Books Read :: November

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I am a bit "late" on this post. My December has been quite busy. Onwards...

Mission: to read 52 books in 2012
Books Read in 2012 thus far: 57
# of Books Read, November: 4
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Notes on Books Read:

54) Sherwood Forest by Camille Roy
This was a strange, very sexual, book of poetry that I felt picked up speed towards its second half. Roy puts her more "obvious" poems towards the front of the collection, though I would be amiss to say that any of them are truly obvious. They are all there for a reader to unravel. My favorite poems were "Lucky Fortune is Good", "Princess & Salt: A Ballad", and "Artifact". In my unique, personal way of "ranking" books, it received a plus sign and an ellipses. 
55) NW by Zadie Smith
It's no secret Zadie Smith is my favorite. This being said, I wanted to like this book more than I did, but I still did like it. Here is my GoodReads review of it: This book got better and better as it went on, and then it was over. The first section was difficult for me because of the formatting/fonts being odd and distracting. After I got through that part, I was less distracted by the book itself and able to get more involved/care more about its characters, which now, having finished the book, I want to know more about.
56) College: What it was, is, and should be by Andrew DelBanco
My TU students had to read this book. As much as I felt it may have been a struggle for some college freshman to get through this very one-sided volume that emphasized on the importance of a liberal arts' education in these days of cookie-cutter schools on the verge of becoming degree machines, I am glad that I read it, and I am glad that they read it. It's time-consuming non-fiction that perhaps spends too much time on the "what it was" portion, when, to me, the most interesting parts are the comparisons of the past to the present. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the higher education system, whether you be/were a student, teacher, administrator, etc.  
57) Town of Shadows by Lindsay Stern
This great debut novel(la?) by a young woman was the perfect book for me to read, closing out the month of November. It's an easy read of short flash-fictiony linked stories about a town losing its language. It's a slow apocalypse, the things we love the most, the things we would be most loath to lose, slipping away and leaving behind the shell of a world. Is there hope? There is always hope, even in the shadows.

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