The Old Man...

Before you read Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize winner, The Old Man and the Sea, here are a few links that will help you explore the background of both the author and the novel.  Peruse at least one of the biography sites and at least one other site, and then blog about what you've learned.

The Life of Ernest Hemingway - lots of interesting information and photographs from the Hemingway Resource Center!  Click on the bottom of each page to advance through his life.

Who Was Ernest Hemingway? - a written biography and video clips from the A&E Biography series

The Iceberg Theory - why Hemingway wrote the way he did

What the Novella Meant to the Author - brief synopsis of the personal allegory this book had for Hemingway

Hemingway in Cuba - his connection to the setting of this novella

The Hemingway Cookbook -  recipes for dishes mentioned in Hemingway novels or inspired by his life and travels

Tons of Great Links! - The Hemingway Resource Center's list of links will help you explore his life, the aspects of his personality and adventures for which he is best known, and many of the places he lived and visited.

Made It! ... and Ethan Frome

As you all know, that 30-hour transcontinental trip buys lots of reading time.  So I packed Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton and finished it just as we crossed from Canada into the US.  It's a short book, but one of those dark novels that reminds you frequently that it will end badly no matter how many moments of light and high hopes come along.  I may have read it before, but I definitely had forgotten the ending.  Wow.  But I won't give it away because we do have enough copies to read it as a class this year, and it has often been mentioned on the AP exam. 

Today I'm heading to the library for something that is hopefully a little lighter.  Tomorrow, I'm off to Kentucky to score 1200 AP English exams (at least the essay portions).  So I am hoping to learn a lot and bring home some tools that will give you all an edge on the test.

Sleep late for me! 

Welcome, Class of 2015

If you are reading this blog, it is probably because you are about to enter your senior year at Bucharest Christian Academy and have signed up to take AP English Literature.  Welcome!

Please meet with me on Friday, May 30 at 7:45 a.m. in room 201 to receive your assignments for the summer.  We have much to do in preparation for next year's AP exam, and we are starting early - with a wonderful summer full of reading!