Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the category “Uncategorized”

17 Nov 2012
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Serendipity and Fricatives


A sign that designates no swearing in a city.

A sign that designates no swearing in a city. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Serendipity.  That happenstance which is unexpected and delightful.  Like finding that forgotten twenty dollar bill in your jacket pocket about the time you need a spare bit of change to enjoy an impromptu gelato and a movie.

Serendipity also happens in writing.  For instance, the other day my NaNo protag went on a side rant about swearing and she wondered (as I do) why certain sounds satisfy that need of relieving vexation.  Those sounds are called fricatives.

Opening my latest version of Children’s Writer I experienced that serendipitous moment upon reading “Punch, Bold, Colorful: Fricatives” by Vera Boyd Jones. Here is her opening segment:


My friend Brendan, a brand-new teacher, sat at my dinner table complaining that a novel for junior high readers was totally unrealistic.
    “There’s no way a juvenile delinquent would talk like that. His language would be full of words like  *!&**## and $^*&$* and %(^*#. (Substitutes are mine.) Your ears would turn blue if you heard the kids talk in our school hallways, and they’re not in trouble with the law.”
   “That may be,” I said in the tone I reserve for talking to young friends I have known since their birth and who should not be cussing in front of me, “but the first reader of a novel is an editor and once it’s in print, the next readers are reviewers and librarians, and they are not going to buy a kids’ book full of profanity. And I won’t even address the role of irate school boards.”
    “But it’s not right,” he said.
    “It’s not accurate, but that’s where substitute fricatives come in.”
    “Fricatives?”
    “Phooey. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of fricatives? Shoot, they’re such wonderful words.”

Jones  goes on to discuss the role of hard consonant sounds (p, f, b, d, k, sh, etc.) in our most colorful (and frowned upon) language.  Fricative, itself, is a great fricative.  Substituting naughty words with imaginative and consonant-rich ones is a solution to being tsked in the classroom.  Chris Crutcher, a popular YA author, cares not for substitutes and runs through as many of the real thing as possible (it seems) in his writing.  He’s proud of it too.  I’ve had him as a guest in my classroom and the students are split between liking the realism of his language usage and being uncomfortable with reading it.

For now, Vera will stick with her frick-atives.  After all, if I’m self-conscious saying them, how can I possibly have my characters utter them?

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Posted in creativity, education, Uncategorized, Writing and tagged , , ,
01 Nov 2012
2 Comments

Whatsa matta with myah Zemanta?


If you’ve been blogging for a bit you are no doubt aware of Zemanta, the wonderful widget which suggests photos and articles based on your text.  It’s a quick way to instantly add some bling to your blog and doubly nice since the credit tag is part of the package.

You stop and mutter, “What the–? because the photo has NOTHING to do with your text.

Case in point–I hoped to insert some raging Gothic images for my Gothic romance post and laughably Zemanta offered me:

  • the AP press insignia (I guess because I mentioned AP literature texts)
  • Luise Pop (no clue)
  • Jungle girl (huh?)
  • various renditions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Height (understandable  since I mentioned these)
  • We alone (excuse me?)
  • Old car 2, sold Lake Utah (don’t think so)
  • Salt and Pepper Prawns (what?)
  • Eden with Ruby Slippers (no thanks
  • David Hockney’s  “The Road Across the Worlds” (whatever)
  • “Robert O. Harris” (wrong Harris)
  • “Another One Rides the Bus” a Queen parody (ha ha–way off)
  •  Laoghane Harbour (Gothic romance in the      tropics?)

Have you been there? Scrolling from the plausible into the oblique?

So I ask: Whatsa matta with myah Zemanta?

Is my text too vague?
Are my topics too oblique?
Do I not inspire the photo picking Zemanta elves to brilliance and relevancy?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate Zemanta. It’s handy, and it’s dandy. It’s just a bit perplexing.

Troubleshooting my concerns I did some researching for answers.

  1. typing in specific searches sometimes dials in more relevant photos, but  truthfully not much
  2. going to help sites doesn’t always clarify–as in this answer for the question:      How do you come up with recommendations?

We analyze your post through our proprietary natural language processing and semantic algorithms, and statistically compare its contextual framework to our preindexed database of content.

In plain speak I think they are telling me that they try to match up photos to my text depending on my content and depending on their photos.

3. I did  learn images come from Wikipedia Commons and Flickr among other stock photo providers.
4.  Overall, I usually find one or two photos that are pertinent. The rest? I just figure the Zemanta elves were messing with me.  As for the articles? No problemo; they match up–mostly.

Anyone else think the Zemanta elves are laughing at them?

Zemanta Offices

image: flickr.com
Zemanta offices. Hello? Anybody home?

Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun...

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27 Oct 2012

Battleship and Black and Blue Reviews


Sometimes after a long week of teaching direct objects, nuances of symbolism, and grading ceaseless stacks of papers I need to unwind.  Discovering chocolate is a downfall to dieting, and being a longtime teetotaler,  I have succumbed to the ACTION movie for unwinding on Friday night.  We have a local grocery store that offers new releases for only a buck on the weekends.  Who can resist?

I am prone to choosing action movies with disasters or aliens, and I can’t resist the Navy.  So it was natural I selected Battleship. Expecting major cheese for ninety minutes I found myself rooting and hooting for the entire movie.  Being a movie trivia addict, I Googled up IMDb.  Glancing through the reviews I couldn’t help but wince at the meanness of many of the comments.

This brings me to the subject of Black and Blue Reviews.

These are reviews that involve slicing and dicing of the given subject, be it a book, a movie, restaurant or product.  Having been a reviewer for various journals over the past twelve years I have developed a philosophy: it is much easier to depreciate than it is to create.  We all know how much easier it is to diss and dismiss than it is to praise and raise. And being a published writer I tend to stem the critical ink flow when it comes to someone else’s creative effort because I know the stings of criticism do sting. As Thumper once said, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Or least compromise and try to say two things for every bad.

Back to Battleship. Of course it wasn’t going for Academy Award status; it’s intent is action and it delivered.  How could you not like a movie that:

  • features Liam Neeson as a Navy admiral?
  • is filmed in Hawaii?
  • has aliens who wear helmet sunglasses and sport wicked porcupine goatees?
  • debuts Rihanna as a  sailor who holds her own with the big boys?
  • stars Taylor Kitsch and Alexander Skarsgård?
  • also has Japanese legendary actor Tadanobu Asano?
  • laughs at itself with borrowed kitsch from Jurassic Park and Transformers?

Instead I found most reviews were negative.  Here’s some samplings:

Of course, in the old B-movie tradition, our response to the alien visit is immediately military. There’s not one word of discussion about the aliens possibly just making a social call. We invite them, they come and we open fire. This despite the fact that they’re remarkably humanoid; when we finally remove the helmet from one alien’s spacesuit, he turns out to look alarmingly like James Carville. Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun Times

Alien invasion movies usually work based on three things: strong characters, cool aliens and a good idea. “Battleship” has boring characters, boring aliens and a couple of minor ideas stupid enough to elicit a temporary smile. Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner

Those represent the pro-view.  Here are a couple of IMDb user review comments:

A simple way to describe Battleship, is that it’s basically a $200 million naval recruitment video that was made by a schizophrenic 8 year old who likes video games and things going Ka-Boom.

Turning a board game into a big-budget summer blockbuster was always going to be a stretch. But Hasbro the company behind the cinematic juggernaut Transformers series thought they had locked on to a winning formula for their adaptation of their best-selling board-game Battleship…namely ditch Michael Bay for the supremely talented Peter Berg, add aliens and throw shed-loads of money at the screen. And it almost works…

Ouch. What were this people expecting from a summer movie?  Hamlet on Mars? Sheesh…

These people totally missed how the film did something totally remarkable by:

  • having Japanese and American military forces  collaborate at Pearl Harbor, no less
  • featuring real life vets of the USS Missouri, some who had even served in WWII
  • showcasing real life active duty Army Colonel Gregory Gadson., who is the first bilateral amputee to serve as a Garrison Commander to any post in the United States Army. This man is a war hero.
  • honoring the military, particularly those from our past.

Sadly, I didn’t see anyone impressed with these positive attributes.  They were too busy complaining about how a movie could be made based off of a toy.  Oh yeah, it’s much better to make movies inspired off of a Disney ride.  Then it’ll be taken more seriously.

Don’t let the black and blue review sink your enjoyment of Battleship.  Besides, the chicken burrito scene is worth the watching all in itself.

image: guardian.co.uk

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19 Oct 2012
13 Comments

iphone, uphone, we all phone


English: New Mobile Cell Phone Technology

English: New Mobile Cell Phone Technology (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feeling like a dinosaur with a jet pack, I have succumbed to family proddings and have joined the iphoniacs. If you can imagine a dinosaur zooming about, then it’s possible to see me, a relic of telecommunications, thumb flipping through countless apps and haphazardly navigating the gateways of iphonese.

I grew up with the ubiquitous black desk phone that only went as far as the cord was long.  I also remember party lines, when heavy breathing only meant your neighbor was listening in on your conversation.  Phone prefixes started out as JU or some other distinctive alpha combo.  Ma Bell ruled the telephone lines.

Then telecommunications became liberated with decommissioning and phones came in colors, styles, and eventually didn’t even possess cords.  Zipping past cordless phones to cell phones,  lands me to about ten years ago with kids learning to drive and living far away on their own.  Staying connected took on relative importance. Caving into signing up with a cell phone carrier took place in a mall kiosk.  How did we ever survive without being available 24/7?

A self-proclaimed gregarious hermit, I am striving to the adjustment of being only a moment away from anyone who desires to reach out and talk to me. I grimace when faced with  “I tried calling you–didn’t you have your phone with you?”  Well, actually no. I didn’t use to haul the phone around while mowing the lawn, or washing the car, or even going shopping.  Now it’s a requirement.

Marlene had it right–I vant to be alone. Alone sometimes involves being alone with my thoughts. The problem is the i in iphone also includes u.

As much of a convenience cellulars have become, I have a real problem with  how society has gone disgracefully downhill in public decorum when it comes to phones.  A recent speaker at our school put it this way, “We have evolved so quickly with technology we haven’t developed proper etiquette.” Pig’s eye.  My momma taught me good public manners and I don’t think they have gone out of style.  I don’t comb my hair in public, nor do I floss in public, and I certainly don’t talk about my latest gynecological report in public.  Yet, I have had to listen to people share all kinds of interesting aspects of their life, simply because the ease of phone technology allows them to talk anywhere and at anytime.  Apparently their phones are smarter than they are.

All this instant, instantaneous communication compunction  is the reason why my choice of reading contain little cellular referencing.  I like books from the days of letters and tea-table conversations versus text bubbles and “can-you-hear-me-now” connections.

Would Jane Austen or Jane Eyre be bemused by the i before u when it comes to talking?  But then again, if everybody is doing it we simply evolve, right?  Then why aren’t there more dinosaurs with jet packs…

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14 Oct 2012
9 Comments

oh, yes–please read me a story…


Over the past couple of years I’ve been fortunate to journey with some of the more elite and talented thespians of this age.  The likes of Jeremy Irons, Cherry Jones, Jessica Tandy, and Sissy Spacek have kept me company on my long travels and daily commute.  They have challenged me, enlightened me, and entertained me.  And I showed my appreciation by never interrupting them as they spoke.

“Read me a story.” These words are among the first requests we have as a child once we figure out language.  Somewhere between infancy and childhood the request to be read to drops to the wayside–maybe it’s seen as being rather babyish, since, after all we have learned to read books on our own. Yet, I never tire of having a book read to me.  I especially have learned that while I need to read, I’m not very good at juggling the reading of more than one book unless one of them is an audio book.  I am hooked on audio books.

Audiobook Collection

Audiobook Collection (Photo credit: C.O.D. Library)

I’ve been listening to audio books since they became available on cassettes all those years ago.  Sometimes the dratted tapes would fuss up and I’d lose part of the story. Aggravating. Then came CDs, (much better thank you–although occasional scratching causes blips and hiccups–so annoying).  Now there are websites, Ipods, and Playaways, where all that is needed are a set of headphones.

There is nothing like having a good story read out loud on a long, solitary car trip.  As I prepare for my trip I gleefully check out several audio books from my lovely neighborhood library and perch them on my passenger seat as my companions.  Most books play any from seven to fourteen hours. Great for those long hauls.  I’ve been known to stay in my car to listen to the last of the story even after arriving at my destination.

The downside to audio books is due to their very nature of interactive reading–once started as an audio book, it’s difficult to finish it by traditional eye-to-page.  I made that mistake with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Coming home I was about halfway through listening to the book and decided to finish reading it via my checked out library book. What better way to spend the remaining sunny summer afternoon?  However, as emotionally involved as I got with the story, due to the excellent voice of Cherry Jones, I couldn’t sufficiently feel the proper grief when * SPOILER ALERT* I read of Singer’s demise. It didn’t register at all.

Lately, I’ve taken to listening to audio books on my short commute to work.  It helps get more reading done, since I get tired of listening to music.  Except I have run into a bothersome problem. My last audio book still resonates with me and I am having a difficult time moving on to checking out my next selection.  How can I possibly find a better reading than what Jeremy Irons did in The Alchemist?  I may have to go back to listening to music for a while. I even tried to recapture the glorious reading by checking out both library copies which are wonderfully  illustrated.  Nope,  wasn’t the same thing as listening to Jeremy’s sonorous tones.  I may even be spoiled for the movie they keep saying will eventually be made.

What is your favorite audio book?  Is it just me, or is there really something about having someone read you a story?

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08 Oct 2012
14 Comments

Has Dewey Metis Match?


SLJ1210w FT Dewey Are Dewey’s Days Numbered?: Libraries Nationwide Are Ditching the Old Classification System

image credit: School Library Journal

Recently I received a shock: the Dewey Decimal system might be at death’s door.  Yes, sit down.  I can see the news has hit you just as hard.  My first thought is, “What’s next? Abandoning order in the grocery store? Arranging by content or by color?” Metis is menacing the time-honored and respected DDC system. Then I thought I should be more  opened-minded. Maybe there is a sound reason why Dewey might possibly be ringing the death knell chimes.

After reading the SLJ on-line article my open-mindedness gave way to absolute rejection of the new kid on the block: Metis. The Dewey Decimal Classification system was thoughtfully developed to create order out of chaos.  Before Dewey came along, libraries would willy-nilly shelve their books.  Some methods included alphabetizing, shelf placement, and random subject designation. Then along came Mel.

Melvil Dewey, the designer of DDC, was an amazing guy.  I could write an entire blog post about him, and if you are interested in finding out more about you should link over to this article  to become enlightened to how dedicated he was to libraries.  He even risked his life saving books from a library that was on fire.  That’s my kind of Book Booster.

The SLJ article focused on a real-life library that has changed over to what they call Metis, who was the Greek goddess Athena’s mama. Metis supposedly reigned in the clever department, and the Metis system relies on clever deductive association when searching for a book. The librarians in the Metis library believe the system is much better for kids since it encourages them to associate ideas into reality.  For instance, Johnny the second grader, comes bouncing in and says, “I want to read a mystery story because Dad and I watch Sherlock Holmes and I want to be a detective, too.”  Betsy, our intrepid librarian points to the shiny sign that says, “Scary, ” and says, “That’s where you’ll find it, sweetie.”  Yup, mysteries are scary because they are associated with the unknown, and the unknown is associated with being nervous, and nervous is associated with frightened, and frightened makes leads to thinking of ghosts which are as you know, scary.  This If You Give a Mouse a Cookie logic is not working for me.  A mystery to me is how anyone could think this Metis system is going to fly.  Dewey’s been doing fine all these years.  Why the sudden backlash against shelve and order?

If you aren’t familiar with Dewey, here is a crash course.  It’s divided up into categories and those categories can have subcategories.  It’s quite neat and tidy.  Take a look:

HOW DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION (DDC) WORKS

000 General Works (Miscellaneous)

100 Philosophy

200 Religion

300 Social Sciences

400 Languages

500 Pure Sciences

600 Technology (Practical Arts) including medicine, engineering, business accounting, agriculture, salesmanship, etc.

700 Fine Arts (including architecture, painting, photography, music, amusements, etc.)

800 Literature

900 History, Geography, Biography

What is there not to like about this system?  One reason, declares the article, for the reconsideration is because kids don’t even learn their decimals until fourth grade.  Umm, excuse me.  Dewey’s decimals are filing markers and not mathematical.  This associative logic and deductive reasoning could explain why Metis is so appealing to these particular librarians. And what will these students do when they go to their public library and it’s still the DDC?

I’m thinking as I read the article, “One giant leap backward for mankind.” Dewey put order into the system.  Order is a good thing.  Metis is kind of subjective touchy feely nonsense organization that could create unilateral universal chaos.  One person’s science could be another person’s science fiction.

Now, I ask you, are we dumbing down our society even more by taking away Dewey’s decimals and putting up shiny poster board subject signage?  If you want to read up on Dewey, you can find him in the 921 section of your friendly neighborhood library–any library that speaks Dewey.  Or you could get Metisphysical and look for the sign that spouts “People Who Once Were Alive And Are Now Dead.”

 

English: From left to right: R. R. Bowker, Mrs...

English: From left to right: R. R. Bowker, Mrs. Dewey and Melvil Dewey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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06 Oct 2012
2 Comments

Flip Side of Freedom to Read: BB Week #7


image: Flicker

As Banned Book Week closes I am prompted to open up what is either a tempest or a tornado depending upon your cup of tea.  The above reflection captures my dichotomy of thought when it comes to banning, censoring, or challenging intellectual expression.  It all comes down to which hat I am wearing. The following is based on real life examples seen in three different perspectives.

Librarian Hat
Figuratively speaking this hat involves closing mouth and opening brain.  Please don’t come up to my desk and say, “I can’t believe you have The Joy of Sex on the library shelves.  First of all, I didn’t buy the book.  That decision wasn’t mine, and the book occupied the shelves long before I came on staff.  Secondly, the library is funded with public taxpayer money and if enough people requested it then the book is bought.  Thirdly, if the book offends you I suggest you don’t check it out.  And please don’t take our books into the bathroom.  Yes, that’s why we have the security gate before you go into the hallway with the restrooms. We have seen the soggy results of indiscriminate censoring.

Parent Hat
If I wanted my children to learn about the birds and bees I will tell them, on my own terms and in my own way, sans the graphic illustrations.  I can’t believe the library allows a fourteen year old to check out The Joy of Sex.  She isn’t even dating yet!  Why have something available that she isn’t ready to understand?  How did I know she checked it out?  When I moved her backpack into her room I noticed the cover.  Good grief! Was I shocked!  It’s almost pornography!  My tax dollars buys this kind of stuff!

Teacher Hat
“Here is a note from my dad.” I read it and discover I am to assign something else for his daughter to read during the next quarter unit book study.  The book? Lord of the Flies.  Furthermore, she was not to be present in the classroom during the unit.  He found the aspect of children killing children too strong for his daughter. I respected his request, and did so because I believe in his parental right of choice.  I also have to because our school practices an “op-out” policy, which means if a parent is opposed to the text assigned another is given in its place.  It happens.  And it’s okay. It’s inconvenient, but it’s okay.

Informed Citizen Hat
We live in a land where we are allowed the freedom of choice when it comes to expressing our creative endeavors.  We don’t have to worry about the secret and not-so-secret police storming into our households because we have told a joke that mocks the current leader, or because the bible we received as a gift from a visiting missionary is against my country’s religion, or because  I’m watching a movie that offends a segment of the population. As an American I have that protected freedom.  I am thankful.

Now on the flip side, my personal, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual beliefs may not line up with the person next to me.  I know inherently what is best practice for me in terms of reading and viewing, yet I can’t make that decision for you.  Yes, I might express my opinion–I’m entitled to do so, and you might not like it. You see,  I’m conservative in most of my views.  I’m a bit a puritan, I suppose.  But I have a difficult time faulting your right to make an informed choice. I do not want to end up in a society like the one Ray Bradbury created in Fahrenheit 451, where the government didn’t stop the reading of books–people did, for fear of offending one another.

And while I do believe in intellectual choice, with all these hats I wear, my concerns and allegiances to what is best practice gets a bit muddled.

I say it’s professional discretion when it comes to not selecting certain AP books off the suggested read list.  Is this censoring? No. I’ve listened to my students and sensed they were not ready for Brave New World or 1984.  Am I saying they shouldn’t read it?  Not at all.  I’m saying I won’t be teaching it at this time, especially when there are so many other books to choose from.

I say it’s my parental obligation to protect my child from that which might be harmful to my child’s well-being.  Is this censoring?Certainly not. Every family, every parent has the right to choose best for what is best for them and their family.  Society can influence, yet families shape the future. I’m not banning; I’m protecting.

We are all gate-keepers in our own way.  We allow how wide the gate will swing open. Banned Book Week is officially over for another year. Or is it?  We are challenged daily when it comes to making decisions of discernment.  To ban, to censor, to act out of discernment–now, that, dear reader, is quite the question.

Banned Books Week Banner

Banned Books Week Banner (Photo credit: DML East Branch)

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Posted in America, Reading, Uncategorized and tagged , ,
04 Oct 2012
3 Comments

Continium of Encouragement to Read: BB Week #6


As a librarian at heart and an English teacher for career, with a side of writer squeezed in, I positively adore books. My blog is primarily about books and I keep a running list of unabashed Book Boosters.  Here is a slew of posters, banners, and stickers that encourage reading.  BtW: celebrate Banned Book Week with a good read, or maybe a bad read–it’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?

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Posted in Literature, Reading, Uncategorized, Writing and tagged , , ,
01 Oct 2012
2 Comments

BB Week Hits the Big Three-Oh: BB Week #5


ALA Seal

ALA Seal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is something about hitting 30 that makes one sit up and say, “Okay, let’s get serious about this.”  Birthdays, marriages, and events take on that seriously, folks, tone.  And so it is with Banned Books Week.  This year marks its thirtieth and with that triple decade mark here are three commemorative aspects of BB Week.

1.  Did your state participate?  The American Library Association‘s Office for Intellectual Freedom coordinated a “50 State Salute.”  Check out the video and the following details to see how your state participated. For more information:  www.ala.org/bbook

Banned Books Week Video Map: Click on a state to view the BB video

2.  Take a good look at the of the last thirty years to see what books were challenged, banned, or censored and for what reason.

BB Timeline

3.  For the second year in a row readers who know the value of being free to read [I call them Book Boosters (see the masthead link to sign up)] can promote the importance of reading by posting a two-minute video of yourself reading. These videos will be featured on a special  Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out YouTube channel. For details on how to create your reading video, click here.

Banned Books Week: The Need to Read–it’s about choice and having the right to make it

Bookmans, a bookstore in Arizona makes this clear in their BB Week video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb8mBGjsU5A&feature=relmfu

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28 Sep 2012

The Naughty List: BB Week #4


Cover of "The Great Gatsby"

Cover of The Great Gatsby

Banned Book Week is around the corner: define your mind with censored or challenged literary lines. As you decide on additions for your next TBR you can make like Santa by checking your list to see who’s been naughty or nice.

 

  • Cover of "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
  • Cover of Their Eyes Were Watching God

 Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Native Son, by Richard Wright
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London

Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin

  •  All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
  •  The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
  •  Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
  • A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
  • In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
  • The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
  • Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
  • Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
  • Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
  • Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
  • Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh

    Cover of "Lord of the Flies, Educational ...

    Cover of Lord of the Flies, Educational Edition

  • Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
  • The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
  • Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
  •  An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
  • Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
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