Reviews
&
Recommendations
Books
Memoirs of a Geisha
A beautiful, tragic tale laced with beautiful similes and metaphors. An accurate portrayal of a life of a geisha in Imperial Japan. The sadness and despair of Sayuri as she navigates through her rough upbringing and life as a Geisha can be felt through reading this book, as well as her times of happiness. The book has also been made into an amazing movie. It is, in my opinion, one of the must-read books.
-Dylan Tran '22
The Color Purple
For those who haven't watched or read The Color Purple, what are you doing? The Color Purple is a powerful, heart-wrenching epistolary novel chronicling the life of an African-American woman in the 1930s in the South. Separated from her sister, Celie writes to God every day, hoping one day she and her sister will be reunited. Her tragic life highlights the degrading role of black women in society during the 1930s and just how deplorable America was and in many ways, still is. The book has since been adapted into a beautiful film and musical. In short, The Color Purple is amazing and laudable, so read it!
-Dylan Tran '22
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
A truly heartbreaking, tear-jerking, beautiful novel. It documents a distraught father giving away one of his twins, Phoebe, who has Down syndrome, to his nurse Caroline, and living with that guilt for the rest of his life. The book took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. From Caroline's passionate zeal as she fights for Phoebe's right to attend public school, to the despair Phoebe's mother feels as she copes with her grief after losing her baby, The Memory Keeper's Daughter presents an extraordinary circumstance that no parents wish to go through. Kim Edwards' writing, filled with melodic vocabularies, similes, metaphors and more, captures the melancholy and timelessness of the novel, moving me to tears in the end.
-Dylan Tran '22
Normal People
I'm not really one for book reviews but to be blunt, this book is good. Despite its lack of quotation marks, it is a sweet, emotional, and current love story following two complex characters. When I read this over break I found myself unable to put it down, and I was definitely sad when it ended. It's a quick read and might make you cry, because I did.
-Clara Hranek '21
I agree with Clara; this novel is incredible. It follows the lives of two characters’ relationship over several years yet the fast pace of the novel encourages readers to zoom through the story as quickly as possible. I thought at times that the conflicts of the story were a bit redundant. However, it added to the emotional attachment I felt to the characters while reading. I found that I was actually relieved when I finished Normal People as I found closure from the ending.
-Loane Bouguennec '21
Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You tells the story of a family suffering a loss. Her beautiful writing transports the reader from the past to the present through the vulnerable emotions of the characters. In each chapter, a new perspective or plot point is revealed that stops you from putting the novel down. Some parts were so emotionally charged that I wanted to stop reading but found that I was unable to.
-Loane Bouguennec '21
Movies
videoplayback - Chelsea Haye.mp4The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel
So, the Clark Sisters. I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed it. All the black women who came together to get it done with such quality amazed me. The trailblazers who provided the stories & talent... It hit hard. It was incredibly well-done.
I especially enjoyed the mental aspect in it as well. I've always wanted to see more spiritual and religious people have more views of mental issues.
The movie itself was a great history lesson on the origins of popular gospel music. It gave a realistic look at the trauma that can occur growing up in an environment where the line between doing work for God and work for your parents are blurred.
The Clark Sisters once again is an amazing testament to black women. The producers and actors perfectly captured in essence what this real life Clark family did and their impact they made as black women.
I recommend this movie because it is well-done. Please check it out!
-Chelsea Haye '23
Shows
Unorthodox (Netflix)
If you have Netflix, Unorthodox is definitely worth watching. The miniseries offers a look into the lives of Hasidic Jews in the Satmar community in the heart of New York City and their religious beliefs and traditions. One young girl, Esty, flees the community to Berlin, adjusting to her new secular life in Germany. The outstanding acting and Esty's harrowing escape make a story that is loosely based on the book Unorthodox: My Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman appear as if it were a real story of its own. I highly recommend this show as a way of passing time during the lockdown.
-Dylan Tran '22
Caliphate (Netflix)
A suspenseful and heart-breaking show. It documents the lives of young Swedes as they fall under the influence of the ISIS group. The Swedish girls attempt to flee to Syria, and the boys are trained to be terrorists. The show also tells the story of a young Swedish woman trying to escape Syria after realizing the reality of life there. Speaking of heart-breaking, not only did the stories pushed me to the verge of tears, the suspense and action also caused me several heart attacks. I highly recommend this show if you want a dose of adrenaline in your system.
-Dylan Tran '22
Music
Lil Uzi's New Albums
Eternal Atake and LUV vs. The World 2
Lil Uzi Vert does not disappoint. But does he always impress? That one’s up for debate. After multiple false release dates, Uzi dropped his much-anticipated album Eternal Atake, on March 6, 2020. He released the deluxe version of the album, titled Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2, a week later. Both albums are enjoyable and elevate your mood in the classic Uzi way. “Baby Pluto” and “Myron,” the first songs on each album, are particularly catchy. Unfortunately, Uzi doesn’t take any risks with his sound, as one might have expected he would over the two-and-a-half years it took him to produce both albums. Eternal Atake's most intriguing song is “P2,” on which Uzi raps over the same beat he used for his most popular song “XO Tour Llif3,” released in early 2017. Where one may have hoped to see Uzi recover from the emotional breaking point he rapped about on “XO Tour Llif3,” Uzi seems equally troubled, to the point where he raps, “On the real, our love is not fun/ There's no emotion on my face 'cause I'm numb.” While Eternal Atake and Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2 are for the most part entertaining, Uzi’s jaded tone prevents the albums from being much else.
-Otto Moran '20
Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (1992)
Released in April of 1992, The Beastie Boys delivered there most sonically diverse project to date. Check Your Head revels in its influences from early 80s punk and hardcore to garage funk of the 70s. The groups work on this album is a departure from the Hip Hop centric sound of their previous two projects but still maintains the playful and witty bars that the Beastie Boys are notorious for. This is by far the Beastie Boys’ most ambitious attempt at combining instrumentation with rapping, often recording music with guitars, bass, and drums, and then sampling that into a hip hop beat. This is incredibly unconventional for making Hip Hop at this time since samples were usually taken directly from previously published music. In comparison to Pauls’s Boutique, widely considered the biggest artistic triumph of their career, Check Your Head seems to be less focused on being a manicured and perfected commercial work and more of an unedited raw look into the Beastie Boys experimentation. In my opinion, many of these songs have a sense of incompleteness and at times felt partially finished as well as the body of work as the whole seeming to lack cohesion. The lack of cohesion can be chalked up to the fact that there are so many different styles of music being experimented with on each track. The whole album includes pure songs New york hardcore of the 80s, funk instrumentals, all the way to lyric-based hip hop with sampled beats. I see the musical diversity of the album as overly ambitious and unfocused as it is difficult to hear a fully developed take on each style. If the group could instead devote their effort into honing in on fewer styles and perfecting them and still combining them in Overall, Check Your Head is essentially a collection of the most interesting sounding work the Beastie Boys made in the years leading up to its release rather than a complete album with cohesive sounds. The album does a bad job of being an album but is fantastic in the sense of pushing the boundaries on what a Hip Hop group can create.
-Oscar McConnell '21
Video Games
Unravel
Unravel is a platform game available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Discover a heartwarming family narrative surrounded by beautiful, lush environments inspired by the Northern Scandinavian terrains. The player completes levels as a tiny, lovable character made of a single thread of yarn, solving puzzles and overcoming its dangers. Unravel is perfect for gamers who are looking for a peaceful, yet still challenging experience. Play time can range from 5 - 7 hours, so not only is the game affordable (at most $20), it is an incredibly immersive, worthwhile adventure.
-Nicole Adriano '20
God of War (2020)
Omg. I am literally obsessed with GOW. I completed the main storyline in literally 16 hours and I am only 30% through the game. There are so many side missions, quests, weapons, armor, etc you can unlock after "completing" the game. This game is available for Playstation only. The gameplay and controls are really well-done its easy to complete a plethora of combos and attacks. Switching weapons is seamless and controlling Atreus is easy as well. There are varying levels of difficulty and once you finish the game you can play harder versions of the game. The game is only $20.
-Chelsea Haye '23