October 1–7, 2023, is Banned Books Week, a week that “was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools.” Last year, Ashley Hope Pérez’s Out of Darkness was the 9th most challenged book. Out of Darkness debuted…

When Marcus encounters Pauline on the road in the quarters in Ernest Gaines’ Of Love and Dust, he becomes angry at Pauline for ignoring his advances while she accepts Bonbon’s advances towards her. He asks, “What’s the matter with you? . . . I been working up there all night…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about why I read, and in that post, I talked some about trying to read a book or two each week. As of this post, I have finished fifty two books this year, so one for every week. Today, I want to talk about…

When teaching Ernest Gaines’ Of Love and Dust (1967) this semester, I asked students to think about the hierarchy within the novel. When constructing the hierarchy, students constructed in a horizontal manner, with Marshall Hebert at the top, Sidney Bonbon on the rung beneath him, Louise beneath Bonbon, Pauline beneath…

Earlier this week, Edwidge Danticat published “It Can Happen Here” in Harper’s Bazaar. Danticat details how legislation in Florida reminds her of oppressive regimes in her Haiti and the repression of knowledge. She reminds us that no matter what we think, oppression and fascism can happen here, even if we…

Throughout Ernest J. Gaines’ Of Love and Dust (1967), Jim Kelly ruminates about God. Jim has lost his faith, even though he continues to cross himself before bed and say his prayers. One day, he says, he may return. However, during the course of the novel, Jim sees God as…

Last post I started exploring the role of names in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Specifically, I looked at Soaphead Church’s letter to God and his questions, “What makes one name more a person than another? Is the name the real thing, then? And the person only what his name…

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Pecola goes to see Soaphead Church, a self-proclaimed “Spiritualist and Psychic Reader” who could help individuals overcome things that impacted them. Pecola comes to Soaphead Church asking him to give her blue eyes so she can feel pretty and be like the white movie…

During the summer, my daughter, Juliette, and I started seriously talking about doing a podcast. This conversation started earlier, but we really started working on it around June. What arose from those conversations was Classics & Coffee, a podcast where we would talk about books while drinking coffee. This format…