On the Road by Jack Kerouac
This wild American hitchhiking saga by Jack Kerouac can be read as a quasi-tour of the United States. And an introduction to the Beat generation. “Beat” was the new term I learned by reading this book. I thought it was a funny name for a generation—suggestive of music, drums, and defeat. The Beatniks were road-tripping…
On Freedom, by Timothy Snyder
My school had the privilege of hosting Mr. Timothy Snyder—Yale historian, expert on Ukraine affairs, and the author of On Freedom—as a visiting speaker at our concert hall. As I sat outside checking people in, I saw my professor’s kids, elderly alumni, current students and their families slowly filling up the auditorium. I’d never seen…
Book Review: The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
Welcome to the hunting grounds—or New York (says Melissa Bank, indirectly, through her epigraphs): where an aristocratic herd of blue blazers move along Park Avenue, Manhattan, and run in groups along the Hudson River…where finding a relationship is sort of like lying in wait by a rushing river, in hopes of ensnaring a fish, then…