Books Like Us

Grab your best walking stick, find a supply of lembas bread, brush up on your Elvish dialects, and join me on a journey through Middle-earth with our twenty-sixth reader. After decades of composition and revision, The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) between July […]

Six readers. Six major novels. Six insightful conversations. This is the second installment in a two-part series on Jane Austen and her work. Austen has played a formative role in my personal reading history since the day I selected Pride and Prejudice for a sixth grade book report. I’ve often relied upon Austen’s novels for […]

Six readers. Six major novels. Six insightful conversations. This is the first installment in a two-part series on Jane Austen and her work. Austen has played a formative role in my personal reading history since the day I selected Pride and Prejudice for a sixth grade book report. I’ve often relied upon Austen’s novels for […]

Six readers. Six major novels. Six insightful conversations. This is the second installment in a two-part series on Jane Austen and her work. Austen has played a formative role in my personal reading history since the day I selected Pride and Prejudice for a sixth grade book report. I’ve often relied upon Austen’s novels for... Read More

Six readers. Six major novels. Six insightful conversations. This is the first installment in a two-part series on Jane Austen and her work. Austen has played a formative role in my personal reading history since the day I selected Pride and Prejudice for a sixth grade book report. I’ve often relied upon Austen’s novels for... Read More

I think it’s fair to assume that at some point many of you have sipped a glass of wine, nodded your head solemnly, and murmured: “Mmm. Yes, that’s good.” Whether you’re under the watchful eye of an eager waiter or in hearing distance of someone you want to impress, the appearance of connoisseurship in this […]

I think it’s fair to assume that at some point many of you have sipped a glass of wine, nodded your head solemnly, and murmured: “Mmm. Yes, that’s good.” Whether you’re under the watchful eye of an eager waiter or in hearing distance of someone you want to impress, the appearance of connoisseurship in this... Read More

Our twenty-second reader and I sat down next to a tall shelf bursting with children’s books to discuss her connection to E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952). In the sixty four years since its publication, this masterful tale of unlikely friendship has captured the hearts and imaginations of generations of children around the world. White’s simple […]

Our twenty-second reader and I sat down next to a tall shelf bursting with children’s books to discuss her connection to E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952). In the sixty four years since its publication, this masterful tale of unlikely friendship has captured the hearts and imaginations of generations of children around the world. White’s simple... Read More

Ah, Victorian fiction; lengthy narratives, plots that may involve the return of at least one character from the dead, and the frequent determination of a woman’s character based on her gaze/finger slenderness. I admire Victorian authors for their commitment to realism and their vital reflections upon the complexity of human nature amid sociocultural change. When […]