Themed Recommendation List: Cultural Memory

One of my favorite by-products of Themed Readings, is when a series of books align on an idea I’d never even considered before, creating a through-line that is resonant and significant, but had since gone unnoticed. My best example of this was when I started considering the implications of ‘cultural memory.’ I hadn’t thought about

Themed Recommendation List: 60’s California Drug Culture

As any good nerd, I find unmatched joy in making rich connections between the many media I may be consuming at any time. My usual routine is to be reading a fiction book, listening to a nonfiction book, watching a television show throughout the week, and spending time catching up on movies over the weekend.

Collective Memory: [The Giver] And Literature For Our Youth

Weird life announcement: I just read The Giver for the first time. It was as delightful as I expected for a book that is so widely read and regarded (except for the number one review on GoodReads and the psychopath who wrote it).  My initial take is that this is what more Young Adult literature should be-

Book List For Young Readers: Nurturing Literacy In Our Youth

I had a tentative relationship with reading as a middle school and high school boy. I loved it. It was my favorite hobby, a task where I did not need to be physically active or socially adept- admittedly not a great reason to recede into a book, but a common one nonetheless. But loving an

If Rabbit Was Alive Today [The Rabbit Angstrom Series by John Updike]

Rabbit Angstrom became the de-facto American perspective in the literary world from 1960-1990 because of John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom Series, in which he wrote another installation at the end of every decade that served as a summary of the previous decade and a look forward towards the next. I was not actively reading these books as

Noteworthy Book-Movie Adaptations

This isn’t a list of the best book-movie adaptations, or a list of movies that are better than the books or vice-versa. I just think these are some of the most interesting combinations of film and writing that I have come across and of which I have something to say.  Jurassic Park Whenever I get

Empathy Through Reading: Recommendations During Racial Unrest

“Many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we