About Us - Jen
Instagram: @jen.loves.books / Website: jenlovesbooks.com
About Jen
While books definitely consume much of my life . . . and much of the space in my house!, I do have a few other interests. A very few. My sweet, silly boys make every day interesting for my husband and me.
Likes & Dislikes
I love . . .
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musicals, especially Hamilton and Hadestown (my most recent musical obsession).
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the National Book Festival. Best free event EVER.
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​spreadsheets (especially color-coded spreadsheets!)
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flowers and plants. (I know this is an anomaly, but I seriously do love when it's planting and landscaping time in the spring!)
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the Morning News Tournament of Books.
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stories of all sorts: books, magazines, podcasts, movies, tv shows. I'm basically a big ol' consumer of stories. Lots and lots of stories.​
I dislike . . .
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undone things, like unread stacks of books and magazines or unwatched shows on my TiVo. These things cause me serious stress (though I know it's ridiculous!).
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People magazine. I somehow had a free subscription for it and hate-read it for a year (yes, I know that's silly, but see my note about "undone" things.).
Teaching Background
After growing up in small-town WV, I attended Bridgewater College . . . and stayed put in the Shenandoah Valley. I earned my MA in English at JMU, teaching English 111 and 112 during my second year. After that, I taught English to juniors and seniors for 16 years. I then gave up my beautiful(!) classroom library to begin my new path as an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher.
In the fall of 2020, I jumped back into the classroom, and I now teach English to juniors and seniors once again!
Favorite Books & Authors
I'm guessing that all readers bemoan the difficulty of choosing our favorites here. So let me just share some that I really, really like, okay? In no particular order. Really.
​Rainbow Rowell (especially Fangirl!). F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Sarah J. Maas. Stephen King (saw him speak at the National Book Festival!). Margaret Atwood. Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain. Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Khaled Hosseini. The Harry Potter series. John Green. Hamlet. Louise Erdrich. Song of Ice and Fire series. Norman Maclean's A River Runs through It. Alice Munro. Leigh Bardugo. N. K. Jemisin.
Here's my arbitrary stopping point. Ugh. I've left out so many. :(