Is it August already? I'm feeling just about ready to throwback to July. Too soon? Anyway, besides for early-summer nostalgia, August means major office turnover, as our great interns head back home to while away what summer they have left and get ready to go back to school. We'll miss them immensely, and hope everyone will K.I.T., as the kids say. (Does anyone SWAK anymore? Can you even SWAK an email?) So join us for Meghan's (hopefully not) last TBT post, and fellow 20Something staffer Alina's very first. This week we've got yuppie psychos, surprisingly brave hobbits and some good, old Dust Bowl poetry (which kind of feels like a meta throwback to the heatwave last month). Take a look, and share share share your faves!
Nicole: AMERICAN PSYCHO
Author Bret Easton Ellis is a rare breed of literary genius. Suave, generationally cool and talented are only a few words to describe him. On the heels of our latest 20SomethingReads.com newsletter, in which we talk about his latest theatrical work, The Canyons, it is impossible to forget the work that defined and, might I argue, propelled his career to stardom --- AMERICAN PSYCHO. Some might suggest that his first novel, LESS THAN ZERO, was what put Ellis on the map. AMERICAN PSYCHO is what made him the man and writer he is today. Many are familiar with the film adaption starring the chiseled and "perfect" Christian Bale, and Jared Leto (of "My So-Called Life" --- le sigh! --- fame and band leader of 30 Second to Mars) even makes an appearance as Patrick Bateman's greatest threat, along with Reese Witherspoon, who plays Bateman's airhead fiancée. To say that the cast is incredible is an understatement. Some might not know that the cinematic ingenuity evolved from Ellis' novel of the same name. The two are alike, but by no means identical. The movie is graphic, even horrific...and the book, utterly gruesome. So many fine details from the original book are tweaked to make the movie more visibly bearable --- less disturbing, if you will. And while the movie does not fail to live up to its potential, the book is an incomparable masterpiece that makes your baby hair stand on end. After restless nights, and even more perturbing nightmares while reading it, this book is a true psychological thriller that could be all too based in reality. And be sure to check out Ellis’ Twitter...the guy's a nut.
Emily: THE HOBBIT
Hey guys, here’s something you may not have guessed: I’m kind of a dork (jkjkjkjk --- so obvious). THE HOBBIT, by the way, is not a dorky book at all. As far as Tolkien Lit goes, it’s probably the most formulaic in terms of narrative arc and character development and all that fun stuff. But that’s kind of what I loved so much about it when I was a kid. I read it when I was 12 or 13, right before I started high school and started worrying about being into stuff that would make me seem cool (it was also around the same time --- not coincidentally, I’m sure --- that my little sister and I binge-watched Episodes IV, V and VI of Star Wars IN ONE DAY). THE HOBBIT, though, was really special to me. Probably the most digestible of Tolkien’s work (I don’t mean literally, GUYS; no one’s eating any books over here), it read to me the most like a fairy tale --- and I was nuts about fairy tales back then (especially dark ones with ambiguous morality), and now still. It’s also, as far as I’m concerned, the funniest of all the books (no offence to LOTR --- a riot in its own way): Bilbo’s silly neuroses; Gandalf’s wooly motives and wit; and, of course, those dwarves, always and delicately straddling the line between goofy vaudeville and weighty solemnity. The gorgeous descriptions of Rivendell? That pivotal scene between Bilbo and Gollum? It really doesn’t get any better than that. Although I should probably admit that Smaug is my favorite character in the whole thing --- and the one I relate to most. Give me a mountain full of treasure to sleep in for hundreds of years and I’d probably try to eat you for waking me, too.
Meghan: OUT OF THE DUST
Although I didn’t know it at the time, OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse was my first introduction to free verse poetry. I think when I was younger, I always thought of poems as rhyming couplets and Shakespearean sonnets, and was turned off by what seemed to me something flowery and pretentious. I fought hard against liking poetry for a long time, especially when it was required reading in high school (every assignment was met with a sigh and the requisite comment, “Ugh, I hate poetry”). This continued until my freshman year of college, when I was introduced to different women poets and to more modern styles of poetry, both of the written and spoken variety, and realized that I didn’t hate poetry at all. In fact, I LOVED poetry. I loved the different combinations of words and syllables and lines and the way it sounded and the way it looked on a page. The lesson here is you should never resolve to hate something until you’ve really tried it (also applicable to vegetables). In any case, it was not until I had this revelation that I realized that one of my favorite books as a kid, OUT OF THE DUST, is a story told entirely in a series of free verse poems. Looking back on it now, the subject material is shockingly heavy for a middle-grade novel. The main character, Billie Jo, is barely a teenager when her pregnant mother and is killed by an accidental house fire that Billie Jo feels responsible for, and Billie Jo can no longer play the piano (her only passion) because her hands are too badly burned from the same accident. Keep in mind that all of this takes place in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, and on top of everything, Billie Jo and her sometimes-alcoholic father have no money because their crops won’t grow. Ouch. Billie Jo manages to narrate her struggles eloquently through her poems, which are blunt, realistic and strikingly sad, but evoke enough emotion and imagery to almost make you nostalgic for FDR. Almost.
Alina: DIVERGENT
I am notoriously late to book trends. I only read the Twilight series when the last book had come out and I caught up with THE HUNGER GAMES when the movie was in theaters. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY? --- I'll get to it sometime. Even after I had finally read these books, I had no idea why so many teenyboppers and grown ups were obsessed with them. None of the books managed to catch my attention for more than a minute. However, last week I got my hands on a copy of DIVERGENT and I can tell you that this series fully deserves the craze it's caused within the YA community. The book is set in dystopian Chicago, where the population is split into factions based on certain personality traits. Main character, Tris, is forced to decide whether to stay with her family's faction or pick one that is more true to her personality. Needless to say, her decision sets into motion a series of events that rock her world --- and yours. With the third and final book in the series all set to be released in October, it was the perfect time for me to catch on to this book trend, and with the movie releasing next March, I got to imagine all the amazing actors playing the characters. Hunky Theo James as Four --- yes please!
