Ashley D. Black is an assistant professor of English Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. A native Alabamian, she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Education at Troy University and a Ph.D. at the University of Alabama in Secondary Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning. Although she is living in the Midwest, she will […]
Archives for August 2017
“Riding on Comets,” by Cat Pleska
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Though her family was hardly perfect, Cat Pleska leaves readers feeling uplifted rather than grungy from being dragged through the dirty laundry in her memoir, Riding on Comets. In part, the warm tone results because she never doubted that her parents wanted the best for her. Without words, they implied that she […]
“Crum,” by Lee Maynard
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Even though the West Virginia town I grew up in is nothing—nothing—like the town of 219 residents Lee Maynard describes in his 1988 novel Crum, I related strongly to this coming-of-age story. The novel is now, deservedly, in its third printing through Vandalia/WVU Press. It is the first volume of a […]