Fellow Mississippian Eudora Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) is one of my favorite authors. In fact, I wrote about her in my 2014 book, Flourish: Balance for Homeschool Moms, in the section on bidding farewell to fear: Twice in my life I have let irrational fears hold me back. These are two … Read more
Join me for a lively and engaging exploration of the some of the greatest American authors! You’ll learn to understand, appreciate, and love literature in ways you may never have experienced before. Class Schedule American Literature – grades 9-12 – Tuesdays, 10:00-11:30 a.m. Central American Literature – adults – Thursdays, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Central Course Description … Read more
How much can you learn about a novel from the first chapter? That was my experiment in today’s literature class (for homeschoolers in grades 9-12). I read the first chapter of Jane Eyre aloud and asked my students to tell me everything they noticed that might provide a clue to the rest of the novel. Here … Read more
Call me Bibliophile. Some hours ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and no patience left with the incompetent and oblivious people I encountered in a long day of shopping, I thought I would travel about a little and revisit Mitford. It is a way I have of driving off … Read more
One of the things I love about homeschooling is the opportunity for students to read whole books rather than textbook snippets. Every Friday I teach 18 students in grades 9-12 as part of a weekly homeschool co-op, and it’s thrilling to see these young people reading and discussing classic literature. We spend most of our … Read more
“Real Men Read Austen.” That’s the title of chapter 1 of Peter Leithart’s excellent book, Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen. Leithart says if he could have dinner with a dozen of the greatest British and American writers, he’d want the seat next to Jane Austen because she would be the most … Read more
Just read a fascinating article by Brian Brown at Humane Pursuits. Here’s the gist of his answer: “I think we like Jane Austen because we like stories with men in them. Do not misunderstand me. We don’t watch a Jane Austen movie because Indiana Jones and Jason Bourne aren’t men. But we face—and have been … Read more
One of my favorite authors, Eudora Welty, was born 102 years ago today. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 10 years since I attended her funeral, which I wrote about for the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook. I was privileged to meet Miss Welty at a writing conference in the late 1980s. In this … Read more
Back when sports fans were filling out their college basketball brackets, I wrote on Facebook that these were the only brackets that interested me: [ ] ( ) { } < > I was wrong. Even better than punctuation brackets is a book bracket. Now this is a competition I can really get into! Voting … Read more
David Kern of the Circe Institute proposed a baseball team of America’s greatest authors. I especially like his choices of F. Scott Fitzgerald as shortstop and William Faulkner in left field. Clever!