Sometimes I wonder how much the liking of a book is tied to the time when you first read it. I wonder if I would still love some of the novels I first read in high school as much as I do if I’d been older and had a more developed critical eye than I did then. I started reading the Twilight series in the wake of a bad breakup, and I remain fond of the series (especially the breakup arc in New Moon) despite […]
Some Classics Are Classic For A Reason
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In today’s world, it’s ground zero of the hipster renaissance. It’s more expensive to live in Brooklyn lately than it is to live in Manhattan. But it wasn’t always that way. A century ago, when A Tree Grows in Brooklyn takes place, Williamsburg was where the immigrants and/or poor people lived. People like Francie Nolan and her family. If you’re a fan of plot-driven novels, this probably isn’t going to be the book for you. Nothing much really happens…two young people, the children […]
What’s In A Name?
One of the quirks I’ve noticed since I’ve been living in Nevada is how proud people are of how long their family has been in Nevada. If someone is a third, fourth, or fifth generation Nevadan, that will be one of the first things out of their mouths when they meet you. Growing up in Michigan, I never heard someone proudly call themselves a third-generation Michigander. It never would have occurred to anyone to say. Part of it, I think, is the immigrant culture of […]
The Specialest Snowflake
For some reason, Moby-Dick has gotten a reputation as a boring slog of a book. That’s what I had in my head before I read it last year, anyways, and was delighted to be proven wrong. It’s actually both lively and informative, full of adventure and interesting facts about whaling in the olden days of yore. And while our narrator, Ishmael, is a bit of a cipher, Captain Ahab is one of the most memorable characters in literature, with his ivory false leg and burning […]