What's Lori Reading?

Lori Forlizzi is one of our instructors, and her specialty is reading.

Lori is currently reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Freedom is a novel that explores the relationships between family members and how they appear to each other and to people outside the family unit. Lori says she is reading this book because she liked one of the author's earlier books, The Corrections.

What's Chuck Reading?

Chuck Klinger is one of our instructors. His specialty subject is math.

He's reading The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader. Chuck says he liked the Bourne movies so much that he's decided to read the book that have not been made into movies. He says they are fast-paced books that keep him reading to see what will happen next.

Chuck coaches his daughter's soccer team, so he is also reading Coaching Girls Soccer by John Dewitt. He says it is helping him to understand the fine points of soccer better, and also provides him with ideas for drills to use during practice.

What's Lisa U. Reading?

Lisa Urban is our Distance Learning Liaison for the eWorkSkills program. She enjoys reading Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" mystery series, and is currently reading T is for Trespass. The series centers around a female private investigator named Kinsey Millhone. Lisa says she likes these books because Kinsey is a smart, competent, and capable woman who always solves the mysteries and catches the bad guys! Lisa says, "It's fun to see what titles Sue will come up with as she works her way through the alphabet!" The next book in the series is U is for Undertow.

If you'd like to read Sue Grafton's mystery books, you might want to start with A is for Alibi.

What's Shannon Reading?

Shannon Mischler is our ESOL instructor.

She's been reading a lot lately, and she's been reading different genres and styles of books. She recently finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Shannon says the topic was not something that would normally interest her, but the writing was "riveting." Shannon's father-in-law was a B24 pilot during WWII, just like the main character in the book, so she enjoyed being able to sit down with him and listen to his stories of flying during the war. Real-life experiences can sometimes bring a work of fiction alive!

Shannon has also recently finished Moll Flanders by Daniel Dafoe. She says, "I was astonished at the seventeenth century depiction of independent women. Truly one of the original stream -of-consciousness chick lit books!" Dafoe is an ancestor of actor Willem Dafoe (a bit of trivia!), and he also wrote Robinson Crusoe.

Shannon is currently reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Wharton's works usually employed dramatic irony to portay the lives of the upper class. The Age of Innocence won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 making Edith Wharton the first woman to win the prize.

What's Jen Reading?

Jen Wagner is one of our DLP teachers. We all teach all subjects, but Jen's specialties are science and math.

Jen says she doesn't have much time to read, but when she does, she reads Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She loves the story and admires the main character, Elizabeth Bennett.

Jen also likes to read books by Nora Roberts. Her current favorite is the new Vision in White series.

She enjoys reading to her children. Favorite children's books include The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog by Ana Martin Larranaga, and The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood.

Jen says she loves to read and wishes she had more time to do it. When she does have time, she likes to read happy books.

Banned Books Week September 25 - October 2

As the character Scout Finch said in Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from 1960: "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Scout was saying that reading is something people take for granted, like breathing. As we assume the air will always be here for us, so we assume that books will always be here. Not so.

The American Library Association declared annual Banned Book Week in 1982, and we celebrate by reading books that have been challenged or banned. Every week, there there is mention in the news of a person or group of people who want this or that book removed from library shelves for one reason or another. Do you want other people to decide what you are or aren't allowed to read?

This is just a very small list of the books that have been banned or challenged in the past:

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Beloved by Toni Morrison

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Little Women by Lousia May Alcott

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburg

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The list goes on and on . . . and on . . . Be a rebel! Support your right to FREADOM! Read a banned book!

September 8 is National Literacy Day!

Celebrate by telling others about your favorite book!

Some favorites among the teachers here at the Distance Learning Project include these titles:

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte


• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Emily's sister!)


• Lord of the Flies by William Golding


• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee


• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury


• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett


• Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel


• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver


• The Great Ship of Knowledge by William Bailey

Here are some of the books we're reading for fun right now:

• Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain


• The Art of the Commonplace by Wendall Berry


• The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb


• Memoirs of an Antihero by Drew Blank


• Emma by Jane Austen