How does culture shape our
perspective?
Selections for lit circles
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Synopsis from Amazon.com
The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an
encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and
a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his
family emigrates from India to North America
aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their
zoo animals bound for new homes.
The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a
lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an
orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard
Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger
has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear,
knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist
with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at
sea.
2 groups of 4 available
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Synopsis from Amazon.com:
Four mothers, four daughters, four
families whose histories shift with
the four winds depending on who's
"saying" the stories.
In 1949 four Chinese women, recent
immigrants to San Francisco, begin
meeting to eat dim sum, play
mahjong, and talk. United in shared
unspeakable loss and hope, they call
themselves the Joy Luck Club.
1 group of 6 available
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by
Dai Sijie
Synopsis from Amazon.com
It tells the story of two hapless city boys
exiled to a remote mountain village for reeducation during China’s infamous Cultural
Revolution. There the two friends meet the
daughter of the local tailor and discover a
hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese
translation.
As they flirt with the seamstress and
secretly devour these banned works, the
two friends find transit from their grim
surroundings to worlds they never
imagined.
2 groups of 4 available
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Synopsis from Amazon.com:
Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima
comes to stay with his family in New Mexico.
She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs
and magic.
Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family
ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover
himself in the magical secrets of the pagan pasta mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism
of Latin America. And at each life turn there is
Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world...and
will nurture the birth of his soul.
1 group of 5 available
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• Synopsis from Amazon.com:
• An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty
years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of
adolescence during a period when the entire country was
losing its innocence to the second world war.
Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the
early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a
harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of
adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual.
Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What
happens between the two friends one summer, like the
war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their
world.
A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate
Peace is John Knowles’s crowning achievement and an
undisputed American classic.
• 2 groups of 4 available
Literature Circle
• Each class will have groups of 4-6 depending on class size and number of
books available.
• Groups will be formed by Ms. Renk.
• Groups will have time to talk about their reading schedule. There will be
four meeting times between the day you get the books and the end of the
semester.
• Each member of the group will have a different role, and will switch for
each meeting. The number of roles will vary depending on the size of the
group. The roles and this PowerPoint are available on the class website.
• Meeting Schedule: December 3 (A), 4 (B); December 17 (A), 18(B); January
6 (A), 7 (B); January 19 (A), 20 (B)
Picking Your Book
• On half a piece of paper, please write your name, your class period,
and your ranking of your book preference (1=top choice, 5=last
choice).
• You are not guaranteed to get your first choice.
• Life of Pi, The Joy Luck Club, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,
Bless Me, Ultima, and A Separate Peace.