Favorite Book, Album, and Movie Reviews

Joni Mitchell - Blue

Blue isn’t a color that one would normally associate with happiness, but Joni Mitchell’s Blue will invoke that emotion specifically. A perfect combination of happy and melancholy, her powerful lyrics and soaring vocal melodies with leave you breathless. Her lyrics would be beautiful even if they were to be simply spoken rather than sung, and immediately grasp the listener, creating a deep emotional connection with her words. Key tracks include “All I Want”, “California” and “A Case of You”. Mitchell’s voice has an almost trance-like quality and a sincerity that has yet to be matched by any contemporary artist today. Mitchell’s fourth and best album, Blue, is a necessity for any serious music lover. 

All Girls are Princesses

Even though Sara Crewe has been orphaned and is forced to sleep in a cold attic, work as a maid for other girls her age, and wear tattered rags for clothes, she is still a princess. All girls are—according to the movie A Little Princess. Based on the similarly titled book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, it may seem like your typical sob-story, but in reality it is much more than just that. The movie teaches important life lessons that can be appreciated by 10 year-olds and 60 year-olds alike. With beautiful Indian imagery and Hindu myths weaving their way throughout the story, this movie will not easily be forgotten.

The Virgin Suicides

Many books these days are much too promiscuous—leaving nothing to the imagination of the reader. The Virgin Suicides, however, is a different story. Written from the point of view of an adolescent boy, its revelations have the ability to ring true with the child inside all of us.  Jeffrey Eugenides’ writing is fresh and compelling from beginning to end and gives his book the potential to be one of the first classics to come out of recent fiction. He tells the story of 5 mysterious suicides and a neighborhood’s preoccupation with discovering an undiscoverable truth. A must-read.