Every year, the Michigan Department of Education’s Library of Michigan and its Michigan Notable Books program choose 20 of the most notable books published in the year. According to the Notable Books web site, “The selections are reflective of Michigan’s diverse ethnic, historical, literary, and cultural experience.” The program is supported by sponsors such as Wayne [...]
What is culture? I guess you could define it as high-brow, artsy stuff, but the sociologist in me thinks of this concept more as it applies to society—a cohesive unit in which the members work together for their own individual benefit or to benefit the society as a whole. In this way, “book club culture” [...]
There was a brief period when I chose to believe that the cheapest way to buy a book was to go in a Borders bookstore and pay for one with a coupon, an outrageously good deal of a coupon that seemed to appear in my inbox in a slightly different form every day: 30 percent [...]
When I was a graduate student, I shopped at Borders. The original Borders. To get a job there selling books, you had to take a test and strut your literary stuff. Couldn’t remember who wrote The Old Man and the Sea? Well, then, you could just go and get a job at Pizza Bob’s. It [...]
Yes. Those initials stand for William F. Buckley, Jr. Bill to his wife Pat. Pup to his son Christopher. I recently read a book about William F. Buckley, Jr. Well, it was the book Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir by Christopher Buckley. The memoir was funny, touching and made me stop and remember that [...]
