I’ve finally read Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior (1975), a book I have heard so much about but somehow never got to until now. The book is creative non-fiction, a memoir of Kingston’s Chinese childhood among “ghosts.” Ghosts are white Americans, and reading this book gave me access to what it must really be... Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago, I walked into the copy/mail room of the English department at my university and saw a box full of books advertised as "free." Of course, I couldn't resist pawing through them, and even though my backpack was plenty full of textbooks, I ended up hauling seven of them home. Here they... Continue Reading →
“It is the declaration of every thinking woman at some point in her life, a manifesto that crosses all boundaries of class or color or whatever arbitrary thing we try to pretend separates us. It starts out as a girlish whisper, grows louder with each passing year, until that faint promise we traced in the... Continue Reading →
James Herriot plays uncle to a rich dog in All Creatures Great and Small (1972). It is just one of the funny situations Herriot faces as a new veterinarian in the English countryside. Tricky is a small Pekingese dog spoiled by rich widow, Mrs. Pumphrey. When Herriot visits frequently to help Tricky by squeezing the... Continue Reading →
The Bookshelf of Emily J. 