluded. While […]

Book Review: Feed by M. T. Anderson

Posted September 6, 2011 in Reviews // 0 Comments

But I didn’t hate this book. As I said, I loved it. I have read it multiple times, and my opinion of it hasn’t changed. I love being able to walk away from a book and ask questions about it. I love being so wrapped up in a fictional universe that I’m watching the clock at work not just because I’m excited to get out of there, but because I want to immerse myself in the literary world again. Feed did that for me, and does that every time I read it.