Last year for my birthday, my friend S got me a book. He told me that when he went to Half-Priced Books, he asked to see the Feminist Literature section. It tickled me to no end. He decided on Eavan Boland’s Object Lessons, which I had never read, though I *loved* In a Time of Violence, one of her poetry collections. He chose well, since Boland gets more personal in this memoir/poetry criticism hybrid. I found it to be an enjoyable, if challenging, read. Object […]
A Young Woman’s Dreams
Last year, my sister bought me the young adult memoir-in-verse, Brown Girl Dreaming. And then it went on to win the National Book Award for young readers! Hooray! I have been meaning to read it again and again, and something else got in the way. So when I was at my conference, chilling in my hotel room, I decided to pull out the audio copy I had borrowed from the library and listen to it. It was a good choice. Jacqueline Woodson covers her birth […]
A fantastic story about stories
Two weekends ago, I went to a conference about 5 ½ hours away from my house (300 miles, I think? I’m so American for thinking in hours and minutes…). To prepare, I decided it would be time to reinstate my habit of listening to audiobooks. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried caught my eye, because it’s one of The Chancellor’s all-time favorite books. And then, I saw the narrator for the audiobook and instantly decided that yes, I needed to read it. You guys, BRYAN […]
A mostly forgettable collection about Narnia
If you recall, my Harry Potter and Philosophy review foreboded that not all X and Philosophy books are created equal. Well. I have found the Salt to Harry Potter and Philosophy’s Pepa. Which is too bad, since I was really interested to see what these academics and writers would have to say about The Chronicles of Narnia. I’ve discovered that when it comes to The Chronicles of Narnia, there are often a few camps, and people tend to reaaaaaaally stick to those camps without diverging […]
Beauty and ugliness in race
I’m winding down to the last few Toni Morrison books I’ve never read, and I decided that audiobook would be a good way to help me out with that. I really enjoyed having Morrison read me A Mercy and Home, so a different reader would still work out the same, right? As it turns out, Tar Baby took me for.ever. to get through. I can pretty much say it’s my least favorite Morrison so far. Though I still have Beloved and Song of Solomon to […]
A delightful treatise on the joys of reading
As a literature type, I sometimes enjoy reading the books-about-books, because I like hearing others’ perspectives on the books they have read. Sometimes, their opinions are insightful or original, or they remind you why you like the books you have read so much. Some years back, The Chancellor bought me Erin Blakemore’s The Heroine’s Bookshelf, which is all about life lessons we can learn from different favorite literary heroines. Blakemore talks about selfhood, faith, happiness, family, dignity, and magic, among many other values, and she […]
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