Have You Heard The One About The Farmer's Daughter?

Jim Harrison is nothing if not prolific, no doubt owing to his Scandinavian heritage. So here comes his new collection of novellas, The Farmer's Daughter. A form little practice, the novella is essentially a mini novel, and Harrison's tend to run to a hundred pages, give or take. And the collection brings back old favorite Brown Dog, as well as introducing new settings and new characters.
In the opening selections, Harrison once again adopts the point of view of a woman, this time a comely young woman whose body belies her small town upbringing. Her blossoming outline and burgeoning awareness of the world outside her cramped family is appropriately tense while also providing the typical measure of Harrison optimism.
Set for release just after the first of the year, this collection finds Harrison covering familiar ground, though in ways that will further endear him to his loyal readers, if not winning him new book buyers.

Merry Christmas

Joel Waldfogel would have us take Black Friday and turn it back into the start to just another weekend, just another season. In his new book Scroogenomics, Waldfogel explains in plainly understood economic language why binge shopping, the sort that drives most folks' holiday surge, is indeed bad for the economy. In Waldfogel's equation, the pleasure derived from a gift received must at a minimum equal if not exceed the price paid for said gift. But when you tear open that lovingly wrapped box from Aunt Betsy to find an argyle sweater, the equation swings wildly out of balance. Aunt Betsy would have been better off spending that money on herself or asking you specifically what you had wanted.
Christmas shopping isn't likely to suffer much from the echo of Waldfogel's publication, but for those who pay attention, there might be a tad more thought given before buying those golf themed pajamas.
Waldfogel won't earn any nods from toddlers or parents intent on out doing the neighbors. Where he will earn some attention, perhaps, is with those who need a poke to push them away from senseless gift giving and toward a more thoughtful approach to sharing with others.

National Winner?

She might not win the National Book Award next week, but Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage won't lose to a better book. Set in rural southern Michigan, the collection of short stories is a testament to the bittersweet combination of small town loyalties and limited opportunities. Campbell's characters are tainted by the stink of meth addiction, while at the same time marked by the full range of human emotion.
Campbell, author of Women & Other Animals, as well as Q Road, again traffics in damaged lives weighted by unemployment, family dysfunction, and small town sensibilities. The result is an alchemy of powerful disappointment.

Higher Education

No doubt I'll hear it from colleagues, but the most intriguing new book I've encountered is Blake Boles' College Without High School, where in the author suggests that high school might not be for everyone, and that attending college, even highly sought after competitive colleges, does not require a high school diploma. I think Boles might have something here.
While I don't have experience with high school dropouts attending college, I do have experience with bored high school students. I also know that as Boles suggests, high school is structured to suggest one size fits all, but this is not the case. All manner of bright students are bored to tears by the institutional organization of high school. The daily routine, the class structure, the curricular offerings are all tailored to accommodate a broad swath of students, but this means that little thought is given to allowing students to custom fit their education.
I believe it is important to provide students a broad experience, much as is the case at liberal arts colleges. What I don't believe works is pigeon holing students into taking classes they are uninterested in, or requiring them to simply complete standardized tests to show competence or mastery.
I think, as Boles argues, students should engage in greater adventures while learning where their interests genuinely lie. I think students need more input in their education, and I think high schools must be better able to adapt to the needs of students, rather than the other way around.

The Drug Problem

While it's been sitting on my reading table for a month now, I've finally started Nick Reding's Methland. What I've discovered is a riveting account of the slow decline of one corn belt town in Iowa, largely due to an abundant supply of illegal methamphetamine. Reding, a working journalist, travels to Oelwein, Iowa to look into the many ways the drug has unraveled the towns folk, regardless their socio economic status.
Just as revealing but equally vexing is the revelation that methamphetamine was at one time legal, manufactured to help soldiers in combat as well as housewives overwhelmed by the doldrums of suburban living. From here, the drug has jumped all manner of societal firebreaks to land on the short list of most damaging narcotics, right up there with heroin and crack cocaine.
Reding interviews law enforcement officials, as well as those who found dealing crystal meth more rewarding, in more ways than one, than working at Wal Mart.
The reporting is incisive, the conclusions disturbing. Crystal meth has enjoyed unhealthy popularity in northern Michigan so this examination of small town Iowa hits closer to home than I'd like to think.

Favorite Read

A student approached yesterday after class to ask me what my favorite book is. I was unable to answer with anything more than a response about what I've been recently reading. As those who read often know well, singling out one book is nearly impossible. I have had many favorites over the years, starting in high school when I might have said Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, or Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. In college I might have quickly responded with titles like Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson, or Love is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski.
These days it's more likely to be a recent read. I've lauded Born To Run by Christopher McDougall and Going Out Green by Bob Butz. Right now I'm reading The Truth About Love by Josephine Hart and I'm being drawn in completely. Hart, like so many of her Irish and British counterparts has a lyrical style that relies as much on the influences of verse as it does on the twists of fiction. There are several others waiting on my reading table, so no doubt the answer about what is my favorite book will change by degrees in the coming days.
The more important question for me is "what are you reading now?" Because if you're not reading something, always, there won't be any growth in the possibilities.

School's In Session

School started today, so my classroom is once again filled with students hoping to manage their way through what I throw at them, whether it be the simple tale Of Mice and Men in English I, or the more challenging Inferno of Dante in Advanced Placement Literature. What they also seem to hope is to get by with as little reading as possible. I fully recognize that a sizeable portion of my seniors cut corners on their summer reading. They rely on Sparks Notes, Cliff's Notes, and Wikipedia to find the answers they could find as easily in the actual reading.
I'm always at a loss this time of year wondering why so few students don't take to reading as productive passtime.
My loosely and anectdotally based observations come down to what is practiced at home, and what is promoted in the popular media. There is no denying that booksellers are hurting as people turn away from books. But what are they turning toward? Are the absences left with the loss of literature being adequately filled by television, the internet, or other electronic media? I believe they are not. I believe the dumbing down of our students is largely due to their lack of appreciation for reading. No one ever learned while talking, something many of my students are quite good at. But everyone who reads learns something, whether it be how to make popcorn int the microwave, or how to investigate the relationship between medicine and history. Reading is essential to growth, but alas too many students, at least at high school, are less interested in growth than they are in gain.