“Wasn’t memory, that bully and oppressor, supposed to become soft and spongy?”

July 22, 2020

What if you found out that many of your memories were either wrong or incomplete? Maybe you would have the same disconcerted feeling that I had when I first saw the cover of this book.  It’s a picture of someone diving head-first into a large body of … Read More

“What my father wanted to cast from me wasn’t a demon: it was me.”

July 15, 2020

To say that Tara Westover’s dad demanded complete obedience to his rules and doctrine would be an understatement.  When one of his children disobeyed, he assumed it could be due to one thing only: the work of the devil. He is a person most of … Read More

“And I know that I must go on doing this dance on hot bricks till I die.”

July 6, 2020

The brilliant novelist Virginia Woolf used this metaphor to describe her ongoing struggle with mental health in her diary on March 1, 1937, which was 42 years after her first nervous breakdown and four years before she drowned herself. What is most astonishing to me is how … Read More

“The power of the mighty industrial overlords of the country had increased with giant strides, while the method of controlling them . . . remained archaic . . .”

June 23, 2020

Presidents Roosevelt and Taft – both Republicans – worked “as stewards of the public welfare” to check the power of huge corporations by supporting anti-trust legislation.  These two men were both willing to argue with members of their own party about the role of government in controlling … Read More

“This was when I was sailing close to the shore of my life. That boat capsized, thank my lucky stars…”

June 12, 2020

Poet Marjorie Saiser continues “…and since then I’ve been bobbing in the deep, splashing, coughing, water in my throat at times, learning to swim.”  What would you pick for a title of a poem about that describes a wedding day and then the fact that everything changed … Read More

“Sometimes when he was dealing with people, he felt like he was operating one of those claw machines . . . where you tried to scoop up a prize but the controls were too unwieldly…”

May 28, 2020

If you could ask one novelist to write a story about your life, who would you pick?  For me, it would be Anne Tyler, whose power lies in her ability to capture both truth and humanity in profound metaphors.  For example, the main character in this novel … Read More

“A better grading system would build in incentives for students to aim high, work hard, and do their best.”

April 27, 2020

Ever since I read Carol Dweck’s book Mindset five years ago, I have been looking for a new approach to grading.  I wanted to find a way to give grades that supported a growth mindset. I was looking for a method of giving feedback that led … Read More

“A survey by Hulton in 1946 produced the stunning figure of an average of fourteen readers per copy, or over 1 million per month.”

April 15, 2020

When times are sad and difficult, what do people do for fun? According to Julie Summers’ new book Dressed for War, during WWII, many people turned to Vogue for relief. Of course, critics, such as Welsh Labour MP Jim Griffiths said that publishing luxury magazines was … Read More

“Let me hasten to add that I am not at all like Jane Eyre, who must have given hope to so many plain women . . .nor have I ever thought of myself as being like her.”

March 28, 2020

When I read about “the unexpected joy of repeat experiences” during difficult times, I immediately thought of the pleasure I have in rereading novels by Barbara Pym.  Surely one of the ways we can cope with the stress of an international pandemic is to seek out … Read More

“Born to wealth, with an inherited sense that it must be repaid with public service, he found himself increasingly repelled by those who went after money for money’s sake, or used it to buy power.”

March 8, 2020

Before Theodore Roosevelt became president at age 42, he had been a military hero, an author of 16 books, a governor of New York, and a cowboy. This wild mix of experiences and interests made him unpredictable.  Was he progressive?  Conservative? Sympathetic to workers? Or to the … Read More

“There lay a man, flat on this back, his left leg turned grotesquely forward from the knee. His eyes and mouth wide open.”

February 6, 2020

On page 22 of Where the Crawdads Sing, we discover that Chase Andrews is dead.  Was it an accident or a murder? While that’s the question that drives the plot, my main question was: why was this book “the” sensation of 2019?  It has sold four-and-a-half million … Read More

“Silence surrounded her as she waited.”

January 18, 2020

In Olive, Again there is a lot of waiting and a lot of people dying. And yet, there is an underlying sense of urgency as the main characters struggle to figure things out, which is difficult work because it’s clear that they have more regrets than triumphs.  … Read More

Best Books of 2019: Five Favorites

December 31, 2019

Here are the five books I’ve recommended most frequently in 2019:

Novel: It appears that Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House is on every “Best of 2019” list. What makes it so appealing? In addition to having likable, open-hearted characters in an interesting situation — which we can … Read More

“How do I help these students transform themselves?”

December 20, 2019

David Gooblar – who teaches at the University of Iowa and writes a column for the Chronicle of Higher Education – has written the book that I wish existed when I started teaching. He tells us what he has learned about college-level teaching, as one who started … Read More

“There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you . . .”

December 5, 2019

Ann Patchett continues “…and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you’re suspended, knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.” This is the protagonist’s description of how his life as a teenager changed when his father died.  … Read More