[New-Poetry] A book I like

[David Graham]

Forgive me if I've already recommended this one (it's been on my
frequently-recommended list for many years), but I'll toss onto the growing
pile Robert Coles's book, *The Call of Stories*.  One of the most inspiring,
thought-provoking books I've ever run across.  I dip into it and re-read
pretty often.

It's a difficult book to categorize, and the subtitle ("Teaching and the
Moral Imagination") might well mislead.  It's not a book about pedagogy or
teaching philosophy, and it's also not quite a book about storytelling.
Rather, it's a book about how we read and tell stories as ways of making
sense of our lives.  Yes, it's unapologetically old-fashioned in that
regard.

It recounts Coles's experiences teaching great fiction (and a bit of poetry)
in places where it's often not taught (such as business and medical
schools)--and its focus is the way that engaging with great literature is a
way of deeply engaging with moral reflection.  Its method is mainly to tell
stories about individual students and their encounters with specific books.

So it's a profoundly un-trendy book, quite distant from the current
cutting-edge theoretical investigations.

====================================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu
Home Page:
http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
Poetry Library:
http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
====================================================