{"id":1330,"date":"2018-04-03T11:59:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T15:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2019-09-24T00:33:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T04:33:12","slug":"blind-date-with-a-book-faculty-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/2018\/04\/03\/blind-date-with-a-book-faculty-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Blind Date With a Book: Faculty Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Looking for literary love? The OWU English Department has you covered. Blind Date With a Book is an annual Spring semester event for bookworms of any majors. It is coordinated by the English Department Student Board and Beeghly Library and is in its second year. Books beloved by students and English faculty are pulled from the library stacks, wrapped up like gifts and placed around the library&#8217;s Bayley Room with notecards of description on them. If a student is intrigued, they unwrap the book at the end of the event and check it out.<\/p>\n<p>Read on for English faculty members&#8217; book descriptions from this year&#8217;s event!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1333\" style=\"width: 171px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1333\" class=\" wp-image-1333\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/Readers-Digest-214x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"161\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/Readers-Digest-214x300.png 214w, https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/Readers-Digest.png 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 161px) 100vw, 161px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1333\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: Reader&#8217;s Digest.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Old fashi<\/span>oned Southern Gentleman seeking someone of either sex who can help me to forget my sister. Do you have Time for\u00a0me? (<strong><em>The Sound and the Fury\u00a0<\/em>by William Faulkner<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interested in spending some time in an Italian villa in the countryside with a young Indian soldier, a young Canadian nurse and a mysterious European burn victim? Watch the Axis powers retreat as you consider relationships, beauty, memory and loss with this wayward crew. (<b><i>The English Patient\u00a0<\/i>by\u00a0Michael Ondaatje<\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1334\" style=\"width: 171px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1334\" class=\" wp-image-1334\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/NPR-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"161\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/NPR-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/NPR.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 161px) 100vw, 161px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1334\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NPR.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mystery slips into conspiracy, and conspiracy gives way to something even darker. If you want a strange psychological thriller that digs into the monstrous movies of a reclusive cult filmmaker, I&#8217;m yours. (<b><em>Night Film<\/em> by Marisha Pessl<\/b>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Goldfinger? \u00a0He&#8217;s got nothing on on me. \u00a0True, I&#8217;m not a Bond villain&#8211;just a hard-boiled, blue-collar Chicago guy with a steady hand (and a bad habit&#8230;).\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(<\/span><strong><i>The Man with the Golden Arm <\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>by Nelson Algren<\/strong>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Reader,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I hesitate to recommend myself, abandoned as I have been by the women in my life, my students (with the exception of those seeking letters of recommendation for everything from prestigious fellowships to part-time positions in backwater institutions whose relationship to higher learning seems dubious at best), the administration at my university and, apparently, my colleagues, who have decamped, leaving our building to the not-so-tender mercies of the crew which is remodeling the upper floor into a veritable Versailles for the Economics Department. However, I\u2019ve been given to understand by a host of sycophants (see above) that I write a superb letter of recommendation, which in itself seems a not inconsiderable recommendation. (<strong><em>Dear Committee Members\u00a0<\/em>by Julie Schumacher<\/strong>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boy grows up amongst strife-torn Sri Lanka. Boy meets boy. Boy falls in love. (<strong><em>Funny Boy\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><strong>by\u00a0<b>Shyam Selvadurai<\/b><\/strong>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1336\" style=\"width: 163px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1336\" class=\" wp-image-1336\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/Amazonohboi-192x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"153\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/Amazonohboi-192x300.jpg 192w, https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/118\/2018\/03\/Amazonohboi.jpg 319w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 153px) 100vw, 153px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1336\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: Amazon.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There&#8217;s a part of the world where the old rules have ended, where everything is changing, where nothing you see can be trusted. If you want to read about a group of scientists exploring the inexplicable and the terrifying, I&#8217;m the one for you. (<b><em>Area X<\/em> by Jeff VanderMeer<\/b>).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You think your family is weird? (<\/span><b><i>Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim \u00a0<\/i>by\u00a0David\u00a0<\/b><b>Sedaris<\/b>).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever wonder how the small and the everyday can stand with or beside the grand narratives? Who writes our history? How do we remember? Choose me to explore the gap between rhetoric and reality with beauty and grace. (<\/span><b><i>In a Time of Violence\u00a0<\/i>by\u00a0Eavan Boland<\/b>).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Me: Multi-dimensional, a little nerdy and unafraid of numbers. \u00a0You: Adventurous and fun-loving, but with a clear sense of your own boundaries. (<\/span><strong><i>Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>by Edwin A. Abbott<\/strong>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Race, class, power and geography unfold in this scientific mystery. An unknown (and true) story that has affected your life in many ways. (<strong><i>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks\u00a0<\/i>by\u00a0Rebecca Skloot<\/strong>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Am I a goth<\/span>ic\u00a0romance? A horror-tinged domestic drama? An acidic critique of man&#8217;s fear of powerful women? Depends on who you ask. Just, whatever you do, don&#8217;t ask my husband about the woman who came before me. (<b><em>Rebecca<\/em> by Daphne du Maurier<\/b>).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dyke with screwed-up family seeking soulmate with same. Let\u2019s compare notes or drawings. (<strong><em>Fun Home\u00a0<\/em>by Allison Bechdel<\/strong>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s not Halloween yet, but it&#8217;s always a good time for something eerie. My short stories about madness, chance encounters and women pushing at the boundaries of societal acceptance will have you gasping, sometimes with shock, sometimes with laughter. (<b><em>The Lottery and Other Stories<\/em> by Shirley Jackson<\/b>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>For more book recommendations and event notifications, follow OWU English Department (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/owuenglishdepartment\/\">@owuenglishdepartment<\/a>) on Instagram.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking for literary love? The OWU English Department has you covered. Blind Date With a Book is an annual Spring <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/2018\/04\/03\/blind-date-with-a-book-faculty-edition\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":1376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwr","category-what-were-reading"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1330"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1377,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions\/1377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}