Author: Kate Stover

“Let me hasten to add that I am not at all like Jane Eyre, who must have given hope to so many plain women . . .nor have I ever thought of myself as being like her.”

When I read about “the unexpected joy of repeat experiences” during difficult times, I immediately thought of the pleasure I have in rereading novels by Barbara Pym.  Surely one of the ways we can cope with the stress of an international pandemic is to seek out the company of … Read More

“Born to wealth, with an inherited sense that it must be repaid with public service, he found himself increasingly repelled by those who went after money for money’s sake, or used it to buy power.”

Before Theodore Roosevelt became president at age 42, he had been a military hero, an author of 16 books, a governor of New York, and a cowboy. This wild mix of experiences and interests made him unpredictable.  Was he progressive?  Conservative? Sympathetic to workers? Or to the rich? He was … Read More

“There lay a man, flat on this back, his left leg turned grotesquely forward from the knee. His eyes and mouth wide open.”

On page 22 of Where the Crawdads Sing, we discover that Chase Andrews is dead.  Was it an accident or a murder? While that’s the question that drives the plot, my main question was: why was this book “the” sensation of 2019?  It has sold four-and-a-half million copies and has … Read More

“Silence surrounded her as she waited.”

In Olive, Again there is a lot of waiting and a lot of people dying. And yet, there is an underlying sense of urgency as the main characters struggle to figure things out, which is difficult work because it’s clear that they have more regrets than triumphs.  This is Elizabeth … Read More

Best Books of 2019: Five Favorites

Here are the five books I’ve recommended most frequently in 2019:

Novel: It appears that Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House is on every “Best of 2019” list. What makes it so appealing? In addition to having likable, open-hearted characters in an interesting situation — which we can expect from Patchett … Read More

“How do I help these students transform themselves?”

David Gooblar – who teaches at the University of Iowa and writes a column for the Chronicle of Higher Education – has written the book that I wish existed when I started teaching. He tells us what he has learned about college-level teaching, as one who started with the goal … Read More

“There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you . . .”

Ann Patchett continues “…and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you’re suspended, knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.” This is the protagonist’s description of how his life as a teenager changed when his father died.  There are many … Read More

“She parked her old Honda Accord in the minister’s spot and saw before getting out of her car that the Fellowship Hall’s lights were on already.”

I hesitate to read novels that are set in places and situations I know because I’ve been disappointed so often by inaccuracies. So, as a person who lives in the great midwest, has owned a Honda Accord, sometimes parks in the minister’s spot, and is upset when the Girl Scouts … Read More

“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys . . .”

“…so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they like to read about.” This is how Sally Rooney describes a character’s reaction to a famous author who gives a reading from one of his books. Then, Rooney does something remarkable.  On the next page, … Read More

“This fear of fraud reveals a presumption about disabled people. . .that disabled people are fakers and malingerers, or milking the system for handouts.”

Katie Rose Guest Pryal taught at the university level for twelve years without ever considering seeking disability accommodations. As a law professor, she knew her disability would have been legally recognized. And yet, she did not “out” herself as a person with a psychological disability until she left academia and … Read More

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”

Charles Dickens’ famous opening sentence ends with the astonishing idea that the turbulent period leading up to the French Revolution was “like the present period.” The present period! Was he warning leaders against making the mistake of ignoring the horrible conditions of ordinary people? Perhaps. An exhibit in the Charles … Read More

“He wasn’t sure what version of her Dr. Fletcher was seeing – the charming, beautiful, confident woman . . . or the sleep-deprived, hormonally flimsy, unoccupied housewife who had the audacity to say things like ‘It’s the most fun I’ve ever had.’”

Don’t let the title of this novel fool you. It’s not a simple beach-book about people having fun.  Instead, as Jane Smiley observed, it’s an “ambitious and brilliantly written” first novel that is sometimes amusing and sometimes shocking. It’s written from the perspective of seven characters.  My feelings changed … Read More

“It was the rough edge of the world, where the trees came smack down to the stones.”

Reading about the majestic trees in the northwest corner of the country in The Overstory made me want to learn more about the history of the relationship between the ancient trees and the new settlers who lived and died by the forests. Annie Dillard focuses on the years between 1855 … Read More

“A good answer must be reinvented many times, from scratch.”

At the heart of this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Overstory, is the question “How important are trees?” What I love about this book is the way it gives eight answers to that question by telling the stories of eight people who have only one thing in common: a … Read More

“A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing.”

Margaret Atwood continues, “The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.”  This morning, a student described how difficult writing was for her. She’s not alone.  One thing that hasn’t changed over the decades I’ve worked with students is the expectation that writing should be easier than it is. They’re surprised to … Read More