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High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

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Summary from Goodreads : It has been said often enough that baby boomers are a television generation, but the very funny novel High Fidelity reminds that in a way they are the record-album generation as well. This funny novel is obsessed with music; Hornby's narrator is an early-thirty-something English guy who runs a London record store. He sells albums recorded the old-fashioned way-on vinyl-and is having a tough time making other transitions as well, specifically adulthood. The book is in one sense a love story, both sweet and interesting; most entertaining, though, are the hilarious arguments over arcane matters of pop music. I think the first thing that calls attention in High Fidelity is Rob Fleming, and how he seems to fit the category of what they call an unlikable protagonist, a character who has been purposely made to have unpleasant traits and/ or a skewed moral compass, and to generally behave in a way that people find hard to swallow. And I think this can be trick

It's Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

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Summary from Goodreads : Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life - which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself. Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety. I heard this particular story about a teen being asked this: Why are you depressed? There is so much good in this world? To which he replied: Why do you have asthma? There is so much air in this world. (Teens can be absolutely brilliant.) This kind of lack of understanding is perhaps one of the causes of the stigma surrounding d

May 2015: Required Reading

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April 2015: Required Reading Report 1. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - (5/5 Stars)  It's funny, insightful, and a bit sad, for the most part. But it's still good fun. 2. T he Whispering Muse by Sjon - (3/5 Stars) Beautiful prose, lyrical and poetic. Sjon tells Greek myth, as it should be told. But I think the story ended too abruptly. 3. Mythology Class by Arnold Arre - (5/5 Stars) Great story! Amazing illustrations! The chase sequence in particular is exciting and gripping! 4. I Don't Want to be Crazy by Samantha Schutz - (4/5) An honest account of anxiety disorder but the prose could have used more music.  May 2015 Required Reading: 1. Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz - TFG book of the month. I am a little more than halfway through already and it's pretty character-centric. And Ari and Dante are shaping up to be interesting ones. 2. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - This has been bestowed u