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WHY DID I GET A B?

AND OTHER MYSTERIES WE'RE DISCUSSING IN THE FACULTY LOUNGE

Reflective essays that expose the good and the bad sides of being an educator. Good reading for aspiring teachers.

A teacher and writer shares her thoughts on education and life in general.

Reed, who has taught at nearly every level, including her current position teaching creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh, uses essays, lists, quizzes, and other elements to share her two decades of wisdom. Though the author didn’t always dream of being a teacher, when a job opportunity opened up at a preschool, she took the position. One day, while explaining why the season was called “fall” and seeing the light bulb go on in one child’s head, she caught the bug. “That was it for me, the first moment I was ready to admit I was no longer just a person who liked kids and liked that they liked me,” she writes. “No. I was a teacher. I had taught. They had learned. They were smarter now! I was hooked.” From the preschool, she moved on to an all-girls Catholic school in Rockaway. Because it was such a long commute from her apartment in Brooklyn, she often arrived late to class, but she loved “the diversity of the student body,” which was comprised of students of numerous ethnicities. From there, Reed moved on to a high school, where she learned how to work with bullies, particularly one boy who not only verbally and physically attacked other students, but made rude comments to her. Eventually, she got her MFA, taught college classes, and found a comfortable, rewarding spot at Pitt. Using honesty and humor, Reed sheds light on what it means to be a public school teacher in a variety of locations, working with students from different backgrounds. She often indicates that she has learned as much from her pupils about everyday life as they have from her.

Reflective essays that expose the good and the bad sides of being an educator. Good reading for aspiring teachers.

Pub Date: June 30, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3609-3

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: March 2, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020

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WILL

A refreshing celebrity memoir focused not strictly on the self but on a much larger horizon.

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One of Hollywood’s biggest stars delivers a memoir of success won through endless, relentless work and self-reckoning.

“My imagination is my gift, and when it merges with my work ethic, I can make money rain from the heavens.” So writes Smith, whose imagination is indeed a thing of wonder—a means of coping with fear, an abusive father with the heart of a drill instructor, and all manner of inner yearnings. The author’s imagination took him from a job bagging ice in Philadelphia to initial success as a partner in the Grammy-winning rap act DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Smith was propelled into stardom thanks to the ministrations of Quincy Jones, who arranged an audition in the middle of his own birthday party, bellowing “No paralysis through analysis!” when Smith begged for time to prepare. The mantra—which Jones intoned 50-odd times during the two hours it took for the Hollywood suits to draw up a contract for the hit comedy series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—is telling, for hidden within this memoir lies a powerful self-help book. For Smith, all of life is a challenge in which one’s feelings are largely immaterial. “I watched my father’s negative emotions seize control of his ample intellect and cause him over and over again to destroy beautiful parts of our family,” he writes, good reason for him to sublimate negativity in the drive to get what he wanted—money, at first, and lots of it, which got him in trouble with the IRS in the early 1990s. Smith, having developed a self-image that cast him as a coward, opines that one’s best life is lived by facing up to the things that hold us back. “I’ve been making a conscious effort to attack all the things that I’m scared of,” he writes, adding, “And this is scary.” It’s a good lesson for any aspiring creative to ponder—though it helps to have Smith’s abundant talent, too.

A refreshing celebrity memoir focused not strictly on the self but on a much larger horizon.

Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-984877-92-5

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021

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CONFESSIONS OF A BOOKSELLER

Bighearted, sobering, and humane.

A bookseller in Wigtown, Scotland, recounts a year in his life as a small-town dealer of secondhand books.

“The pleasure derived from handling books that have introduced something of cultural or scientific significance to the world is undeniably the greatest luxury that this business affords,” writes Bythell. In a diary that records his wry observations from behind the counter of his store, the author entertains readers with eccentric character portraits and stories of his life in the book trade. The colorful cast of characters includes bookshop regulars like Eric, the local orange-robed Buddhist; Captain, Bythell’s “accursed cat”; “Sandy the tattooed pagan”; and “Mole-Man,” a patron with a penchant for in-store “literary excavations.” Bythell’s employees are equally quirky. Nicky, the author’s one paid worker, is an opinionated Jehovah’s Witness who “consistently ignores my instructions” and criticizes her boss as “an impediment to the success of the business.” His volunteer employee, an Italian college student named Emanuela (whom the author nicknamed Granny due to her endless complaints about bodily aches), came to Wigtown to move beyond the world of study and “expand [her] knowledge.” Woven into stories about haggling with clients over prices or dealing with daily rounds of vague online customer requests—e.g., a query about a book from “around about 1951. Part of the story line is about a cart of apples being upset, that’s all I know”)—are more personal dramas, like the end of his marriage and the difficult realities of owning a store when “50 per cent [sic] of retail purchases are made online.” For Bythell, managing technical glitches, contending with low profit margins on Amazon, and worrying about the future of his business are all part of a day’s work. Irascibly droll and sometimes elegiac, this is an engaging account of bookstore life from the vanishing front lines of the brick-and-mortar retail industry.

Bighearted, sobering, and humane.

Pub Date: April 7, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-56792-664-4

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Godine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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