In fifth grade, my music teacher asked me to recite a poem during our holiday concert. This meant having to stand in front of my classmates, teachers, and parents, and, I guess, read? I practiced it, but practice always felt …
Author: Katie Chua
Seattle: City of Literature and Our Bookworm’s Guide to Enjoying the City
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced in October that Seattle has been designated a City of Literature. After five years of attempting to secure a bid, Seattle City of Literature finally achieved its goal. Seattle now …
Read More "Seattle: City of Literature and Our Bookworm’s Guide to Enjoying the City"
To Teach a Mockingbird? Let’s Discuss
A school district in Biloxi, Mississippi, recently made waves when it decided to pull Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird from required reading in its school. The reason? The language made students “uncomfortable.” Banning books has long been a problem …
Enjoyed Ready Player One? Check Out These Other Titles Next
With Blade Runner 2049 (2017) in theaters right now, stories categorized under the genre of “cyberpunk” have surged in popularity. Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction, usually set in technologically advanced dystopian societies, that incorporates larger themes about the …
Read More "Enjoyed Ready Player One? Check Out These Other Titles Next"
What You Should Read After Finishing Divergent
Divergent took the young-adult fiction world by storm, spawning two sequels, three movies, and a TV series. If you enjoy dystopian stories riddled with romances, villainous government structures, and page-turning adventure, then you might enjoy these titles too. Legend by …
Nobel Prize in Literature 2017: Kazuo Ishiguro
British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the highest award a literary author can receive. It is given not for a single piece, but for the collective work throughout an author’s career. The organization that …
Why You Should Read Stanford’s Mandatory Reading for First Years: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Stanford University’s “Three Books” program encourages incoming first years to read three selected titles before beginning the school year. This year, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi was chosen as one of them. Gyasi’s debut novel details the lasting effects of slavery, …
Read More "Why You Should Read Stanford’s Mandatory Reading for First Years: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi"
Who Is Malala? (And What Is She Doing Now)
In her 2013 memoir, I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai recounts the profound influence that education has had on her own life and the eventual formation of her life goal: for girls to receive education worldwide. When she was denied education …