On this day in 1925, Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia. Today, in honor of her life, I’ve decided to try and put down on paper why she has recently become one of the authors I admire most. It’s actually been fairly difficult to pin down why exactly I love her writing so much. […]
If you’re following along with the Book Fifty 2017 Reading Challenge, chances are at least one of the categories on the list will push you a little outside of your literary comfort zone. And while I’ve written posts about reading difficult books, reading Shakespeare, and reading the classics, I’ve never written a post about fighting the strange […]
I have a confession to make: I love the Oscars. I love watching the red carpet shows, the fake smiles, and the spectacle of the awards show itself. Why? I’m not sure, but I think my love for the Academy Awards has its roots in the same place as my love for Downton Abbey, The Olympics, and […]
Since August I’ve been teaching full time and working on my master’s degree at night, which has sometimes made me feel as if I have one too many things on my to-do list. I’ve been feeling less than productive for the last few weeks, so one night I started to listen to a podcast about being more […]
Happy Valentine’s Day! Last year I shared five uncommon love stories with you, so I thought I’d continue the tradition this year by sharing five uniquely romantic tales! I’ve tried to select some of my favorite books that don’t automatically come to mind when you think about classic love stories. I’m especially excited about this […]
Happy Saturday! Today I’m going back in time a little bit to bring you my review of the very first book I read in 2017, Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Metaxas. I was going to wait and pair this review with a review of Metaxas’ book Seven Men, which I’ve read before, […]
On this day 205 years ago, one of our most famous English authors of all time was born: Charles Dickens. It just so happens that I’m teaching his novel Great Expectations to my students this month, so naturally we had a little birthday celebration for Mr. Dickens–the man, the myth, the legend (*cue massive eye roll from […]
Sometimes in your reading goals it’s nice to have a palate cleanser in between all of the novels, biographies, and works of nonfiction. I think short stories can sometimes have that effect. And since “Short Story Collection” is a category on some of the Book Fifty Reading Challenge lists, I’m sharing six of my favorite […]
Happy Thursday! Today I’m bringing you the final installment of my “Finding Good Books” series. Part one of this series was about finding good books from booksellers. Part two dealt mainly with Audible and audiobooks. For this last post, I’ll be writing about how to use social media to help you discover your next literary excursion. […]
Today I’m excited to share a new review with you–The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba. This book is about William’s inspiring journey to bring electricity and running water to his village in Malawi. William used his ingenuity to build a windmill from trash and scraps he found in his village–his windmill generated […]
Book Fifty 