Musings on Math, Literature, and Teaching
As readers of this blog probably know, Charles Dickens is my favorite author. His writing is certainly flawed in many ways, but his novels are consistently entertaining, and they reward repeat readings. Back in 2002, Penguin publishers commissioned the American Continue reading
Andrew Klavan has become one of my favorite living authors, and his current Cameron Winter series is excellent. His standalone novel, Werewolf Cop, came out in 2015. When first heard that Klavan considers it one of his finest works, I thought, Continue reading
I m rereading Susan Howatch s Starbridge Series, and I am noticing all kinds of details and themes I missed the first time around. The series chronicles three Church of England clerics: Charles Ashworth, the traditionalist theologian with a privileged background; Jonathan Continue reading
I teach math at an all-girls school, so I am always interested in learning about what the culture is like for young women. Freya India has a Substack called GIRLS, and she writes for several publications. Her book, Girls, is Continue reading
Great Expectations is justifiably one of Charles Dickens most popular novels. I read it years ago; two of my favorite colleagues and I decided to read it this summer and discuss it when we return for another school year. I m glad Continue reading
As the title to this post suggests, Glamorous Powers is the second book in Susan Howatch s Starbridge Series. The series chronicles the psychological and theological crises of three men in the Church of England in the twentieth century. The first Continue reading
Glittering Images is the first book in British author Susan Howatch s six-volume Starbridge series. It was published in 1987, and my wife read the entire series years ago. She was so impressed with them, that she convinced me to give Glittering Images a try. Continue reading
Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish author writing at the same time as Charles Dickens. He specialized in Gothic tales of helpless young women trapped in desperate situations and some pretty spooky ghost stories. Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery Continue reading
Robert Hugh Benson s 1907 novel, Lord of the World, might be the first dystopian novel of the modern era. Robert Hugh was the brother of E. F. Benson, the master ghost story teller and author of the hysterically funny Lucia novels. He was Continue reading
Roger Simon is a retired Hollywood screenwriter and novelist. I ve read his previous novel, The GOAT, about an older man who makes a deal with the devil and becomes the greatest tennis player of all time. It s very funny and thought-provoking Continue reading
Imagine a black scientist discovered a way to turn black people into white people. What would happen to American society? That is the premise of George Schuyler s 1931 novel, Black No More. It is very funny and very disturbing at the Continue reading
Evelyn Waugh s Brideshead Revisited is a classic novel set in the years between WWI and WWII. Waugh wrote it while recovering from an parachuting injury he suffered during WWII, and it was published in 1945. It is the portrait of an aristocratic Continue reading
I have lived in Nashville, TN, practically all of my life. My parents moved here from Milwaukee, WI, when I was less than a year old. My father was hired in 1961 by Vanderbilt University to start up its Materials Continue reading
I decided to do a little light reading, so I picked up a couple of classic adventure tales: Jules Verne s Around the World in Eighty Days, and H. Rider Haggard s King Solomon s Mines. Both are great fun and can be downloaded for Continue reading
Last year I read George Eliot s Middlemarch and very much enjoyed it. It has a deserved reputation of being one of the greatest English novels ever written. So, I decided to start at the beginning of Eliot s career and read Continue reading