Being that we are nearly at the end of the Spring Quarter, thinking about reading for fun might not be high on the priority list. But we are just a few short weeks away from summer break which opens up some time for reading what we want to read. Luckily we have some recommendations courtesy of the WRD graduate assistants as well as from experts on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t worry, these aren\u2019t all high-level academic works. These recommendations will, however, keep your summer interesting and your mind curious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Fun: The Secret History <\/em>– Recommended by GA Kristin Fleming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donna Tartt (her winning work was The Goldfinch<\/em>), The Secret History<\/em> is a thriller that will keep you on your toes. Follow along as a group of college students seek out adventure through reverse storytelling from one of the students years later. See how a series of events unravel leading to the death of a student and the investigative escapades that follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Enlightenment: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong – <\/em>Recommended by GA Amanda Finn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rhetoric and discourse students should know better than most that everything we write is objectively biased\u2013even history books. There is a reason this 1995 book continues to be republished because award-winning author James W. Loewen has a lot to point out. Reading this book provides incredible insight into how, why, and by whom history is recorded. Hopefully, you\u2019ll learn more about the country\u2019s history as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Enrichment: Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Trap Feminist<\/em> – Recommended by GA Amanda Finn <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here is a book written by DePaul alumna Sesali Bowen. Bad Fat Black Girl<\/em> is part memoir, part social commentary, and part inclusive feminist theory. Bowen\u2019s examination of feminism comes from a more intersectional understanding which students of rhetoric and discourse can both appreciate as well as learn from. Per the book summary, \u201c\u200b\u200b\u2026Bowen interrogates sexism, fatphobia, and capitalism all within the context of race and hip-hop. In the process, she continues a Black feminist legacy of unmatched sheer determination and creative resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Clarity: Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing <\/em>– Recommended by John Gallagher on Twitter (@MereSophistry)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chris Bail\u2019s book explores the ways in which social media users engage online and how those habits are making society more polarized. Through experiments and interviews, Bail digs into how we can interact online in less destructive ways. Breaking the Social Media Prism<\/em> even offers ways for us to be able to dialogue with others online without furthering the isolation social media can lead to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Perspective: Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures –<\/em> Recommended by Elena Kalodner-Martin on Twitter (@ekalodnermar)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another book that digs into online culture is Andr\u00e9 Brock Jr.\u2019s Distributed Blackness<\/em>. In showcasing the myriad ways blackness exists online, from BlackPlanet to #BlackGirlMagic, Brock demonstrates that the digital culture of blackness is far from a niche subject. Most importantly, the book focuses on Black joy which has always been a tenuous discursive subject<\/a> online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cycle Breaking: Writing Against Racial Injury: The Politics of Asian American Student Rhetoric<\/em> – Recommended by Jennifer Sano-Franchini on Twitter (@jsanofranchini)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month draws to a close, Haivan V. Hoang\u2019s book gets a particularly special shoutout. Not only does this book show us why studying rhetoric is important, but it also proves that history tends to run in cycles and our work is therefore continuously important. Writing Against Racial Injury<\/em> shows Asian American student rhetoric in California after the 1960s. Here we see their interactions with language and literacy education and how those subjects have always been a tense point in American history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being that we are nearly at the end of the Spring Quarter, thinking about reading for fun might not be high on the priority list. But we are just a few short weeks away from summer break which opens up some time for reading what we want to read. Luckily we have some recommendations courtesy of the WRD graduate assistants as well as from experts on social media.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry, these aren\u2019t all high-level academic works. These recommendations will, however, keep your summer interesting and your mind curious.  For Fun: The Secret History – Recommended by GA Kristin Fleming Written<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":12038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[471],"tags":[474,24,544],"class_list":["post-12037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-graduate","tag-digital-writing","tag-rhetoric","tag-wrd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}