“…mobile consumers now spend an average of two hours and fifty-seven minutes each day on mobile devices.” Waiting in line to check out? Fire up Candy Crush. On your commute? Get caught up on blogs or YouTube vids. One laaaast round of checks on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter before the theater darkens for the movie previews. (And then another check when the lights come up to catch what you missed.) We have the option to never, ever be bored. There’s always something, somewhere willing to […]
Needs more rockets, metaphorically and literally
The blurb on this one promised big things, comparing this novel to the works of Penny Reid, Sally Thorne, and Jennifer Crusie. I’m not entirely sure it lives up to that hype. The story starts strong. Jeremy aids Melody in getting out of a bad flirtation in a bar and the two hit it off, despite having nothing in common except instalust. And the instalust! The part where Jeremy growls during their first encounter? Yes. There. Do that. Yes. Please. After their hot one-night stand […]
What if the reason your ex is an ex is stupid?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride & Prejudice doesn’t update terribly well–it’s so hard to know what to do with Lydia, and marriage does not occupy the same place in society it once did. In The One That Got Away, Melissa Pimentel makes a solid argument that Persuasion might be the Austen work which best survives a contemporary setting. It is perhaps an evergreen notion: the rekindling of a youthful infatuation given up due to peer pressure. Ruby Atlas is thrown into the […]
Graduation gift for every kid you know (and maybe their parents)
George Anders undertakes a difficult task in You Can Do Anything: he offers hope and advice to liberal arts majors. (Whether it works on their parents is another matter.) As college tuition has taken off, parents and students have become increasingly concerned about the return on investment. Thousands of students head to campuses each fall having heard some version of The Talk: major in something tech-related so you can have a job after school. Parents wring their hands about their sophomore philosophy major at Oberlin, […]