Monthly Archives: August 2016

“Felicity rubbed a bit between her fingers. It was gray, just grit.”

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Kate Stover

This is how the great-granddaughter of Iowa farmers Walter and Rosanna Langdon describes what’s left of the topsoil on the original family farm when she visits it in the closing pages of The Last Hundred Years Trilogy by Jane Smiley.  … Continue reading →

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“We should expect no one will understand this.”

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Kate Stover

Ed Bok Lee, who won the 2012 American Book Award for this moving collection of poems, is the son of Korean emigrants. The family’s transition from Seoul to North Dakota was difficult. He writes about getting stoned before and after … Continue reading →

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“With grammar, it’s always something. “

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Kate Stover

This is the first sentence in the chapter titled “Plurals before Swine: Blunders with Numbers” in Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner.  The tone is light-hearted, which, as the Publisher’s … Continue reading →

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“I used to think that if faculty teaching improved, student learning had to follow suit.”

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Kate Stover

Now, however, Saundra Yancy McGuire believes that even the best teachers will not see the kinds of learning gains that are possible “as long as students do not come to our classrooms prepared to learn efficiently and independently.” This book … Continue reading →

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