Orem Library

In this uproarious exploration of the joys of reading, a long-time teacher, lifelong reader and The New Yorker contributor shares surprising stories from her life and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students and shows us how literature can transform us for the better.

An anthology of original essays by fifty major American writers on one hundred essential short stories. 'A writer,' Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow once said, 'is a reader who is moved to emulation.' That idea inspired New York Times bestselling novelist and memoirist Andre Dubus III to invite fifty acclaimed authors to write about the precise alchemy of emulation, about short stories that altered their view of life and their place in it-short stories...

Fifty Forgotten Books is a very special sort of book about books, by a great bookman and for book-people of all ages and levels of experience. Not quite literary criticism, not quite an autobiography, it is at once a guided tour through the dusty backrooms of long vanished used bookstores, a love letter to bookshops and bookselling, and a browser's dream wish list of often overlooked and unloved novels, short story collections, poetry collections...

A delightful collection of essays exploring reading and writing. "In the Margins" contains Elena Ferrante's latest reflections on literature, and the works and authors that have influenced her throughout her career.

As she approached the age of seventy, Ruth Wilson began to have recurring dreams about losing her voice. And as she grappled with feelings of unfathomable sadness, she made the radical decision to retreat from her conventional life with her husband to a small sunshine-yellow cottage in New South Wales, Australia where she lived alone for the following ten years. Ruth had fostered a lifelong love of reading, and from the moment she first encountered...

In 2008, a group of first grade moms formed a neighborhood book club with their kids, in order to cultivate their kids' nascent love of reading and their friendships. Plus, it gave the parents an excuse to get together. Why not give it a go? This simple but ambitious idea stuck--the group lasted for 11 years! The budding bookworms became strong readers, formed a long-lasting love of books, and formed meaningful friendships. The parents got to know...

"Books are ghosts; reading is communion with the dead. Alcohol is a way of communing, too, as well as a way of dying. Each chapter gathers subjects that haunt: dead people, the forest, the towering library of all those books we'll never have time to read or write. Hunt, like a mad crossword puzzler, looks for patterns and clues. Through literary criticism, history, family history, and memoir, inspired by W. G. Sebald, James Joyce, Ali Smith, Toni...

"Readers rejoice! From Mental Floss, an online destination for more than a billion curious minds since its founding in 2001, comes the ultimate book for lovers of literature. From Americanah to War and Peace, from Chinua Achebe and Jane Austen to Jesmyn Ward and George R.R. Martin, learn surprising facts about the world's most famous novels and novelists. The Curious Reader will delight bookworms everywhere. This literary compendium from Mental Floss...

This audiobook narrated by Dominican-born scholar Roosevelt Montás tells the story of how the Great Books transformed his life—and why they have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds
What is the value of a liberal education? Traditionally characterized by a rigorous engagement with the classics of Western thought and literature, this approach to education is all but extinct in American universities, replaced by flexible

...

The author shares her enthusiasm for more than 100 books: novels and memoirs by some of today's most gifted writers; favorite classics worth reading or rereading; and nonfiction works that illuminate our social and political landscape. -- Adapted from back cover. "From "the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world" (Vanity Fair) comes 100 personal, thought-provoking essays of the life-changing books she wouldn't want you to miss--beautifully...