I read scootsa 1000’s review of Exit, Pursued by a Bear and instantly thought, Yes, I very much want to read this book. I read Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (categorized as a romance) nine years ago in a Shakespeare seminar taught by one of my favorite undergraduate professors. In her planning of the class, she’d asked several majors if we’d like to do the typical tragedy-comedy dichotomy, and, to her infinite delight, we begged for the obscurer plays: the histories and the romances. Nerd moment: […]
A powerful, moving Cannonball book
I’ve mentioned before that my students have been in the midst of book-and-movie review presentations. The number one choice this year was The Martian, especially with my male engineering students. The number two choice was Room. All of my students who reviewed it gave it a rave, and I finally decided to bump it up my TBR. It was a strong, poignant book that pulled me in and never let me go. SPOILERS LURK AHEAD. Although, I actually felt that not having many surprises helped […]
Porn for Hufflepuffs
My favorite-ever piece published on The Toast (okay, BESIDES Roxanne Gay’s gif-laden recap of Magic Mike XXL, because, Reasons) is the one where they sort 19th Century British authors into the various Hogwarts houses. Hilarity ensues. I posted this on my Facebook feed, and instantly, my Victorian friends ran to Anne Bronte’s defense. How DARE she be Hufflepuff? She’s the best Bronte!!! Etc. I had never read anything by her, but my own sister said, “There’s a reason Anne is the least famous Bronte.” So […]
Mush and Melodrama
My friend A has already announced our June book club pick, and when I tried to get Me Before You from the library, I was on a superlong waiting list. Thankfully, A was glad to loan The Chancellor and me her copy so we could bypass the waiting period. Now that I’m caught up with Book Club, I can focus on getting back on track with my reviews. And it’s becoming clear that there are certain kinds of character or story-oriented books that just don’t […]
A memoir that disappointed my expectations
I’m not much of a memoir reader, so reading someone else’s personal history/confessional/testimony is always a bit of a gamble. I really do appreciate someone else’s voice giving me their story, but unless the writing is truly excellent and the tone is one that catches my attention/empathy, I’m not likely to be too moved by it. And such is the result with Paul Kalanithi’s book, When Breath Becomes Air. Read my full review for the scoop, and do be sure to check out The Chancellor’s […]
A charming and sweet love letter to the power of story
Back in March, we had an instructor emergency, which led me to take on an extra class mid-semester (and is part of the reason I am SO FAR BEHIND on my Cannonball reviewing). It’s always hard to take on another person’s course, especially when your own classload is fairly full, and doubly especially when their syllabus is frighteningly sparse. We muddled through somehow, and thankfully, the last unit of the course synced up with my other two classes. As a result, I got to hear […]
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