An Amazing Online Book Club

Did you read classic literature when you were in school? Most of us didn't. 

If you've ever wanted to remedy that, but you've had a hard time following through, I'm writing to you today with a solution: Read With Me.

Read With Me is an online book club started by Lisa VanDamme, the most passionate teacher of literature I've ever met. I've had the good fortune of studying literature with Lisa in person, and because of her lessons, I've come to enjoy reading much more than I ever did before. Lisa's enthusiasm is contagious. 

Here's the link: https://readwithmesalon.com

Lisa is the founder of a K-12 school in California. She is also the literature and grammar teacher! I interviewed Lisa a few years ago, and I think it's fitting to include part of that interview here. 

If you could be transplanted into the world of any novel, what would it be and why?

If I could be transplanted into the universe of a novel, it would be a Victor Hugo novel - any Victor Hugo novel.

Victor Hugo has a deep and constant reverence for the human spirit. His characters exemplify man's greatest potential: they are intensely passionate, thoughtful, driven, uncompromising valuers. From a soldier who will face almost certain death in defense of his deeply-held political convictions, to a desperate mother who will sell her hair, her teeth, her virtue to provide for a beloved daughter, to a general who will walk into a raging fire to rescue the three helpless children of a mortal enemy. His stories, his characters, his view of man and life are grand.

It is this reverence for the human potential that I seek to inculcate in my own students, by exposing them to the epic achievements of history, the crucial advancements in science, and the classics of literature, and by providing them with the skills they need (clarity of thought foremost among them) to achieve their own ambitions. So, toward that end—here’s to a grammar revolution.

You now have the opportunity to experience the universe of two of Victor Hugo's novels within the Read With Me App: Ninety-Three and Notre-Dame de Paris. Enjoy!