Tag Archives: literature

Favorite Male Characters

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Barb Knowles

The other day we looked at favorite female characters, and my Goodreads list grew by leaps and bounds from your comments. Hopefully, you all got some good suggestions from people posting here as well. Now it’s time for male characters. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, characters, detectives, Frodo, George RR Martin, Harry Bosch, heroes, Jon Snow, literature, male characters, reading, the hobbit, Tolkien | 39 Comments

Update And Nonfiction….A Twofer

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Barb Knowles

In my previous posts about books by diverse authors, List of Stories To Be Read…Part 1 and List of Stories To Be Read….Part 2, I asked for your opinions and recommendations. Your ideas are awesome. In this post I’m going to tell you about … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blogging, Born a Crime, Farewell to Manzanar, genres, Humor, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, literature, memoir, nonfiction, reading, Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman, Trevor Noah, writing | 28 Comments

List of Stories To Read… Part 2

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Barb Knowles

What wonderful suggestions you have all given! I won’t be publishing lists every day, but especially because we are celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the United States today, diversity in literature seems especially important. The books, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged authors, Carrie Rubin, diversity, Erica Spindler, fiction, gender, genres, Haruki Murakami, Haven Kimmel, Khalad Hosseni, Langston Hughes, Leonard Pitts Jr, literature, memoir, poems, reading, Sherman Alexie, V.S. Naipal | 11 Comments

List of Stories To Be Read…..Part 1

Posted on January 15, 2017 by Barb Knowles

Thanks to all of my readers who gave so many fabulous suggestions of favorite books, poems and authors, in response to my post An Embarrassing Personal Admission. I thought I would share some of the suggestions here, so you might … Continue reading →

Posted in literature | Tagged African-American authors, Asian authors, blogging, Chinua Achebe, diversity, Gabriel García Marquez, James D. Houston, Jean Wakatsuki Houston, Latino authors, Leslie Marmon Silko, literature, María Amparo Escandón, Margo Lee Shetterly, Maya Angelou, Paulo Coelho, Poetry, reading, Stirling A. Brown, Toni Morrison | 11 Comments

An Embarrassing Personal Admission

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Barb Knowles

A month or so ago, in the middle of our department meeting, the supervisor of our high school ENL department asked us to go get the books or short stories that our students were currently reading. We laid them on … Continue reading →

Posted in literature | Tagged authors, diversity, Education, fiction, Grey Eagle Thornton, high school, humility, Iguana Dreams, Josh Lanyon, literature, minority writers, Poetry, reading, writers, Zora Neale Hurston | 47 Comments

Calling All Canadians!

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Barb Knowles

You have to help me out, please. I have an embarrassing admission. I know almost nothing about Canadian literature. When I say “almost nothing,” I mean that literally. How is that possible? Growing up, in English classes, we were exposed … Continue reading →

Posted in reading, Uncategorized | Tagged American lit, blogging, Canada, Canadian literature, Kathy Reichs, Laura Secord, LGTB, literature, Louise Penny, Lydia Longley, New York, prolific writer, reading, voracious reader | 33 Comments

Remembering Why I Love Teaching, Or Do I?

Posted on February 27, 2016 by Barb Knowles

This is a good day to reflect on why I love to teach. Especially because the last couple of weeks have sucked. Let me rephrase that…..my lessons haven’t worked. At all. So back to the drawing board. For all of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Education, grammar, high school, idiomatic expressions, languages, literature, reading, slang, students, teachers, TEACHING, thomas hardy | 36 Comments

The List of My Favorite Book….the Sequel

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Barb Knowles

I can’t help it. Once again, I found myself talking to someone about a book and saying “Oh that’s my favorite book!” And, of course, it’s one of my favorite books. In October, I posted My List of Favorite Book and realized … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Uncategorized | Tagged A. A. Milne, blogging, books, charles dickens, Ernest Cline, literature, opinion, pleasure, reading, Simon Winchester, thomas hardy | 25 Comments