What We’re Reading :: Pub Lab Assistant Edition
The Lookout staff and interns wouldn’t accomplish much without the genius and faithfulness of the Publishing Laboratory teaching assistants. These lovely people actually know how to operate the scary machinery that makes our quality products, they keep track of where all our books are going, and so much more. In their honor, here’s a “What We’re Reading” that’s all about them!
“I am reading Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman. It’s certainly not a fun read, but these days World War II history has a hold over me that I can’t shake. If the old adage ‘those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it’ is true, I think the public should never stop looking at the events of WWII. That being said, the style of this particular book so far is pretty interesting, since it interweaves perspectives but follows one particular American soldier. Ink drawings, actually produced by that soldier, intersperse the sections and add some visual character to the book.”
– Lee Cannon, Publishing Laboratory Teaching Assistant
“I tend to read books in threes, for whatever reason. Even stranger, the three books must include a recently published novel, a translated novel, and a nonfiction book. So right now I’m reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes—an intriguing character study of four boys in 1960s England. I’ve just gotten to the part when they’ve gone to college and something has happened to one of the friends…oh, I won’t spoil it. The second is Kornél Esti by Desz Kosztolányi, written in 1933. I’ve just started it. The other book I’m reading is Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara, which is so far a very helpful graphic design book.”
– Ana Alvarez, Publishing Laboratory Teaching Assistant
“I just finished CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, George Saunders’s first book of short stories (plus one gloriously dystopian novella). It’s been on my to-read list for the past four or five years, since I was assigned “Downtrodden Mary’s Failed Campaign of Terror” in an undergrad workshop—really, the title was enough to sell me—and I was struck by his genius for dark comedy. Now I just have to catch up on everything he’s written since 1996.”
– Sarah Andrew, Publishing Laboratory Teaching Assistant