Spotlight—Amy’s Story by Anna Lawton

I’m happy to be a part of the publicity for Amy’s Story by Anna Lawton. See below to read more about the book, and about Anna Lawton!

Blog Tour—The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George

I’m pleased to be a part of the blog tour for Margaret George’s Young Nero. Check out the information about the book and the author interview below!

Happy Birthday to Shakespeare!

Today is generally accepted as the day William Shakespeare was born in 1564. Also, it’s recorded as the day he died in 1616. One has to love the concision of the idea that he was born and died on the same day—well, if you’re a geek like me that is.

Women in Fiction

Quite a while ago now (in Internet terms at least), Preeti Chhibber started the hashtag #Womeninfiction on Twitter. She wrote about it here for Book Riot, and though it’s been a while, I still wanted to offer up my reasoning for why I chose the women I did, because I did not do so the night I posted my tweets.

A Month of No New Books—I Made It!

Well, here we are. The final day. Today, I am wearing the costume of a book-lover with exceptional restraint, because tomorrow, I am allowed to buy more books. But will I? I already have too many and not enough time in which to read them!

A Month of No New Books—Days Four Through Six

When the idea for this series germinated in my head, I had several ideas floating around in my head. One of the ideas was that I would take a picture of my to-be-read pile, and write a short explanation of how I came to own the books, and in some cases why I want to—or don’t want to—read them. In the process of taking the picture(s), I realized I have a TON of books I need to read, and that I should take more than a month-long break from buying books.

The Top Ten Book “Thing”

I received numerous tags on Facebook for this “list ten books that have stayed with me in some way” thing that’s going around, and I finally gave in and made a list, which I posted on my personal Facebook page and am reproducing here.

Shame-Free Reading

Yesterday, Ruth Graham published a post on Slate that infuriated members of the Twitterverse and Blogosophere titled: “Against YA.” No, I am not linking to it here. The subheading was: “Read whatever you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you’re reading was written for children.”

Well. Really?

Books Will Never Die

Last week, Mireille Silcoff wrote an article for The New York Times: On Their Death Bed, Books Have Finally Become Sexy.

Given that I recently published a blog post, “Sexiest Book Alive,” I took issue with the idea that physical books have ever NOT been sexy. Then I read the piece, and I took serious issue with some other things, indeed.

I Miss Shakespeare

This year, I am teaching AP Language and Composition, and “standard level” World Literature. AP Lang is all nonfiction, and since it is my first year teaching said subject, I tried to adhere to the nonfiction focus as much as possible (some teachers include a nonfiction novel). My World Literature class focuses more on the skills needed to do well in senior English and in the “real world” beyond school. There is no Shakespeare for me this year, and it’s a sad, sad affair.