Did Generation X sell out? This is one of the key questions Nathan Hill explores in his sophomore novel, Wellness. Wellness is a long read into what is a very thorough telling of a story that confronts its own complexity head-on throughout. Spoilers ahead Wellness focuses on the relationship between Jack and Elizabeth, a pair …
Continue reading Review: Wellness by Nathan Hill (BOTM October 2023)
Warning: Spoilers for Lisa Jewell’s novel None of This Is True. . . . . . . . . . . . . . None of This Is True is the latest book by English author Lisa Jewell. Published this year in July, it is a thriller/mystery focused on two main characters, Alix Summer and …
Continue reading Review: Lisa Jewell’s None of This Is True (BOTM August 2023)
For about a decade, my husband and lived in the southeast, specifically in Miami, FL, while I pursued my PhD, and in Charlotte, NC. And, in the south, air conditioning is a ubiquitous fact of life. Miami weather was generally intolerable, both in temperature and in humidity, most of the year, forcing one to shift …
I heard a knock on the door. "Honey, it's bad news." I hesitated for a minute--maybe I could delay the onset of the consequences to come if I remained in ignorance for a moment longer. The desire for certainty, however, quickly took over, and I entered the bedroom, ready, as much as possible, for what …
On April 29, 2017 at 6:12 p.m., Anne died. Today, the fall of 2003 feels like a distant memory. I was working at Plimoth Plantation in my first year as a historical interpreter (read: professional pilgrim), and my mother called me to tell me about a litter of kittens the curator of a different museum …
In the Miami area, you never know when the mail is actually going to show up. When I lived in Manchester, New Hampshire, the mail carrier was promptly at the community mailboxes every day at 11:00 am. Here, we were surprised to find that mail delivery, like nearly everything else, does not run on a …
Back in January, I first noticed that Charlotte was having some trouble getting around. This was rather uncharacteristic of my typically acrobatic alpha-cat, so I called the vet. There were a few test results that came back indicating some dehydration, and perhaps a minor infection, but not much more of an immediately obvious problem. …
Back in January, when the exams were looming large and the pressure was really starting to come to bear, Stephen and I decided to take a trip during Spring Break. I'm usually not much of a fan of traveling at this time of year, in fact. The spring semester, unlike the fall, is not punctuated …
Finally. . . *finally!!* my exams are over. Here, comprehensive exams incorporate two steps, a written section and an oral section. The written section involves three four-hour test sessions, one for each of three historical fields, and the oral section is one two-hour session that must take place after the written section has been completed …
Medievalist in the Making 