while reading...

I have noticed Pride and Prejudice is very similar to the play we read at the end of English 11. I keep getting confused between the two books. I think it's the way they talk because they are quite similar in that way... am I alone in this? lol

Hey gang it is Jill here. I hope the second book is going smoothly for everyone. I am reading the book "How to Read Literature Like A Professor" and it is really quite insightful. If anyone would care to borrow it when I am finished or throughout the school year, let me know. To the left is a possible T-shirt I threw together. I believe the quote for 20 shirts was around $10 a piece. If there are more shirts the price will be cheaper.

After making this I did begin to wonder why I enjoy T-shirts so much.... maybe I have a problem. I already started on homecoming shirts as well.....

George Bernard Shaw...

...was the correct response to today's Literary Quiz o' the Day. Good work by Jill Bender and Nicole Pike on their speedy Sunday morning responses :-) Here is a bit more on GBS:

It's the birthday of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, born in Dublin (1856). He's the author of dozens of plays, including Man and Superman (1905), Pygmalion (1912), and Saint Joan (1923). Shaw won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925 and an Oscar in 1938 for his film Pygmalion. He's the only person in history to receive both the Nobel and an Oscar.

He had a precise and peculiar morning ritual: According to friend and biographer Stephen Winsten, Shaw would awaken early every day, go to his sink and fill it with cold water, dip his whole face into the sink with his eyes open, splash his eyes with water seven times, and then blot his face dry with a soft bath towel. Shaw said that when he was a boy in Ireland, a peasant instructed him to do this, and he did it ever since. After his ritual washing every day, he opened up the newspaper and read the obituaries first, while eating a breakfast that did not vary from day to day.

He's considered to be the greatest English-language dramatist after Shakespeare. Even before he had written a masterpiece, Shaw was announcing this very comparison to people, and adding that he did some things in playwriting even better than Shakespeare did. Shaw knew all of the plays he had written by memory. He was also a prolific music critic and literary critic, and he's highly quotable. He liked to quote himself. He said, "My specialty is being right when other people are wrong."

He was a great letter-writer and kept up correspondences with many people, including the British actresses Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Ellen Terry, poet Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas and writer H.G. Wells. For 75 years, he averaged nine letters a day, every day. He was lifelong friends with G.K. Chesterton and composer Edgar Elgar.

He lived to be 94 years old, and then died not of natural causes, but from injuries after falling off a ladder while pruning trees.

Shaw wrote and said a great many memorable things, including:
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: That's the essence of inhumanity."

(Shaw biographical information courtesy of "The Writer's Almanac" from American Public Media)

Literary Quiz o' the Day

Today is the birthday of a playwright who is considered to be the greatest English-language dramatist after Shakespeare. Even before he had written a masterpiece, this Irish playwright was announcing this very comparison to people, and adding that he did some things in play writing even better than Shakespeare did. He knew all of the plays he had written by memory. He was also a prolific music critic and literary critic, and he's highly quotable. He liked to quote himself. He said, "My specialty is being right when other people are wrong."

Who is he??

Facebook Group

I made a group on facebook. It's a closed group so you have to request to join. I sent an invitation to most of you I think but if I missed anyone sorry!! The group is called Bridgman High School AP English Literature and Composition 2009-10. If you click on the title to this post, it will take you straight to it.

Frank McCourt, a Storyteller Even as a Teacher

This article appeared in the NY Times yesterday, 21 July 2009. A lovely tribute to the writer and teacher from his former students.

Frank McCourt Is Forever a Teacher Man (The Council Chronicle, Nov. 05)

Frank McCourt Is Forever a Teacher Man (The Council Chronicle, Nov. 05): "Blogger"

Yesterday, the teaching and writing world lost a great master. Frank McCourt, the author of Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man, passed away in New York City at the age of 78. McCourt was a high school English teacher at Stuyvesant High School in Brooklyn and the notable author of his humourous and painful memoir of life in the lanes of Limerick, Ireland - Angela's Ashes. If you haven't read anything by McCourt, I highly recommend Angela's Ashes and would be willing to loan my copy to you. If you are contemplating the wonderful career of teaching, Teacher Man is a must read.

Angela's Ashes was also made into a movie, but as always, the book is far better.

Slan agus beannacht (Goodbye and blessings)

MCC

Class number??

How many people are still taking AP Lit?? I think we should get T-shirts! I'll set it all up if everyone wants them.

Assignments

What is the due date for the next book?

last midnight

This is the last 11 hours for me to turn in my AP paper!!

She's baaaack!

Hello again...

I got home yesterday evening after a long day of travel back from Ireland. I had a fantastic time and have lots of stories and adventures to share. Here's a picture of one of my favourite spots in Connemara (Western Co. Galway) (yes, I know there's no "u" in the American spelling of that "favourite," but I prefer to add extra vowels whenever it fancies me. "Remember the Great Vowel Shift"). This picture was taken at sunset in Connemara National Park, Letterfrack, Co. Galway, at the top of Diamond Hill. I love that they refer to it as a "hill" when it is 1500 feet high. Felt like climbing a mountain to me ;)

Now, on to business...a friendly reminder that your first summer reading vocab list and reading lots are due to me on Friday, July 17. If you are emailing them to me, they must be time stamped by 11:59 PM. If you are mailing them, the postmark from the post office must be dated July 17. This means you have to get to the post office by 5 PM in order to get the proper mark. Any concerns or questions, please email me as I have more regular email contact now that I'm back to Michigan.

Hope you are all well....looking forward to reading and reviewing the fruits of your reading labour!

Best-
MCC

Finished!!!!!

I am glad to say that I have finished Pride and Prejudice! Overall, I enjoyed reading it and I liked how it turned out. It was hard to understand some of the Old English Language at times, but I managed to figure it out. Hopefully my Reading Log will turn out to be great.

wow

So this blog has made me realize how little I'm actually online. I have been reading Catch-22 and have found it quite interesting. The more I read the more I find that all the characters are crazy in their own ways.

Literary Quiz o' the Day

Happy July!!

This is the first literary quiz for the month of July, and, pending my internet access, the last one for two weeks as I leave for Ireland tomorrow. I will be able to check email via my iPhone, but I won't be responding regularly. If something comes up, please contact me and I will get back to you as soon as I am able.

And without further ado....

A TWO FOR ONE QUIZ!!! Today is the birthday of the well-known grammarian, responsible for what E.B. White called "the little book" when White was a student at Cornell University. White went on to edit a version of this author's famous guide for grammar and writing. Who is the author and what was the proper title of "the little book."

Please provide BOTH answers in order to be considered the winner. Reply either via post on the blog or by email.

Happy summer and happy reading...