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In a typical year, I often run off copies from the various newspapers and journals I subscribe to, like The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, for exemplary text on non-fiction writing. With the upcoming school year likely to be chaotic between in-person, hybrid, and on-line only learning, I will need to acquire some common books that can be used amongst my Advanced Placement English and US Government classes. The two books that best fit that our criteria are Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right: American Life in Columns by Michael Smerconish and How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor: A Smart, Irreverent Guide to Biography, History, Journalism, Blogs, and Everything in Between by Thomas Foster. Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right is an ideal book for both classes in that it is a collection of political and cultural columns written by someone who has taken the time to explain his writing and then reflects on those writings many years later. This reflection is a necessary process for any young writer to become a professional writer like Mr. Smerconish, and for that reason, this is an extraordinary book in that we get to hear the inside thoughts of the writer. With over 100 columns, there is a topic for everybody to dig into. How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor works well in the world of fake news by getting students to be able to understanding writers’ biases, interrogating claims, analyzing arguments, remaining wary of broad assertions and easy answers, and thinking critically about the written and spoken materials readers encounter. Our students should be able to be more perceptive, more critical, and more judicious readers. The future of our republic may depend on those very abilities.
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