Jenna Sauber

Emerson. Thoreau. Longfellow. Hawthorne. James. Alcott. These names bring to mind classic American literature and poetry, long a staple of high school curriculum and dusty library bookshelves. If you haven’t heard of Walden, Little Women, Paul Revere’s Ride, or The Scarlet Letter, you might have missed a few English classes. These authors are considered to be some of the founders of American literature – and they made Boston, Massachusetts, a hub of culture, art, and high-minded thinking in the mid-1800s.

Nearly a year before Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman was released in July 2015, the book world was abuzz with anticipation and speculation. To Kill a Mockingbird was 55 years old, and most people thought the elderly invalid author was a ‘one-hit wonder.’ The ongoing soap opera about the journey to publication of the “newly discovered” manuscript for a TKAM prequel/ first draft compounded expectations.

My introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder was a used copy of The Long Winter when I was seven or eight years old. I immediately fell in love with the Ingalls family story of pioneer life in the late 1800s. More than 20 years later, that book is a bit more worn, and I proudly consider LIW one of my favorite authors. Like millions of fans around the world, I’ve repeatedly read all of Wilder’s Little House books and seen the TV series. So why does a story about a family traveling west in a covered...

In the middle of summer on the beautiful campus of Dominican University in Oak Park, Ill., there was a lot of talk of icebergs. But it wasn’t because people wanted to cool off – it was because more than 300 people from 18 countries had gathered for the 17th Biennial International Hemingway Society Conference (co-hosted by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, an American Writers Museum affiliate) to celebrate the work of one of America’s greatest authors known for the hidden depth of h...

If you haven’t heard about the little show about a Founding Father that started out as a hip-hop mixtape and became a Broadway sensation, then you’ve been holed up in the library for too long.

When we are young, our diaries and journals are filled with the silly and the dramatic, heartbreak and humor. Our letters to pen pals and grandmothers are much of the same, recounting our adventures and missed opportunities, sharing our crushes and cringe-worthy moments.

We are living in an age where female friendship is “in” – between Taylor Swift’s squad of celebrity gal pals and Lena Dunham’s acclaimed TV show “Girls,” to the legions of Millennial women who idolized four fabulous friends on “Sex & the City” – it’s everywhere you look.

I am someone who is always buying new books or asking for them at birthdays and Christmas, even though I have dozens on my shelves still unread. I check out books from the library, subscribe to a monthly book club, and download eBooks.

As a kid reading some of my favorite books, I yearned not only the clothing or culture of the characters, but I also craved their food and drink. Who wouldn’t want to try Caroline Ingalls’ sourdough biscuits or a taste of her ginger water during chores on a hot summer day?

The controversial and historic election of reality star and billionaire businessman Donald Trump to the American presidency has inspired an ongoing wave of activism and resistance throughout the country, on everything from immigration and the environment to women’s rights and higher education.