Most of the time, there is a veritable ocean of territory between where I am now and my childhood home. I am often struck by homesickness, a tilt in my gut. I strain to see snow and evergreen but come up against moss and magnolia instead. Colum McCann’s TransAtlantic was the last book I picked […]
Category Archives: Fiction
August
14
Best Books of All Time?
posted by Stacy
Last week, I came upon this article: “40 Books to Read Before Turning 40”. I jokingly sent it to my boyfriend – currently enjoying his last few months in his 30s – and noted that he “has a lot of reading to do.” The books on the list are certainly some I’d recommend to anyone […]
August
05
Eleanor and Park
posted by Laura
I originally hail from outside of Omaha, Nebraska, so when I recently read about a YA novel by one-time columnist at The Omaha World-Herald, Rainbow Rowell, my curiosity was piqued. And when I learned that it was also set in Omaha, my intentions to read it were sealed. Omaha does not often play the backdrop […]
July
31
What We Can Learn about HBO’s Girls by Reading Great Expectations
posted by ProfDeSpain
As I was recently re-reading Great Expectations for my summer class, I realized that Pip’s narration and the directorial point-of-view of HBO’s Girls bear some striking similarities. Because I can only ethically blather on about such a connection for so long in class before feeling guilty and academics as the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals are not […]
July
19
China Miéville’s Mental Calisthenics
posted by Kate Krueger
Miéville stretches me. Reading his fiction is like doing yoga of the imagination. With each twinge and contortion, I discover mental muscles I didn’t know I had. His fiction defies categorization: it is fantasy and horror and science fiction and biting sociopolitical critique, all in one heady jumble. Miéville has won several Arthur C. Clarke […]
July
08
Take My Advice…
posted by Stacy
When an award-winning novelist gives you a book recommendation, you should take it. Fellow University Iowa alum and General Education Literature instructor — and honorary “lettered lady” — V. V. Ganeshananthan is my go-to source for teaching ideas as I plan my World Literature syllabi. (Incidentally, she’s also the author of one of my favorite […]
Lettered Ladies 
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