Here’s a truth: I’m not a romance movie person. Here’s a seemingly contradictory truth to the previous one: I have seen many early 90s chick flicks. My mom and best friend love them very much, you see; this past week I was subjected to the dreaded You’ve Got Mail for

If I’ve learned anything, it’s that good books don’t shy away from the ugly stuff of life. Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis), Beloved (Toni Morrison), The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver), and The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) — four of my favorite works of literature ever — delve into

You’re a reader. You always have been. Your earliest memories include stuffing your mother’s tote bag full of picture books from the library. Eventually, you graduated on to juvenile, then YA literature. It didn’t quite matter what they were about. Well, it did if your dad picked up one and

So, you’ve been a fan of the Grishaverse books forever and now that Shadow and Bone is finally a TV show, everything is right with the world. But your Christian grandmother just watched it and is now talking about all the symbolism in it…What’s up with that? Let’s talk about

I sit in my best friend’s basement, watching the credits roll on one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. “Oh, my word,” I manage. “I honestly feel bad for Robert Pattinson. And Kristen Stewart. No one should have had to take part in such a disaster.” “It’s accurate to

By Jennica Mendoza The American Dream has long been a concept that has unified immigrants from various cultures around the world into a country where hard work is seen as a path (and sometimes a guarantee) to success. In Esperanza Rising (2000), author Pam Munoz Ryan challenges the traditional rags-to-riches

Ah, Pride and Prejudice! If you haven’t read any other books by Jane Austen, you’ve read Pride and Prejudice. If you haven’t seen any other movies based on those books, you’ve either watched Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth or Kira Knightly. It’s not my job to tell you which

“Remember, remember!     The fifth of November,     The Gunpowder treason and plot;     I know of no reason     Why the Gunpowder treason     Should ever be forgot!” “Anarchy…has taught me more as a mistress than Justice ever did! She has taught me that

This October, I picked up Frankenstein for the first time, expecting an extremely creepy tale about a doctor who screams, “It’s alive!” when his villainous, ugly creature dons life. In reality, I just read a moving piece of literature about a college dropout who faints as much as a lady

As I sit at the tiny breakroom table after work, I hear my friend ask me, “What comic book are you reading?” Resisting the urge to say, “This is more than just a comic book! It’s a work of art and literature combined!” I hold up the book, revealing the