Recommended Readings

1/24/2017

What have you read of late that you would recommend to us. Write a short review.

1/24/2017 12:47:02 pm

I would recommend that any poetry by T.S Eliot. He is a Modernist that writes with such beauty and yet still manages to leave his readers depressed at the end of his works, which in my opinion, is magnificent. Try reading "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by him, it is one of my favorites.

Elizabeth Hickey

1/24/2017 03:29:50 pm

I recently read Seeker, a young adult fiction novel by Arwen Elys Dayton. It was something I picked up off the shelves at Barnes and Nobel, which is something I never do. Typically, I go in there on a mission, leaving with only the books I need. Seeker is part of a series and is going to be made into a movie, which is what initially caught my interest. If you've read the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, this book is very similar. The book centers itself around a “race” of people who are sworn protectors of humanity called Seekers. They are unknown by anyone except those that are in training to be one. In a remote Scottish village, a girl named Quin and her two friends, Shinobu and John, are training to become Seekers. They soon realize that being a Seeker is not what they always believed it to be as they are forced to perform unsavory acts for the sake of wealth. The real drive of the story is the conflict that arises as Quin, John, and Shinobu seek to reform the system. Characters struggle with real-life situations on top of some of the more fantastical conflicts. Characters struggle to cope with committing murder, one struggles to escape the grips of their abusive father, and another struggles with drug addiction. The characters’ struggles give them depth, which makes the book even more interesting. I find that much of young adult fiction lacks depth, but this story surprised me. However, it does contain some common tropes of YA fiction, such a confused love triangle. Scottish culture redeems much of the repetitiveness inherent to young adult fiction with castles, swords, and creepy, silent overseers of the Seekers. It’s a quick read and the chapters are relatively short, so I found myself reading it on my commute to work, in waiting rooms, etc. If you’re one of those people who read in short bursts such as I do, this has a great format for that lifestyle. Overall, I would recommend this to someone who can look past the tropes of young adult fiction and enjoys a kind of dystopian/fantasy novel.

Lindsay Gurka

1/25/2017 01:30:44 pm

Dark Lies the Island by Kevin Barry, is a fantastic book of short stories. As I read, I could actually hear his voice, accent, the emphasis on certain words, the sarcasm and the punchlines to the jokes. The story, Wifey Redux, was my absolute favorite as I laughed incredibly hard through most of it. Having read some interviews with Barry, I found I just like his style of being. He disconnects from the internet, he stays consistent with his writing and he has some pretty fantastic thoughts into finding your own voice and what literature functions as. "Literature above all is a mode of transport. It lifts you up out of whatever situation you’re in and it puts you down somewhere else.", he said in an interview with The Paris Review, and I think that's exactly what his stories do. I find myself involved, walking around alongside the characters and feeling what they're feeling.

Melissa Blood

1/25/2017 04:37:22 pm

ROOM by Emma Donoghue is absolutely amazing! I do know they made a movie out of it, but honestly it was a much better read. It's about 5 year old Jack and Ma who are held hostage in ROOM. You see the story through Jack's eyes and follow him and Ma on their quest to escape. I highly recommend this story. If you rather poetry I would suggest Yeats, Poe, or Frost. They are my favorites each one is vastly different from the next but enjoyable and enlightening to read.

Mitchell Reid

1/26/2017 07:59:26 am

I'd recommend the poetry by William Butler Yeats. He was at the forefront of the modernist movement. His poetry has the depth of his contemporaries of the 20th century, and this romantic flair of Shelley. He is really a perfect blend of my favorite styles of poetry and his use of symbolism is really inspiring and beautiful. Look up the poem "The Cap and Bells".

Kaleigh Longe

1/26/2017 08:57:28 am

I would recommend the novel Every Day by David Levithan. I would place it in the magical realism genre. It is a fantastic story about a soul that is doomed to bounce from body to body each day, inhabiting the body of a regular person for 24 hours. It's a little hard to really explain the concept, but it's incredibly interesting to see how the main character deals with his short forays into these stranger's lives, and how he views their struggles. It is also beautifully written in a way that makes you go "I wish I had written that"

Elliot McBride

2/4/2017 09:49:28 pm

I read Every Day by David Levithan, and it was awesome! Definitely a page turner, so I recommend it as well! Another book that I recommend is The Girl on the Train. It was on the New York Times Best Sellers list for awhile (I'm not sure if it still is) and was recently made into a movie. It was amazing. It's about a girl who is an alcoholic, and her ex husbands new wife goes missing. She's a suspect, and so is he. I can't give a good description, but there's multiple narrative's involved. Another book is The Good Girl by Mary Kubica, which is about a girl named Mia who goes home with a man for a one night stand, but ends up being kidnapped. It's a really suspenseful and engaging read, highly suggested!

Ryan Wentzell

2/6/2017 12:34:44 pm

I would recommend the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. If you are a fan of The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Silmarillion offers greater depth and insight on the universe and characters. It begins with the genesis story of Arda (earth) and provides the history that lead up to events in Rings. Fair warning - it can be a heavy read. Though it's under 400 pages, there's over 200 characters that span over thousands of years of history. It's tough to keep track of it at times but overall, if you're a fan of the Middle-earth series, it's worth the effort.

Matt Howard

4/6/2017 07:15:40 am

One book that I have reread recently that I really enjoyed is I am America and so can you and it is written by Stephen Colbert. It was written a few years ago and it is a little out of date but I have never laughed so much while reading a book. It is a great pick me up for when you had a bad day and you need something to pick you up I would strongly recommend this book. The first one is so good that he even wrote a second one which is just as funny. If you want a book that will make you laugh you can't go wrong with Stephen Colbert's book I am America and so can you

David Creed

5/3/2017 10:43:45 am

One book I read recently is Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf in one of my English classes. I would highly recommend this book to everyone because it gives the reader a message that many people could use nowadays. It is about a woman in a post WWII society in Britain that is surrounded by people with PTSD. She is miserable concealing her feelings within herself as she is afraid to speak up with the fear she will be judged. There is a man named Septimus who has PTSD and has reached out for help, and as a result is extremely lonely and helpless. She is afraid of becoming that, but the reality is that by concealing her feelinsg, she is isolating herself from society just as much, if not more than Septimus has. She is in a situation in which she is more miserable than Septimus and doesn't know it. I recommend this reading because it shows the reader how stressful and miserable it can be to hold in your emotions and thoughts, which is why you should always speak up if something is bothering you or affecting you in a negative fashion.

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