With A Level dedicating an entire paper over to the crime genre, diving into the ocean that is psychopathy during the Christmas holidays seemed entirely academically laudable. During the season of goodwill a little dive into Skuse’s murky waters was just what I needed. It never ceases to surprise people that one of my […]
Category: Book Reviews
Round Six: ‘Educated’ (Non-Fiction)
With an entire paper on non-fiction at GCSE, it seems strange that we’re not taking more time to really explore non-fiction texts fully. I don’t mean extracts or brief chapters, I mean whole books. This might be one of the ways in which we can engage those who do not see themselves as readers because […]
If It’s Not Literature, Why Bother?
Whilst most English teachers have a passion for Literature, it is a smaller number of the fleet for whom non-fiction floats their boat. When faced with the wonder that is ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ or the challenges of ‘The Color Purple’, non-fiction can feel like a slog or feel a little dry. So why […]
Round Five: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Adult not YA)
This book is phenomenal. It’s easy to step into the oh-so-real world of Eleanor Oliphant, the office politics, the mundanity of the everyday, the desire for more… The characters are consciously well observed and created – I feel like I’ve met them all in so many places before. Their roles are laid out in so many […]
Round Four: The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder (Adult, not YA)
Having been lent this yonks ago, I’ve been feeling guilty about not reading it but, I’ll be honest, I find it hard to read fiction written for adults during term time. YA or novels I’ve read before, yes. Those I let myself read because I know that I can either finish them quickly or put […]
Round Three: Magisterium
For the entirety of this year, one of my year seven students has been telling me to read the Magisterium series. It started with her own excitement and a brief, “You should read this book I’m reading!” and became, as the year went on, much more insistent and much more disappointed as I failed in […]
Round Two: Skullduggery Pleasant
Recently, a colleague stopped me in the corridor. His face was a mixture of concern and outrage. Without knowing what was wrong or, indeed, what I had done wrong, I ploughed in with the question: “Is everything ok? Are you ok?” “Well,” he replied, “I thought that you were an English teacher.” “I am!” “But […]
Welcome to Book Review Season! Round One: Mortal Engines
With school a long forgotten memory behind us (having started week two of the holidays), it seems only natural that the Summer of an English teacher is dedicated to reading and what could be better than the dedicate the blog to the god of reading? As I’ve said in previous blogs, my love of reading […]