Reading the World discussion

This is the publisher's description. I can find no reviews:

The book, Teaching English in Swaziland: The Life and Days of Gordon Thomas is about Gordon the teacher and mentor.His life at Manzini Nazarene is one that all his students remember as filled with great moments of teaching and learning. In this book his ideas on teaching are written about in a semi-fictional manner that enables readers to think about their own teaching.The dedication he brought to the teaching task has been analyzed to bring out how he taught composition, poetry, drama and the novel. His students in the class of ‘75 called him “Chaucer.” We thank York University and the Church of the Nazarene for making it possible for such a great teacher and thinker to “sow” into our lives. His students have grown to be professors, ministers, ambassadors and many other important careers that are serving the nation of Swaziland in wonderful ways. The life of a Christian teacher is something that can never be replaced in the lives of students. Gordon will be remembered in all the countries around the world where he worked for all that he gave.Gordon Thomas died of melanoma cancer in 2006.

The first sections of this slim book read like an academic assignment. Properly presented but with little information for someone like me who is not a teacher. At about the half way point, she starts speaking about Chaucer. At that point I caught a glimpse of what this teacher, Gordon James Thomas, brought to his classrooms although we learn little about him personally, we can see his passion for teaching and his impact on his students. Then after the conclusion and references, we get poetry. It is not good poetry. However, it is English poetry in Swaziland and it carries her love of her teacher. Thank goodness it was short. I could not have read much more.

OOF, yeah I did put this one out there not sure if it would be any good or not because I had difficulty sourcing books by Swazi writers I could access for free or cheap. I will also speed read it to cover this country, but good to know.

And I'm hoping you guys don't care, but I think I'm going to skip it. Unless I push it off until the end of the month. I'll fill in the country with another that I have.

I have a number of others I would like to do this month, plus a "revenge" read...

Oh zero offense taken on my part even though I nominated it...but I am curious about what a 'revenge' read is lol...that sounds intriguing!

Me too. What is a revenge read?

I’m in another group with someone who takes great pleasure in disparaging peoples picks for reads. This is the second time for me. All over a children’s book about a gerbil with esteem issues. Written by Zadie Smith and her husband. I bought it to give to a 1 yr old niece for her birthday, but I always read them first. So I’m going to report on it in our challenge on Smith. A bit petty maybe but there it is…
Nobody gets to censor my reading…

I wondered too what a 'revenge' read is. You defined it well, Gail W. Go for it Girl.

Gail W wrote: "I’m in another group with someone who takes great pleasure in disparaging peoples picks for reads. This is the second time for me. All over a children’s book about a gerbil with esteem issues. Writ..."

Ha! I love that Gail. I love Smith's novels and had no idea that she and her husband had written a children's book (that's awesome). I don't appreciate when people get pretentious about children's lit either: It's a special talent to explore bigger ideas in ways that children enjoy and understand. And I still love a lot of it: I just listened to one of the Little House books to count for my US states list here :)

Yeah just read it today and basically agree with everything Gail said. I would recommend others try to find another book for Eswatini.