Reading 2010: Maureen Moore
This is the first installment of what I hope will become a series of posts on the books people read in 2010. We start with Maureen Moore, a professor of Humanities at Cosumnes River College. I know her as an avid reader who loves all books and, even with her busy academic schedule, manages to fit in some reading for pleasure. Her 2010 reading list, which she shared with her students and colleagues, shows a diverse approach to books, covering both academic and non-academic readings, national and international authors.
I am familiar with some of the titles on her list, some of which I enjoyed too: African Roar, which I co-edited with Ivor W. Hartmann, Cutting for Stone, I do Not Come to You by Chance, which is going to be the CRC campus book next year; this means a lot of people at the college will be reading it at the same time (more on this later), An Elegy for Easterly, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and I see that she also read Through the Gates of Thought by Nana Awere Damoah, who is featured in African Roar.
What I like about finding out what people have read is the possibility that I have read some of the books on their lists; it's some form of readerly validation.
Maureen's list is followed by a brief interview I did with her by email. Enjoy.
Maureen Moore, Humanities Professor at CRCMaureen Moore's Reading List, 2010
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Half of a Yellow Sun: A Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2007.
Allende, Isabel. Island Beneath the Sea: A Novel. Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. New York: HarperCollins, 2010.
Bacon, David. Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. Boston: Beacon Press, 2008.
Bergreen, Laurence. Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Bliatout, Bruce Thowpaou, et al. Handbook for Teaching Hmong-Speaking Students. Sacramento, CA: Folsom Cordova Unified School District, Southeast Asian Community Resource Center, 1988.
Christenson, Allen J., trans. Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
Crosby, Alfred W., Jr. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. 30th Anniversary ed. London: Praeger, 2003.
Damoah, Nana Awere. Through the Gates of Thought. Twickenham, UK: Athena Press, 2010.
Gabriel, Kathleen F. Teaching Underprepared Students: Strategies for Promoting Success and Retention in Higher Education. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2008.
Gappah, Petina. An Elegy for Easterly: Stories. New York: Faber and Faber, 2009.
Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America. New York: Picador, 2008.
Luft, Gal and Anne Korin. Turning Oil Into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice. Lexington, KY: Amalfi, 2010.
MacCreagh, Gordon. White Waters and Black. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. (Reprint from 1926)
Moseley, Michael. The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru. Revised ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 2001.
Norris, Michele. The Grace of Silence: A Memoir. New York: Pantheon Books, 2010.
Olson, Steve. Mapping Human History: Genes, Race and Our Common Origins. Boston: Mariner, 2002.
Palmatary, Helen Constance. “The Archaeology of the Lower Tapajos Valley, Brazil.” The American Philosophical Society. Vol 50, Part 3. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1960.
Pan, Philip P. Out of Mao’s Shadows: The Struggle for the Soul of New China. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet. Eds. Lawrence Cunningham and John Reich. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. Vol II. 7th ed. Houston: Thomson, 2010.
Sigauke, Emmanuel and Ivor W. Hartmann, eds. African Roar: An Eclectic Anthology of African Writers. Coventry, UK: Lion Press, 2010.
Stearns, Richard. The Hole in Our Gospel. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2010.
Tedlock, Dennis, trans. Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Verghese, Abraham. Cutting for Stone: A Novel. New York:Vintage Books, 2009.
Weir, Alison. The Life of Elizabeth I. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003.
Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. (Reprint from 1927)
Yang, Kao Kalia. The Latehomecomer.Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2008.
Maureen Moore shares a few things about her reading experience.
1. Your list shows a good mixture of fiction, creative non-fiction, and non-fiction books. Is this a reading strategy of yours? I also notice that the books are by authors from different countries and diverse backgrounds. Do you recommend this as a way to enrich our reading?
Yes, I have a pretty deliberate strategy that I pursue when it comes to reading. First there are books that I read for pure pleasure and escape. A good example of this would be Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I love Alexie's work and find his ideas and humor refreshing and rewarding. He offers an insightful look into Native American reality by staring directly into the face of stereotypes and Anglo myths about modern Indians. He is also a really good storyteller. I like stories for the escape factor they lend to 21st century life, so Alexie fits in well here. Typically, my pleasure and escape reads are fiction, although travel writing and memoirs often tend to serve this same purpose. Michelle Norris' The Grace of Silence was such an entrancing experience that I read it in about three days. It was one of those books that I could not put down, and when I had to put it down, I thought about it longingly until I could return to it. Although it's a memoir, Norris weaves family history with American history; the product is a loving exploration of African American challenges in the Civil Rights era. In fact, she did such a good job telling the story that I picked up a second copy of the book and gave it to my father-in-law, who also experienced many of the same events in Mississippi and Alabama when he was a younger man.
The second part of my strategy is a bit more academic, but equally rewarding. Because I teach about diverse cultures from different periods in history, I find it imperative to stay current in my reading life in order to stay relevant in my teaching practice. Thus I try to read around the world. For example, one year I was on a Central Asia jag and read everything I could get my hands on about Afghanistan, Mongolia and western China. The last two years have been purposefully focused on Brasil and South America, largely because of my sabbatical work there. This year has been focused on Latin America, with a smattering of Africa. It is likely that I will be visiting Africa in the next few years, so that emphasis will be more pronounced in lists to come. I have to say, though, that beyond my academic needs to stay current I also simply love the world. People and their cultures around the globe are lovely, and reading about them is a good primer for visiting them. Understanding others is perhaps the best way to understand oneself. I try to emphasize this with my students as they begin reading about cultures and historical events for their research papers. Reading, and sharing that reading with students, is my attempt at modeling a kind of global curiousity and awareness in my little corner of the world.
2. What can you say about the state of reading (i) in the United States (ii) in the world?
I don't know much about the state of reading in the rest of the world. Some western countries, like Canada and Britain, read much more than we do in the U.S. Other countries, like Brasil, read much less. In fact, the past president of Brasil insisted that the people of his country take up reading, so he allocated money in the federal budget to pay for vending machines, which sold only books, to be installed in the subways. Thus in the Sao Paulo underground, one could find paperback collections of Shakespeare's sonnets next to copies of the Brasilian national constitution. Press E9 for The Communist Manifesto in Portuguese, please.
As for reading in the U.S., I am under the impression that it has been on the wane for several decades now. Part of this has to do with technology, but there may be something else at play too. A couple years ago I ran across a report put out by the National Endowment for the Arts entitled "To Read or Not To Read" which claimed that reading in the U.S. was declining at a pronounced rate. The report also warned that "if, at the current pace, America continues to lose the habit of regular reading, the nation will suffer substantial economic, social, and civic setbacks." I heard this as a call to action, and as a result was prompted to launch One Book CRC, which is a book project that asks everyone at the college where I work to read the same book at some point each school year. Again, this is just my way of trying to impact one tiny piece of the greater American pie.
3. Of these books which ones were your favorite reads?
That is a very difficult question to answer! I love books. I love most every kind of book, although I am hard pressed to get excited about romance novels. If I had to pick one from this year's list I would have to say it is Philip Pan's collection of personal encounters with people in China who are attempting to reclaim the truth about their past. It was a fast read, and one with lots of human interest. Pan combines explanations of Mao's Great Leap Forward and the terror of the Cultural Revolution with stories about brave Chinese citizens who are still trying to recover 50 years later. The result is a tapestry of hope, which projects the idea that China can emerge from Mao's shadow to realize its fullness as a great civilization. Yes, this is definitely my pick for 2010!
Emmanuel, I hope this is what you wanted. I had some fun answering the questions!
Thank you, Maureen.
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