Tag Archives: Book Groups

Ordinary Girls: Final thoughts and comments

Finishing Ordinary Girls was a bit bittersweet. 

I guess even if I told myself I didn’t have any expectations, I was still waiting for a fairytale ending. I thought the book was great, something I would have not picked out from the shelf on my own, but I did enjoy it. 

At times, it was hard to read. Not in the way that I couldn’t understand it, but there was so much information to process, a lot was going on in a short amount of time and a lot of touchy subjects.

I have never read a memoir before, so I don’t know if it is typical or just Diaz’s writing style, but I feel like I was reading a diary, but not in the correct order. The subtitles helped to put in context her stories, but the jumping around was confusing at times. The book felt personal, as if she was talking directly to me, which I liked.

As mentioned before, I enjoyed the book. 10/10 would recommend, and I understand why it got so many raving reviews. 

Ordinary Girls: Relationships & The ARMY

The more I continue to read Ordinary Girls, the more invested I get.

The more we progress in the reading, the more Diaz talks about her personal relationships and friendships. I was shocked to learn that at 18 she was already married, and separated. Actually, I was shocked about everything that happened in her life at that age. It made me look back and realize all that I have been through in my 18 years of life and how grateful I am to have been raised in a stable home. 

The differences between our lives are immense, but they are familiar to me as I have heard similar stories from friends and family. Things like that happen everyday to a lot of people. Relationships are complicated, as we can see through her experiences and our own as well.

She then shares her story about her joining the ARMY after spending time doing drugs and failing her GED. I heard the military can be a great way for troubled people to change and find their paths as it gives structure, discipline and responsibility. It has never been something I was a huge fan of for myself, but it can be for others

New ordinary girls

a big part of life is about new beginnings, and the memoir of Diaz’s book is no exception. in this section we get a glimpse of how Diaz adjusts to her new life in Luquillo and how that it’s not only affecting her but her family as well. speaking of family we also get a deeper dive into how her family works, their dynamic. How it changed after certain events like before the parents’ divorce or after Alaina was born. To people who experience sudden changes to their families status quo at any point in their life Diaz writes this section as a way of telling those readers that they are not alone in this aspect. That the unordinary is technically ordinary in a way. She talks about her experience using words and phrases like “except in my versions the hero was always an eight-or nine-year-old curly-haired Puerto Rican girl traveling through time,” (Diaz,69). in the second paragraph of page 69 Diaz explains how she imagines herself or her own characters in her favorite books and movies as a way to cope with her life in that moment, except she goes way above beyond script even in her imagination simply because she can. Its an abnormal way of going about it but at the same time being abnormal about it is what makes it normal. Especially for those who use this same way of over imagination when coping with time.

“Ordinary Girls” Section 1 Summary

Diaz starts off the first section of her book talking about her family life and dynamic, as well as her childhood in PR. Emphasized in the first few pages is her deep love and adornment for her father, as she wrote on page 13 “But I was sure of one thing: that I wanted everything my father wanted, and if he loved this man, then I would love him, too.” and “I ADORED MY father. He was the center of my universe, and I wanted, more than anything else, to be the center of his” (pg 17). 

Like a lot of traditional families, focus is on the sons of the house. Her brother, Anthony was Mami’s, Papi’s and Abuela’s favorite. Contrary to her, he had light eyes and skin, while she was “ brown, brown, brown, like tierra”. 

During this section, Diaz also shared the issues her family had to face. Her father had an affair with the neighbor which led to a fight with Mami, and there was a racial tension between Mercy, Mami’s mother, and Diaz’s black father. In fact, Mercy was against her daughter getting with a dark skinned man, even telling Diaz “ it’s your father’s fault. Your father and his black family. Your black grandmother. Your black uncle.” (pg. 45)

She then reminisced about the good times she spent with her family.

Class 01: Welcome to ENG 111

This is the Academic Commons page for ENGL 111. A few bits of information about books and digital tools that might be helpful as we introduce the course today.

Books & Book Groups

Our class lists four books available for purchase. You need only acquire and read ONE. The choices are Fairest by Meredith Talusan; Heavy by Kiese Laymon, and Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz (available in both English and Spanish editions).

Our class uses book groups to practice, analyze, and hone the skills of academic reading and essay writing. You’ll have a choice of three books. Each is a memoir about race and identity in the contemporary United States. From these three (again, Diaz’s Ordinary Girls is available in English and Spanish) you will acquire and read ONE.

It wouldn’t be a COVID semester without an early snafu so here’s ours. The books were ordered to the Lehman Bookstore. Apparently, as of August 24, they are “out of stock.” If that is the case (and if it is, I’m sorry to hear it), then I’d suggest ordering them through Bookshop.Org or Powells.com. You don’t need them right away, and again, you DON’T need to buy all three. Just one. I’ll go over this more over our first week.

Digital Tools

This Fall, we’ll use a number of digital tools to work. The big ones are CUNY Academic Commons, Hypothes.is, and Zoom.

CUNY Academic Commons

The Commons is one tool we will use a lot. You’ll use your CCNY email address to join the Commons. The instructions for how to join the Commons are here. Within the Commons, there’s our class blog (this is it). That blog is on our course site (the overall site you’re on now and every link in the menu above.) You’ll use the Commons as creators, too, designing your own four-page portfolios over the course of the semester.

What is the Commons blog?

Our blog is a place where the reading and writing work of the semester will get done. When we think and talk about the “world as a text,” this is where the words get processed. I’ll do most of this processing at first; you’ll do much of it by the end. I’ll invite you to the class group via your City College emails. Once you join the class site and class group, you should all have the ability to leave comments. We’ll test this out as early as our first week. As your instructor, I should have the means to leave public and private comments. Both will have their purposes as we produce informal writing.

What is the Commons group?

The ongoing link for the Commons group is here. You should receive an email inviting you to join it in your Lehman email. The instructions for how to join our Commons group are here. Readings and files and discussion threads are all possible uses for this. I’m still learning how to use this feature so we’ll see what works.

What is Hypothes.is?

Hypothesis is a social reading plug-in. You might think of it as a cross between Comments on Google Docs and the notes you take in your psychology textbook. We’ll use this to discuss a variety of readings as a group, including some of the writing you do yourselves. You can also make private notes using Hypothes.is. It works best on Chrome. The link to join the Hypothes.is group is here.

“But I hate technology.”

This is, of course, a writing class and not a technology class. While our major assignments, exploratory exercises, disciplinary writing experiments, and other informal classwork will certainly develop some of your digital literacy skills, the main goal of that work ahead of us is to nurture your capacity as a reader, writer, researcher, and active, accountable, engaged member of this academic community.

Links

Tasks (in-class, Aug 25, finish by Aug 30)