Coffeespoons

Read: 19 June 09 5/5 stars I guess it's pretty apt that this is the first book I'm going to review after a long, unwanted blogging hiatus. My short disappearance from the blogging scene is due to only one thing--I've gone back to teaching. Theoretically speaking, of course, blogging and teaching can mix. Realistically...well, those of you who are in the business of teaching (high school, at that), know otherwise. And so, I take a break from the humdrum of my teaching life to engage in my other love--blogging. And fortuitously, this book allows me to both blog and talk about teaching. Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase is a hilarious novel about the life of an idealistic literature graduate during her first year of teaching in the public school system. And, trust me, this situation has a lot of potential for hilarity. But I've always believed that, for things to be truly comic, there must be depth and lingering pain behind it. In this respect, Up the D...