English 1301 Summer Reading /Assignments
Ms. Sullivan / Room 211
Hello, soon-to-be-juniors! If you are enrolled in English 1301, your summer reading assignment is Take the Cannoli:
Stories from the New World by Sarah Vowell. As well as reading this book of essays, you will be required to complete a
research project related to the book. You should also be prepared for an essay test over the book on the first day of
school. In addition, you will need to brush up on information from How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C.
Foster for a film essay assignment.

If you can’t find a copy of Take the Cannoli locally, you can order it (probably more cheaply) from Amazon.com.
Be prepared to take an essay exam over this book the first day of class.

Dust off your copy of How to Read Literature Like a Professor (check out Amazon.com for cheap used copies if
you don’t have one). You will be required to write a paper based on this text; the assignment is included in this
handout. I also expect you to be familiar with the material in this book for subsequent activities, so be sure to
read the book carefully if you have not done so already, and don’t be afraid to annotate it! Don’t get rid of your
copy, as we will use it as a reference throughout the year.
Take the Cannoli: Stories of the New World
From Amazon.com
“Take the Cannoli is a moving and wickedly funny collection of personal stories stretching across the immense
landscape of the American scene. Vowell tackles subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history with a biting
humor. She searches the streets of Hoboken for traces of the town's favorite son, Frank Sinatra. She goes under cover of
heavy makeup in an investigation of goth culture, blasts cannonballs into a hillside on a father-daughter outing, and
maps her family's haunted history on a road trip down the Trail of Tears. Vowell has an irresistible voice—caustic and
sympathetic, insightful and double-edged—that has attracted a loyal following for her magazine writing and radio
monologues on This American Life.”
Assignment: Take the Cannoli is comprised of sixteen essays on a variety of topics. Each essay is chockfull of allusions.
Compile a brief encyclopedia of some allusions from Take the Cannoli. The allusions you are responsible for will be
checked on the reverse side of this sheet. Turn in the check sheet along with your assignment on the first day of
school.
Instructions:
 Research each allusion marked on the check sheet, then write a fairly comprehensive “encyclopedia entry” on
it, put the entries in alphabetical order, and include a Works Cited page. This will be most helpful to you if you
complete it before reading the book
 Entries must be from 50 to 150 words in length; total word count for all entries should be at least 1500 words.
The allusion itself will determine the length of the entry. For example, you might write two lines for “Do Not Go
Gentle Into That Good Night,” but you might write 150-200 words about Arthur Miller. A word to the wise—if
all your entries are brief, you will not do well on the assignment.
 Cite your sources, both parenthetically and in a Works Cited page (MLA style).
 Remember to put the entries in alphabetical order, just as an encyclopedia would be arranged. Your Works
Cited page will be the last page of your “book.”
 Use the following formatting conventions: 1” margins (all), Times Roman or Times New Roman font, 12-pt.
type, black ink, titles for all entries. Single-space all entries and double-space between entries. Put each entry
title in bold. See the formatting example on the next page (encyclopedia entry comes from
www.britannica.com). As a point of comparison, the example that follows is 148 words long.
You must submit a typed copy of this assignment to me on the first day of class, at the beginning of the period,
and submit an electronic copy to Turnitin.com by the end of the first week of school. I will give you the login
information for Turnitin during that first week. If you plagiarize, you will receive a 0; this includes copying
from an unnamed source or submitting a paper that bears a suspicious resemblance to another student’s
paper.
EXAMPLE
Colony Collapse Disorder
colony collapse disorder (CCD), disorder affecting honeybee colonies that is characterized by sudden
colony death, with a lack of healthy adult bees inside the hive. Although the cause is not known, researchers
suspect that multiple factors may be involved. The disorder appears to affect the adult bees’ ability to
navigate. They leave the hive to find pollen and never return. Honey and pollen are usually present in the
hive, and there is often evidence of recent brood rearing. In some cases the queen and a small number of
survivor bees may remain in the brood nest. CCD is also characterized by delayed robbing of the honey in
the dead colonies by other, healthy bee colonies in the immediate area, as well as slower than normal
invasion by common pests, such as wax moths and small hive beetles. The disorder appears to affect only
the European honeybee (Apis mellifera).
ALLUSIONS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE IN THE TEXT)
First Amendment
Walter Mondale
Geraldine Ferraro
Allen Ginsberg
Claude Debussy
O. Henry
Beat Generation
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Eisenhower
Jack Kerouac
On the Road (book)
The Great Gatsby (book)
Dodge City
Ronald Reagan
Iran-Contra Affair
William C. Quantrill
Tchaikovsky
Marxism
Miles Davis
Van Halen
Lionel Richie
Rocky (film)
Elizabethan Era
Apocalypse, the
Book of Revelation
Ken Starr
Star Trek
Mr. Spock
Sam Donaldson
Strategic Defense Initiative
(“Star Wars”) / NOT the movie
Chernobyl
Thomas Pynchon
Eraserhead (film)
Black Sabbath (band)
Berlin Wall
Y2K
Silicon Valley
Taoist
Dionysian
The Godfather (film)
Alexis de Tocqueville
Trekkies
Diane Keaton
The Taming of the Shrew
Rodney King
Beach Boys (band)
Don DeLillo
Mondrian
Jackson Pollock
Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
Paul McCartney
Sid Vicious
Chelsea Hotel (New York)
Arthur Miller
Robert Mapplethorpe
William S. Burroughs
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That
Good Night”
“Death of a Salesman”
Jean Genet
Janice Joplin
Valhalla
Mark Twain
Davy Crockett
Gone With the Wind
James Baldwin
Elvis Presley
Celine Dion
Philip Glass
Dylan Thomas
Barbara Walters
Jerry Lee Louis
Courtney Love
Lou Reed
Bruce Springsteen
Neil Young
Keith Richards
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
From Amazon.com:
“What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey? Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain
shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface—a
symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character—and there's that sneaking
suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you.
In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to
unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify
a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to
literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion
for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun. “
Essay
Refer to How to Read Literature Like a Professor and use Foster’s techniques and insights as the basis for a
600- to 800-word analysis on one of the films from the list on the reverse side of this sheet. (Some of these
films are rated R; be sure to get permission from your parents before choosing an R-rated film for analysis.)
Include specific references to How to Read Literature… in your essay and parenthetically cite your
paraphrases, summaries, or quotations from the book. (If you do not remember how to create parenthetical
citations, see the OWL at Purdue website [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/] and look for MLA citation
form.)
The point of this paper is to apply what you have learned in the book to story analysis (in this case, a film).
 You MUST use Foster’s work as the lynchpin of your analysis.
 If you do not utilize the ideas in the book throughout your analysis, your essay will not receive a
passing grade.
 Since you are already conversant with Foster’s ideas, I expect your analysis to be insightful.
Your analysis must be logically organized and competently written.
 The essay must have an interesting introduction with a clear thesis, well-developed body paragraphs,
and a satisfying conclusion.
 Use correct conventions and be sure your sentences make sense.
 DO NOT use first person or second person.
 Remember to include parenthetical citations.
 Put the word count at the top of your paper (do not include the heading and paper title in your word
count). I would highly advise that you not attempt to cheat on your word count. No good will come of
it.
You must submit a typed copy of this essay to me on the first day of class, at the beginning of the
period, and submit an electronic copy to Turnitin.com by the end of the first week of school. I will
give you the login information for Turnitin during that first week. If you plagiarize, you will receive a
0; this includes copying from an unnamed source or submitting a paper that bears a suspicious
resemblance to another student’s paper.
FILM LIST ON REVERSE
Film List
Back to the Future
Batman Begins
Die Hard
District Nine
Dodgeball
The Fellowship of the Ring
Galaxy Quest
The Gift
The Godfather
Groundhog Day
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Matrix
Memento
The Orphanage
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Princess Bride
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Run Lola Run
The Shining (1980 version starring Jack Nicholson)
The Sixth Sense
Slumdog Millionaire
Star Wars
Stranger than Fiction
The Wizard of Oz