This is the penultimate week to our semester. We just finished T.C. Boyle’s novel The Tortilla Curtain. Wow! I believe it was a great experience for all. So here is what I did: I congratulated the class and assigned them to read Boyle’s short story “The Love of My Life.” This gave us the opportunity to discuss T.C.’s approach to writing. From this, I brought up Stephen King’s experience of writing his first novel Carrie. Everyone seemed to like that. Man, I hope everyone walks out of the class looking for something good to read this summer. I don’t know why that’s not a standard we all abide by.