If there’s one voice that cannot be silenced in our modern era, it’s the fierce roar that rises from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass’s forthright account of his escape from slavery is so raw you can almost smell the stomach-turning metallic wreak coming off the blood-spattered pages. Rising from beneath theContinueContinue reading “Frederick Douglass: The Lion Will Not Be Silenced”
Category Archives: Books
Les Mis: When Justice Is Overshadowed by the Law
I’m teaching Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables this fall. First published to international acclaim in 1862, the novel’s inception actually took place in 1845 under the working title Jean Tréjean, which translator Julie Rose characterizes as “the story of a convict, a poor man persecuted by a system in which justice has been overshadowed by theContinueContinue reading “Les Mis: When Justice Is Overshadowed by the Law”
9 Classics to Add to Your 2022 Reading List
As you put together your good intentions for 2022, consider adding some classics to the reading list. I know what you are thinking: But weren’t these books written to be read by whiny high school students and no one else? Whether you were forced to read some of these in school or not, I thinkContinueContinue reading “9 Classics to Add to Your 2022 Reading List”
God Is a Writer.
It’s ironic that I’m having writer’s block as I try to start this post. I’ve always found the introduction (or “the lede” as they call it in the industry) to be the hardest part of the writing process. How do you hook your readers? How do you build suspense? How do you pique interest? IContinueContinue reading “God Is a Writer.”
Book Review: ‘On Reading Well’ by Karen Swallow Prior
“Good books are a very great mercy to the world.” -Richard Baxter I’ve heard it said that a well-crafted book review is a success if it makes you want to go read the book. If this isn’t too meta for you, it’s the object of this review to make you want to go read KarenContinueContinue reading “Book Review: ‘On Reading Well’ by Karen Swallow Prior”
Frederick Douglass’s Indictment of Southern Christianity
“We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen! all for the glory of God and the good of souls!”
Edna Lewis and the Flourishing of African Americans
“I grew up in Freetown, Virginia, a community of farming people. It wasn’t really a town. The name was adopted because the first residents had all been freed from chattel slavery and they wanted to be known as a town of Free People.” From the opening paragraph of The Taste of Country Cooking, I wasContinueContinue reading “Edna Lewis and the Flourishing of African Americans”