Reading list
The only entries even half as popular as those featuring a photo of Saul (a.k.a. the male heir to the Pink fortune) are those that list what I’ve been reading. It’s not that my book tastes are exemplary. (Some readers hate my recommendations.) But with the gusher of books pumped out each week, I think people are looking for any kind of guidance they can find. So here goes. The last two books I’ve read are Tested
Tested tells the story of a year in the life of an Annapolis, Maryland, elementary school caught in the grip of the country’s mania over standardized testing. The book is excellent, its message infuriating. This particular school, Tyler Heights Elementary, geared its entire program to getting its mostly low-income kids to pass the Maryland state test. Everything else — from art to music to reading for pleasure to anything resembling creative or conceptual thinking — fell by the wayside. And this was in a school whose faculty was committed and whose principal verged on heroic. What’s more, the book is yet another reminder of how many social problems — nutrition, behavior, health, parenting — are simply dumped on public schools because nobody else wants to deal with them. Yet this isn’t a screed against standardized tests. It’s a well-reported, empathetic account of classroom reality in the first decade of the 21st century. Highly recommended.
After Dark is a short novel that takes place entirely in the dead of a single Tokyo night. Much of the tale centers around Mari Esai, an college student trying to escape some weirdness in her home but who finds herself enmeshed in violent incident at a “love hotel.” Meanwhile, her gorgeous sister is stuck in a magic-realism netherworld. (Can’t say more without ruining certain plot elements.) I enjoyed the book, though I liked the realistic parts way more than the magical parts. But it’s a quick and engaging read whose atmospherics linger long after the final page.
Now in the batter’s box: Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip
Now in the on-deck circle: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao