Author Name:

Author Description A word about my Goodreads Ratings before I get down to my bio: I believe very much that we should be using the full range of five stars in our reviews. I generally rate on the idea I read somewhere that made the point that we should re-read truly great literature four times in our lifetimes -- as a child, as a young adult, in middle age and in old age. <br /><br />I use this rating premise heavily when it comes to fiction books. I'm much less strict when it comes to academic books as I consult even the worst ones pretty frequently. <br /><br />So my general ratings for fiction with adjectives are as follows:<br />★ = Did not finish, terrible, awful, not great. Would not read again. Generic, predictable, or trashy. <br /><br />★★ = Most likely finished. Not awful, wouldn't recommend to a friend, read this because it was in a series, or was disappointed by the development, book had some uniqueness but was otherwise generic af. <br /><br />★★★ = Average rating for a book. Would probably recommend to a friend interested in the topic or the genre. Would not read again. Finished, book had some unique ideas but have seen ideas or plot elsewhere, obvious development, a good example of it's genre without boundary-breaking. <br /><br />★★★★ = Really excellent. Might read again depending on what it is, good book in a phenomenal series or the best book in a okay or good series. Boundary-breaking, unique ideas, totally unexpected plot, good sense of humor, smart or wise. Definitely recommend to a friend or defend book on its merits. <br /><br />★★★★★ = Phenomenal. Life changing, will definitely or already have read multiple times. Stuck on the edge of the seat, huge emotional impact, could not put down. Deeply soul questioning, totally unique, genre game-changer. Would recommend to a friend regardless of their interest. Would judge a person based on their opinion of the book. <br /><br />I'm a historian of pornography and obscenity, focusing primarily on 1750-1850, but ongoing research from late medieval/early modern to Hollywood. <br /><br />When I was young and friendless, struggling with learning how to speak, reacquiring language after getting hearing aids, a teacher did the kindest thing possible for a lonely and withdrawn child: she took me on her own time to the local library, sat me down and helped me find a book I would enjoy. That single event, and the book I read, forever determined the course of my life, spent among books. Since that time, all I wanted to do was to teach—to take things I had discovered and share them with other people, to explain how and why things were the way that they were, to be the ‘keeper of myths’ as Karl Becker put it. <br /><br /><br />As a result, after high school I started with a teaching degree with additional majors in History and English at Keene State College. After becoming more familiar with K-12 teaching, I decided that I wanted to teach at the college level, and dropped the teaching degree. Despite that, throughout my undergrad I sought diverse academic experiences, and took courses from a wide variety of critical disciplines in order to broaden my perspective as an educator and an individual. The desire to research at a higher level led me to pursue a M.A. at Drew University in History & Culture, an interdisciplinary degree that emphasized engagement with a wide range of perspectives and research<br /><br /><br /><br />While at Drew, I focused especially on History of the Book and History of Sexuality—two fields that drew on my preexisting interest in the history of censorship—as to why certain books or texts are banned, censored or destroyed at certain times. Drawing on this, my 2013 M.A. thesis for Drew University, led by Dr. Jonathan Rose (founder of Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) _Society, Vice, and Suppression: The Historical Creation of Pornography in England, 1750-1850_ won the New Jersey David Kohn Award in Close Textual Reading for the most original and best-written thesis. <br /><br /><br />Happy at the reception my thesis had received, I decided to exp

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