ESSAYS & REVIEWS
The Weather Determines My Playlists
by Ryn Cole
"It’s important to consume media that makes you feel good and feeds your soul. Music is no different."
Lovely Tidbits: Three Thoughtful Moments in the Week of a Delusional Philosopher
by Lauren McGinn
"I realized that I may be delusional this week. I will give you three insights into my madness. I don't know if I'm insane or if I'm just an over-thinker—it is incontestably a hilarious combination of both!"
One for the Murphys Book Review
"At first, Carly struggles to express her emotions, make friends, and trust others. As the novel moves forward, though, Carly slowly opens up to the people around her..."
I Don’t Like Taylor Swift, But…
by Faith Costello
"The phrase 'I don’t like Taylor Swift' can cause more chaos and pandemonium than the most controversial political statement you can possibly think of. One of my favorite things I used to do was to drop this lovely little line in front of Swifties and then sit back and relax as they lose their minds."
by Nora Kavanagh
"After turning a few brief pages of travel, I was hooked on the book of the world."
Noah Kahan in Connecticut: “I’m Mean Because I Grew Up In New England”
by Anita Gulia
"The song that started it all for me also isn’t played, not even for an encore. Maybe it signifies that I’m no longer the mess that I once was."
Writing in Scotland: Discovering Comfort in Solitude
by Ryn Cole
"The roaring hills of the highlands and the dimly-lit streets of Edinburgh in the cold of November remain. The stories I wrote and poems I read there on the train from London remain. While I sit in a new café in D.C., writing essays back in my college town, the memories I made there remain."
An Interview with Marian Mitchell Donahue
by Judith Prevost
"After being introduced to Marian through the Catholic University English Department, I wanted to inquire about her education as an author, the joys and struggles of writing professionally, and her experience writing a novel."
by Franchetta Groves
"As I sat down to binge-watch the latest season of the Netflix’s psychological thriller, You, I became sucked into the world of following the story of a psychopathic killer."
Selling, Styling, and Social Media
By Carolina Beretta
Fashion is considered to be in a constant cycle of rescue, reuse, and recycle with styles constantly flowing out of a door that deems what is “in” and “out”. While we notice what is “in style” by looking at what people are wearing on a daily basis, viewing up to date shows, and using social media, it is harder to discern what of the current style is novel vs. outdated.
The Success of Shadow and Bone and the Future of Adaptations
By Amanda Muscente
Book to television and film adaptations are quite common but not all of them please their fans while drawing in new ones the way Shadow and Bone has done for two successful seasons. Why is that?
By Lauren McGinn
"I sit under a flowering spring dogwood trying to forget, but wanting to remember. I'm supposed to be reading the translation of the Summa Theologia I brought with me. However, I only read a few pages because I am quickly distracted by a horde of people walking around in green from the festivities of last night."
By Isabella Mininni
Three stories, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, endless sections, countless tales. The Strand Bookstore encompasses a world of literature and written works spanning genres and time periods.
By May Rajtboriraks
When was the last time you purely enjoyed doing something? Purely - I mean sitting down for hours without worrying that the time will be up. Truly enjoy and blend into it like only you and your hobbies exist in this world.
By Carolina Beretta
"I have noticed for some time now that anime—which was previously considered “niche” and “nerdy”—is breaking the seams of its original confinement and growing to be popular and admired by many. "
By Lauren McGinn
"As I approach the tree, I feel like I'm approaching the front door of my house without really knowing why. I sit for a while. I read some of my favorite pages from Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility when lots of tweed-wearing-types walk by."
Book vs. Movie: Where the Crawdads Sing
By Isabella Mininni
A longstanding debate amongst lovers of literature and film is: What’s better, the movie or the book? To truly determine the superior form, each adaptation should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. In sticking true to these methods, I have read Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing as well as viewed the film.
How Tumblr and Fandoms Paved the Way for BookTok
By Franchetta Groves
Are the modern-day TikToks really that different from the fanfiction teens and pre-teens were writing on Wattpad and Tumblr? Today’s BookTok videos are examples of the ways that today’s avid readers can engage with their favorite books. The rise of social media in the mid-2000s allowed readers to write and share fanfiction along with theories of the novels they read.
By Bridget Guinee
Students of various ages, backgrounds, and majors all make appointments with me, and the vast majority genuinely believe that they aren’t good writers. Honestly, it just breaks my heart every time. Why do so many people think they’re “bad” writers? What, then, makes someone a good writer?
By Amanda Muscente
In 2007, the world of reading was changed forever…by the introduction of the Kindle. Compact, thin, and with the storage for hundreds of novels, gone were the days of lugging around books on the commute to work, spending 20 dollars on a single story, finding a new space to form a new pile of books.
By Juliana Sommers
If Spotify is not open and playing on my phone, then something is seriously wrong. Walking to my dorm? “There She Goes” by The La’s is playing. Doing the dishes? “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5 is playing. Driving two minutes down the road? Obviously “Boyfriend” by Big Time Rush is playing. Music is my jam (pun totally intended).
By Judith Prevost
I love to write, but I’m afraid. My head reverberates with stories, monologues, and rehearsed one-liners, but I never let them out. I fear what others will say if I let them inside my mind. I dread someone pointing out that I may not be as capable a writer as I think.
Into the Gory World: A Critique of Attack on Titan
By Carolina Beretta
When we picture an apocalyptic world, creatures like zombies, aliens, vampires, and werewolves come to mind. We—usually—do not think 15-meter-tall irrational humanoid creatures lacking sex organs whose only goal in their existence is to eat humans. Yet, in the popular world of anime, ideas are boundless, and so, I find myself warped in the petrifying world of Attack on Titan, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama.
Christmas Music: How Soon is Too Soon?
By Juliana Sommers
As Buddy the Elf would say, “the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear,” but when is the best time to spread Christmas cheer?
BookTok Review: The Love Hypothesis
By Franchetta Groves
As a consumer of social media and an avid reader, I have been exploring the world of BookTok to decide if these books are genuinely good reads or overrated. After reading the dark and twisted novel Verity, I decided (on BookTok lovers’ recommendations) to explore the world of love and romance with The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood.
By Carolina Beretta
Before literacy, all one had was their tongue, and whether it was eloquent or inarticulate was contingent on the memorization of Homer’s epics—and works like that—and applying it to mundane conversation. Therefore, poetry was more than an art form, but a way of life, a construct of high society.
BookTok Review: Verity
By Franchetta Groves
The way we receive our recommendations for books, movies, and art is constantly evolving and changing in the wake of the Internet. One of the most significant influences in the selection of popular literature today is the social media app TikTok. This platform has been used to share a wide variety of content and book recommendations. This community of avid readers is often referred to as “BookTok.”
How to Curate the Best Spring Playlist
By Margaret Adams
Renewal, rebirth, revitalization: this is what spring is about. The cherry blossoms are blooming, the sweaters are going back in the closet, and we are reminding ourselves what we look like with a little bit of sun coloring our faces. Our Lenten promises might be hanging on by a thread, but everything about spring points towards a new beginning and a new you—it’s the season of re-introducing ourselves to ourselves!
Spotlight on Embracing Our Differences
By Christian Carlo
Embracing Our Differences (EOD) is a nonprofit organization based in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2004. I was introduced to EOD after doing a Google search for quotation writing competitions. I didn’t know if this was something that existed or not. I was idealistic. Imagine my surprise when I was directed to EOD’s website and found what I was looking for, and much more. The organization’s mission statement is: “Through the transformative power of the arts, we educate and inspire to create a better world.” Essentially, it supports artistic expression as a path to social change. In service of this cause, EOD offers a number of resources to educators and students, such as workshops, lesson plans, and free field trips.
By Angela Hickey
Broadway attracts audiences in droves, with musicals enrapturing spectators for decades. However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nearly 2 full years of quarantine, Broadway had to close its doors for the first time in years. In order for theater fans to get their regular fix, they needed to get a little creative. So, where would fans turn to but the number one social media app on the market right now?
My Definitive Ranking of Romantic Tropes
By Margaret Adams
"I've written. And rewritten. Deconstructed. Reconstructed. Experimented with different voices. Changed the style. Changed myself. Forgotten the language. Relearned the language. Have I been here before? Gone down this path before?"
— Alan Wake, Control, "Hotline: On Writing the Manuscript"
By Mary Harding
As a person who stress-bakes to cope with school work, this book, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, really hits home.
By Jessica Wyeth
There is a bookstore in Ann Arbor, MI that I will forever and always adore: Literati. It sits on the corner of Washington St. and 4th Ave, recognizable by its green brick façade. The black and white checkerboard painted atop its hardwood floors runs the length of the store and could easily be mistaken for tile.
A Celebration of Identity: Review of “Thirty Lines About the ʼFro”
By Christian Carlo
“The fro is homage, shrubbery, and revolt - all at once”
— Allison Joseph, “Thirty Lines About the ʼFro”
Can You Hear It? The Experience of Spoken Word
By Caroline Morris
The sign outside says Burlap and Bean. I am newly 18 and with my mom. We got there half an hour early on a Wednesday and there was already a line to sign up.
Something About the River: T.S. Eliot’s “The Dry Salvages”
By Matthew Sawtelle
“Can I say something about… the river,” Dr. Michael Mack almost sheepishly interjects. “If I’m not mistaken, ‘the river is within us, the sea is all about us;’ that makes us the land.”
Robert Cruz's Life with Comics
By Robbie Cruz
People often look down on comic books as childish and overly indulgent to unrealistic imaginative experiments. But this is a pessimistic and far too "adult" lens through which to view comics.
A Glimpse into the Mind of a Theatrical and Literary Arts Lover
By Maddy Mustin
The dramatic arts have always illuminated a creative, introspective side of me that continues to be fulfilled through singing, acting, reading plays, and watching musicals. Especially within the past year, I have come to appreciate just how emotionally affective and cathartic each art form truly is.
A City of Stars: A La La Land Cabaret
By Maddy Mustin
A first-person perspective into what a lovely night of performance looks like through the creative lens of stream-of-consciousness writing.
The Creativity of the Scientific Method
By Mary Harding
Class, study, sleep, repeat. Most STEM majors have this mantra down to a science with schedules planned out to the millisecond of where they will be, what they need to study, and even how long it should take to complete an assignment. This is absolutely not a unique quality of STEM majors, just something that we may have perfected. Our time is spent differently than most other majors.
In the Beginning is “East Coker” in the End
By Jessica Wyeth
In the second sequence of a lecture series on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets hosted by The Catholic University’s English department, Clinical Assistant Professor and 2015 winner of the Fathman Young Eliot Scholar Award from the International T.S. Eliot Society Dr. Kevin Rulo joined 2021 Ph.D. alumnus Dr. Christopher Petter in analyzing “East Coker.”
Magic of Children's Literature: Review of "Our Granny"
By Amanda Muscente
Every child has that one book they force their parents to read to them over and over and over again. For me, that book was Our Granny by Margaret Wilde.
Leigh Bardugo on Adaptation from Book to Screen
By Caroline Morris
If the COVID-19 pandemic gave me anything, it gave me Zoom. Since I was in college when the world went online, I have had access to Zoom meetings longer than 45 minutes without the fear of having my credit card information stolen.
On September 22, 2021, I used my university provided (though now somewhat infrequently used) Zoom subscription to attend the PEN/Faulkner Foundation event Literature on Screen: Shadow and Bone.
How to Curate the Best Fall Playlist
By Margaret Adams
Music is probably one of the most universal experiences to have ever existed. Even walking from one place to another, everyone constantly has their earphones in. Many people interpret this as “tuning out the world,” but I understand that people are just adding a soundtrack to the movie of their lives.
Matters of Consequence: Review of The Little Prince
By Jessica Wyeth
Have you ever met him? Le Petit Prince? He’s a classic, I’m sure you’ve heard of him. Certainly you must’ve. He struts around in a cape and crown, demanding of grown-ups to draw him sheep. Have you never done so? Have you not drawn a sheep for the Little Prince? I am afraid, then, that you seem only concerned with matters of consequence.