If you'd like to learn how to read...

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster is a riot...

well, maybe just for English nerds. Foster brilliantly uses his expertise in teaching college literature to compile chapter after hilarious chapter of practical reading advice.

The book is divided into sections, such as "Every Trip is a Quest (except when it's not)" and "Nice to eat you: Acts of Vampires," that take critical themes and writing devices in literature, explain why and how they are used and give the reader examples designed to help them learn how to look for them on their own. Far from pretentious or pompous, it is written in a tone that makes the reader feel like they are one of Foster's students, having a comfortable conversation in a book-and-paper strewn office.

One of the chapters I found especially helpful was "Now Where Have I Seen Her Before?". It defines "intertextuality"--the connections that are constantly being made between pieces of literature and poetry, the motifs of character and plot and symbolism being repeated over and over again. It explains that the more a reader reads, the more they understand about what they read because they will be able to recognize these things, and that this is true because writers do it too--they write what they know from what they've read. Sound confusing? It is! yet, Foster is able to divulge these literary secrets in a truly accessible way.

I have thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely pace through this book and look forward to reading his next book, published this year, entitled: How to read Novels like a Professor.

I've been too busy reading to write about it...

Poor excuse, I know, but let me update with a recap of some good stuff I've read lately:
1. Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
This is an AMAZING collection of short stories set in Africa, and told from the view point of children. Akpan's writing is wonderful, and the choice to tell children's stories was perfect. Their voices give hope that an adult narrator couldn't, but it's also literally heartbreaking to realize that you know what is happening around the characters when they can't even see the looming danger. The stories deal with family, poverty, immigration, religion, and ethnicity issues. Be forewarned that there are disturbing scenes.

2. A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue by Wendy Shallit
Philosopher-journalist Wendy Shallit writes a very readable and often humorous book detailing the ways gender roles have changed over the last few centuries. Her research takes a look at these questions and more:
Has women's liberation freed us? Why do we have so much to fear now (date rape, sexual harrassment, eating disorders, rampant sexually transmitted disease, depression, and other ailments)? Why am I always so embarrassed? Why am I so clingy when it comes to men and relationships? What's wrong with me?
Of course, this won't appeal to everyone, and she openly admits that.

3. The Color of Water by James McBride
I just finished this one today. It's a wonderful memoir with one chapter in McBride's mother's voice, and the next in his own. Through this stepping stone format he tells the dual stories of his childhood and of his polish jewish immigrant mother who fled her family, married a black man, and raised twelve children. Amazing.