Search Results for: 10 best

“Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Kate Stover

What makes this book a bestseller? Clearly, the sad “if only I had…..” theme of the book resonates with many people during a year when mental health issues are skyrocketing.  Perhaps more importantly, the novel is written by someone who … Continue reading →

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“At the end of my suffering there was a door.”

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Kate Stover

It’s best to eat chocolate, I think, when reading the strong poetry of Louise Glück, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature this week.  She goes for the jugular. Glück is known for her clarity and her interest in the … Continue reading →

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“You have been cast into a race in which the wind is always at your face and the hounds are always at your heels.”

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Kate Stover

When this book was published five years ago, Toni Morrison famously predicted that Coates will fill the intellectual void created when James Baldwin died.  Now, seeing this book back on bestseller lists made me wonder what Coates thinks of Baldwin’s … Continue reading →

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“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.”

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Kate Stover

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 … Continue reading →

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“To live the complete human catastrophe is terrible indeed, but to write about it?”

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Kate Stover

Karl Ove Knausgaard is a Norwegian writer who conducted a public experiment.  He wanted to see what would happen if he wrote honestly about his life, aiming to “penetrate that whole series of conceptions and ideas and images that hang … Continue reading →

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Four Favorite Books from 2017

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Kate Stover

I’ve already written about the best books of 2017 for teachers, and so today I will focus on the other books that I’ve read this year. My “favorite” books are the ones that I am most likely to read again. … Continue reading →

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“Who is it you are writing for? It surely could not be the average person who just enjoys a good read.”

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Kate Stover

The reader who asked Jonathan Franzen this question touched a nerve. Franzen’s answer — a 30-page essay titled “Mr. Difficult” — describes two models for relationships between writers and readers. In the “Status” model, writers aim to create great art, … Continue reading →

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The students felt that a few could carry the discussion for the rest of the class . . .

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Kate Stover

. . . while the majority of students adhered to a ‘norm of silence’ – not perceiving themselves as obligated to participate in the conversation (50).  Jay R. Howard, a sociologist, calls this the norm of “the consolidation of responsibility,” … 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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“…her relationship with him was like being content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out.”

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Kate Stover

One of the many remarkable attributes of Chimanda Ngozi Adichie‘s dazzling novel Americanah is her ability to capture a complex condition, situation, or decision in just a few precise words. She describes the central character’s loneliness this way “… she … Continue reading →

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“I am a part of all that I have met.”

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Tony Herman

This passage from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses,”  based on the character in Homer’s Odyssey,  continues: “Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades forever and ever when I move. How dull it is to pause.” Indeed! How … Continue reading →

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About “A Fine Line”

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Kate Stover

“A Fine Line” is a weekly blog that begins with a great sentence from one of the books I am reading.  A short paragraph follows, which provides some context about the book. When I first thought of the idea for this blog, I visualized it sort of like … Continue reading →

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