CAR: Readings for the semester

Not a surprise: There is no official textbook, so if you're taking History (also known as "Conflict and Reconstruction") with me, you'll be reading novels for the class.

Surprise: These novels are different from the ones in LAIR, and I'm a nice person, so I searched for all of them before you had to. This semester's reading list includes:

• "North and South" by Elizabeth Gaskell. Available at Tec's library, Amazon, and Audible. 
• "Los de abajo" by Mariano Azuela. Available at Tec's library, Amazon, and Audible. 
• "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric. Available at Tec's library (in Spanish here in Campus Ciudad de México, or in English in Campus Monterrey) and Amazon. 
• "Doctor Zhivago" by Boris Pasternak. Available at Tec's library (in Spanish here in Campus Ciudad de México, or in English in Campus Morelia), Amazon, and Audible.  
• "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Available at Tec's library, Amazon, and Audible. 
• "The Berlin Stories" by Christopher Isherwood. Available at Tec's library (only in Campus Monterrey, and I'm pretty sure that's the copy I ordered when I was a student there), Amazon, and Audible (although this edition is shortened).
• "1984" by George Orwell. Available at Tec's library, Amazon, and Audible. 
• "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. Available at Tec's library, Amazon, and Audible. 
• "The Manchurian Candidate" by Richard Condon. Available on Amazon and Audible. I will order it at the library and let you know when it gets here.
• "How the Steel was Tempered" by Nikolai Ostrovsky. Available at Tec's library (in Spanish here in Campus Ciudad de México) and Amazon.
• "Antes que anochezca" by Reinaldo Arenas. Available at Tec's library and Amazon.
• "Freshwater Road" by Denise Nicholas. Available at Amazon and Audible. Same as "The Manchurian Candidate", I'll order it at the library and let you know when it gets here. 

Frequently asked questions about how novels are used in my history class:

1. Do I have to read the ENTIRE book?

If you're presenting it to the class, yes. I mean, how else are you going to know what it's about? You can also listen to the audiobook if reading it is too daunting, but come on. You're capable of finishing one book.

2. Can I watch the movie instead of reading the book?

Movies are made from a director's perspective, which is different to the perspective of the author of a book. Directors of movie adaptations work in retrospect (i.e. they already know how the book was received and which parts people preferred), omit important themes (for example, focusing on the parts their audience will enjoy as opposed to the parts the author thought were important), and are generally biased in ways that make them less useful as historical sources. Since you're supposed to analyze the perspective of the author, I don't think watching the movie is useful in this case. 

3. Are these books long?

Length is relative, so they're only long in relation to other things. Are some of them over 400 pages? Yes. Are some of them below 200 pages? Also yes. Does that mean the shorter ones are easier than the longer ones? Not really, because this isn't a literature class. We're reading these books to gain a more complex understanding of certain historical periods, not to make book reports or analyze plots.

4. Are you (the teacher) going to read them too?

Yes, and in fact, I will be hosting a daily reading hour on campus every afternoon. It won't be like an asesoría because we'll just use that hour to read and possibly discuss the semester's novels, but we'll agree on the time and place in advance.