Pål Hernes Fiva

Both inspiring and haunting.

Strong finish redeems it to a point, but far too long.

“I always thought clichés got a bum rap. Because, often, they're dead-on. But the aptness of the clichéd saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliché.”

Boring. Flat language and characters. Repetitious. Contrived. Generic.

I wanted something easy and entertaining and this delivered. A tad too predictable. YA.

entertaining, light read. Really silly.

More of a recap of the most important plot-lines, adding some useful historical references.

Entertaining story, with some emotional depth and some belaboured writing.

Anecdotal, shallow and unfunny.

Page upon page of vainglorious whining. Wasn't aware that the author was so young when she wrote it, but it makes the melodrama more understandable. Utter crud.

Boring, shallow and repetitive. Spends too much time using DFW as a sort of straw-man cod-philosopher, and returns to the same examples over, and over again.

Broad, but for the most part sufficiently deep. Only exception was the discussion on the difference between American and Asian culture(s), which I found too anecdotal and superficial to be of any interest.

Some ideas will influence my thinking in my job as a teacher: both overall concepts, such as high vs low sensitivity, to specific advice, such as how to organise group discussions.

As with many similar issues: Adapting classes to fit more types of students also increases the quality of the class for all students.