American Literature Commons^™

Review: Flannery: A Life Of Flannery O'Connor, William A. Richards

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the book "Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor," by Brad Gooch.

Spotlight On Teen Reading

Georgia Library Quarterly

The 2008 nominees for the Georgia Peach Award for Teen Readers.

Review: The Meat And Spirit Plan, Teresa Pacheco

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "The Meat and Spirit Plan," by Selah Saterstrom.

Review: Creola’S Moonbeam, Sarah Trowbridge

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "Creola’s Moonbeam," by Milam McGraw Propst.

Review: A Gentle Rain, Carolann Lee Curry

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "A Gentle Rain," by Deborah Smith."

Review: Abc Safari, Lindy Moore

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the children's book "ABC Safari," by Karen Lee.

Review: Cynthia’S Attic: The Missing Locket, Misty Conger

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the young adult book "Cynthia’s Attic: The Missing Locket," by Mary Cunningham.

Review: Down Town, Patrice Prevost

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "Down Town," by Ferrol Sams.

Review: Garden Spells, Carol Malcolm

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "Garden Spells," by Sarah Addison Allen.

Review: Don’T Know Where, Don’T Know When, Rebecca Ziegler

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the middle grade novel "Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When," by Annette Laing.

Review: Elephant On My Roof, Leslie R. G. Bullington

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the children's book "Elephant on My Roof," by Erin Harris.

Review: The Messy Monkey Tea Party, Tracy Walker

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the children's book "The Messy Monkey Tea Party," by Cheri Bivin Deich.

Review: The Real Question, Ellen Zander

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the young adult book "The Real Question," by Adrian Fogelin.

Review: The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians, Lory Cox

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the children's book "The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians," by Carla Morris and illustrated by Brad Sneed.

Review: Thirteen Moons, Tim Wojcik

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "Thirteen Moons," by Charles Frazier.

Review: The Rainforest Grew All Around, Lora Mirza

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the children's book "The Rainforest Grew All Around," by Susan K. Mitchell and illustrated by Connie McLennan.

Review: Agnes And Me, Lee Ann Cline

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "Agnes and Me," by Jerry Gollihar.

Review: Family Payne, Lee Ann Cline

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "Family Payne," by Jerry Gollihar.

Review: Turtle Summer: A Journal For My Daughter, Evelyne Lamar

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the young adult book "Turtle Summer: A Journal for My Daughter," by Mary Alice Monroe, with photographs by Barbara J. Bergwerf.

Review: We Are All Welcome Here, Teresa Pacheco

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "We Are All Welcome Here," by Elizabeth Berg.

Review: When Light Breaks, Sarah Trowbridge

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "When Light Breaks," by Patti Callahan Henry.

Review: Hitched, Christina Hodgens

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "Hitched," by Carol Higgins Clark.

Review: Reading Faulkner: Introductions To The First Thirteen Novels, John Mcconnell

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the non-fiction book "Reading Faulkner: Introductions to the First Thirteen Novels." Content by Richard Marius, compiled and edited by Nancy Grisham Anderson.

Representative Men, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

"Representativeness" is the theme of Shaun O'Connell's essay, "Representative Men." Reviewing six books, one about an actual man and five about fictional men, O'Connell sees them as attempts to define "representative men" of the 1980s, "an era," he observes, "when the worst were full of passionate intensities, particularly among men." Each antiheroic man in these books, he concludes, was "selfish, domineering, dangerous to women, and deceitful, yet each man was also committed to a system of values and ideas that made him an interesting case history — values which, in some instances, redeemed his failings."

As usual, O'Connell, in his …

Vantage Points: Prose Parables Of The Republic, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

Shaun O'Connell brings his usual insights to his book review essay. "Our novelists," he concludes, "have served us better than our politicians in classifying our condition" — an accomplishment that is somewhat less grand than it seems when we remember that the recent competition came from George Bush's "Read my lips" and "A thousand points of light" and Michael Dukakis's "Good jobs at good wages" and "I'm on your side."

Among the works discussed in this essay: Firebird, by James Carroll; Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories, by Raymond Carver; Paris Trout, by Pete Dexter; …

Recommended Readings, 1988, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

Shaun O'Connell reviews a selection of readings for would-be presidents. None of our recent presidents — going back to Dwight Eisenhower — has been a reader of "imaginative literature." While this is not, perhaps, entirely unexpected and may be indicative of the pressures on their time rather than an intrinsic aversion to literature, it should nevertheless at least lead us to ask whether their visions of who we are and our possibilities are limited by their failure to "confront some of the implications raised by serious works of the imagination, works that force us to face mysteries in the world …