I taught "Autobiography of a Face" by Lucy Grealy once, and students liked it a
lot. This would be good for either social or health. "Muscle: Confessions of an
Unlikely Bodybuilder," by Samuel Fussell, is also a truly amazing read and
might be good for any of the classes.
>From the Amazon.com descriptions of both books:
>From School Library Journal
YA-- Teenage boys who a generation ago would have answered Charles Atlas ads
will be attracted to this book about Fussell's own immersion program in
bodybuilding. He is an Oxford honors graduate in English language and
literature and writes engagingly about what drew him into the subculture of gym
life. He includes the reaction of his bewildered parents and describes the
assortment of gym habitues who befriended him. This is no George Plimpton
inside glimpse--the author lived the bodybuilding life full-time for four
years, and he shares with his readers that life of mind-numbing exercises,
fistfuls of vitamins, and steroid injections. This is destined to be a cult
book that will survive because of its humor, its truth, and its fine writing.
--Judy McAloon, Richard Byrd Library, Fairfax County, VA
>From Publishers Weekly
Diagnosed at age nine with Ewing's sarcoma, a cancer that severely disfigured
her face, Grealy lost half her jaw, recovered after two and half years of
chemotherapy and radiation, then underwent plastic surgery over the next 20
years to reconstruct her jaw. This harrowing, lyrical autobiographical memoir,
which grew out of an award-winning article published in Harper's in 1993, is a
striking meditation on the distorting effects of our culture's preoccupation
with physical beauty. Extremely self-conscious and shy, Grealy endured insults
and ostracism as a teenager in Spring Valley, N.Y. At Sarah Lawrence College in
the mid-1980s, she discovered poetry as a vehicle for her pent-up emotions.
During graduate school at the University of Iowa, she had a series of
unsatisfying sexual affairs, hoping to prove she was lovable. No longer
eligible for medical coverage, she moved to London to take advantage of
Britain's socialized medicine, and underwent a 13-hour operation in
Scotland. Grealy now lives in New York City. Her discovery that true beauty
lies within makes this a wise and healing book.
"Jablonski, Jessica" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Novel-like Books for
Courses
Hello All,
I have been incorporating novel-like books as supplementary reading into some
of my courses and have found that many of the students really enjoy when we
devote the first 15 minutes of each class to discussing our reactions to a
chapter of the book. I also require that they keep a typed journal of their
reactions to each chapter and turn that in at the end of the semester. I've
found this to promote class participation in class sizes around 35 students or
smaller, and I am looking for book suggestions for the following courses that I
have yet to find a reading that I think the undergraduate students will really
enjoy:
Theories of Counseling
Personality
Social Psychology
Health Psychology ("Standing Tall: The Kevin Everett Story" was recently
recommended to me by a student, but I have not yet read it)
Any suggestions you have are welcomed. Thanks.
Jessica Jablonski, Psy.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
PO Box 195
Pomona, NJ 08240-0195
Phone: 609-626-5512
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
My Website on Grad Study in Psych: http://home.comcast.net/~jpsyd/graduate.htm
---
To make changes to your subscription contact:
Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Robin Abrahams
www.boston.com/missconduct
Notices at the bottom of this e-mail do not reflect the opinions of the sender.
I do not yahoo that I am aware of.
---
To make changes to your subscription contact:
Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
