Practical Classics

""In this engaging survey of 50 books commonly assigned to teen readers, [Smokler] advocates revisiting them from an adult perspective. Even books we loved in our formative years… may have sailed right over our heads, suggests the author, who argues that only time and experience can prepare us to appreciate them fully.”-San Jose Mercury News “[F]ull of wit and candor... Putting literature to practical use is not a new invention, but what's refreshing about the practice in this light is how Smokler pits this sort of practical gifting-as-guidance against the reduction of literature to ‘a letter grade and a dusty old obligation.'”-Fiction Writers Review “[S]o much fun…[It] offers a truly enjoyable trip down one's personal memory lane of books. It's also a love letter to the act of reading, to continual learning, and to making an effort to slow down and savor the good books in life.”-The Atlantic Wire "YA's for Adults” column, with interview “If you have been thinking about revisiting the books of your youth or those you have promised yourself to read, but haven't, this entertaining book provides practical, real-world reasons by you should read them.”-Bookviews by Alan Caruba “[A] fine guide for any adult reader who would return to the classics with a different perspective in mind.”-The Bookwatch “In the short and beguilingly engaging essays that make up Practical Classics, Smokler shows how these works can be relevant and even useful to grownups. Most impressively, he manages to pull this off without sounding stuffy or self-important.”-The Rumpus“Possibly the first self-help book to use literature as its prescription, Practical Classics serves as a primer for personal development, demonstrating how one may apply various literary tinctures to the more troublesome areas of the Human Condition.... [Smokler] holds forth with confidence and a good slathering of wit about coping with our common, human plight.”-Austin Chronicle