CDECE 61

Extra Credit Assignment: Book Report

Directions: In essay format, please respond to the following 5 questions about a book that relates to the content we have discussed in class this term. I must pre-approve the book. Some titles to consider are listed here, by subject. You may also propose your own. Grading: Two points will be given for each complete, thoughtful, and well-written response (10 pts. total).

1. What is the book about? Write a brief synopsis, in your own words.

2. What are the primary themes of the book (its underlying message or big idea)?

3. How do the book’s key messages relate to our class discussions and the course content?

4. What are the major challenges faced by the author or the book’s character(s)?

5. Write a one-sentence review of this book for your classmates.

CULTURE

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

Cuba 15, by Nancy Osa

The Distance between Us, Reyna Grande

Forgotten Country, by Catherine Chung

Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American, by Peter Jamero

The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez

Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, by Richard Rodriguez

In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, by Diane Guerrero

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

Mexican Whiteboy, by Matt De La Pena

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Sister of my Heart, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman

The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston

DISABILITY

The Child Who Never Grew: A Memoir, by Pearl S. Buck

Finding Zoe: A Deaf Woman’s Story of Identity, Love, and Adoption, by Brandi Rarus

My Journey with Jake: A Memoir of Parenting and Disability, by Miriam Edelson

Poster Child: A Memoir, by Emily Rapp

Raising Blaze: Bringing up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World, by Debra Ginsberg

Raising Henry: A Memoir of Motherhood, Disability, and Discovery, by Rachel Adams

Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption, by Ralph James Savarese

The Skies I’m Under: The Rain and Shine of Parenting a Child with Complex Disabilities, by Rachel Wright

The Still Point of the Turning World: A Memoir, by Emily Rapp

ECONOMIC CLASS

Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America, by C. Nicole Mason

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

FAMILY STRUCTURE

Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother’s Story, by asha bandele

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year, by Anne Lamott

Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World, by Susan Silverman

My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family, by Zach Wahls

GENDER

Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren

Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir, by Liz Prince

RACE

The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, by Eric Liu

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

Black Lotus: A Woman’s Search for Racial identity, by Sil Lai Abrams

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother , James McBride

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, by Heidi W. Durrow

Half + Half: Writers on Growing up Biracial and Bicultural, by Claudine Chiawei O’Hearn

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, by Jeff Hobbs

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, by Michael Eric Dyson

White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, by Tim Wise

SEXUAL IDENTITY

Boy Erased, by Garrard Conley

In the Darkroom, by Susan Faludi

Trans: A Memoir, by Juliet Jacques