I don’t remember where I first heard of Sara Nović’s Girl At War, but it’s been generating some quiet buzz since its publication this last May. I was intrigued by the premise, and I’ve been wondering what fiction related to the Yugoslavian civil wars would be like, so I thought I would give this novel a try. I certainly hope that Nović keeps on writing—this debut novel is excellent. Girl At War takes place at two different junctions in Ana Jurić’s life: her life in […]
This is how you lose me…(yes, I realize it’s been said before).
I read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao sometime earlier this CBR, and I was not…exactly…wildly enthusiastic over it. I felt that Díaz was a really talented storyteller, but his characters were unsympathetic and deeply, deeply maddening. But I decided that maybe Díaz’s writing would overcome the kinds of characters he developed in his novel. I am disappointed to report that his collection of short stories suffers from the same kinds of problems as his novel. This Is How You Lose Her is again […]
Vulnerability: daring greatly, indeed.
My beloved pastor, J, had recommended Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly as a book worth reading. She mentioned that vulnerability, confidence, and wholeheartedness were all things to strive for and Brown covers them all. I was interested—and more than one person recommended Daring Greatly to me, which is enough to put it on the reading list. Plus, in my teaching philosophy last year, I talked about professional vulnerability and thought that an expert’s words might help me articulate my thoughts better. Brown focuses on what makes […]
Going home means getting lost, too.
My brother was enrolled in a world literature course this last spring. I am teaching one this fall, and I am interested in seeing what other professors teach in their courses. So I asked my brother for a reading list, and I’ve been trying to see how my texts match up to his professor’s (who I was friends with at my undergrad, in fact. Hooray for small worlds colliding!). I’ve read several of the texts on the list, but I have to confess less familiarity […]
Faith is cranky, beautiful, and absolutely profane.
When I read Rachel Held Evans’ most excellent Searching for Sunday, I noticed a few names that came up in the conversation regarding church, spirituality, and grace. One was Nadia Bolz-Weber’s. My friend A mentioned a curiosity to read Pastrix after a recommendation from one of her friends in her systematic theology MA program. I like un-orthodox Christians, and Bolz-Weber sounded like one of those. Pastrix is subtitled The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint, and with her enormous tattoos, Bolz-Weber seems like […]
A dense, rich graphic memoir
I swore I would not fall behind in CBR Reviews. Lo and behold, I am about ten reviews behind. I blame a vacation, a wedding, and my online class grading for getting me behind in my reviewing (but hey, still reading, amirite?). I’ll stop apologizing and get right to it: I’ve been trying to expand my graphic novel “vocabulary,” and I especially find the concept of graphic memoirs intriguing. So when I heard about G.B. Tran’s Vietnamerica, my curiosity was piqued. I’ve read Thanhha Lai’s […]
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