Tag Archives: Reading
Throwback Thursday: Ella Minnow Pea
Happy first day of Fall! I can’t wait for cooler temperatures, scarves, and boots. Today I thought I’d start a new series here on the blog featuring some books that I love but haven’t read recently. Mostly my book reviews tend to focus on what I’m reading while I work through my fifty book goal, […]
In Defense of Difficult Books
Tomorrow I’ll start teaching my first novel unit of the semester, Fahrenheit 451. After my students take their Unit 1 Test, we’ll look together at the introduction and first eight pages and try to set a purpose for reading. As I’ve been planning for this unit, I find myself asking “What is the purpose of […]
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Fall is here, and that means things have been picking up speed for me at work and in my graduate classes. This morning, I made the (probably unwise) decision to let my work and school tasks wait while I finished reading A Room with a View. Sometimes you need to spend Saturday morning in bed with […]
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
If you’d asked me about my reading tastes a few years ago, I would probably not have mentioned nonfiction as one of my favorite genres. Over the last few years, however, I find myself drawn more and more to true accounts, biographies, and memoirs. I think the change in taste is partly because of my […]
All Things Potter
It’s Saturday, and I’ve been away on a retreat with my students, so today was filled with a lot of napping. Tonight I’ll have to buckle down and work on some of my grad school assignments, but first I thought I’d catch up on the blog! This evening I have two Harry Potter-related items to […]
Happy Blogiversary!
Today is the one year anniversary of Book Fifty! This is a huge deal for me, because it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to maintain a blog–or any type of writing project–for that long. I thought today I’d take a trip down memory lane and share some of my all time favorite Book […]
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
I know what you’re thinking–Why is this Jane Austen-loving, Downton Abbey-watching girl reviewing a sci-fi novel that is based on 80s pop culture and classic video games? Well, sometimes reading outside of your wheelhouse pays off. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is not my normal type of book, but I’ve been seeing it everywhere, so I […]
Animal Farm by George Orwell
A few months ago I wrote a post about reconsidering required reading, and in it I discussed lots of books from school that we usually hate but might be worth a second chance. Well, today I’m sharing with you my review of Animal Farm by George Orwell. This is an incredibly popular required reading book, but, until today, […]
What I Learned from Alexander Hamilton
Happy Fourth of July! As we celebrate American independence today, I thought I’d share my review of Ron Chernow’s biography Alexander Hamilton. The hardcover version of Chernow’s book is about 818 pages long. And those are about 818 reasons why I opted for the audiobook version–which clocks in at a whopping 36 hours and 2 minutes […]
When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning
It’s no secret that I am a book lover–just take a minute to glance around at some of the posts on the blog. As a dedicated bibliophile, I’m always looking for books about books–books that tell me more about why we love to read and why reading matters. When Books Went to War by Molly […]
Book Fifty 