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Erica Jacobs
Education ExaminerErica Jacobs is the Education columnist for the DC Examiner, and has taught high school and college for 33 years. She has been around the education block! Email her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.
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Education Examiner
Showing entries for Category: book
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett, was published in 2001 , and would seem to have been influenced by September 11--except that it was written before that event. It is a study of hostages and terrorists, their differences and similarities. If your world is beginning to look a bit black and white, this novel will restore the all-important gray areas to your perceptions. This is, unquestionably, my students' favorite novel of the year. Sometimes they don't return the books on time because their parents want to read it!
Topics: book , review , patchett
More from Education Examiner
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
Transmission, by Hari Kunzru, was published in 2004 and is for those interested in the way the tech revolution has shaped our lives. The hero experiences the fantasies of living the Silicon Valley life as a Microsoft employee, followed by the humiliation... Read More
Topics: book , review , kunzru
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Adichie, is an amazing coming-of-age novel by a Nigerian woman who carries on the literary legacy of Achebe's Things Fall Apart. The characters are both disturbing and moving and altogether fascinating. I read this... Read More
Topics: book , review , adichie , achebe
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, was a bestseller of 2002 and won the Orange Prize. Initially I resisted it because it was so popular, but finally gave in. A great book for students, parents, and other sentient human beings. It is about the... Read More
Topics: read , book , review , kidd
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
Haruki Murakami is an author of bestsellers in Japan, and his novels are pretty popular in the States, as well. I am a huge fan of this quirky, magnificent novelist. Kafka at the Shore was published in 2006 after a number of other novels that hit it... Read More
Topics: book , review , students , murakami
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
I liked The Joy Luck Club a lot, but (with the exception of Kitchen God's Wife) I have liked every subsequent novel even more. Tan reinvents herself each time she writes a novel. Saving Fish From Drowning, published in 2006, is a brillliant satire on... Read More
Topics: book , review
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
Prep , by Curtis Sittenfeld, was published in 2005 and became an instant bestseller. I couldn't put this book down. It's a grisly look at the social pressures in high school---magnified by money and privilege in this preppy environment. The main character,... Read More
Topics: book , review
Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review
Erica Jacobs - Education Examiner
Digging to America is by Anne Tyler, Baltimore's Great American Novelist. I think this is her best novel (and since I love all her novels, that's saying something.) Her characters are, as always, funny, quirky, and very human. This time, though, I occasionally... Read More
Topics: read , book , review , tyler
