Category: literacy, literature, and language
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More Like a Summer Slurpee
NPR critic Maureen Corrigan suggests that El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott (2025) is one of the better summer suspense novels, but I think it barely qualifies as a beach read. Harper, the youngest of three Bishop sisters, is invited by her older sisters Pam and Deb to join a female financial club that seems…
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A Need to Read?
Gloria Edim’s (2024) new memoir is a project in search of a problem. The book is a series of thematic chapters loosely organized in chronological order. These offer clusters of experiences, and the ways that reading helped her think through and about these. Edim’s claim to fame is the the Well-Read Black Girl organization, which…
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Secularism Indeed
I had an unexpected experience at a recent secularism and literature mini-symposium. This event, which was moderated by the UIC English Department Head, included three other presenters, two local and one with some Chicago connection. The moderator offers initial observations, the presenters read papers aloud, and then the audience asked questions. I am genuinely interested…