Essential Reading: It's Academic

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Katie de Iongh lives in Rye, New Hampshire with her husband and their three young children. She is a community volunteer, freelance writer and college English instructor.

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Literary Reflections Archives

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Katherine Barrett recommends The Film Club by David Gilmour. "When Gilmour's teenage son Jesse decided to drop out of high school, Gilmour presented him with a deal: Jesse could drop out as long as he watched three films per week with his father. Gilmour, once a film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and a recipient of the Governor General's award for fiction, got to choose the films, and his memoir chronicles the three years of film studies home-school that it took to connect with his son. The movies, from classic to Hollywood, gave father and son plenty of food for discussion, most of it to do with girls. But what Gilmour discovered, and what Jesse eventually appreciated, is that teenagers need attention - from their peers, yes, and also from their fathers."

Caroline Grant, Editor-in-Chief and Columnist writes, "I loved Curtis Sittenfeld's novel Prep, which is told from the perspective of a fish-out-of-water Midwestern girl enrolled in a New England boarding school. As we follow Lee Fiora through her four years of high school, I cringed with recognition; Sittenfeld's dialogue is sharp and her story of high school angst and anxiety rings true."

Suzanne Kamata, Fiction Co- Editor, says, "In 36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan, Duke English professor Cathy Davidson writes of her year at a women's college in Kobe. During school vacations, Davidson visits a matriarchal society in Okinawa, and an island famous for its taiko drummers. Her insights on gender relations in Japan will be of interest to anyone interested in what's happening in other countries, while her self-reflections should appeal to Eat, Pray, Love fans."

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