We’re reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist in my World Literature class right now. Included in the brief Q&A at the back of our book is a comment from author Mohsin Hamid about why he writes: “I believe that the core skill of a novelist is empathy: the ability to imagine what someone else might feel.” After […]
Category Archives: Fiction
March
24
Spring Break Reading
posted by Stacy
I’ve noted before how excited I get when I have a break from teaching and can tackle the stack of “fun” and/or “mindless” books underneath my coffee table. Spring Break is no exception; I love this week of relief between meetings and grading and comforting stressed-out seniors, and my rest and recovery usually includes some […]
February
19
Endings
posted by Stacy
I realized last week something that I probably always knew – my favorite part of a book (or poem or story or movie) is the ending. In two different courses with two wildly different texts in front of me (a collection of contemporary Chinese short stories and a poem from 1633), I gushed in front […]
February
04
“The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author”: Or, Ron + Hermione 4-Ever
posted by Stacy
One more reason I love my job: I spent my January sitting around a conference table talking with students about book covers, fan fiction, and the role of the “Author” and “Reader” in contemporary culture. My “Culture of the Book” class is always a favorite to teach – it’s based on my own research interests […]
January
12
(Un)sympathetic Characters
posted by Stacy
I tell my students that my favorite characters are the messy, complicated ones – the ones who do horrible things and are mean and rude and unlikeable, but still tug at our heart and push us to question our own values and choices. They are completely unsympathetic…yet at the same time completely sympathetic, too. Take […]
November
30
What Ann’s Reading Now: My Little House Project
posted by Ann
The odd thing about following a passion to graduate school is that at some point you realize your deepest love has become your work. While this seems, and is, ideal, you also begin to lose touch with why it is your passion in the first place. At some point during graduate school, I forgot what […]
November
25
Lettered Ladies Book Club: Tolstoy and the Purple Chair
posted by Stacy
A few months ago – tanned and relaxed from our respective summers and giddy from the fun of our new blog – the Lettered Ladies decided to embark on an adventure together. Though the six of us now live in five different states and see each other only rarely, we knew that we could be […]
October
30
Vampires, Scarecrows, and Human Silkworms, Oh My!
posted by Kate Krueger
Vampires in the Lemon Grove Stories by Karen Russell Vampires and monsters tend to be predictable. Pale and pretty, driven by bloodlust and romantic yearning, their recent pop-culture ilk have been a bit dull. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a surprising or unusual story of the macabre. Karen Russell makes me feel […]
October
09
The Delights of Poison and Bicycles
posted by Kate Krueger
Reading a Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan Bradley is like sneaking into a room you’re not supposed to enter and discovering a strangely carved chest of drawers with secrets inside. It is thrilling, delectable in the possiblities it offers, slightly dark and dangerous, and unabashedly fun. Flavia is the kind of eleven-year-old girl I […]
September
30
Rewards
posted by Stacy
I’ve been teaching college freshmen for more than ten years now – first as a graduate instructor in Rhetoric and General Education Literature and now as an English professor at a small liberal arts school. There have been countless sections of “required” writing and literature classes, and at the beginning of each one I asked […]
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