Browse Exhibits (3 total)

Book reviews: The Good, The Bad & The Mediocre

There is nothing quite like finishing a book. One has either sped through it because they absolutely loved it or crawled through it because each page was a laborious effort. Either way when someone finishes a book, they have some thoughts. They can express those thoughts in a mad rant to their friends which may go something like "I can't believe I just wasted my brain power on that!" or "My gosh, you MUST read this book, I will lend you my copy." Other times an exasperated "well I guess that was alright" will suffice.

Another way to express these post-read-thoughts is to turn to the site Good Reads. The site is a staple in the literary community. It can be thought of as a discourse community or “a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated” (Porter 38). On Good Reads people can read and write reviews. Readers can rate the book on a scale of one to five and leave a review. Some reviews are several hundred words, others just shy of a hundred.

This exhibit is a deep dive into the minds of readers who have just finished a book. Emotions such as enthusiasm, frustration, annoyance, resentment, and deep joy can be felt while reading these reviews. The exhibit has been divided into three parts: The Good, The Bad & The Mediocre. It shows the different ways people can process literary works in drastically diverse lights.
These reviews are always personal and never boring. They are artifacts that could be easily overlooked, unless someone wants an outside opinion before buying a book. But when they are looked at objectively, these reviews garner a lot of meaning. They are a form of social participation driven by peoples’ everyday needs and interests (Lillis 77).They are a small peak into the practice of everyday writing.

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Casserole Recipes

As the weather turns cooler and the holiday season approaches, there's one dish that I start to crave: casserole. While my mother’s squash casserole is my favorite (a staple at our Thanksgiving table), I rarely encounter a casserole that I will not try. There’s something about the homemade, hot dish that strikes me as the epitome of comfort cooking. As I thought about the casserole recipes I might make this year, I began to wonder about the history of the casserole. When and where did the dish originate? How did it come to be an American culinary staple?  In looking at recipes, we might begin to better understand the iconic place of the humble casserole. To that end, this exhibit showcases a variety of casserole recipes composed and shared by everyday people.

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Annotated Elementary Books

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"Our fingerprints never fade from the lives we touch." But what about our words? Better yet, what about our annotations. We use annotations in literature to highlight important concepts, ideas, beliefs, and values. The give a subject perspective into reading. This exhibit gives further insight into the annotations of young elementary schoolers from Barbara Skulszki's class.

Annotations are important in everyday life to help you correctly and coherently understand books. Harvard library regards this in the statement “Annotating puts you actively and immediately in a ‘dialogue’ with an author and the issues and ideas you encounter in a written text. It's also a way to have an ongoing conversation with yourself as you move through the text and to record what that encounter was like for you.” Annotations are more than a way to remember a sentence or phrase, annotations help you live through the book.

This exhibit focuses on annotation: a note added by way of comment or explanation. This exhibit is based on everyday writing in books. It focuses on select students from an Elementary school. Annotations are subjective, they are your interpretation of a story and can range from doodles to words that help you understand the story better. 

In gradeschool we were always taught never to write in books. They were considered property and it was shuned upon to "destroy" someone else's property. This exhibit shy's away from that steroype and promotes gradeschool children to annotate books. 

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