I would like to start a book club

I would like to start a book club.

My plan was to offer two book suggestions and tag other bloggers I know and love.  Then, every other Saturday (maybe every Saturday), I would do a post answering key questions about the book and synopsizing, reading my favorite bits, etc. – hopefully no more than 10 minutes long.  Ideally, only five minutes.  Although we'd be doing this as a group, each person could choose whichever of the two to three books.  And those who read the same book could discuss it.  The length of the book would determine how much we have to read each week, but I'm thinking a book a month, more or less?  Because I'm going back to school in the fall for my senior year, I may have to pick books that I'm assigned for my various English classes.  But I got the reading list for my American Novel class from my professor so I'm going to start on that early.  If you would like to participate and you have a similar concern, I'll take book suggestions and try to fit them into the list.  But as long as the group is small, I don't think I should offer more than two books.  If everyone is reading a different book, we can't discuss them.

So, the books for the first book club, starting next Saturday, are:

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

The dazzling novel that established Walker Percy as one of the major voices in Southern literature is now available for the first time in Vintage paperback.

The Moviegoer is Binx Bolling, a young New Orleans stockbroker who surveys the world with the detached gaze of a Bourbon Street dandy even as he yearns for a spiritual redemption he cannot bring himself to believe in. On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, he occupies himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the "treasurable moments" absent from his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks on a hare-brained quest that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin Kate, and sends him reeling through the chaos of New Orleans' French Quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich in irony and romance, The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.  –Amazon.com

The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry

In a rural Kentucky river town, "Old Jack" Beechum, a retired farmer, sees his life again through the sades of one burnished day in September 1952. Bringing the earthiness of America's past to mind, The Memory of Old Jack conveys the truth and integrity of the land and the people who live from it. Through the eyes of one man can be seen the values Americans strive to recapture as we arrive at the next century.  –Amazon.com









If you're not interested, no hard feelings.  But this is going to go very well if I don't get anybody.  So if you're interested, please ask other bloggers as well!  Or non-bloggers that read blogs.

~Meggy

Planning lesson plans for funzies

So about a week ago, I posted about my struggles with weakness/shyness/whatever you want to call it.  And I have to say, I think focusing instead on areas of strength has really helped me.  It gives me a stronger impression of myself, convincing my brain that: "Hey!  You can do this!"

Other than that… I haven't much to say.  I haven't had much time for writing :( and I haven't done much of anything else.  I have to get back on that.

On the other hand, I finished A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue by Wendy Shalit (which you can get on Amazon for a cent right now).  It was a fascinating book, if a little hard to follow at times.  I think I'd like to read through it again, now that I've seen the whole, and discuss it further with my boyfriend.  I didn't necessarily agree with everything she said, and I thought she simplified the issue occasionally, but I thought it was a very interesting read.

I'm also making progress on The Divine Comedy, which is part of #4 on my to-do list.  It's a lot to read.  I also read a page or two more of Anna Karenina… but haven't made much progress there.

I also haven't planned a book club, and I think I'd like to try to design a lesson plan for kindergarten!  Since I'd like to homeschool, I think it'll be a lot of fun to design my own curriculum.  All things at their best, I'll design the literature classes and my (future) husband will design the theology and science classes (although I'm not ignorant when it comes to theology.  I think I'd like to help out there).  As for the other subjects, I'd probably use standard books for math, but I know I want my children to learn their family history and then their state and country history first.  It's something they can associate themselves with, after all, and field trips are easy.  Music, art, and gym I can do myself while they're young (to some extent).  I want to teach them some basic Latin right off, since it's what I know, and then they can learn whatever language they prefer.  Again, if it is as I hope it will be, my (future) husband can teach them German.

Anyway, I think it'll be fun.  The department I work for involves online classes, and I'm inspired by professors talking about how they want to design their courses.  Perhaps someday, off in the future, I'll be able to do that too.

~Meggy