The Secret History, Donna Tartt…dark & compelling college intrigue

Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson… I could see all of it, the descriptions were so vivid

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, Peter Hoeg…read it with a blanket!

Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood… 19th Century Canada, maids & murder

Persuasion, Jane Austen…aaah "you pierce my soul"

The Dark is Rising Sequence, Susan Cooper… started reading it when I was 10 & still rereading at 34.

To Kill a Mockingbird…just read it again, always worth a visit

Cloudstreet & Dirt Music, both by Tim Winton

The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux… armchair travel mmm

Famous Five, Enid Blyton…always good for avoiding something that needs doing

Oh no, I think I’ll have to start reading them all again! They’re all very visual and atmospheric… when I read the titles I feel like I’m there. Happy reading to you too (c;
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Occasionally, I pull out a book that I am reading and share it with my students. This past year I discovered that these two very entertaining authors are suitable to either read aloud or photocopy for a room full of super-critical teenagers. Indeed, both McCourt and Smith have kept my homeroom audiences mesmerized.

—Frank McCourt’s "Angela’s Ashes" (1996) and "Tis’ " (1999): Reading aloud the chapter in "Tis’ " that retells this Irish-American’s first day as a teacher in a Staten Island high school kept a room of Hispanic and African-American eighth-graders completely quiet; afterwords, they opened up and talked about the chapter without any urging. I may use this same selection as a part of my first day of classes next year.

—Alexander McCall Smith also writes entertaining slices of life that can be pulled out of context and used with inner-city secondary students. They, however, relate more to the scenes of Edinburgh than to his Ladies’ Detective Agency series that he sets in Africa. Start with "44 Scotland Street" (2005), first serialized in the Edinburgh newspaper, "The Scotsman". Then for a little romance and a more adult read (rated PG-13), meet middle-age divorcee, Isabel Dalhousie, beginning with "The Sunday Philosophy Club" (2005).

Are we on the verge of a Celtic renaissance?

I’ve also taught a world survey of literature at the university level. My students particularly enjoyed reading contemporary novelists Margaret Atwood and Amy Tan.

Signed an English teacher, Ph. D. in 19th and 20th-century British fiction (1995)
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Christian authors with some mystery/murder…

Ted Dekker – Blink
Bill Myers – Blood of Heaven trilogy
Robert Whitlow – Jimmy
Sigmund Brouwer – Double Helix
James BeauSeigneur – The Christ Clone Trilogy
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