I am a woman and I study and teach literature. Until relatively recently in my life, this has seemed a pretty normal, womanly thing to do. Not only am I a teacher – a typically female profession – but I… Read more ›
Playing House: Notes of a Reluctant Mother by Lauren Slater My rating: 2 of 5 stars In Playing House: Notes of a Reluctant Mother, Lauren Slater tackles the tough stuff of life from deciding whether or not to have a… Read more ›
Just to be clear, I LOVE Out of Print Clothing. Not only do they have awesome clothes and accessories that are well-made, reasonably priced, and fit well, each of their products features a unique book cover which helps spread the… Read more ›
To the aforementioned students: You are, at this very moment, coming of age. It makes sense, then, why you would identify so much with the Holden Caulfields and Stephen Dedaluses of our literature class. You are mostly males between the… Read more ›
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz My rating: 3 of 5 stars Many of you have asked for my review of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, so here it is. I hope to hear… Read more ›
I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave… Read more ›
This blog post was originally written for the Teaching Tolerance blog, but, as a mutual decision, we decided not to publish it. They were concerned that I was calling out the AP and College Board without sufficient evidence. My intention… Read more ›
“Oh we’re just happy if they’re reading.” It’s a phrase I hear often as a teacher. We give students books that have interesting covers, aren’t very long, and that grab young readers within the first chapter. If reluctant readers don’t… Read more ›
Oh my god, I love Catcher in the Rye. Seriously. Love it. Every time. I tried to explain to my students the other day why I loved it. They haven’t read it, so they were confused. “Is it about baseball?”… Read more ›
Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster My rating: 3 of 5 stars I checked out Jen Lancaster’s… Read more ›
The Huffington Post ran a piece yesterday about the five books every high school student should read before going to college. It was a pretty good list, and I agree that most of those books are incredibly important for teenagers,… Read more ›
When a director and screenwriter team up to adapt a book to a full-length feature film, the results are often mixed. The complexity of well-written stories often makes it difficult to do them justice in the span of a couple… Read more ›
You may not have noticed from all of the posts on this blog, but it’s Banned Books Week! You all saw my awesome bulletin board to celebrate the week. My students have all seen it, too, and they are outraged… Read more ›
I am ridiculously proud of this. Check out all of my Banned Books Week 2012 posts here! Related PostsElsewhere I’ve Been: Teaching Tolerance – Telling the Story of Privilege The Gentle Catalyst: Education About Privilege Elsewhere I’ve Been: Bullying and… Read more ›
It’s Banned Books Week! This is literally my favorite week of the year. We just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and my students are excited to start reading some banned books of their own. (I, of course, suggested a few of my… Read more ›
I just started teaching Fahrenheit 451 with my honors English classes, and I’m so excited to be rereading talking about it. There are so many themes that are incredibly pertinent to our time. It never ceases to amaze me that this… Read more ›
Many of you know – and even if you don’t know, you probably won’t be surprised to learn – that I have been working on a book for the past year. It was an anthology of essays about how modern… Read more ›
If you are even remotely close to my age (i.e. pushing 30), you probably know a little bit about the Gilmore Girls. If you know even a little about the Gilmore Girls, you know that Rory – my teenage idol… Read more ›
I was 20 years old and in undergrad when I first picked up Stephen Chbosky’s 1999 novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The book had been making the rounds among my friends for five years before I finally got… Read more ›
I’m on the Ms. Magazine Blog today, reviewing Julia Alvarez’s A Wedding in Haiti for your reading pleasure: Feminist novelist Julia Alvarez (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies), known for her clear, unaffected… Read more ›