The Joys and Sorrows of Teaching Literature

Like many who become English majors in college and train to become teachers, I started out on the road to professor-dom simply because I LOVED READING SO SO VERY VERY MUCH. I read at the dinner table, I read during family get-togethers, I read in the car, I read under the covers with a flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping. Reading was and is my addiction.

From middle school until college, I devoted myself to reading as many “classic” authors as I could: Dickens, Austen, Fielding, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Twain, Wharton, Ellison, Melville, etc. After all, I was also that kid who wrote out a timeline for her entire future, complete with the names of her future children and the date of her retirement (to the French Riviera, mind you). I had Plans.

Review: What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

What We See When We Read (2014) by Peter Mendelsund

All you have to do, first, is flip through What We See to understand that this is no ordinary book. Its title tells you what to expect, and Mendelsund delivers. This is a visual treatise on that which is invisible- the process of picturing in our "mind's eye" what we're reading on the page.

Perhaps, like me, you start to feel a little dizzy thinking about this reading-about-thinking-about-reading thing, but it's fascinating, right? And Mendelsund has had to think a lot about how to visualize that which words evoke, since he's responsible for some of the most beautiful contemporary covers.

From the TBR Shelf #26: Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee

Edith Wharton (2007) by Hermione Lee

The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence...these are the novels that drew many of us permanently to Edith Wharton. After all, such crystal-clear, expressive, and careful prose demands attention and awe.

Lee, however, dives beneath the self-consciously dignified, correct narrative mask to show us Edith Wharton, The Flesh-and-Blood Woman. She was proper, she was proud, she had an adulterous affair, she gossiped, she raged, she badgered her publishers and editors. Nevertheless, she was a remarkable person, educating herself in the things she loved most: interior decoration, landscaping, gardening, Italy, France, and most of all, the craft of writing.

Random Recommendation Guest Post: Searching for Zion by Emily Raboteau

This recommendation comes from Matt Rice. You can follow him on his blog Books, Brains and Beer and on twitter @booksbrainsbeer.



Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora (2013) by Emily Raboteau

Raboteau takes readers around the world on an unexpected adventure of faith. Both one woman’s quest for a place to call “home” and an investigation into a people’s search for the Promised Land, this work of creative nonfiction is a fascinating inquiry into contemporary and historical ethnic displacement.