“Is that a space ship on the cover of that book?” my friend asked incredulously, as I settled in next to her with Leviathan Wakes. “Yeah,” I said, shyly. And then I qualified, “I mean, this isn’t really my thing.” …
School’s out (at least in my neck of the woods) and summer reading season is upon us! As I loaded my 6th grade students up with top picks, I grabbed a few middle-grade novels for myself. My stack included a prime …
True confession: I’m a recovering book snob. The situation peaked during undergrad, when half the people in my English classes wore gauzy scarves and prattled insufferably about reading Dante in their leisure time. I played along with Jane Austen movie adaptations, post-modernism, and poetry collections …
I remember reading Katherine Paterson‘s Bridge to Terabithia while on vacation with my family. I was maybe nine years old, and it was far past my bedtime. Tears (and let’s get real: probably snot) soaked my t-shirt, and I woke my …
In the fall of 2011, an eighth-grade student of mine wrote a beautiful letter to Ruta Sepetys, the author of Between Shades of Gray, detailing what she’d gleaned from Sepetys’ first novel – the power of perseverance, integrity, and love. Since then, …
I’m an audiobook devotee, and here’s why: Audiobooks are a multi-tasker’s dream. Reading while driving, folding laundry, running, or doing dishes? What more could a modern bibliophile ask for? Also, the best listens are supremely motivating – I’ll slog an extra mile or …
Kim Barker details the behind-the-bylines reality of war-zone reporting in her memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The book was released to little fanfare in 2011, but reached the bestseller list this year as Tina Fey …