Courage and Mourning the Loss of Harper Lee
Courage and Mourning the Loss of Harper Lee I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You […]
Infinite Jest on Teaching
Everyone teaches. Whether you are a mother teaching your child, a professor teaching your students, or a coach teaching your athletes, you are teaching. Hal from the pages of Infinite Jest is a Big B, or Big Brother, to one of the 13-15s (13-15 year olds) at the Elite Tennis Academy. He rather enjoys this […]
Reading Between the Lines of Falling Man by Don DeLillo
“Every time she saw a videotape of the planes she moved a finger toward the power button on the remote. Then she kept on watching. The second plane coming out of that ice blue sky, this was the footage that entered the body, that seemed to run beneath her skin, the fleeting sprint that carried […]
Reading Between the Lines of Go Set a Watchman
Harper Lee tapped into the zeitgeist of American culture when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The book crossed racial boundaries when a white lawyer defended an innocent black man in Alabama during the 1930s. We, the readers, view this world through the eyes of Scout when she’s between six and nine years old. I […]
Write Like Murakami! The Best First Lines of His Mind-Bending Stories
It takes so little time for writers like Haruki Murakami to abduct you into their mind-bending worlds. Revisiting some of these first lines will make you laugh, while others will make you wonder. The rest might even bore you a little, despite how exciting the novel ends up. Here are the best first lines from his […]
Winter is Coming
“That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt. That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness. That it is possible to fall asleep during an […]
10 Books I Can’t Wait to Get My Eyes
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” Mortimer J. Adler This isn’t your typical to-be-read list. These new books span a variety of areas, including education, fiction, philosophy, spirituality, minimalism, and more. […]
The Top Ten Authors I’ve Read the Most
There are 25 authors on this list because so many authors are tied for 5th, 7th, and 10th place. Goodreads makes this possible with this snazzy chart. My first place author is no surprise. I’ve read more from Murakami and more about Murakami than any other author. I suspect I am leaving him in the […]
Fiction’s Favorite Book Nerds
Who are your favorite book nerds? These characters from television and books are the most memorable book-loving bunch out there.
The Difference Between Narrative, Story, & Plot
Stories allow us to understand each other in all our complexities and peculiarities and share our experiences with one another.
The Best Way to Read Haruki Murakami
“When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages–a special odor of the knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers.” Haruki Murakami Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the most popular and respected contemporary authors still writing. […]
Birthday Girl by Haruki Murakami
“No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves.” ~Haruki Murakami, Birthday Girl Before diving into Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, I have students read this fun short story, “Birthday Girl,” by Haruki Murakami in my freshmen composition course. It’s a little […]
New to Murakami? Start here ==>
“But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, […]
Mark Edmundson on Redeeming Education in Why Teach
“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.” ~Maria Montessori In the recently published book, Why Teach? In Defense of Real Education, Mark Edmundson defends education on behalf of all teachers. Real education is the life-changing, mind-altering, value-questioning […]
20 Books to Read Before You Turn 20
Below you will find 20 books to read before you turn 20. These lists are always arbitrary, but there is something timely about reading these works. If they find you at the right time. these books will stay with you the rest of your lives. I’ve tried to place them in order of difficulty starting […]