Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

In this book Sanderson writes about a land that's been struck with a mysterious plague--whereas in the past people were changed into shining beings with God-like powers, now they become pitiful corpses. As political and religious tensions run higher, a princess whose intended husband has been struck with this plague and hidden in the city of Elantris must navigate the perils of an unfamiliar court, while her betrothed works against time to figure out the mystery of the plague and a priest from an unfriendly religion tries to figure out how to convert the city before the troops of his religion take it by force. This book leaves some unanswered questions, and doesn't fit together quite as well as the Mistborn trilogy, but it's still an amazing read.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

This book juxtaposes the history of the 1893 Columbian Exposition and its architect Daniel Burnham and the author's exposition of a series of crimes committed around the time of the fair by a psychopath who called himself H.H. Holmes. I thought this book worked really well. Larson does a good job with the historical aspects, and makes a convincing case about Holmes's murders as well. I happen to find World's Fairs fascinating, and this book made me really wish I could visit the White City in 1893, see the Midway, and ride on the world's first Ferris wheel. The book also has a lot of footnotes--while it's not the most scholarly book I've ever read, I really appreciated that the author made it possible for readers to trace his work.

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.

Black Frankenstein: The Making of an American Metaphor by Elizabeth Young

This book proposes that in American culture, the figure of Frankenstein has at times been imagined as black as a method of antiracist critique of culture. The book starts with nineteenth century images of Frankenstein. Although at times racists have used the figure, Young argues that it's far more useful for an anti-racist reading because of the human sympathy with which the monster is portrayed in Shelley's tale and in other versions of the story. The next two chapters focus on The Monster, by Stephen Crane, in which Young proposes that Crane retells the Frankenstein story to both make a political commentary (which gives the story a tragic ending) and an aesthetic commentary (which gives the story a successful ending), and Sport of the Gods, by Paul Laurence Dunbar, in which Young investigates the role of irony and parody in Dunbar's reworking of the Frankenstein story. The last chapter deals with 20th century film and popular culture figures of Frankenstein, and how the Frankenstein figure relates to masculinity. I thought Young gave really good close readings, and I think that this book is a good example of transatlantic scholarship, but I felt that it was a little uneven as far as the time periods went--that is to say, I thought her argument hung together better in the 19th century as an unit, and in the 20th century as an unit, than it did in the book as a complete whole.

The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas

Because the First Look group has not yet finished discussing this book yet, I'm putting my review under a cut.

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

In this magnificent book Sanderson tells the story of a society poised on the brink of war, and two royal sisters who work independently to stop that war. They learn a lot about themselves in the process. It took me a while to figure out the political stakes and the religious/magic systems in this book, but once I did, I found the book really compelling. The plot is brilliantly designed, and the characters draw you in to their worlds. I'm looking forward to more from this author.