I am Reading

As of July 3rd 2008, I am reading:

After the Harkness Gift: A History of Phillips Exeter Academy since 1930 by Julia Heskel & Davis Dyer

A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South by Adam Fairclough

As of June 7th 2008, I am reading:

Women’s Rights and Transatlantic Antislavery in the Era of Emancipation edited by Kathryn Kish Sklar & James Brewer Stewart

As of June 3rd 2008, I am reading:

The Scarlet Professor by Barry Werth

To Those Who Teach in Christian Schools by Roy W. Lowrie, Jr.

As of May 1st 2008, I am reading:

Clarence Thomas: My Grandfather’s Son by Justice Thomas

As of February 18th 2008, I am reading:

In Defense of History by Richard J. Evans

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

As of December 15th 2007, I am reading:

W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race 1868-1919 by David Lewis

W.E. B Du Bois: Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919 - 1963 by David Lewis

W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet by Edward Blum

As of October 26th 2007, I am reading the following book:

• While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying The West from Within by Bruce Bawer
• Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America’s University (A History) by Morton Keller and Phyllis Keller

As of September 12th 2007, I am reading the following book:

On the Fringes of History by Philip D. Curtin

As of August 12th 2007, I am reading the following book:

God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens

As of July 29th 2007, I am reading the following books:

• The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual by Harold Cruse
• Light in August by William Faulkner

As of July 5th 2007, I am currently reading the following book:

Savage Peace by Ann Hagedorn

As of June 2nd 2007, I am currently reading the following books:

• Old School by Tobias Wolff
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
• A Life in the 20th Century by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr
• W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet by Edward Blum

Earlier this year, I was engaged in a wonderful discussion with a student about my favorite books. The list below is incomplete; I have opted to focus on popular works that others have read instead of the more critical works of historiography that I have read and studied. Here is my literary list:

• Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man- “I am an invisible man,” begins this novel of an unnamed black man’s search for identity as an individual and as a member of his race and his society. I must thank my former high school friend Karlyn Hunter for allowing me to borrow her copy. It was her that turned me towards both Ellison and DuBois.
• Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness - A probing psychological work that explores the darkness in the soul of each of us. Conrad’s narrator Marlow makes a journey into the depths of the Congo where he discovers the extent to which greed can corrupt a good man. This work looks at both race and imperialism.
• Fyodor Dostoevski’s Crime and Punishment - A poor intellectual student kills an old woman and her sister to see if he could without being caught. After the crime, his conscience bothers him until he confesses. No book has ever created as many knots in my stomach as this one.
• Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World - A satire about the future with a number of symbolic images of a world driven by individual desires. Huxley conceives a world controlled by advances in science and social changes. The movie Gattica staring Ethan Hawk reminds me of this work.
• James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - This is probably the only work by Joyce I felt I really understood. This work is about a young man growing up in Ireland and rebelling against his family, his country, and his faith to become an artist.
• Voltaire’s Candide - A satire against those who complacently accept life’s disasters. This work takes shots at the Catholic Church during the Enlightenment.
• Richard Wright’s Native Son - A black man from Chicago expresses his anger against the racial injustices and economic inequality found in America.
• Joseph Conrad’s The Nigger of the Narcissus - I found myself covering the title when reading this for the first time in a British Literature course. Conrad used similar characters in Lord Jim as he did in this work. The title is very misleading.
• Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye - This work is just as graphic as the Invisible Man. In a world that portrays whiteness as an element of beauty, Morrison presents the dark side of being black in a world that ranks people by the lightness of their skin.
• Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - At one point in life I was forced to read this work. Let us say it is easily one of my favorites. This book is best read while camping or back packing alone. This book will make you cry, laugh, and reflect on your own life. It took me a while to finish this book only because I found myself thinking about my own life. This book will make you do that.
• W.E.B. DuBois’s Souls of Black Folks- It seems as though I read this book once a year. DuBois claims “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line — the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. It was a phase of this problem that caused the Civil War.”