In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: The Truth About College by Professor X

This book grew from a pseudonymous article in The Atlantic, also titled "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower." It chronicles one man's journey into adjuncting college writing and literature classes to supplement his income after buying a house just before the housing bubble crashed. Professor X is cynical of the idea that college is the way to wealth for most of his students and argues that we (as a nation) should re-evaluate our college system. While Professor X has come under a lot of attack for giving up on his students (attacks that he meets head-on later in the book), I think the book works as a call to look at our colleges. While I think that anyone could benefit from writing more clearly, I think Professor X is right to question the "go to college or else" mandate and to think about how much remedial work is possible in one semester. The memoir part of the book strikes me as a little bland at times (we bought an expensive house and then we couldn't afford it very well, so we fought about it).

Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa

This monograph argues that American college students are not learning very much in college. Given the rising costs of higher education, and the increasing sense that a college education will open up possibilities to students, it's important to address this lack--although the authors hesitate to call it a crisis, because the US higher education system is not in danger of collapsing. The authors' conclusions are mostly based on a test called the College Learning Assessment, which was administered to students at twenty-four universities at the beginning of their freshman year (2005) and the end of their sophomore year of study (2007). The authors then used the data to assess how much the students learned. The book accounts for a wide variety of variables. It seems that the variable over which individuals have control (as opposed to, say, whether their parents went to college) is the types of courses they select: students tended to learn more in courses that required at least 40 pages of reading a week and at least 20 pages of writing over the course of the semester. I think this book brings up a lot of problems in higher education, and it motivated me to look more closely at course structure. I think a larger sample size (more universities) and studying a larger range of classes (not just the one cohort) would help reinforce the study's claims. I am also not entirely convinced that this test alone is a good measure of how much students have learned (though I admit that it is a step towards a solution of a tough problem).

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen

I read the 1995 edition of this book, and in some places and in some senses, it feels dated. Loewen is absolutely right, of course. Textbooks of the kind he describes, full of errors and low on controversy, make learning hard and boring for students. But, the textbooks he describes seem different from at least some of the ones I used in high school, and in college, we used secondary monographs and printed editions of primary sources rather than textbooks. I think he comes down too hard with a leftist point of view at times as well (for example, when he claims that Thanksgiving celebrations are entirely racist--I happen to love this holiday, not because of the way I understand relations between the Native Americans and the pilgrims, but because it's a time for family to come together). Still, it's an informative read.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

This book, while beloved by children, is rich for any reader. The satire is sweeping and at times vicious (but what else would you expect from the author of "A Modest Proposal"). I was particularly interested in the changes in Gulliver during the journey. While at first he wanted to return to England, his wife, and children, by the end, he so misses the Houyhnhnms that he can barely stand human contact. This ending reminded me of the quick disposal of Robinson Crusoe's family in his book--but Gulliver seems to change more than Crusoe (who never worried particularly much about human contact). I was also struck by Swift's great imagination--Gulliver finds himself in all sorts of wildly different societies--and in places that could conceivably (just barely) exist within the world of that time. All in all a marvelous book--I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to reading it!

Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor

This book contains a series of essays written by Flannery O'Connor on a range of topics, mostly centered around reading and writing. While they were all well-written and compelling, and some were even funny (in a very dry way), I most liked her reflections on writing and the region. She makes an excellent case for writing what you know and using the gifts you have (although she's under no illusions that everyone's made for a writer). I also thought she was both smart and sensible on the subject of religion: she sticks to her guns, but also contends that a good, Catholic novel must contain both good religion and good writing. She makes a great case for religion being freeing rather than inhibiting to the artist. She was also quite good on the South and the gothic. I'll be returning to this book again, I feel sure.

Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery

This book tells of Anne's years teaching at the Avonlea school and helping Marilla save her eyesight and raise twins left on Marilla's hands by the death of her third cousin's wife. Anne's friendship with Gilbert Blythe grows stronger, and she keeps getting into memorable scrapes (such as selling her neighbor's cow, falling through the roof of a pantry, painting the town hall an ugly blue, and entertaining her favorite author on a cleaning day). Another fun addition to the series.

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson

This book reflects on the English language through history. Although I don't agree with all of Bryson's points (at one time he says that people like English because its spelling and pronunciation are uncomplicated), he does a fine job covering the basics of how English was formed (the ur-moment of the Norman Conquest from which Anglo-Saxon and Norman slowly grew together into something new), but for me, the really new and interesting parts focused on spelling and pronunciation and tracing back their roots to find the sources of the weird and wonderful ways in which English works. There's also reflection on translation and the future of English (in questions like: Will English go the way of Latin and split into vernaculars? but also questions relating to immigration and bilingual education in the US) that I found thought-provoking. Not the most scintillating thing I've ever read, but I'm glad I got the chance to read it.

"They Say / I Say": The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein

This book presents a solid introduction to college writing. I think it does an excellent job explaining one of the most important parts of an academic paper--engagement with a larger, critical conversation. Also, the authors take most of their examples from three essays included in the back, and this move really makes the examples more clear. The questions and prompts at the end of each chapter are also great. I do question, however, the wisdom of all its templates. I definitely agree with the argument that sometimes we are blocked from writing because we just don't know quite how we want to say what we're thinking about. I think the questions and approaches the templates suggest are generally good ones. Still, I think asking students to write from templates works against my style of teaching. If I use parts of this book in my writing classes, I will present the templates as guidelines or models, rather than as fill-in-the-blanks.

John Hartwell Cocke and Bremo: A Study of Plantation Life by Catherine Helliar-Symon

This monograph gives a basic account of the life of John Hartwell Cocke in conjunction with his plantation Bremo, south of Charlottesville. To begin, it's very short and only really covers plantation experiences (for example, I know from other sources that this man was a general--but I'm not sure which war! My guess is 1812). It also took a while to get to the information I wanted (he started a school for his slaves on his plantation). Finally, this book couched Cocke as the very best of paternalism, and that attitude always makes me leery. But, it was a quick introduction to a figure I wanted to know more about.

Changing Places by David Lodge

This novel is an uproariously funny send-up of academia, full of self-conscious moments (most notably including the book Let's Write a Novel whose advice always manages to conflict with what's actually happening in the novel) and the game Humiliation (think: Never Have I Ever...with books!). I look forward to reading more of Lodge's work.

Graduate Study for the 21st Century by Gregory M. Cólon Semenza

This book would perhaps have been more helpful if I didn't feel like the author was talking down to me. Some of his ideas are very good, and he has helpful hints for getting the most out of graduate school, especially in the humanities, but on the other hand, some of the things he says are downright wrong--at least for me and my department. He sounds very organized, and I'm all for being organized, but he hands down his system like it's the only way that will work, and that tone gets annoying. All in all, worth reading.