Whewhooo! Summer Fun Reading

Well finally the semester is done, and I can catch my breath. Didn't get the grades I had predicted in the beginning, but I didn't do bad. But now that's all behind me and I gotta look forward. This is the time that I get to do some fun reading. And while I have really big reading list, it is my determination to get to at least five books read before the fall semester begins. Not included in that five will also be a British Literature class which will include some Beowulf and some Chaucer. (Canterbury Tales, yeah!) Up until now, I've not had much British Lit other than the small amount that I got in a World Literature class and Hamlet. But, even with my part-time gig in the president's office, (and giving myself a refresher course in Spanish to prepare for the next level in the fall), I intend to do some reeee-laxin' this summer.

I just finished reading Iola Leroy by Francis E.W. Harper, so I don't think I can call that part of my summer reading. It was my "nightstand" book during the semester. In bed, before going to sleep, I write a little in my journal and read a few pages of Iola Leroy. Even with five classes, I couldn't resist beginning this novel which I've heard so much about. Considered a romance novel at the time, (an odd genre for the worldly, no-nonsense, journalistic and womanist writing of Ms. Harper), but further reading helped me to see that Iola Leroy was a propagandist novel, aimed at white, female abolitionists and black sunday school patrons to express the possibilities of the newly freed slaves and educated African Americans. A very different novel when you look at it in this light.

But, now that exams are over, I've already begun my first summer novel: The Untelling by homegirl, Tayari Jones! Hey, read it with me and send me your comments, and we can all exhale together.