What I'm currently reading (simultaneously)

I am currently reading two books simultaneously:

703: How I Lost a Quarter Ton and Gained a Life by Nancy Makin (buy used on Amazon for $4- I bought mine at Value Village for $2!)



I picked up this book on a whim while I was shopping with Sarah one Saturday morning at Value Village. I was intrigued, because I could not imagine how someone could gain that much weight (and lose it) and live to tell about it. Makin starts her narration from early childhood- her parents uprooted them from their nice home in Seattle, Washington and relocated into a Catholic monastery in Canada. She was separated from the rest of her family in the monastery, which had very poor conditions. She was forced into submission; her clothing replaced with tent-like dresses to hide her figure (she even recalls the requirement of modesty being so severe that they would not take baths or showers, but would instead clean themselves with wash cloths under their dresses.) Makin was at normal weight during this time, but would rebel against the monastery by sneaking the "good" food, such as bananas. She was forced to eat bean soup and other foods that did not resemble food. When she escaped the monastery, she became pregnant and her parents forced her to get married. She weighed up to 200 pounds at the height of her pregnancy, and continued to gain weight after she gave birth. (This is as far as I have gotten into the novel.)


The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Buy it used on Amazon for 1 cent plus shipping!)



I am currently teaching this novel to my sophomore English class. We are about seven chapters into the novel. If you have seen the movie, I have been told that the movie leaves out a lot of plot and detail from the novel. The story surrounds narrator Amir and his unlikely Hazarra friend Hassan in Kabul, Afghanistan in the early 1970's. I like that this novel lends itself to class discussions about the true people of Afghanistan, and that I am able to shatter student's misconceptions about Afghani culture.

Next on my reading list:

Yann Martel's Life of Pi



This is the next novel that I will be teaching to my sophomores. We also selected it to replace our summer reading, which used to be Dickens' Great Expectations and Buck's The Good Earth.