The Best Lesson Series: Literature

The Best Lesson Series: Literature

Author: Brian Sztabnik

Publisher:

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780692531556

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We are all searching for new ideas and new possibilities for our classrooms. The Best Lesson Series: Literature offers 15 remarkable lessons from master teachers that will increase student engagement, boost their appreciation of literature, and transform your classroom into a place of discovery and deep critical thinking. Our Best Ideas Become Your Best Lessons: 15 Master Teachers -- Veteran instructors, inspirational teacher-authors, and national award winners share their favorite literature plans. Step-by-Step Instructions -- We are not fans of jargon. Each teacher guide you through their plan with clarity while offering options for differentiation. Each lesson is easy to understand and easy to implement. Handouts Included -- Each chapter includes links to free literature, online articles, and expertly crafted handouts that are ready to go. "The Best Lesson Series is a breath of fresh air and a long overdue resource for educators. Brian Sztabnik assembles a superstar lineup of master teachers, who ease readers into each lesson with a friendly backdrop--the Story Behind the Lesson--followed by a simple overview, goals, why the lesson is memorable, and more. If you're tired of last year's instruction, The Best Lesson Series: Literature is a book that is right on time." -- Mark Barnes, author of Assessment 3.0 and creator of the Hack Learning Series "All teachers want to expand their craft, but trying something new is risky. That's what makes the lessons in this volume pure gold: They have stood the test of time in classrooms of seasoned professionals. This book somehow manages to be both practical, with strategies teachers can apply immediately in their own work, and fascinating, letting us inside the minds of educators as they think deeply about how best to shape learning experiences for their students. English teachers will return to this one again and again." - Jennifer Gonzalez, NBCT in English Language Arts and Editor-in-Chief of Cult of Pedagogy


Book Synopsis The Best Lesson Series: Literature by : Brian Sztabnik

Download or read book The Best Lesson Series: Literature written by Brian Sztabnik and published by . This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are all searching for new ideas and new possibilities for our classrooms. The Best Lesson Series: Literature offers 15 remarkable lessons from master teachers that will increase student engagement, boost their appreciation of literature, and transform your classroom into a place of discovery and deep critical thinking. Our Best Ideas Become Your Best Lessons: 15 Master Teachers -- Veteran instructors, inspirational teacher-authors, and national award winners share their favorite literature plans. Step-by-Step Instructions -- We are not fans of jargon. Each teacher guide you through their plan with clarity while offering options for differentiation. Each lesson is easy to understand and easy to implement. Handouts Included -- Each chapter includes links to free literature, online articles, and expertly crafted handouts that are ready to go. "The Best Lesson Series is a breath of fresh air and a long overdue resource for educators. Brian Sztabnik assembles a superstar lineup of master teachers, who ease readers into each lesson with a friendly backdrop--the Story Behind the Lesson--followed by a simple overview, goals, why the lesson is memorable, and more. If you're tired of last year's instruction, The Best Lesson Series: Literature is a book that is right on time." -- Mark Barnes, author of Assessment 3.0 and creator of the Hack Learning Series "All teachers want to expand their craft, but trying something new is risky. That's what makes the lessons in this volume pure gold: They have stood the test of time in classrooms of seasoned professionals. This book somehow manages to be both practical, with strategies teachers can apply immediately in their own work, and fascinating, letting us inside the minds of educators as they think deeply about how best to shape learning experiences for their students. English teachers will return to this one again and again." - Jennifer Gonzalez, NBCT in English Language Arts and Editor-in-Chief of Cult of Pedagogy

The Best Lesson Series: Writing

The Best Lesson Series: Writing

Author: Brian Sztabnik

Publisher:

Published: 2018-09-03

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 9781726265621

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The finest teachers share their most effective lessons. The Best Lesson Series: Writing offers 15 remarkable lessons from master teachers that will increase student engagement, boost their writing skills, and transform your classroom into a place of where students love to express themselves and their ideas through writing. Our Best Ideas Become Your Best Lessons: 15 Master Teachers -- Veteran instructors, inspirational teacher-authors, and national award winners share their most effective writing ideas.Step-by-Step Instructions -- We are not fans of jargon. Each teacher guides you through their lesson plan with clarity while offering options for differentiation. Each lesson is easy to understand and easy to implement.Handouts Included -- Each chapter includes links to resources, online articles, and expertly crafted handouts that are ready to go for you classroom.


Book Synopsis The Best Lesson Series: Writing by : Brian Sztabnik

Download or read book The Best Lesson Series: Writing written by Brian Sztabnik and published by . This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The finest teachers share their most effective lessons. The Best Lesson Series: Writing offers 15 remarkable lessons from master teachers that will increase student engagement, boost their writing skills, and transform your classroom into a place of where students love to express themselves and their ideas through writing. Our Best Ideas Become Your Best Lessons: 15 Master Teachers -- Veteran instructors, inspirational teacher-authors, and national award winners share their most effective writing ideas.Step-by-Step Instructions -- We are not fans of jargon. Each teacher guides you through their lesson plan with clarity while offering options for differentiation. Each lesson is easy to understand and easy to implement.Handouts Included -- Each chapter includes links to resources, online articles, and expertly crafted handouts that are ready to go for you classroom.

Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie

Author: Mitch Albom

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2007-06-29

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0307414094

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A special 25th anniversary edition of the beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief—featuring a new afterword by the author “A wonderful book, a story of the heart told by a writer with soul.”—Los Angeles Times “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live. “The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.


Book Synopsis Tuesdays with Morrie by : Mitch Albom

Download or read book Tuesdays with Morrie written by Mitch Albom and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-06-29 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A special 25th anniversary edition of the beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief—featuring a new afterword by the author “A wonderful book, a story of the heart told by a writer with soul.”—Los Angeles Times “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live. “The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.

The War Within

The War Within

Author: Carol Matas

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 0689829353

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In 1862, after Union forces expel Hannah's family from Holly Springs, Mississippi, because they are Jews, Hannah reexamines her views regarding slavery and the war.


Book Synopsis The War Within by : Carol Matas

Download or read book The War Within written by Carol Matas and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1862, after Union forces expel Hannah's family from Holly Springs, Mississippi, because they are Jews, Hannah reexamines her views regarding slavery and the war.

The Anna Karenina Fix

The Anna Karenina Fix

Author: Viv Groskop

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2018-10-23

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1683353447

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“In this hilarious, candid, and thought-provoking memoir, [Groskop] explains how she used lessons from Russian classics to understand herself better.” —Gretchen Rubin, #1 New York Times–bestselling author As Viv Groskop knows from personal experience, everything that has ever happened to a person has already happened in the Russian classics: from not being sure what to do with your life (Anna Karenina), to being hopelessly in love with someone who doesn’t love you back (Turgenev’s A Month in the Country), or being socially anxious about your appearance (all of Chekhov’s work). In The Anna Karenina Fix, a sort of literary self-help memoir, Groskop mines these and other works, as well as the lives of their celebrated creators, and her own experiences as a student of Russian, to answer the question “How should you live your life?” This is a charming and fiercely intelligent book, a love letter to Russian literature and an exploration of the answers these writers found to life’s questions. “[Groskop is] a delight, a reader’s reader whose professional and personal experiences have allowed her to write the kind of book that not only is complete unto itself, but makes you want to head to the library and revisit or discover the great works she loves.” —The Washington Post “Learn how to hack life nineteenth-century Russian style! You’ll totally be like Anna Karenina without getting (spoiler alert) run over by a train!” —Gary Shteyngart, New York Times-bestselling author “For anyone intimidated by Russia’s daunting literary heritage, this humorous yet thoughtful introduction will serve as the perfect entrée.” —Publishers Weekly


Book Synopsis The Anna Karenina Fix by : Viv Groskop

Download or read book The Anna Karenina Fix written by Viv Groskop and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In this hilarious, candid, and thought-provoking memoir, [Groskop] explains how she used lessons from Russian classics to understand herself better.” —Gretchen Rubin, #1 New York Times–bestselling author As Viv Groskop knows from personal experience, everything that has ever happened to a person has already happened in the Russian classics: from not being sure what to do with your life (Anna Karenina), to being hopelessly in love with someone who doesn’t love you back (Turgenev’s A Month in the Country), or being socially anxious about your appearance (all of Chekhov’s work). In The Anna Karenina Fix, a sort of literary self-help memoir, Groskop mines these and other works, as well as the lives of their celebrated creators, and her own experiences as a student of Russian, to answer the question “How should you live your life?” This is a charming and fiercely intelligent book, a love letter to Russian literature and an exploration of the answers these writers found to life’s questions. “[Groskop is] a delight, a reader’s reader whose professional and personal experiences have allowed her to write the kind of book that not only is complete unto itself, but makes you want to head to the library and revisit or discover the great works she loves.” —The Washington Post “Learn how to hack life nineteenth-century Russian style! You’ll totally be like Anna Karenina without getting (spoiler alert) run over by a train!” —Gary Shteyngart, New York Times-bestselling author “For anyone intimidated by Russia’s daunting literary heritage, this humorous yet thoughtful introduction will serve as the perfect entrée.” —Publishers Weekly

Think Like Socrates

Think Like Socrates

Author: Shanna Peeples

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2018-08-16

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 150639163X

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The key to creating wonder and empathy in class? Questions! Socrates believed in the power of questions rather than the efficiency of lecturing his students. And yet, if we revere Socrates as one of the greatest teachers in history, how did we get so far away from his method of inquiry? Shanna Peeples, 2015 National Teacher of the Year, is here to flip the script and show you how teachers can create a welcoming and engaging atmosphere that encourages student questions and honors their experiences. This resource provides Practical strategies for creating a classroom that runs on dialogue, curiosity, inquiry, and respect An enhancement to your existing curriculum, regardless of content area or grade level, with examples and advice from award-winning teachers Questions of increasing depth paired with sample texts to increase student engagement with your content Step-by-step lessons for generating and using students’ questions as a way of assessing their thinking, and helping them guide that thinking into new learning aligned to state standards Lesson extensions for English language learners, special education students, and gifted and talented students Writing suggestions, in-class debate questions, and scoring rubrics for each content area Recommended multimedia texts grouped by big questions Detailed protocols for using inquiry with adults as a base for Professional Learning Communities, for guiding staff meetings, and for creating inquiry groups around common areas of practice Your students’ deepest wonderings can point toward learning experiences that allow them to practice the work of citizenship grounded in empathy. Let the questions begin!


Book Synopsis Think Like Socrates by : Shanna Peeples

Download or read book Think Like Socrates written by Shanna Peeples and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The key to creating wonder and empathy in class? Questions! Socrates believed in the power of questions rather than the efficiency of lecturing his students. And yet, if we revere Socrates as one of the greatest teachers in history, how did we get so far away from his method of inquiry? Shanna Peeples, 2015 National Teacher of the Year, is here to flip the script and show you how teachers can create a welcoming and engaging atmosphere that encourages student questions and honors their experiences. This resource provides Practical strategies for creating a classroom that runs on dialogue, curiosity, inquiry, and respect An enhancement to your existing curriculum, regardless of content area or grade level, with examples and advice from award-winning teachers Questions of increasing depth paired with sample texts to increase student engagement with your content Step-by-step lessons for generating and using students’ questions as a way of assessing their thinking, and helping them guide that thinking into new learning aligned to state standards Lesson extensions for English language learners, special education students, and gifted and talented students Writing suggestions, in-class debate questions, and scoring rubrics for each content area Recommended multimedia texts grouped by big questions Detailed protocols for using inquiry with adults as a base for Professional Learning Communities, for guiding staff meetings, and for creating inquiry groups around common areas of practice Your students’ deepest wonderings can point toward learning experiences that allow them to practice the work of citizenship grounded in empathy. Let the questions begin!

What the Best College Teachers Do

What the Best College Teachers Do

Author: Ken Bain

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-09-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0674065549

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What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators. The short answer is—it’s not what teachers do, it’s what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out—but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn. In stories both humorous and touching, Ken Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students’ discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential. What the Best College Teachers Do is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration for first-year teachers and seasoned educators.


Book Synopsis What the Best College Teachers Do by : Ken Bain

Download or read book What the Best College Teachers Do written by Ken Bain and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators. The short answer is—it’s not what teachers do, it’s what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out—but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn. In stories both humorous and touching, Ken Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students’ discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential. What the Best College Teachers Do is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration for first-year teachers and seasoned educators.

The Best Story

The Best Story

Author: Eileen Spinelli

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2008-05-29

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 1101646802

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The best story is one that comes from the heart. The library is having a contest for the best story, and the quirky narrator of this book just has to win that rollercoaster ride with her favorite author! But what makes a story the best? Her brother Tim says the best stories have lots of action. Her father thinks the best stories are the funniest. And Aunt Jane tells her that the best stories have to make people cry. A story that does all these things doesn't seem quite right, though, and the one thing the whole family can agree on is that the best story has to be your own. Anne Wilsdorf's hilarious illustrations perfectly capture this colorful family and their outrageous stories in Eileen Spinelli's heartfelt tale about creativity and finding your own voice.


Book Synopsis The Best Story by : Eileen Spinelli

Download or read book The Best Story written by Eileen Spinelli and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-05-29 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best story is one that comes from the heart. The library is having a contest for the best story, and the quirky narrator of this book just has to win that rollercoaster ride with her favorite author! But what makes a story the best? Her brother Tim says the best stories have lots of action. Her father thinks the best stories are the funniest. And Aunt Jane tells her that the best stories have to make people cry. A story that does all these things doesn't seem quite right, though, and the one thing the whole family can agree on is that the best story has to be your own. Anne Wilsdorf's hilarious illustrations perfectly capture this colorful family and their outrageous stories in Eileen Spinelli's heartfelt tale about creativity and finding your own voice.

The Poetry Lesson

The Poetry Lesson

Author: Andrei Codrescu

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-12-11

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 0691178054

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"Intro to Poetry Writing is always like this: a long labor, a breech birth, or, obversely, mining in the dark. You take healthy young Americans used to sunshine (aided sometimes by Xanax and Adderall), you blindfold them and lead them by the hand into a labyrinth made from bones. Then you tell them their assignment: 'Find the Grail. You have a New York minute to get it.'"--The Poetry Lesson The Poetry Lesson is a hilarious account of the first day of a creative writing course taught by a "typical fin-de-siècle salaried beatnik"--one with an antic imagination, an outsized personality and libido, and an endless store of entertaining literary anecdotes, reliable or otherwise. Neither a novel nor a memoir but mimicking aspects of each, The Poetry Lesson is pure Andrei Codrescu: irreverent, unconventional, brilliant, and always funny. Codrescu takes readers into the strange classroom and even stranger mind of a poet and English professor on the eve of retirement as he begins to teach his final semester of Intro to Poetry Writing. As he introduces his students to THE TOOLS OF POETRY (a list that includes a goatskin dream notebook, hypnosis, and cable TV) and THE TEN MUSES OF POETRY (mishearing, misunderstanding, mistranslating . . . ), and assigns each of them a tutelary "Ghost-Companion" poet, the teacher recalls wild tales from his coming of age as a poet in the 1960s and 1970s, even as he speculates about the lives and poetic and sexual potential of his twenty-first-century students. From arguing that Allen Ginsberg wasn't actually gay to telling about the time William Burroughs's funeral procession stopped at McDonald's, The Poetry Lesson is a thoroughly entertaining portrait of an inimitable poet, teacher, and storyteller.


Book Synopsis The Poetry Lesson by : Andrei Codrescu

Download or read book The Poetry Lesson written by Andrei Codrescu and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-11 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Intro to Poetry Writing is always like this: a long labor, a breech birth, or, obversely, mining in the dark. You take healthy young Americans used to sunshine (aided sometimes by Xanax and Adderall), you blindfold them and lead them by the hand into a labyrinth made from bones. Then you tell them their assignment: 'Find the Grail. You have a New York minute to get it.'"--The Poetry Lesson The Poetry Lesson is a hilarious account of the first day of a creative writing course taught by a "typical fin-de-siècle salaried beatnik"--one with an antic imagination, an outsized personality and libido, and an endless store of entertaining literary anecdotes, reliable or otherwise. Neither a novel nor a memoir but mimicking aspects of each, The Poetry Lesson is pure Andrei Codrescu: irreverent, unconventional, brilliant, and always funny. Codrescu takes readers into the strange classroom and even stranger mind of a poet and English professor on the eve of retirement as he begins to teach his final semester of Intro to Poetry Writing. As he introduces his students to THE TOOLS OF POETRY (a list that includes a goatskin dream notebook, hypnosis, and cable TV) and THE TEN MUSES OF POETRY (mishearing, misunderstanding, mistranslating . . . ), and assigns each of them a tutelary "Ghost-Companion" poet, the teacher recalls wild tales from his coming of age as a poet in the 1960s and 1970s, even as he speculates about the lives and poetic and sexual potential of his twenty-first-century students. From arguing that Allen Ginsberg wasn't actually gay to telling about the time William Burroughs's funeral procession stopped at McDonald's, The Poetry Lesson is a thoroughly entertaining portrait of an inimitable poet, teacher, and storyteller.

Lessons

Lessons

Author: Ian McEwan

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2022-09-13

Total Pages: 495

ISBN-13: 0593535219

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NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A NEW YORKER ESSENTIAL READ • From the best-selling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Vogue • The New Yorker “Masterful.... McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers…. One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland’s biography…. The pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you.” —Associated Press When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life. Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past? Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.


Book Synopsis Lessons by : Ian McEwan

Download or read book Lessons written by Ian McEwan and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A NEW YORKER ESSENTIAL READ • From the best-selling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Vogue • The New Yorker “Masterful.... McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers…. One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland’s biography…. The pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you.” —Associated Press When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life. Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past? Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.