books and reading

"The former Los Angeles Times book critic expands his short book on the importance of reading to include considerations of fake news, siloed information, and the necessity of critical thinking as a key component of engaged citizenship and resistance. Ulin builds the case in favor of slow reading in this distracted and troubled time"--Back cover.

Rebecca Mead examines George Eliot's novel "Middlemarch" and discusses the influence the book has had on her life.

In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with his family. By sheer chance they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life. In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlet Letter, The Iliad, and more, Tran navigates the push and pull of finding and accepting himself despite the challenges of immigration, feelings of isolation, teenage rebellion, and assimilation, all while attempting to meet the rigid expectations set by his immigrant parents.

"[C. S. Lewis] reflects on the power, importance, and joy of a life dedicated to reading books in this . . . collection drawn from his wide body of writings"--Provided by publisher.

Ann Hood reflects on her love of reading, and her early fascination with books.

Carter G. Woodson was born ten years after the end of the Civil War, to parents who had both been enslaved. Their stories were not the ones written about in history books, but Carter learned them and kept them in his heart. Carter's father could not read or write, but he believed in being an informed citizen. So Carter read the newspaper to him every day, and from this practice, he learned about the world and how to find out what he didn't know. Many years later, when he was a student at Harvard University (the second African-American and the only child of enslaved parents to do so), one of his professors said that black people had no history. Carter knew that wasn't true--and he set out to make sure the rest of us knew as well.

"Revered as a general and trusted as America's first elected leader, George Washington is considered a great many things in the contemporary imagination, but an intellectual is not one of them. In correcting this longstanding misconception, ... offers a stimulating literary biography that traces the effects of a life spent in self-improvement"--Provided by publisher.

"From the author of the best-selling and beloved The End of Your Life Book Club--a wonderfully engaging new book: both a celebration of reading in general and an impassioned recommendation of specific books that can help guide us through our daily lives. 'I've always believed that everything you need to know you can find in a book,' writes Will Schwalbe in his introduction to this thought-provoking, heartfelt, and inspiring new book about books. In each chapter he makes clear the ways in which a particular book has helped to shape how he leads his own life and the ways in which it might help to shape ours. He talks about what brought him to each book--or vice versa; the people in his life he associates each book with; how each has led him to other books; how each is part of his understanding of himself in the world. And he relates each book to a question of our daily lives, for example: Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener speaks to quitting; 1984 to disconnecting from our electronics; James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room to the power of finding ourselves and connecting with one another; Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea to taking time to recharge; Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird to being sensitive to the surrounding world; The Little Prince to making friends; Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train to trusting. Here, too, are books by Dickens, Daphne du Maurier, Haruki Murakami, Edna Lewis, E. B. White, and Hanya Yanagihara, among many others. A treasure of a book for everyone who loves books, loves reading, and loves to hear the answer to the question: 'What are you reading?'"--.

Pamela Paul has kept a record of every book she's every read, tracing the trajectory of her life through reading, and how these stories have shaped her life.