On the Blink

Each semester I share with students a list of the books and articles that I have used to develop the methods and concepts for my courses. Some may see this as pretentious — me handing them a long list and saying “Look how much I’ve read!” I don’t have a problem with that: scholars and teachers are supposed to read a lot. If waving this list of sources makes me pretentious in the eyes of students, it also reinforces my credibility as their instructor.

But as fun as it is to be pretentious, I prefer to frame this list as an invitation. I invite students to examine the lively process of building a course, of growing and developing their ideas as scholars,. The bibliography is an exhibit of lifelong learning. And maybe, just maybe, a student who enjoys the class will return to this list and look for something else to read.

Here, I extend my gratitude to one of my multilingual students who begged me for a reading list: in the middle of our course, she asked what else I would recommend so she could enhance her reading and understanding of English. So if one student wants this list, I will believe in the possibility that many more do also. Perhaps they are too shy to ask. Perhaps they do not yet know how much they would enjoy these books.

This is my list! If you see a title you’ve read and enjoyed, please leave a comment below. If there’s something you think I should add, make suggestions! A bibliography is not a static document: it’s a festival of conversation!

Syllabus Bibliography

• Achor, Shawn. The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance. Currency, 2010.
• Boland, Eavan. Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman Poet in Our Time. W.W. Norton & Co., 1996.
• Boland, Eavan and Mark Strand, editors. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. W.W. Norton & Co., 2001.
• Brown, Brené. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, and Lead. Avery, 2012.
• Brown, Peter C. et al. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Belknap, 2014.
• Bragg, Melvyn. The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. Arcade, 2011.
• Carey, Benedict. How We Learn: The Surprising Science Truth about When, Where, and Why It Happens. Random House, 2015.
• Clark, Roy Peter. The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English. Little, Brown & Co., 2011.
• – – – . Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. Little, Brown & Co., 2008.
• Crystal, David. The Gift of the Gab: How Eloquence Works. Yale UP, 2016.
• – – – . A Little Book of Language. Yale UP, 2011.
• – – – . Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar. Oxford UP, 2017.
• – – – . The Story of English in 100 Words. St. Martin’s, 2012.
• Curzan, Anne, “Says Who?: Teaching and Questioning the Rules of Grammar.” PMLA, vol. 124, no. 3, 2009, pp. 870-879.
• Dobyns, Stephen. Next Word, Better Word: The Craft of Writing Poetry. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011.
• Edmundson, Mark. Why Read? Bloomsbury, 2005.
• Elbow, Peter. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 1998.
• – – – . Writing  Without Teachers. 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 1998.
• Favilla, Emmy J. A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the Buzzfeed Age. Bloomsbury, 2017.
• Gaiman, Neil. The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction. William Morrow, 2016.
• Hanson, Rick. Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence. Harmony, 2013.
• Hirshfield, Jane. Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World. Knopf, 2015.
• Hoffman, Gary and Glynis Hoffman. Adios, Strunk and White: A Handbook for the New Academic Essay. 6th ed., Verve Press Since 1884, 2017.
• Hurley, Kameron. The Geek Feminist Revolution: Essays. Tor Books, 2016.
• Kolln, Martha J. and Loretta S. Gray. Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects. 8th ed., Pearson, 2016.
• Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor, 1995.
• Lang, James M. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Jossey-Bass, 2016.
• Lerner, Betsy. The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers. Riverhead Books, 2010.
• Lewiecki-Wilson, Cynthia and Brenda Jo Brueggemann, editors. Disability and the Teaching of  Writing: A Critical Sourcebook. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
• Lynch, Jack. The Lexicographer’s Dilemma: The Evolution of “Proper” English from Shakespeare to South Park. Walker Books, 2010.
• McWhorter, John H. The Language Hoax. Oxford UP, 2014. 
• – – – . Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English. Gotham, 2009.
• – – – . Words on the Move: Why English Won’t – and Can’t – Sit Still (Like, Literally). Picador, 2017.
• Murphy, Lynne. The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English. Penguin, 2018.
• Pennebaker, James W. The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us. Bloomsbury,, 2013.
• Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. Harper Perennial, 2007.
• – – – . The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. Penguin, 2014.
• Pratchett, Terry. A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Nonfiction. Doubleday, 2014.
• Schneider, Pat. Writing Alone and with Others. Oxford UP, 2003.
• Stamper, Kory. Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. Pantheon, 2017.
• Vanderslice, Stephanie. The Geek’s Guide to the Writing Life: An Instructional Memoir for Prose Writers. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
• Weinstein, Lawrence and Thomas Finn. Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are. Longman, 2010.
• Welling, Tina. Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature. New World Library, 2014.
• Williams, Joseph A. and Joseph Bizup. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 12th ed., Pearson, 2016.
• Wolf, Maryanne. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Harper Perennial, 2008.
• Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Harvest Books, 1989.
• Zander, Benjamin and Rosamund Stone Zander. The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. Penguin, 2002.
• Zapruder, Matthew. Why Poetry. Ecco, 2017.