Tag Archives: fiction

August 22

What Laura is Reading Now

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Years ago, I was listening to an episode of This American Life when I heard a segment — and a voice — that I will never forget.  It was my first encounter with David Rakoff.  Part of an episode on “Frenemies,” the segment — a fictional wedding toast-in-verse given by the bride’s ex-boyfriend — was […]

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August 14

Best Books of All Time?

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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 […]

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August 05

Eleanor and Park

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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 […]

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August 02

I Capture the Castle

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Despite considering myself an Anglophile, I was somehow unaware of Dodie Smith’s 1949 novel I Capture the Castle until recently, when Jen W., a member of my book group, told the rest of us in the most strenuous terms that we must read it immediately. I quickly learned why it is capable of generating such […]

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July 08

Take My Advice…

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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 […]

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June 04

What Stacy is Reading Now: Girls I Know by Douglas Trevor

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It’s been a long time since I was so engrossed in a book that I read it until I fell asleep…and then got up and read with PJs and coffee as soon as I woke up. Girls I Know was one of those books.  I started it on a rainy Memorial Day weekend (while the […]

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