A great way of thinking about ideas in books! I also tend to be more generic in my book reviews so as to let a reader discover things about the novel on their own; but I truly love criticism (like in BookForum) for how deep it dives into themes and ideas within a novel.
Love this idea. I’m reading Lear and pondering nothing, which seems to come up a lot. So maybe my sentence is a question: when is nothing actually something?
I think starting with a question is the best way to go! I usually have more questions than statements in my mind while reading! Maybe by the end of your read, you'll have some potential answers to your questions!
Oh, I loved this! I often reflect on how to be a better thinker when it comes to books, both for my personal experience and when I share my thoughts about them, rather than consuming them passively. Such a great exercise that I honestly think can be useful in all aspects of consuming media. It's very easy to point out the big idea, but it's harder to explain sometimes what we agree/disagree about it or what the overarching argument is.
I just finished a new release called THE SLIP. I loved it and identity is one of the big ideas in the book lol, but to flesh it out more I would say...
The Slip examines the repercussions associated with various identities in America, mainly regarding race and gender. While it highlights the universal desire/yearning for many people to alter their identity in pursuit of a happier life, it shows how, unfortunately, many find themselves resorting to questionable decisions to achieve it.
This is a great framework! The book I'm reading right now is "Everyone is Beautiful" by Katherine Center. It's about a mom of three who is uprooted in her life, realizes how far she has drifted from her pre-mom self, and goes on a journey to get back to her "old self." So this book explores themes of motherhood and identity, particularly our identity as moms - is our only identity as a mom, or we someone else besides being mothers?
I'm not very far in the book, but my guess is that the ways in which the protagonist's life is changing will be for the better and will help her imagine a version of herself that is even better than who she was before becoming a mom. In striving for her "old self" she will find a version that has grown and become stronger compared to her "old self".
Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve heard this! My AP English Comp teacher used to ask us something similar—a theme was never a word or a phrase but a full, complete sentence. What fun to take me back! That was the first time I really thought critically about reading and began to enjoy how much I could push my mind.
I’m loving this exercise, I just finished Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, and I’ll be thinking about my full-sentence thought all week now!
I appreciate the way you brought the classroom into this post. I often ask my students to tell me “how” in their arguments. I also did not know about storygraph AI so looks like I need to change up assignments that ask students to discuss 1 theme from the book. 😅 I teach African history, so I often assign a novel to students for their final paper.
The timing of this essay is so perfect for me! I’m currently reading Grapes of Wrath for the first time and struggling through some contradictory feelings about it. I’ve told my husband I feel like it’s too masculine, too dreary; and then last night, I told him I think it should be required reading for everyone in the US. I tried to verbalize why I thought that, and didn’t come up with any truly satisfying answers. Maybe I wasn’t thinking in complete sentences, so to speak. Gonna sit with this one for a while!
I love this idea of not just thinking about theme, but asking myself what, exactly, the book is trying to say about that them and how the book is approaching the theme similarly or differently than other books.
I just finished re-reading The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See after having traveled to Jeju Island, where the book is set. This book is saying that forgiveness is hard and it's messy and it can be scary because it often requires you to restructure your reality and/or your history.
As I read, I thought about you, Sara, and how aggravated you would find the 1st-person POV. I was annoyed with it too, at first. The narrator gives us so much context; it's really an author pulling the strings of her character, rather than a character acting naturally. And yet...as I read the acknowledgments, the author's note, and an author interview at the end of the book, I (re)gained so much respect for the research that Lisa See did. Yes, there are nonfiction academic works that document the history and practices of the haenyeo and the 4.3 Incident, and perhaps those should be more well-known, but this novel has disseminated knowledge of this place and these events to people, like me, who never would have known about or taken an interest in them otherwise.
Also, it's super interesting to compare The Island of Sea Women with Han Kang's most recent work, which is written in a completely different style but is about the same historical events.
I’m reading The RiD to Dalton by Shannon Bowring. This book is exploring the many forms that grief takes and the effects of different kinds of grief and where they can take us.
A great way of thinking about ideas in books! I also tend to be more generic in my book reviews so as to let a reader discover things about the novel on their own; but I truly love criticism (like in BookForum) for how deep it dives into themes and ideas within a novel.
Yes same! And while I don't necessarily consider myself a critic, I'm hoping to do more of that kind of writing in my Margin Notes series. I miss it!
Yay!
Love this idea. I’m reading Lear and pondering nothing, which seems to come up a lot. So maybe my sentence is a question: when is nothing actually something?
I think starting with a question is the best way to go! I usually have more questions than statements in my mind while reading! Maybe by the end of your read, you'll have some potential answers to your questions!
This is helpful!
Excellent.
I love this framing, thank you for sharing <3
Oh, I loved this! I often reflect on how to be a better thinker when it comes to books, both for my personal experience and when I share my thoughts about them, rather than consuming them passively. Such a great exercise that I honestly think can be useful in all aspects of consuming media. It's very easy to point out the big idea, but it's harder to explain sometimes what we agree/disagree about it or what the overarching argument is.
I just finished a new release called THE SLIP. I loved it and identity is one of the big ideas in the book lol, but to flesh it out more I would say...
The Slip examines the repercussions associated with various identities in America, mainly regarding race and gender. While it highlights the universal desire/yearning for many people to alter their identity in pursuit of a happier life, it shows how, unfortunately, many find themselves resorting to questionable decisions to achieve it.
This is a great framework! The book I'm reading right now is "Everyone is Beautiful" by Katherine Center. It's about a mom of three who is uprooted in her life, realizes how far she has drifted from her pre-mom self, and goes on a journey to get back to her "old self." So this book explores themes of motherhood and identity, particularly our identity as moms - is our only identity as a mom, or we someone else besides being mothers?
I'm not very far in the book, but my guess is that the ways in which the protagonist's life is changing will be for the better and will help her imagine a version of herself that is even better than who she was before becoming a mom. In striving for her "old self" she will find a version that has grown and become stronger compared to her "old self".
Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve heard this! My AP English Comp teacher used to ask us something similar—a theme was never a word or a phrase but a full, complete sentence. What fun to take me back! That was the first time I really thought critically about reading and began to enjoy how much I could push my mind.
I’m loving this exercise, I just finished Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, and I’ll be thinking about my full-sentence thought all week now!
I appreciate the way you brought the classroom into this post. I often ask my students to tell me “how” in their arguments. I also did not know about storygraph AI so looks like I need to change up assignments that ask students to discuss 1 theme from the book. 😅 I teach African history, so I often assign a novel to students for their final paper.
The timing of this essay is so perfect for me! I’m currently reading Grapes of Wrath for the first time and struggling through some contradictory feelings about it. I’ve told my husband I feel like it’s too masculine, too dreary; and then last night, I told him I think it should be required reading for everyone in the US. I tried to verbalize why I thought that, and didn’t come up with any truly satisfying answers. Maybe I wasn’t thinking in complete sentences, so to speak. Gonna sit with this one for a while!
I love this idea of not just thinking about theme, but asking myself what, exactly, the book is trying to say about that them and how the book is approaching the theme similarly or differently than other books.
I just finished re-reading The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See after having traveled to Jeju Island, where the book is set. This book is saying that forgiveness is hard and it's messy and it can be scary because it often requires you to restructure your reality and/or your history.
As I read, I thought about you, Sara, and how aggravated you would find the 1st-person POV. I was annoyed with it too, at first. The narrator gives us so much context; it's really an author pulling the strings of her character, rather than a character acting naturally. And yet...as I read the acknowledgments, the author's note, and an author interview at the end of the book, I (re)gained so much respect for the research that Lisa See did. Yes, there are nonfiction academic works that document the history and practices of the haenyeo and the 4.3 Incident, and perhaps those should be more well-known, but this novel has disseminated knowledge of this place and these events to people, like me, who never would have known about or taken an interest in them otherwise.
Also, it's super interesting to compare The Island of Sea Women with Han Kang's most recent work, which is written in a completely different style but is about the same historical events.
I’m reading The RiD to Dalton by Shannon Bowring. This book is exploring the many forms that grief takes and the effects of different kinds of grief and where they can take us.
Road