First of all, isn’t this a beautiful cover? Last fall, when I saw a table full of Europa editions at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore in Oakland, I thought how great it would be to collect books with beautiful covers. I recognized a few of the Europa editions as books I’d read and enjoyed, and there…
Tag: fiction
Looking for the Next School Wide Read
Finding a book suitable for grades six, seven and eight is not easy. The difference between a seventh grader and an eighth grader is dramatic, but the difference between a sixth and an eighth grader is stunning. This year we did our first school wide read, Chew on This by Charles Wilson and Eric Schlosser, based on Mr….
Animal Farm by George Orwell
I’m going to assume you have read this book. Probably in high school. Even if your English teacher was not the best teacher you ever had, you probably got most of what there is to get in Animal Farm. It’s a straightforward book; Mr. Orwell makes sure that everyone understands his point. While the communist…
Sunday Ramble and Two Books I Didn’t Like. Sorry.
Visited the local Friends of the Library book sale yesterday, in the rain, where C.J. and I managed to spend much more than we intended. He got several art books and a couple of books full of house plans while I nearly completed my Jane Austen collection. Can you name the book I still have to…
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Sometimes it’s very hard to pin down why you love a book. Denis Johnson’s very short novella, I found it on a list of brilliant books you can read in a day, tells the story of an abbreviated life. Robert Grainier is a day laborer in the American West circa 1910. He never amounts to…
