“I finished reading it a little while ago, but I haven’t been able to get Matthew Thomas’ We Are Not Ourselves out of my head. It tells the story of Eileen Tumulty, a nurse who wants nothing more than a big house, a successful and happy family, and good social status. All of these dreams come crashing down when her husband Ed is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. I really can’t remember a time when a book hit me as hard as this one did; from seeing Ed’s drastic, rapid decline to how Eileen and their teenage son Connell deal with it and how their lives are changed, Thomas just keeps punching you in the heart over and over. I may or may not have started crying in public more than once while reading this book, but trust me, the emotional distress We Are Not Ourselves puts you though is totally worth it.”
– Allison Racicot, Audiobook Reviewer
“I’m in the middle of reading Aimee Bender’s short story collection The Color Master. Bender has been praised praised reinventing the fairy tale, a taking mundane experience and making it both surreal and outside the parameters of everyday life. Her characters play so close to reality, yet in each story something is off: A college girl is disturbed by an old man’s string of coincidences. A group of tigers need to be sewn back together. A wife wants her husband to pay her for each task she does around the house. Each story twists in a way that feels fresh and doesn’t rely on gimmick. I recommend this collection to a short story reader looking for situations playful, new, and, sometimes, startlingly terrifying.”
– Alan Beyersdorf, Staff Writer
“After resisting the pull for quite some time, I finally started watching The CW’s Arrow. I’m not usually a fan of Rich Dude With Fancy Toys as a superhero plot, but Oliver Queen’s motive feels different than, say, Batman or Iron Man: among other thing, he’s trying to improve life for the people living in the Glades, the most impoverished part of the city. I’m just starting season two, and I’m enjoying the way the show handles the topic of socioeconomic disparity and the way my favorite characters, Dig and Felicity, call out the protagonist on his privilege.”
– Feliza Casano, Editor
“For the past month or so, I’ve been playing Blizzard’s Hearthstone. It’s a card-based strategy game using characters and spells from Blizzard’s ever-popular World of Warcraft. The game is free to download, and extremely addicting. With the brand-new Gnomes Versus Goblins expansion that released this past Monday, I’m sure I’ll continue playing it way more than I should be.”
– Joel Wallick, Gaming Writer
