What is the Common Summer Reading selection for 2011?
The Composition Committee and One Book (a community reading program) have selected Sherman Alexie's collection War Dances (2009). Students can purchase the book at the campus bookstore for $14. For more information about the Common Summer Reading, refer to the Frequently Asked Questions link.
War Dances Summary (from Sherman Alexie's website)
Fresh off his National Book Award win, Sherman Alexie delivers a heartbreaking and hilarious collection of stories that explore the precarious balance between self-preservation and external responsibility in art, family, and the world at large.
With unparalleled insight into the minds of artists, laborers, fathers, husbands, and sons, Alexie populates his stories with ordinary men on the brink of exceptional change. In a bicoastal journey through the consequences of both simple and monumental life choices, Alexie introduces us to these personal worlds as they transform beyond return. In the title story, a famous writer must decide how to care for his distant father who is slowly dying a "natural Indian death" from alcohol and diabetes, just as he learns that he himself may have a brain tumor. Alexie dissects a vintage-clothing store owner's failing marriage and his subsequent courtship of a married photographer in various airports across the country; what happens when a politician's son commits an unforgivable hate crime; and how a young boy learns his self-worth while writing for the obituary department of his local newspaper.
Brazen, and wise, War Dances takes us to the heart of what it means to be human. The new beginnings, successes, mistakes, and regrets that make up our daily lives are laid bare in this wide-ranging and provocative new work that is Alexie at the height of his powers.
Sherman Alexie, A Brief Biography (from the Philadelphia Free Library website)
A critically acclaimed, award-winning writer and filmmaker, Sherman Alexie is known for his realistic portrayal of contemporary Native American life. Raised on the Spokane Indian reservation in Welpinnit, Washington, Alexie is the author of the short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and the screenplay adaption of one of its stories, Smoke Signals, as well as One Stick Song and Flight, among many works of fiction and poetry. He also wrote and directed the film The Business of Fancydancing, which is based on his first collection of poems. Alexie lives in Seattle with his wife and two sons.
Common Summer Reading FAQ:
http://www.newpaltz.edu/orientation/war_dances_faq.pdf
One Book One New Paltz:
http://sites.google.com/site/onebookonenewpaltz/
Official Sherman Alexie Website:
http://www.fallsapart.com/index.html
Detailed Author Biography:
http://www.newpaltz.edu/orientation/alexie_full_bio.pdf
Philadelphia Free Library One Book:
http://libwww.freelibrary.org/onebook/obop11/index.cfm
About Sherman Alexie on Poets.org:
http://libwww.freelibrary.org/onebook/obop11/index.cfm
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem," an Essay by Sherman Alexie:
http://www.newpaltz.edu/orientation/alexie_essay.pdf