Posted by: annieem on: October 12, 2009
“[M]erely to write fiction is an optimistic gesture: pessimists don’t write novels. To write is to make a plea for some sort of human sympathy and communication. To write is to risk being rejected, ridiculed, misunderstood. To write is to make contact between the world out there and the world in here, both of them [...]
Posted by: annieem on: July 5, 2009
I know I’m not the only one: I read several novels at a time. One is usually in the kitchen; the other by my bed, a third in the living room (or even the bathroom, though magazines are more appropriate there since I need a pen or post its when I read).
By some odd coincidence, [...]
Posted by: annieem on: May 26, 2009
The Academic Blogosphere (the blogging world in which I live) seems to go on semi-hiatus once classes end—or at least once they end for you semester system schools. We on the quarter system are still plugging away for 2 more weeks. Interestingly, I’ve found few community college instructors who are bloggers (as is also true with [...]
Posted by: annieem on: April 12, 2009
At a packed house Easter sermon this morning, our pastor read from Dr. Seuss’ classic but lesser known work, On Beyond Zebra. Now, this didn’t surprise me, since as I’ve noted briefly before, he twitters ideas from the sermons he is working on each week.
But I hadn’t read this particular work before so I wasn’t sure what theological [...]
Posted by: annieem on: December 16, 2008
My Oprah’s Book Club talk last week (discussed here) led to a 3-page conclusion on why her 12-year old book club encourages readers to address the question, why does literature matter? I quoted Morris Dickstein’s recent essay (also posted here). I always bring this question up in my literature classes (from introductory to senior seminars) and it [...]
Posted by: annieem on: December 8, 2008
Evan Agostini / Getty Images file
I just finished doing a run through of my presentation on Oprah’s Book Club that I’ve titled “Preaching the Gospel of Reading” (not exactly an original title considering all the essays on OBC that use variations on that title), practicing for the Wednesday morning presentation. I finally found a clear, and [...]
Posted by: annieem on: November 29, 2008
Well, since I finished reading most of the research paper drafts (see post below), I did some errands and surfed through my blogroll for a bit to catch up. I must tell you about the following article I discovered:
It’s an article that, serendipitously, relates to a project I’m working on, and, at the same time, [...]