My Alphabet of Favorite Literature

A: Austen, Jane. I haven’t read all of her novels, but I want to; they always make me smile and cringe at the same time. Pride and Prejudice gets better every time I read it, and Persuasion impresses me as remarkably modern.

B: Beloved by Toni Morrison. I’ll be honest: I am not a huge Morrison fan. But Beloved? Wow. You go, girl.

C: cummings, e.e. his work is original. i like that.

D: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. The ending affects me deeply every time.

E: Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The ultimate essayist. I love “The American Scholar.”

F: Faulkner, William. Don’t give up on him. I found his work to be initially challenging but eventually illuminating and ultimately rewarding. His work utilizes layers and manipulates language and syntax better than most. Absalom, Absalom! might be my favorite, with As I Lay Dying a close second.

G: (The) God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. My favorite book in college.

H: Heaney, Seamus. First of all, he translated Beowulf into a readable, accessible text for students. Bravo. I also heard him read his poetry one summer, and his already lyrical, magical poems came alive for me even more just by listening to his thick Irish accent.

I: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Again, I think GPS students wouldn’t be able to put this recently published collection of short stories down. Her stories, ranging in topic from a couple dealing with the birth of their stillborn child to the heartache a young woman feels after moving from India to the U.S. after her arranged marriage, manage to capture both the emptiness and the beauty of life in the modern world. The Namesake and her most recent Unaccustomed Earth are similarly brilliant.

J: Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. An endearing portrait of two generations of Asian women and the friendships they develop, rely on, and learn from as they navigate their way through American culture and their individual searches for identity. A beautiful, beautiful work.

K: (To) Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I teach this to my 8th graders, and I find myself more impressed and thoughtful every time I read it. The fantastic GPS production hopefully encouraged everyone to read it, or read it again, this year. This novel is worth revisiting every 5-10 years.

L: Lewis, C.S. I loved the Narnia series as a child, and I loved them again as an adult. The Screwtape Letters is also a clever work; it profiles a series of lessons one mature devil gives to his understudy.

M: Morehead, Maureen. Another personal favorite; Morehead was my high school AP English teacher and probably the first person who inspired me to become an English teacher myself. I thought she was the coolest person—and then I read her poetry and knew she was the coolest. A Sense of Time Left has brought me much comfort and inspiration through the years; this particular collection is comprised of several poems she wrote while I was her student, one of which is about one of my high school friends who was tragically killed in a car accident when we were sixteen. I always appreciated Morehead’s words on that difficult time in my life.

N: Night by Elie Wiesel. I took a course on the Holocaust in college, and this short account and Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower both haunted me long after we finished discussing them. One of the greatest portraits of one of the world’s greatest tragedies.

O: One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty. Place and purpose intersect in this short autobiography as Welty acknowledges the impact her family and Mississippi home had on her view of the world. It is divided into three sections: Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. A worthwhile read for developing writers.

P: Personal History by Katherine Graham. I wrote one of my college applications on this fascinating autobiography by the first female publisher of The Washington Post. It definitely reminded me that life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan…

Q: (Don) Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes. Okay, I confess: I have only read the first half of this epic novel, but it was the only “Q” I could think of…my husband and I read it together and definitely shared a few laughs. While I believe the title character’s adventures with Sancho Panza do get a bit repetitive, there is a reason this is a classic: it is a ingenious parody. It was also reportedly Faulkner’s favorite book (other than the Bible).

R: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. This one is a sentimental pick: my grandmother used to narrate this story to me in such great detail that I couldn’t imagine a better tale. She inspired me to pick it up one day, and while I kept hearing “Nonna’s” voice in my head, it proved to be the “devastating examination of the sexual politics of marriage, a haunting study of jealousy and psychological obsession, and classic of suspense” that many reviews claim it to be.

S: SHAKESPEARE!! Come on, now! It wasn’t until my favorite professor in college, Professor Kinney, illuminated the beauty and power of his plays for me that I “got it.” Ever since then, I can’t get enough. No one captures the human spirit, heart, and mind like Shakespeare.

T: (A) Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. A readable, fast-moving fictional story of the strength and solidarity of a couple of women in Afghanistan. A perfect relaxing read for GPS students.

U: “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. One of my favorite all-time poems. “Come, my friends. Tis not too late to seek a newer world.”

V: Virgil. I’ll admit it: I am jealous of all those students who get to read Virgil in Latin. What a treat. The summer I read The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid, I was in literary heaven.

W: Wharton, Edith. My roommate in college hated reading; she adored this Pulitzer Prize winning book and forced me to read it. I am glad I did; it illustrates the tension between desire and duty, between passion and practicality in a heart-wrenching fashion.

X: The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I was an English and Religious Studies double major, so this book presented itself pretty early in my studies. Fascinating.

Y: Yeats, W.B. If you are looking for a challenge, this is it. I’m still not sure I totally understand his poetic visions or motivations, but perhaps that is what keeps drawing me back to “The Second Coming” or “Meditations in Time of Civil War.”

Z: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. This might be my favorite book to teach. “It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.” How can you put this language down?

Lessons from Camden

As I try to gear myself up for the return to school tomorrow, I somehow keep finding myself distracted from grading. Hmm...how does that happen? :-). One cutie I haven't been able to tear myself more than 5 feet away from since we returned from CA is Camden. As I said in my last post, its a little pathetic how much we missed him while we were gone. The thought of him being in a kennel didn't help. Our reunion on Thursday was a precious moment---I couldn't stop hugging Camden and he couldn't wriggle himself out of my arms fast enough so he could get out of there. Even since, though, Camden has been incredibly sweet and cuddly. He has wanted to be as close to me and Clay as possible, and he is especially content when the three of us are together. If we all go for a walk and one of us gets ahead for some reason, Camden goes crazy until we are all in line again. His actions seem to articulate what Clay and I have been feeling a lot lately--we might just have ourselves a little family here :-). Or...maybe Camden is just afraid we are headed to the kennel again!

At the risk of appearing even more obsessed with my dog, here are some lessons that Cam has been teaching me lately:

1. The most important thing is simply being there in person.
2. All we really need is basic food and water, but man, treats are worth getting excited about.
3. When all else fails, sleep.
4. Sometimes going for a walk is exactly what you need to clear your head and walk a little taller.
5. Be excited to see people, even if you have only been apart for a few hours.
6. Sometimes nothing is better than having your head rubbed.
7. Be happy. Life's too short.
8. Playing games brings people together.
9. Love people unconditionally. Dogs are THE BEST at this.
10. (See picture above). If you are having a particularly bad day, just go back to bed. It will be better tomorrow.

SPRING BREAK in CALIFORNIA!!!

Sure, we got into teaching for the students and the literature, but both Clay and I must admit that one reason we love our profession is because we still get Spring Break. Who doesn't love Spring Break? and who doesn't love San Francisco and the Napa Valley AND fun times with great friends we don't get to see very often??

We had SUCH a great time and took lots of pictures, so let's get this party started...

We arrived in San Francisco on Friday night, and sweet Mary and Jamie picked us up--and then picked up two deep-dish pizzas from Little Star Pizza. YUM. We headed back to their adorable home in San Rafael, enjoyed catching up and eating delicious food (since when do they not serve even snacks on cross-country flights?), and then hit the bed hard. We woke up Saturday morning feeling refreshed and excited to check out Mary and Jamie's favorite spots that we always enjoy reading about on their blog. Our first stop was Chrissy Field, a popular running and biking area around the Golden Gate Bridge. Mary and Jamie are competing in the hardcore Escape from Alcatraz triathlon this summer, so we did the running portion with them and their nice friend Anders. The photo above is post-run and pre-brunch at Squat and Gobble, a cute creperie and cafe. M&J then took us on a fun tour of the city, including a stop at the famous Painted Ladies (famous, if, you know, you kinda like watched DJ and Steph on Full House all the time when you were growing up, like, maybe I did).

Saturday night we enjoyed yummy carnitas and several rounds of games with M&J and their fun friends Josh, Trixie, and Krista. We played girls vs. guys and the gals won all three competitions, albeit with some tricky clues and perhaps some slightly ridiculously girly terminology the guys had never heard of much less knew how to act out in charades.

Sunday morning Mary and I enjoyed a super special private Pilates class at Flow Studio while Clay and Jamie took a run around Phoenix Lake. All four of us then hit up the SR Farmers' Market, where we picked up some fish for the fish taco recipe Jamie noticed in the NYTimes that a.m. We also found some hearty paella, lots of fresh tangerines and apples, and even some cranberry wheat bread, which I happily admit made my day. It was amazing.

pretty flowers at the market

Clay discovered M&J's aerodynamic bike helmets from their Ironman...

Monday morning brought sunshine (hooray!) and whole-wheate pancakes for M&J before they headed to school and we headed to Napa!!! We stopped at Trader Joe's for some goodies (including a whole box of Cuties, which sustained us through the tough task of wine tasting for three days. It's a rough life, isn't it?) and then hit the road in M&J's car, which they so graciously lent us for our 72 hours in Wine Country. Check out the views from the drive:

Our first stop: Domaine Carneros for some bubbly. A great way to start our tour :-)

Clay and Sonoma Valley

Three different types of champagne.

Guess which one was our fave? Yup, the expensive one! This would become a theme...

Next stop: Hess Collection. A gorgeous winery with an even more gorgeous art collection. It is part tasting room, part gallery. This was on the top of our list.

We're in Wine Country! Yeah Baby!

I'm standing in front of Clos Du Val here, another winery we recommend for those travelling through Napa. Their wine is delicious AND their labels are fun, a standard that SJ started employing when I couldn't tell much difference between wines anymore...:-)

Clos du Val

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a park in downtown Napa and also spent some time wandering around the cute town of St. Helena, where we picked up some goodies at Olivier Oil Co. and Woodhouse Chocolates. We then headed north to Calistoga for the night. We got a great deal on a room at the Calistoga Inn and Brewery and enjoyed a delicious dinner at Boskos Trattoria.

Tuesday morning brought even more sunshine, a great run on the bike trail through Calistoga, and then more wine tastings! We started at Sterling Vineyards, which is well-known around Napa for its incredible views and tram rides up to the winery. We went before 12:30, so we got two tastings for the price of one! Sterling is one we can find here in Chattanooga, so we didn't bring any home, but we definitely recommend their Chardonnay.

Clay enjoying the views

How fun is a trip up a mountain to a vineyard? Really fun :-)

Gorgeous Napa Valley

These are really big wine barrels...

...and these are a lot of barrels. Looks like Sterling is doing a-okay...

The views from Sterling were pretty incredible.

The wine was also really good--and by this point we had gotten pretty good at swirling the glass and smelling the wine even though we honestly liked them all! I mean, its WINE. In Napa Valley. It's gonna be good. But we had fun coming up with our adjectives for each sample...

Several glasses of wine? No problem...

More pretty labels...

The Sterling gift shop had some fun finds, including the sign below that I made Clay pose with :-)

Thought these guys were pretty fun

...and now we are on our way back down. More wineries to visit!

Next stop was Clos Pegasse. The coolest part of their tasting was watching their artist in residence paint his "vision of wine." The thumb made us smile, too.

Hey look, its Bacchus!

We then hit up Summers Estate Vineyards, which turned out to be one of our two favorites. It was small, yummy, personal, and friendly. We ended up buying their Charbono and Cabernet. It was at this point that Clay and I started discussing how we were going to get all this wine home. Details, details...

Our drive towards Sonoma then took us past the CIA, and my slight obsession with Food Network and Top Chef inspired us to peek inside. A school just for cooking and baking? Sign me up! Their classrooms are giant kitchens!

Loved the huge dream of a gift shop

A few hundred yards past the CIA was Beringer, and Clay and I couldn't pass it without a little shout-out to Mom :-)

We had a free tasting at Merryvale in the heart of St. Helena, so we decided to stop in. They had a pretty cool tasting room on display in one of their barrel cellars, but their wine wasn't super special, so we moved on. So many wineries, so little time! We also stopped at Hall St. Helena, which turned out to be our least fave. We decided that smaller vineyards were the way to go, so...

Oh wait, we stopped at one more big one: Chateau St. Jean, a recommendation from the nice man at the Napa Visitor's Bureau. We liked it, bought a bottle, and took a picture with a even bigger bottle.

As you can tell by the signs, there are a LOT of wineries to choose from, and at times we felt a little overwhelmed (not in a bad way, though :-)). So we decided to do the logical thing: go to the winery that wasn't on the sign at all: Kaz.

This was BY FAR my favorite stop. We drove up to this little deserted barn behind a house around 4:15, hopped out, and asked the man outside if we were too late for a tasting. He broke out in a big grin and said, "Well, folks, usually I'm closed on Tuesdays, but come on in! I think I can find some wines for you to taste." He stuck his hand out and said, "I'm Kaz." Awesome! This is exactly what Clay and I were looking for: a unique winery off the beaten path. He gave us samples of several different wines that he makes, all in small quantities, and then he even invited us to bottle our own straight from the barrel, choosing our own label from his fun collection. We had a blast with Kaz and enthusiastically recommend his winery--what a treat.

I wish you could see his face here too--I think he was mocking me :-)

Clay chose the awesome "Stimulus" label. Kaz then signed both bottles for us. Pretty cool.

Sonoma was our next stop. We stayed at the charming Sonoma Hotel and ate dinner at A Taste of the Himalayas. Indian food sounded divine, and their Naan and spinach curry were perfect. A little ice cream treat at Ben and Jerry's, a walk around the square, and a bath in our claw-footed tub rounded out this treat of a night.

Wednesday morning we took another run, this time to the Gundlach Bundschu winery a few miles outside of the town square. Clay enjoyed the treats inside the Sonoma Cheese Factory and I found an amazing bakery and more bread! We could live on bread and cheese. Seriously.

We stopped back Gundlach Bundschu on the way south. My expression above is something along the lines of "Isn't this freakin' beautiful??"

A sign for our students, perhaps?

Love this guy.

Taking in the scenery at Gundlach Bundschu.

Another cave of wine barrels. They are everywhere!

Our final winery stop was at Jacuzzi Vineyards south of Sonoma. We stopped there because a.) the tasting was free, and b.) they also feature olive oil tastings. Yum. We decided to have our picnic lunch by the fountain behind their tasting room.

Before heading back to Tennessee, we wanted to check out the John Muir Woods. Several friends told us this park was stunningly beautiful and it was--the redwoods were even bigger than we imagined. We got in a great hike before getting on a plane for 8 hours!

This one is REALLY old!

Look how strong we are!

These trees are, um, a little tall.

We had a couple hours before we were to meet M&J, so we decided to go for a drive along Rte. 1 on the coast. I couldn't stop snapping pictures while Clay handled the insane curves. It is pretty amazing to think that we really were on the edge of the country just yesterday...

We stopped at the nearest beach, smelled the Pacific Ocean, felt the sand, snapped one last picture, and then headed back to San Rafael--and then Tennessee.

Mary and Jamie, many thanks for your incredible generosity, kindness, and thoughtfulness. We LOVED being with you and enjoying your beautiful surroundings for a few days! And thanks to you and the rockin' blue suitcase you gave us, all six of our bottles of wine got home safe and sound yesterday! We now have PLENTY for the next time you visit, which will hopefully be SOON! Have fun in Peru!!

It was a glorious week in California. Clay and I feel so rested and recharged, and we feel so blessed to have been able to do and see so many beautiful sights. We also were grateful to have our awesome Cam-dawg to come home to...it was a bit pathetic how much we missed him. He is definitely a member of our family :-).