reading ideas

I spent some time this past weekend thinking about readings for my own classes next fall, and other readings that you may find interesting.

My English 102 class will read Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver's novel chronicling issues of culture, love, agriculture, and hunting; Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer's non-fiction account of one young man's attempt to return to nature; and The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan's fascinating narrative of human-plant interdependence.

My American Literature Survey class will spend more time discussing the Transcendentalists, namely Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and the Alcotts. I'll also highlight the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Gary Snyder as well as native American literature.

I'm still working on my English 101 readings...

Other Suggestions that are rather literary in Nature:
Poetry by Mary Oliver, Robert Hass, Wallace Stegner
The Practice of the Wild, Gary Snyder
Animal, Vegetable, Miaracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver
The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods, Gary Nabhan
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
Anything by Wendell Berry
Barry Lopez
Gretel Ehrlich