books for juniors

So, everytime I come here and ask for suggestions for books/stories, there are many, many good suggestions. And I always end up taking them, and my class is grateful. This means I'm going to keep shamelessly using you for lesson plans.

Last year, the sophomores read "Fight Club," and they loved it so much they quote it all the time. Now I have them as juniors, and they can apply any number of analytical processes to it. If I'm explaining something new, I can say, remember that time in "Fight Club" when...and they get it.

This was some successful teaching last year. I need another book like that. Something exciting and freaky and banned in some states. Something cool and socially relevant, but still smart and literary and all that. I was thinking Bret Easton Ellis, but I think he's kind of dated now. Or, the books I've read are dated - Less Than Zero and American Psycho and Rules of Attraction. I can pretty much do anything I want. Last year, she also taught "Geek Love."

And I'd like to introduce them to somebody other than Palahniuk - just because some have already gone out and read "Choke," and I want them to see there are other writers out there doing similar, wonderful stuff. I was thinking about Jesus' Son, but that's a little short - I'd like something we have to spend time on.

I was going to make them read "The Road," but somebody told me I'd up the teen suicide rate.

Any suggestions?

Confession

When I went for my interview outside of Chicago (cold, middle of a cornfield, bleak but charming, went well by all stretches of my imagination, still haven't heard anything), I was able to spend a day in Chicago visiting my old haunts, including one of my favorite bookstores in the city, where I found the anthology I'm in healthily stocked on the shelves! I had no idea it was out! It was a pretty great moment that - job or no job - made the trip worthwhile.

And then, check out how narcissistic I am: first, I told the employees ringing me up how happy I was that they had it in stock, and that I was buying two because I am in the book. I wanted the world to stop. I wanted everyone in that store, on the street, all through Chicago to stop what they were doing because they'd heard me. When that didn't happen I asked them if they had ever had authors sign anthologies, or if they'd ever even heard of such a thing, because I sure haven't, but damn did it seem like a good idea, to try on the life of a writer again (in a big city! my favorite bookstore!). One of them said, "No. Never." We all agreed. I handed him my credit card, not even sure if I had enough credit to buy a book I'm in (even journals give you two copies!). I said, "Yeah, me either." I signed my slip, more self-conscious than I've ever been of my signature (too vertical, too nervous, too horizontal, too squished, so White-Outable. Why didn't I try harder in high school, filling margins during Chemistry, Saturday school, abandoned notes? Seriously, when does one get signature practice?) The other employee said, "Suppose it wouldn't really hurt sales." We all awkwardly shrugged, agreed. I thought that after I left maybe one of the workers would push the cash register's "No Sale" button and find my receipt, check out the book during a break, maybe remember my name. That's what I was hoping for. And then there I am signing an anthology that I'm 1/18 or 1/20 of, because one of the employees had gotten the stack off of the shelves when I was leaving; I was happy to be carrying a bag of anything, because it proved that I'd actually been shopping, out onto the streets of a cold Chicago. They watched me sign, and I did so quickly, like a pro. I whipped through those cover pages (front matter?) like it was a hassle, like this was the last stop on tour. Now there's an "Autographed Copy" sticker on 10 covers somewhere, maybe still on those shelves, maybe in a lap, and I'm in love with them.

p.s. Right next to a half-naked S & M cover!

sf where are you?

These fires scare me. How and where are you and your family, Faulk?
I hope everything is okay.

Jentel

For those of you who don't know, Mark and I quit our jobs and are taking a year to focus on writing (we call it the Barrggenheim). We've also applied to several artists residencies, and we were both just accepted to Jentel in Wyoming. We're very excited to write on the ranch!

books on writing

Can somebody point me in the direction of some good books of essays on writing? This summer, I read Baxter's "Burning Down the House," "On Writing" by Eudora Welty, and a bit of DuFresne's (sp) book about truths and lies or whatever. I've also tried to read Joyce Carol Oates' book, and Stephen King's. Baxter's essays were pretty great, but I don't remember a thing about them now that I don't have the book right in front of me. And the others were just okay. Lately, the only essays that have stuck with me are Octavia Butler's in "Blood Child."

I feel a little lost with the writing right now. But when I went to the book fair and heard Richard Price and ZZ Packer and Andrew Sean Greer and Robert Boswell and Mark Jude Poirer talking about craft and stuff, I remembered all kinds of things and got fired up again. I guess I just want somebody good in my ear saying they didn't know what they were doing, either. But then they discovered how and all that. Point me to those books.

If oxford researchers can

compile a list of the ten most irritating expressions

(1- At the end of the day

2 - Fairly unique

3 - I personally

4 - At this moment in time

5 - With all due respect

6 - Absolutely

7 - It's a nightmare

8 - Shouldn't of

9 - 24/7

10 - It's not rocket science)



then why can't we?
Well maybe b/c we aren't curmudgeons. But I'm seriously sick of the word "seriously". and I am all for bringing back some old classics like "talk to the hand."

AM/PM

Do keep commenting on Molfe's post below, as I am currently a rotten egg.

Announcing: Featherproof Books has accepted AM/PM, my collection of linked short-shorts, for publication. The release date is set for mid-February, aligned with AWP. It is going to be a thing.

cha cha cha

I'm starting a new unit on autobiography/memoir for comp 1 and need your favorites/best ideas for short nonfiction, documentaries, music, whatever that either move you or simply work well in the classroom. We just read Sarah Vowell's "Shooting Dad" and then I read them a profile from the Texas Monthly about a professional trapper out in west Texas. Not really sure why I read them the trapper piece other than finding it oddly beautiful and full of voice. Gimme yer guns! And this time we're gonna play a game called Whoever comments last is a rotten egg.