by Helen Humphreys A nocturne is a musical composition, inspired by or evocative of the night. In its most familiar form, it is a single-movement character piece written for solo piano. With that description, it’s not difficult to see how fitting the title for Helen Humphreys’ memoir truly is, both channelling the spirit of the…
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by Lawrence M. Krauss A Universe From Nothing is highly interesting in many ways. Coming from someone who only has basic understandings of physics, learning of many general concepts to help you reach similar conclusions to those of the author already made this read worthwhile, but presenting the number of widely accepted theories in physics…
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by Kurt Vonnegut Few authors can claim to have changed my life, but even fewer can make that claim on separate instances with different works. Kurt Vonnegut is one of the few, first with Breakfast of Champions––which flipped the whole notion on how you can tell a story on its head––then, again, with Slaughterhouse-Five. I absolutely loved…
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by Fiona Gold Kroll Some stories speak more of their author than their subject matter. I truly believe that A Stone for Benjamin is an instance of this. Kroll shows much of her positive outlook when she romanticizes the unknown man in the image she has seen her entire life; what comes across is a strong woman…
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by Ray Bradbury Bradbury truly had some thoughtful insights with regards to censorship, arguing with his novel that even censorship performed with “good intentions”––using the term in the loosest sense I can possibly command––can easily sink to horrible depths. But, Fahrenheit 451 is not just a warning of the dangers of unchecked censorship; it’s also a celebration…
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by Vladimir Nabokov I have always enjoyed a good pun, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to come across intelligent ones these days, in lieu of the mediocre and insular. I only mention this because Lolita is riddled with them, right down to the titular nymphet’s dolorous haze. One could say that Nabokov was a pundit in the…
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by F. Scott Fitzgerald Until The Great Gatsby, nothing compared to the works of Nikolai Gogol––at least, in my mind––with regards to successfully capturing its time and place and transporting the reader there, this time 1920s New York rather than the old Ukrainian countryside. I really have to commend Fitzgerald on this point; he extensively knew…
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by Jay McInerney I picked up McInerney’s novel on a whim, judging a book by its cover, more or less. I will admit that I did not love it from the beginning––the shallow debauchery and translucent euphemisms for cocaine use––but it slowly grew on me as the heart came forth. McInerney constructed a sturdy narrative,…
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by Arthur C. Clarke The first thing that really struck me when reading Clarke’s novel was the sheer depth of his description, which is even more amazing given the time at which it was written. The very precise details presented constantly and consistently throughout the story are truly a testament of the author’s knowledge and…
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