Reading in the Classroom: Edgar Allan Poe & Figurative Language

With Halloween coming up on Monday, we -- of course -- had to read some Edgar Allan Poe in my classroom this week. Since my students are middle school-age, not high schoolers, we kept it fairly tame. We read Poe's famous poem "The Raven," and I also discussed the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" with my eighth-graders.

We began our week with a review of figurative language terms. The students practiced differentiating between examples of idioms, similes, metaphors, hyperbole, imagery, and alliteration, among others. We then played a review game which divided the class into two teams and encouraged learning with some old-fashioned competition. After that, we then dove into Poe's life with a short video from Discovery Education.

Although I don't always believe it's necessary, I felt that some background on Poe was needed for my students to understand his writing. The loss of his mother, adopted mother, and wife truly affected his life and his writing. It created the basis for his terror-filled tales.

I brought "The Raven" to my middle schoolers' level and sparked their attention by first showing them a clip from The Simpsons first Treehouse of Horror episode, in which they animated "The Raven." The bookworm Lisa begins reading the poem aloud to her siblings, then the scene transforms to Homer as the poem's narrator and Bart as the stately raven. The two act out the poem as James Earl Jones narrates.


Their interest piqued, we then read the poem itself and discussed it stanza by stanza. Then we pulled it all together, as the students identified figurative language examples in "The Raven." Listening to their conversations about whether this line or that line was an idiom or an example of hyperbole was one of those "teacher moments" that make it all worth it.

The next day my eighth-graders and I looked at Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart." They read the story last year, but we reviewed the plot by watching a short 1940s animated version of the tale. Many, many versions exist, but I felt as though this seventy-year-old film was the most creative and the most appropriate for my students. We then wrote out a plot diagram for the film to ensure that they recalled the story and had understood the short film.



Their final assignment for the week involved summarizing the plot of "The Tell-Tale Heart" in one of two ways: by creating a comic strip based on the story or by writing an acrostic poem based on the story. With either choice, students also had a choice of completing their assignment on computers or by hand.

The website ReadWriteThink is a partnership between the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity, and it has amazing resources. Both the Comic Creator Tool and the Acrostic Poem Student Interactive are available on their website (as are hundreds of lesson plans and other tools for learning).

Although Poe's work was written over 150 years ago, my students still found meaning in his writing -- and they enjoyed it! At least I think they did -- they do always tell me that my idea of fun and their idea of fun are two different things.

Rizzoli & Isles Novel Ice Cold, Followed Immediately By The Shining: Two Creepy, Snow-filled Tales

Snowy thrillers, much? Don't mind if I do. Entirely unplanned, my week has become one long thriller/ horror tale marathon -- all mixed in with a little (or a lot) of wintery weather. No, not here in Tennessee. The weather has actually been gorgeous this week: high 70s each day, autumn colors exploding on the trees. But in my fictional life? That's another story entirely.

I started listening to Tess Gerritsen's Ice Cold a week or two ago, when I ran out of Audible titles and reverted to library audiobooks. Ice Cold had languished in my audiobook iTunes library ever since I loaded six or seven titles back before my Africa trip this summer. I won't call it a mistake, because I enjoyed listening to it and finishing it last weekend, but I really should have listened to this book earlier! It was along the vein of my favorite audiobooks -- Lisa Gardner's D. D. Warren series.

I am a sometimes-viewer of the TNT series based on Gerritsen's novels, Rizzoli & Isles, but I've been a fan of Gerritsen's novels for even longer. I haven't always enjoyed the Rizzoli & Isles series as much as some of my top picks (Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski series, Kathy Reichs' Tempe Brennan series, and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series, just to name a few), but Gerritsen has been an author I return to. In the last few Rizzoli & Isles novels, however, Gerritsen seems to have really risen to a new level in her writing.

Ice Cold was an excellent just-before-Halloween read, because it had an extra dose of creepiness. In a departure from the series' usual Boston setting, Gerritsen sends forensic pathologist Maura Isles to a conference in Wyoming. Once there, Isles runs into an old college pal and finds herself driving along snowy roads for a quick ski trip with his friends and teenage daughter. A sudden blizzard strands the group, who seeks shelter in a cluster of abandoned houses.

Once they start to explore their new surroundings, Maura and the group find many things off-kilter in Kingdom Come, the settlement. Back in Boston, homicide detective and friend Jane Rizzoli receives news that a burned vehicle containing the charred body of Maura has been found. Jane flies to Wyoming to investigate the alleged death of her comrade, and falls into a twisted tale worthy of a television miniseries. Kingdom Come happens to be an outpost of a religious cult whose members follow the prophet Jeremiah Goode.

Gerritsen combined a fast-paced plot with a new-to-these-characters setting, and threw in some character development for good measure. She did so with writing finesse, making for a rich and enjoyable reading experience. It was so good, my next (immediate) Audible purchase was Gerritsen's latest Rizzoli & Isles novel, The Silent Girl, which I'm already half-way through.

Hotel where outside shots of The Shining were filmed

Then last night, my fiance suggested we watch Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, based of course on Stephen King's novel of the same name. I had seen parts of it sometime in the past, but I didn't recall a thing. I won't spoil the plot for you, but let's just say it was: a) a perfect movie for Halloween and b) full of snow. Like, piles and piles of snow. I have no idea how it matches up to King's novel, since I'm not much of a horror reader. King, however, has stated that he "would do everything different. The real problem is that Kubrick set out to make a horror picture with no apparent understanding of the genre" (via IMDB's "The Shining (1980) - FAQ"). While I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, it was a movie that held our attention from beginning to end. I thought that it was a well-made film, and who (besides Stephen King, apparently) dislikes Jack Nicholson?

In short, this week I recommend that you both read Gerritsen's Ice Cold and watch The Shining in preparation for Halloween. The fact that they are both tales that thrill and also contain large amounts of snow was not planned, but enjoyed nonetheless.

In Which I Go All Fangirl on Pinterest (And Why You Should, Too)

I don't know if you've heard of Pinterest. If you've tried it, I don't even have to ask -- I already know you are as addicted as I am. Lately, it has served three purposes in my life (entirely un-book-related):

Purchase from sunnyandstumpy on Etsy

Wedding Ideas -- I'm planning a wedding for January, and (having not attended many winter weddings) Pinterest is giving me huge amounts of help. You can follow my Wedding Ideas board here. One particular idea I borrowed from Pinterest was a wedding program/ acknowledgement/ agenda handout. I made my own, but this picture was my inspiration.

Via Les Composantes Blog

Style -- When the seasons and weather change, I never know which way to go. I used to work in a trendy boutique and subscribe to fashion magazines, but no more. However, I still like to feel "put together" on a daily basis. I happen upon (and purchase) items I like, but then I'm not sure what to do with them. Pinterest is the best place for finding outfit inspiration. Often, users pin entire outfits from Polyvore (which looks amazing, but I haven't quite figured out). My latest purchase was a pair of knee-high, flat camel boots. I want to wear them with everything, and Pinterest is helping me figure out how to do that.

Chili Lime Corn, via Ezra Pound Cake

Food -- I love to cook, but rarely have done it in the past year or so. I made an entire Thanskgiving dinner last year -- from scratch -- but in the months since I could probably count on my fingers and toes the times my oven has been on. Pinterest has changed that. I have tried recipe after recipe in the past two or three weeks, all thanks to the easy and delicious recipes I've found. Pinterest is kind of like going to a potluck dinner with your best friends; you know it will both a) taste amazing and b) be simple enough that you can do it!

I mean, two weeks ago I made the most amazing pumpkin muffins. One box of spice cake mix, one can of pumpkin, and (I added) half a cup of applesauce. Divine. It was gourmet breakfast all week. I smeared them with apple butter half the time and just ate them plain the other half. Both were equally delicious.

So, in short: get thee on over to Pinterest. Trust me. You'll be happy you did.

Book News: #Readathon & Booker Man Prize Controversy

I am planning to read as much as possible (even listening to audiobooks while I clean), but I'm not wholly participating in Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon. I have a birthday party to attend later today, for my favorite 10-year-old in the world (my soon-to-be stepson). Celebrating will encompass most of my afternoon, thus rendering a Read-a-thon entry useless. However, you should go on over to the Read-a-thon website and register. It's already begun, but readers always welcome new friends! More than 170 people have entered, and #readathon is trending on Twitter this morning!

It's not a Friday (my usual Book News day), but I needed to draw your attention to some news happening in the book world this week. Let's start with this article from The Christian Science Monitor on Monday, one day prior to the Man Booker Prize winner announcement. Detailed in the piece was the fact that some book world higher-ups were disgusted by what they called "the Booker prize 'now prioritiz[ing] a notion of 'readability' over artistic achievement.'" This isn't the first time the Prize has been contested hotly. In fact, the Man Booker Prize website even contains a list of controversies surrounding the Prize by year -- and almost every year is accounted for on said list.

This morning I read an article in the Toronto Star which asks the question: "What's wrong with a readable book?" Their answer -- and mine -- is, in short: nothing. Now, I do believe there might be public outcry if Nicholas Sparks was ever awarded the Man Booker Prize (which would never happen because American authors would have to be included for this to occur). I myself do not particularly enjoy Sparks' novels. Many, many people do. I will say the movies are usually pretty good romantic dramas. (I mean, who hates The Notebook? No one, that's who.) But I don't think anyone out there -- even the most loyal Sparks reader -- would claim that his books were literary accomplishments. They tell stories that people like.

This, however, is not the question. The question is (in my mind): should a book be considered great only  if it has no appeal whatsoever to the masses? Dare I say it? In my opinion, great books that are awarded prizes should have two primary factors: one, they should be extraordinarily well-written, and two, they should be readable. What purpose does a novel serve if it is largely unreadable? Are books not written in order to be read? (Perhaps I'm missing something if they are indeed not written for this purpose.) There is no prize (or there shouldn't be) for writing a book that no one enjoys. If unreadable, unenjoyable books are being written and given prizes, I call for a revamping of the standards.

I loathe and disdain literary snob-ism. As someone who has a degree in English: Language and Literature, I ran into literary snobs quite often in my college career. Let me tell you something: they are no smarter and no better than most of the general population. I watched as their literary criticism papers were handed back with less-than-perfect scores. I heard them discuss their scores on the ACT, then the GRE and other grad-level exams. Again, less-than-perfect. A deep devotion to Beowulf or Ulysses does not an intelligent person make. That is not to say there are no intelligent people who love reading difficult literature; of course there are. But in my opinion, readability wins every time. If it cannot be read and enjoyed, what exactly is the purpose of a book?

I tell my students that revising a paper by replacing simple words with thesaurus words in every sentence does not turn a mediocre paper into an excellent paper. It just makes a mediocre paper into a more-difficult-to-read paper. Similarly, writing a book whose only qualities are that it sounds literary and is difficult to read does not mean it should immediately win a prize. The ability to transform the mediocre into the excellent is a gift, in most cases. One which should be rewarded all the more for also being readable.

I have a long list of excellent (and readable) books to dive into this weekend. Right now I'm listening to Tess Gerritsen's The Silent Girl and reading Michael Connelly's upcoming Harry Bosch novel The Drop. I may pick up one of these books if I finish it today:

• Michael Connelly's The Fifth Witness
• Mark T. Mustian's The Gendarme
• Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog
• Chelsea Cain's The Night Season
• Charles Frazier's Nightwoods
• Chris Bohjalian's The Night Strangers

Which one do you think I should read next? I'm torn!

Falling For Me Delivers a Lesson Twenty-first Century Women Need to Hear

Anna David has done many things: she's a novelist, journalist, television personality, and radio host. She is also an expert on sex and relationship advice, as well as an expert on addiction and recovery. A very accomplished woman, yet still somehow lacking -- at least, according to her. In her latest writing adventure, David decided to take on her own worst enemy -- herself.

Falling For Me: How I Hung Curtains, Learned to Cook, Traveled to Seville, and Fell in Love  chronicles a year in the life of David, fashioned into a memoir of sorts. Like Julie Powell before her, David sought advice in the hands of someone she considered an expert. However, unlike Powell, whose focus was solely cooking like Julia Child, David takes on happiness in all areas of life. Her inspiration? Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown and her 1960s-era self-help book Sex and the Single Girl.

David memorizes sections of S&SG as though they were gospel, beginning conversations with friends with the words, "You know, Helen says..." until they all roll their eyes at the mere mention of Brown's name. Unlike Julia Child, long considered an expert in her field, Brown and her self-help tome have garnered little recognition beyond the '60s. David doesn't allow this little fact to stop her, though. She dives full-force into advice that, while dated, seems somehow sound to her.

Brown was an icon of the sixties, shaping the way American women thought, felt, and dressed. Her advice was a version of modern feminism, one which both embraced women's working to "get a man" and women's working towards independence. Brown simultaneously encouraged women in S&SG to decorate and cook for male companions, and to work on their own happiness. Her claim that womanhood can contain both was outrageous at the time, but women  loved it. Within three weeks of its release in 1962, S&SG sold more than 2 million copies.

In 2011, the idea that a woman might need to work in order to catch a man is not a popular argument (nor, for that matter, is the idea of "catching" a man at all). However, David finds some truth in that claim. Does it not make sense, she wonders, that a well-appointed apartment and delicious home-cooked meal might make (or at least help) a man stick around?

In Falling For Me, David chronicles her efforts as she methodically goes through S&SG, taking Brown's advice at every turn. Try new things? She rollerblades, takes French lessons, travels, learns to kite surf, and takes a pottery course. Seek out new ways to meet men? She walks a friend's dog, goes speed dating, and signs up for Match.com. Improve your eating habits? She learns to cook Brown's (S&SG-included) recipes, shops at local markets, and even cooks a Thanksgiving feast Martha Stewart would be impressed by. Style yourself? David seeks fashion advice, pampers herself at spas, and gets a "custom bra makeover."

Throughout the course of her self-improvement spurred by S&SG, David comes to an important realization: the steps she's taking make her feel better about herself, perhaps a goal more necessary than finding a man. She also allows herself to get to know various types of men (rather than the same old out-of-work actors), a change that seems pivotal for her long-term relationship-seeking. The story is not an interesting one because of what happens in the end -- rather, the strength in this book is the journey itself.

David is an excellent writer, narrating her own life in a way that is both cleverly sardonic and deeply honest. She is, in short, a very likeable narrator, one that the reader will be rooting for. In Falling For Me, she lays out her shortcomings for both the reader and herself to examine. This is a huge sacrifice for David, as it would be for most women. I mean, who really likes to look at the negative aspects of their personality? The fact that David does this in a nationally-released memoir will allow women everywhere to undergo similar (but less public) transformations. Not in order to catch a man, but in order to feel more whole themselves.

Anna David is the author of the novels Party Girl and Bought. She also appears regularly on various television shows, such as The Today Show, Hannity, Red Eye (Fox News) and CNN’s Showbiz Tonight, offering relationship advice and celebrity commentary. She was the sex and relationship expert on G4's Attack of the Show for three years. She also appears all over the country, giving lectures on addiction and recovery.

You can read the first chapter of Falling For Me by clicking here. You can also keep up with David over on her blog.

The Mercy of Thin Air Entices with a Different Kind of Ghost Story

Leaning way back into my book vault today (okay, well, just as far back as July), I'm discussing a book I read while in Africa this summer. If you've been around the blog awhile, you know I visited my brother and his family in Tanzania this summer. All those plane rides (five each way) and some... er, down time (as in, no electricity much of the time, limited internet, and no cable)... while there meant that I was a reading machine during the month of July.

One of the books I read that I never really talked about was Ronlyn Domingue's The Mercy of Thin Air. It was a super-difficult book to get into (similar to Pete Nelson's I Thought You Were Dead, which I also read while in Africa), but -- like Nelson's book -- when I did finally lose myself in the prose, I adored it. Domingue is a first-time novelist, with another writing career in the nonfiction sector (as a contributor to the online literary magazine The Nervous Breakdown).

The Mercy of Thin Air was difficult from the get-go, namely because it involves a ghost story of the non-haunting sort. As in, narrator Razi is a ghost, but not a scary ghost. I love a good scary story, like I love a good scary movie, but non-scary ghost stories don't always make the most interesting reading material. The only exception I can think of is Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. (But I'm getting sidetracked, as Domingue's novel has little in common with Niffenegger's foray into the ghost world, save their ghosts-as-characters.)

Killed in a tragic accident in the 1920s, main character and narrator Razi floats away from her body and into an in-between state few ever experience. Razi remains on earth in this vaporous state as a result of her own choice. Given the opportunity to remain in the human world, Razi does so in order to watch over her now-heartbroken lover Andrew. But there are rules to this newly-found state that Razi must learn; in turn, she teaches newly minted ghosts what they can and can't do.

Many decades later Razi finds a couple who buys a piece of furniture with a link to her past. Amy and Scott make the novel richer with their own issues, and Razi discovers even more connections between the three of them as she coexists in their home.

Part of what made the novel difficult in the beginning is what also makes it wonderful in the end. Although the unrealistic premise was hard to swallow at first, the hazy, otherworldly nature of The Mercy of Thin Air allows Domingue to examine human relationships on a whole new level. Razi's feelings as a spirit are magnified, but at the same time they echo Amy's emotions as a living being.

The Mercy of Thin Air is a deeply moving novel full of imagination and richly drawn characters. Once you read past the first thirty or so pages, you will be hooked on both the story and the characters. As a bonus, Domingue's setting is one of my favorite places on earth -- New Orleans, Louisiana, in the 1920s flashback scenes, and other locations in Louisiana in other parts of the book.

For more from Domingue, you'll have to wait until her second novel is released at a as-of-yet unknown date. Or, you can browse through her archive of nonfiction essays and interviews on The Nervous Breakdown. One of my favorite entries is her essay about earning a less-than-glowing review from the New York Times. Yes, it was that bad. But Domingue has learned to live with it. (As an aside, it is an example of why I rarely write reviews of books I dislike -- or why I don't finish reading them. What's the point? Let me tell you about books you'll enjoy, not ones you'll despise. For me, The Mercy of Thin Air was highly enjoyable.)

Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway Is the Perfect Gift for Book Lovers and English Teachers

One of my weaknesses is books about books. Not necessarily literary criticism, although I sometimes enjoy that, as well. But what I really like is books about authors and their writing. I own several literary-minded cookbooks, both by authors and compilation cookbooks that relate recipes to specific stories or characters. (I can think of The Pat Conroy Cookbook, Patricia Cornwell's Food to Die For and Adriana Trigiani's Cooking with My Sisters off the top of my head.)  I also like travel books that feature literary locations (such as Scarlett Slept Here by Joy Dickenson), as well as other more general books.

Celia Blue Johnson's Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway: Stories of the Inspiration Behind Great Works of Literature fits perfectly into this niche because it is a book about books -- specifically their backgrounds. In her new book, Johnson tells the story behind the stories, from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland to Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven."

The wonderful thing about Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway is that it can be used in a myriad of ways. For book lovers who would like to browse, the book is laid out perfectly. Johnson organizes the stories perfectly so that browsing is easy. The table of contents lists books by title in sections that connect the background stories to one another. For example, authors who began great works by first telling them aloud are collected in the "In the Telling" section.

Dickens' pet raven Grip

I had great fun simply browsing Johnson's book and reading whatever caught my fancy at the moment. I didn't read the entire book from cover to cover; instead, I read those chapters that described the background of books I had read and enjoyed. I learned via Johnson that Poe's raven was inspired by Charles Dickens' actual pet raven Grip, which he later had stuffed. (The bird can still be visited in the Rare Books department of the Philadelphia Free Library.) I also learned that L. Frank Baum named his land Oz after looking at drawers labeled alphabetically (the O - Z drawer, of course).

As an English teacher, this book holds a special place in my heart, as I can think of a million ways to use it in my classroom. My students and I will be reading and learning about Edgar Allen Poe in the next couple of weeks leading up to Halloween, and I am planning to read the chapter about him to them as extra background information.

Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway is the perfect book for any book lover, especially with the holidays quickly approaching. Reading and English teachers will also appreciate this book for the little something extra it can add to their lessons.

Book News: #FridayReads & Its Importance for Readers, Music & Books, and the Americana Music Awards

I don't think I've ever mentioned something I participate in each and every week via Twitter. Friday Reads is a time and place where Twitter users share what they're reading. Using the hashtag #FridayReads, all you do is tweet your book title and author. The good folks at Friday Reads then count the total participants (it's been in the 6,000 range lately), tally up the most-read titles, and give away fabulous books each week to lucky winners.

USA Today's book department praised the Friday Reads movement a couple of weeks ago in a tweet to their followers which said: "We love books, Fridays and reading on Fridays! The Help is #1 on our list. Wonder what'll be the most popular #fridayreads?" I really love the Friday Reads philosophy, which is simply to create "a global community of thousands of people who come together each week to share whatever they’re reading. . . [in order] to raise reading’s visibility and encourage more people to join in!" Add yourself to the thousands next week by sharing your own read.

Sufjan Stevens

Music is almost as important in my life as books are. I would never claim to be a super-fan or a groupie. I've never followed the Grateful Dead or Widespread Panic. I've never even been to Bonnaroo, and it takes place 30 miles from my house! But nevertheless, music is important to me. I listen to it constantly, and, like many people, there are moments in my life that are defined by specific songs. The Guardian posted a series of pictures two weeks ago depicting the "10 best songs based on books." I can't lie and say I'm familiar with all the songs (or even all of the pieces of literature mentioned), but this idea is pure genius to me. 

Along that same pop culture thread, The Atlantic also released a picture gallery relating literature to cartoons a few weeks ago. As The Simpsons began its 23rd season, they celebrated by listing literary references in the cartoon series in their "A Visual History of Literary References on 'The Simpsons.'"

I won't make it the top news today, because I'm sure I've worn out you guys who DON'T live in the Nashville area, but I am headed to the Southern Festival of Books this morning. Things kick off at noon in downtown Nashville at Legislative Plaza. I'll be tweeting with the hashtag #SFB11 from the Festival!

Also in Nashville this weekend are the Americana Music Awards. The actual award ceremony was broadcasted last night on Nashville's channel 8 from the historic Ryman Auditorium. NPR and Folk Alley, a radio station out of Kent State University in Ohio, hosted the event. I never really knew that Americana was a genre of music I liked; rather, I never knew that was the name of the genre. Performers like Lucinda Williams and Alison Krauss are among my favorites, so I suppose I am a fan of Americana! I also really like the Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons, who were both winners last night. Performances will continue tonight and the next two nights.


I am loaded down with books to take to the Festival with me this weekend. I haven't managed to read very much, though! I am listening to Tess Gerritsen's latest Rizzoli and Isles book, The Silent Girl, which I downloaded from Audible last night. Have a fabulous weekend & happy reading!

Adding to My Southern Festival of Books Pile

I made yet another addition to my SFB pile tonight. Visiting Books-a-Million is always a catch-22 for me... I don't really need anything. And yet I do. I always browse the bargain books section carefully, because you just never know what gems you'll find on those shelves. Sometimes it holds much-hyped books that didn't quite pan out (Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels, numbers twelve through fifteen or so only, I'm looking at you). But often times you can find a real steal -- a great book that they simply over-ordered, or whose shelf life has somewhat passed.

Although there were several YA titles I almost bought, and a copy of Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger that's been on my to-read list FOREVER, I walked away with only one purchase: Marisa de los Santos's Belong to Me. I really enjoyed her first novel Love Walked In, but for some reason never read this second novel. Now she has released a third book, Falling Together, which is the reason she'll be attending the Southern Festival of Books this weekend.

I'm excited about diving into Belong to Me, because -- although I didn't realize it until tonight -- de los Santos revives her main characters from Love Walked In in this second novel. Readers once again return to the world that Cornelia and Clare inhabit, as Cornelia moves to the suburbs from downtown Philadelphia. Rumors have been flying around since the release of Love Walked In that Sarah Jessica Parker will produce and star in a film version. As of now, IMDB still lists it as "in development," which can mean nothing at all or that it's in process of being filmed. I suppose only time will tell. It does seem like the perfect role for Parker.

My excitement is building for this weekend's Southern Festival of Books (as if you couldn't tell by my weeks of posts about it)! I'm attending with my mom, my aunt, and a couple of my closest friends -- and fellow readers. We're staying in Nashville Friday night, planning some shopping, and definitely visiting my favorite Festival hotspot -- the Provence inside the Nashville Public Library.

Friday will also be Vanderbilt basketball's Memorial Madness, a night which "celebrat[es] the first official day of practice, [with] a meet-and-greet with both squads, special introductions, a short scrimmage along with a three-point and slam dunk contest." My guy has long been a Vandy fan, and this year we have season tickets to the men's basketball games. We may stick around on Saturday night, too, as Vandy's football team faces off against Georgia.

All in all, a weekend of fun -- and books, of course!

Countdown to Southern Festival of Books 2011: Less Than One Week!

As the school year goes on, I'm able to spend less and less time reading and -- therefore -- blogging. However, this Friday I'm taking a small break from teaching to attend the Southern Festival of Books, which I think is both a positive for me personally and professionally. Although many of the authors I meet or hear speak at SFB will not be authors my students and I will read this school year, the mere fact that I am going to meet authors and hear them speak about their books is important.

It will give me stories to tell my students about real writers making a living doing what they love. I also plan on going to some YA sessions, which will give me ideas about books to add to my classroom library. Above all, it will give me a jolt of inspiration as a reader and a book lover, as I feel like I've been in somewhat of a slump lately. For example, I had a fairly lazy Saturday and Sunday this week, but I haven't read a single page of a book. Not a single page! There have been times in my life when I would have jumped at the chance to consume a book -- perhaps even two! -- on a weekend like this one.

I have begun a new-ish reading tradition, that of listening to an audiobook each night before bed. Both the Audible app on my iPod touch and my iPod touch itself have sleep timers, meaning I can set it for twenty minutes and it will fade away at that point in the book, saving my place for next time. I listen pretty much every night until I fall asleep. Audible books are easy using the Audible app, and downloaded audiobooks from CDs (like Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers, which I finished listening to last week after winning it from nomadreader) are made user-friendly using iTunes on my iPod, then setting the iPod sleep timer.

In spite of my recent non-reading habits, I am excited about the Southern Festival of Books this coming weekend. For the first time ever, I am taking off work on Friday to attend the Festival on its first day. In the past, I've attended on the weekend days only. This year, authors Chris Bohjalian and River Jordan were both speaking on Friday only; I just couldn't let the opportunity pass to hear them speak.

In preparation for this year's SFB, I've done a little bit of "homework":

I listened to the audiobook version of Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers.

I read Michael Lee West's Gone With a Handsomer Man.

I ordered Chris Bohjalian's The Night Strangers and Charles Frazier's Nightwoods from Amazon (and now I'm hoping with fingers crossed that they arrive before Friday).

I had already read River Jordan's Praying for Strangers after receiving it from her publisher before its release in April.

I read Ann Patchett's State of Wonder over the summer.

And I decided against buying Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. I realize she's gotten rave reviews for her debut novel, and I plan to attend her session to learn more. But I downloaded a Kindle sample to try it (if you haven't been doing this and you have a Kindle or the Kindle app for another e-reader, you must start immediately), and I was largely unimpressed. The whole circus aspect does absolutely nothing to entice me to read it. In my experience, there have been many books whose premises did nothing for me, though. (Life of Pi anyone? Middlesex? Even The Help, for me.)

Because of all the positive buzz, I tried it. I really did. Those Kindle samples allow you to read enough to get into the book (in hopes you'll use one-click purchasing, I'm sure). A reader confession, though? I hate books written in present tense. I really can't stand them. No one ever speaks that way. Therefore, no story told orally is ever told that way. Present tense always sounds extraordinarily awkward to me, as though I'm reading the script for a poorly-made documentary or made-for-television crime re-enactment. ("She walks down the hall. She listens.") Long story short, I might enjoy the movie once its made, but I don't think The Night Circus is for me. Perhaps Morgenstern will change my mind when I hear her speak -- that has happened to me fairly frequently at SFB. 

A book I did purchase after downloading a Kindle sample of it was Charles Frazier's Nightwoods. And frankly, no one could be more surprised by this than me. I know people everywhere praised Frazier's Cold Mountain. I tried to read the novel on multiple occasions, and never got past the first fifty pages. I was bored to tears. I never watched the entire movie, although I know people felt it was marvelous, as well. I just wasn't interested. So I don't suppose you'd call me a Frazier fan. I appreciated his talent as a writer, I just didn't enjoy his stories.

But Nightwoods is a whole different ballgame. For one thing, its setting is more recent -- the 1960s instead of the 1860s. And for another, it is a story that grabs you from the get-go. Although I've only read the first few dozen pages, I can't wait to get my hands on the printed book to continue reading about main character Luce and her dead sister's twins. Luce takes the children in after her sister's death, moving them into the old abandoned lodge she is caretaker for in the Appalachian mountains. I have no idea where the story is taking me at this point, but I am eager to find out.

Needless to say, Frazier's session was added to my schedule for the Festival this weekend.

You can view the entire schedule for SFB here, as well as registering with Humanities Tennessee and creating your own personalized schedule, like I did. The Southern Festival of Books kicks off this Friday and runs through Sunday in downtown Nashville at Legislative Plaza.