Kalish, Mildred Armstrong. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression Bantam Books, 2007 Some time around 1930, when the author was “little more than five years old” (p. 6), she, her mother, her baby sister, and her two brothers went to live with her mother’s parents in […]
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THE STARS OF THESE YOUNG ADULT BOOKS SWEAR, STRUGGLE, AND GENERALLY ACT LIKE REAL TEENS In the new novel Aspen by Rebekah Crane, the teenage title character is an awkward, artsy kid who gets into a car accident that kills the most popular girl at school. The book traces the bizarre fallout in her Boulder,
Here’s some reading to start off your week. Five Smarter Ways to Nurture Reading Sari Harrar has suggestions, based on recent research, for helping children learn to read and to enjoy reading. This one is my favorite: Link the story to their lives. Pause when you read and ask kids how the story connects to their
Featured Review: Eat, Pray, Love Happy birthday, Elizabeth Gilbert.
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Summerscale, Kate. Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian LadyBloomsbury, 2012Hardcover, 303 pages ISBN 978-1-608-19913-6 Recommended Kate Summerscale’s book showcases the precarious position of women in Victorian England. When Isabella Hamilton Walker married Henry Robinson in 1844, she was a 31-year-old widow with a young son. Her first husband had willed his estate to
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Why fiction is good for you Jonathan Gottschall is getting a lot of mileage from the recent publication of his book The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. In this piece he addresses the issue of whether fiction in all its forms—TV shows and commercials, religious beliefs, and social commentary as well as novels,
Gottschall, Jonathan. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012ISBN 978-0-547-39140-3 Recommended “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories,” declares Jonathan Gottschall in the preface to his recent book The Storytelling Animal. Gottschall, a member
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It’s New Year’s Eve, a good time to look back on what’s happened in the literary world this year. Here are two more “best books” lists I think I’ve missed, NPR’s choices of The Best Music Books of 2011 and 2011’s Best American Poetry. Britain’s The Telegraph provides comprehensive coverage in The Literary Year 2011.
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Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend Ballantine Books, 2001Trade paperback, 399 pagesISBN 0-449-00561-5 Recommended In Seabiscuit Laura Hillenbrand tells the classic American story of the underdog. A mud-colored horse with a crooked leg and not much ambition, Seabiscuit became the icon of rags-to-riches fame and accomplishment for an American population beaten down by years of the
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Yep, it’s that time again already: Time for the “best books of the year” lists. Here’s the first one I’ve seen, Publishers Weekly‘s list of the 10 best books of the year, both fiction and nonfiction considered together. And I’m sure that more lists won’t be far behind.
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