From Learning All the Time:
There are two diametrically opposite ways of opening to children the world of books. One was is to start them with the names and sounds of individual letters, then with small words, then with small groups of these words joined to make small sentences, then with small reading books, and [...]
Popularity: 4% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
Accused of murder, a troubled young woman tries to piece together the odd facets of her life, starting with her supposed immaculate conception.
Review:
The chapters in Madapple alternate between a teasingly opaque courtroom case, and defendant Aslaug’s reminiscences about life with her disturbed mother and eventual reunion with her long lost aunt and cousins. Nothing [...]
Popularity: 5% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
An author’s memoir of the writing life.
Review:
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of having my work ripped to shreds at a workshop led by Bret Lott. I say “pleasure” because (a) he was right, and (b) he made it fun. I knew from reading Before We Get Started that I’d respect his opinion, but [...]
Popularity: 6% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
A mother’s love is tested when she gives birth in 1943 to a daughter who is, in the lingua franca, is a “Mongolian Idiot.”
Review:
I picked up Jewel because I’m going to be participating in a writing workshop on Thursday led by Bret Lott. I figured I would read Jewel because it was the book [...]
Popularity: 7% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
A spirited young woman takes on the all-male secret society at her boarding school, and not just because her boyfriend’s one of the leaders.
Review:
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks reminded me a lot of Rushmore, and that’s a good thing. It’s quirky and offbeat, combining intelligence and heart within a clever, original plot. [...]
Popularity: 8% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
An exploration of the meaning of chastity in the 21st century.
Review:
Real Sex is an excellent companion piece to Anna Broadway’s Sexless in the City. Winner offers a larger cultural and historical context for Broadway’s desire to live chastely, and has some ideas about why Broadway expresses some disappointment in the way she has been [...]
Popularity: 15% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
An autobiography of a promiscuous life.
Review:
The most striking thing about Kerry Cohen’s Loose Girl is the inevitability of her misbehavior. Cohen’s parents divorced when she was a preteen, and neither one seems able to practice any kind of responsible or involved parenting. Her dad is the kind of guy who asks for a [...]
Popularity: 15% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
A writer and journalist who never wanted kids finds herself spiraling into obsession when she begins to try to conceive.
Review:
Peggy Orenstein paints herself in such a bad light in Waiting for Daisy that it’s next to impossible to sympathize with her predicament. And that’s too bad, because three miscarriages are a lot to suffer [...]
Popularity: 15% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
A practical how-to guide for greening your home.
Review:
I could have done without the celebrity endorsements in Healthy Child, Healthy World. I really don’t care what kind of diapers Brooke Shields uses or that Noah Wyle’s kids are vegetarians. I guess these are good selling points, but to me these sidebars were just a [...]
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tags: American Literature · On Reading
Synopsis:
The personal is political, as feminist thinker Naomi Wolf uses her c-section as a springboard for the way in which the maternity care system in America infantilizes women.
Review:
There’s nothing in Misconceptions that hasn’t appeared in any number of other exposes of the state of maternal care in the US, such as Jennifer Block’s Pushed, which [...]
Popularity: 16% [?]
Tags: American Literature
