Conquering the Canon by Scott Kaiser You can find my review here. An excellent look at Kaiser’s career, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the craft of theatre. The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters I’ve been a Ben Wibter’s fan Continue reading
Scott Kaiser aimed to be part of all of Shakespeare’s play—38 of them, if you don’t count The Reign of King Edward III. It’s a quest he started on in high school and with what must be a much-dog-eared copy Continue reading
I’ve taken a break from academic reading for much of May and June, preparing myself for summer mode: Revenge Prey by John Sanford – Russian spies and an engaging CIA agent. I always enjoy Sanford, but did not feel this Continue reading
Review of How Deeply Human is Language: Chomsky, The Brain, and the AI Fantasy by Yosef Grodzinsky In this short and lucid work, Grodzinsky (Director of the Neurolinguistics Lab at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for the Brain Sciences) Continue reading
The Politics of Language by David Beaver and Jason Stanley Published in 2025, The Politics of Language, by David Beaver and Jason Stanley convincingly makes the case that most speech has ideological meaning and that the connotations of words evoke Continue reading
Muscle Man by Jordan Castro A colleague who I run into the gym recommended this. It’s the quirky story of Harold, an unhappy literature professor who finds solace from a mundane career in weight lifting. The key scenes are his Continue reading
Review of Valerie Fridland, Why We Talk Funny Contrary to popular belief, we’ve all got an accent. In Why We Talk Funny, linguist Valerie Fridland digs deep into the notion of accent, offering an engaging tale of how they arise, Continue reading
Valerie Fridland is a professor of linguistics in the English Department at the University of Nevada, Reno and the author of Like Literally Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English and the 2026 release Why We Talk Funny: The Continue reading
Renee Owen is an associate professor in the SOU School of Education and the co-author of a recently released book titled Becoming a Transformative Leader from the Inside Out (Bloomsbury Publishing, November 2025). Owen earned her bachelor of fine arts degree Continue reading
Michelle St. Romain is the co-author of two poetry collections, Promised Fruit and Water’s Edge, and her debut novel, Song of Belonging, will be released in April 2026 by She Writes Press St. Romain earned a B.A. in English from Continue reading