On a rare and blessed occasion, London sees a sunny day, or rather, a day comprised of sunny moments. Today was one of them. It was a Wednesday and I had no lectures to attend, so I decided to take the bus into Kingston. Before leaving campus, I filled my black Dooney & Bourke tote [...]
Category: Book Club
Discussion One: The Historical Context of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
In this video, I provide an overview of the Regency period as it pertains to Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility. I discuss the characteristics of a patriarchal society, social structure, marriage politics, and other important aspects that will help contextualize this book's setting. Whether you are reading for pleasure or academic purposes, it is [...]
Women of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
Mrs. Willard "I had a picture of Mrs. Willard, with her heather-mixture tweeds and her sensible shoes and her wise, maternal maxims," (Plath 218). "'What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security…What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is a [...]
A Two Euro Purchase
It was nine twenty in the morning when I arrived at the used book sale. In forty minutes my English class would begin just down the hall. I stood in line for a few minutes, holding a list of required textbooks and forty euro in my hand. A black Dooney & Bourke tote bag hung [...]
Book Spotlight: A Thousand Splendid Suns
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini I could picture myself as a mother. The children and laundry. The sacrifice. The teaching. I could picture myself at a sink full of dishes, my hips bones pressed into the counter. I could see the bare nails, never painted. Always a bath to give. Always a plate [...]
Book Spotlight: Unaccustomed Earth
Book Spotlight: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri I finished the book beneath a hot Michigan sun with a baseball cap protecting my scalp. In a reclining Adirondack chair, I sat on top of a floral beach towel; my feet rested on a plastic table, crossed at the ankle and absorbing the heat. I noticed a [...]
