Since I can’t take my spouse’s class I think I’m going to just read along with the syllabus and make him talk to me about the books.
Replies
Great selection, if quite bleak! Apropos of our times, I suppose.
aug 16, 2025, 5:03 am • 0 0 • view
Moon of the Crusted Snow is one of my absolute personal favs I hope it’s scheduled later in the semester so everyone can feel the days getting shorter and bundle up against a chill while reading
aug 16, 2025, 12:50 am • 2 0 • view
It’s the last book, so they’ll be reading it late November, early December.
aug 16, 2025, 12:56 am • 3 0 • view
excellent 😇
aug 16, 2025, 1:02 am • 2 0 • view
Thanks for the reminder to reread the Oryx and Crake trilogy! Very enjoyable.
aug 16, 2025, 12:51 am • 4 0 • view
Ooh now I want to take this class too! But I’ll settle for adding these all to my TBR list. (I know I’ve read a couple but rereading is good too)
aug 16, 2025, 1:01 am • 2 0 • view
I read “Oryx and Crake” and “The Road”. Both very depressing. Is the rest of the pile equally depressing?
aug 16, 2025, 1:09 am • 0 0 • view
I think that sounds fabulous! I endorse this plan! 💜
aug 16, 2025, 1:55 am • 1 0 • view
CVW’s GFC so good
aug 16, 2025, 1:07 am • 1 0 • view
I read Oryx and Crake years ago and think about it as often as dudes apparently think about the Roman Empire.
aug 16, 2025, 1:21 am • 1 0 • view
I call any boneless chicken “chicky knobs” now
aug 16, 2025, 2:44 am • 2 0 • view
Hahaha! Also, me, too.
aug 16, 2025, 1:39 am • 1 0 • view
What an excellent idea! Book Club 🩷
aug 16, 2025, 1:06 am • 2 0 • view
I will join you in the read-along! Maybe we could start a book club based on Jeremy’s syllabus…
aug 16, 2025, 1:35 am • 2 0 • view
Let’s do it!
aug 16, 2025, 1:39 am • 2 0 • view
Ooh, I’ve read five of those, seen the movie of two of those, and have the last on my to-read list! “Oryx and Crake” is one of my all-time faves, too. What a collection!
aug 16, 2025, 12:54 am • 3 0 • view
That's some primo Canadian Content right there. 🍁🍁🍁
aug 16, 2025, 1:30 am • 2 0 • view
I read Parable of the Sower during the first Trump administration, and it hit a little too close to reality 😓
aug 16, 2025, 12:49 am • 7 0 • view
I read it in early months of COVID. And same.
aug 16, 2025, 12:50 am • 1 0 • view
Me too, but it was Parable of the Talents. The way my jaw fell open when I read the phrase, “Make America Great Again.” (I can’t remember why I went straight to Talents and didn’t start with Sower. I have yet to read it!)
aug 16, 2025, 1:10 am • 6 0 • view
Yeah I read the whole series in a row, I think, so I may be conflating the two. But it was like she saw the future.
aug 16, 2025, 1:12 am • 1 0 • view
I just read it. Took me a few months to get through it. (Needed breaks!) Definitely hitting too close to home.
aug 16, 2025, 7:07 am • 1 0 • view
I first read Butler's Parables early in 2015. They would be hard to re-read now.
aug 16, 2025, 1:04 am • 2 0 • view
Station Eleven is SO good. I reread it once a year since it came out. The writing is so lovely it's more like a longform poem.
aug 16, 2025, 1:03 am • 1 0 • view
Oh these are such good picks! Station Eleven is one of my favorite books of all time, and Severance is fantastic
aug 16, 2025, 1:54 am • 0 0 • view
Yessssss, Moon of the Crusted Snow is the best 🌕🥧❄️ (And its sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves 🌕🔄🍂 )
aug 16, 2025, 1:04 am • 2 0 • view
Interesting books! Wish I could take the class
aug 16, 2025, 2:39 am • 2 0 • view
Alt text: Books: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Children of Men by PD James, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Stations Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Severance by Ling Ma, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
aug 16, 2025, 12:52 am • 24 2 • view
This may be a silly question but how many of these books are translations from another language?
aug 16, 2025, 1:12 am • 0 0 • view
None. The class is Contemporary English Literature, so that’s kind of a requirement. :)
aug 16, 2025, 1:16 am • 1 0 • view
Sorry it said Contemporary Literature. And if it is just English literature what is Canadian writer doing there? Or American? Sorry to be picky but when I was at school in Belgrade our Literature class included classics in translation (Victor Hugo, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Shakespeare, et al)
aug 16, 2025, 1:25 am • 0 0 • view
It’s up to the instructor. The only requirement is written in English in the last, approximately, 30 years. This semester, I chose the North American apocalypse. The last instructor focused on Polyexpressivity and nonconformity. There is not exactly a canon so to speak.
aug 16, 2025, 1:51 am • 4 0 • view
Thank you so much for explaining. Not read many of those books nor heard of the authors. Will need to check them out. North American apocalypse sounds a bit heavy. Is it along the lines of Sinclair Lewis, one of my favourite writers (in translation) in late teens along with Cronin and Pearl Buck
aug 16, 2025, 2:00 am • 1 0 • view
I don’t know why you’re picking a fight with me about someone else’s class, but: English Literature (at least in the US) means works written in the English language (there are also classes on British, American, and/or Canadian Literature, and literature classes not limited by nation or language).
aug 16, 2025, 1:38 am • 0 0 • view
I am sorry. It is not my intention to pick a fight. Really just interested. You are right, I should ask directly. Thank you for responding. I really appreciate it. And once again, I was really interested.
aug 16, 2025, 1:44 am • 0 0 • view
Thank you for clarifying. I'm sorry if I misread your intentions! But yes, it's not an intentional slight on other countries, just a specific set of requirements for modern books originally written in English.
aug 16, 2025, 1:49 am • 1 0 • view
This is a good list! I’ve read maybe about half of them. Will have to add the other half to my own reading list.
aug 16, 2025, 4:05 am • 1 0 • view
Pretty good selection.
aug 16, 2025, 12:52 am • 1 0 • view