“People who buy books ... are of two kinds. There are those who buy because they love books and what they can get from them, and those to whom books are one form of entertainment among several. ... The second group has to be courted” (p. 117). . Which kind of book buyer are you?... Continue Reading →
I recently realized that I had a printed copy of an interview my mother did with my great grandmother Antonia Montosa Juanes. She is a Hawaiian Spaniard, born to Spanish parents in Makaweli, Hawaii. I always knew she was a Spaniard, but it has recently come to my attention that Hawaiian Spaniards are part of... Continue Reading →
I picked up Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War (2011) by Leymah Gbowee because an acquaintance of mine recommended it. The title was enough to intrigue me, and as I started reading, it reminded me of two other books, I Am Malala (which I reviewed here) and... Continue Reading →
As most of you know, education is important to me. I wouldn’t be pursuing a Ph.D. if it weren’t. Not only do I believe in education, but I believe in education for girls, and some of the most moving books I’ve read are about this subject. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith... Continue Reading →
I can almost always see seagulls flying overhead. They fly over my house, sometimes so high that I can barely tell they are birds. They look like luminous white balloons tossed in tandem through the wind. A few weeks ago, after finishing Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (1991) by Terry Tempest Williams,... Continue Reading →
I need to come right out and say that I’m biased about this book. I am friends with the author, and to see his work in print through a major publishing company, finally, is really like Christmas morning. I’m sure he feels that much more so than I do. The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir... Continue Reading →
I was afraid to become an English major. They all seemed so . . . smart. Arrogant. Self-assured. These were traits I did not possess, aside from smartness, but they seemed smarter. They had probably scored at least two points higher on the ACT than I had, and the ones I knew used big words,... Continue Reading →
The Bookshelf of Emily J. 