If you need to fall in love with reading again – or just want a reminder that high school students deserve a lot more than their reading lists give them – then The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012 is the book for you. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012 is a compilation of literature selected by high school students and edited by Dave Eggers. A new edition has been released every year since 2002, each ... Read More

When I chose the awesome-looking craft book Star Wars Origami to review, I squealed like a Jawa on the wrong end of a blaster. I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was a toddler (thanks, parents!), and although no origami expert, I have fond memories of making dozens of paper cats and frogs as a kid. I figured Chris Alexander's Star Wars Origami would be much the same: follow the instructions carefully, fold the paper, and — ... Read More

  If you’re a Zadie Smith fan, you’ve been waiting seven years for her latest novel, NW. If you’re not a Zadie Smith fan, NW may turn you into one.  NW stands for northwest — northwest London, specifically Willesden, Smith’s hometown and the setting of her first novel, White Teeth.  We follow the interlocking lives of four thirty-something Londoners as they try to escape the council estate (in ... Read More

If you’ve ever been turned down from a shitty food service job you found on Craigslist…  If you’ve ever programmed your ex into your phone as “Don’t Pick Up FO REALZZZ THIS TIME”… If you instantly hate anyone who asks what you do for a living… In short, if you’re in your twenties, then this book is for you.   F*CK! I’m In My Twenties by Emma Koenig, based on the ... Read More

  For years, novelist Siri Hustvedt has been deeply entrenched in the study of neuroscience, so much so that she’s even been published in peer-reviewed journals. With Living, Thinking, Looking, she seems primed to become the next Oliver Sacks, who wrote a cover blurb for this collection of 32 essays written between 2006 and 2011. In each, Hustvedt turns dense scientific material into graceful, beautiful prose. In “Outside the ... Read More

This past month my parents put my childhood house up for sale.  So, I had to tidy up my room and clear the clutter for the streams of suburbanites that would be perusing my bedroom, envisioning the many ways in which to redecorate – no doubt my hot pink shag rug would be the first thing tossed, that and my Dave Matthews Band poster.   But, as I was sifting through my desk for easy toss-aways (as if such a thing ... Read More

As much as I love the surrealist movement for dragging my subconscious mind out of its deep slumber, I can't help but feel perturbed that it is an art movement commonly identified with men. Women were often represented in surrealist art as objects of beauty, but a good number of them stepped outside of the frame and made important creative contributions. To illustrate women's involvement in the surrealist movement, Ilene Susan Fort, Tere ... Read More

A thought that has never crossed my mind: Man, I could really use some help with this pressing life matter—what would Ozzy Osbourne do in this situation?  I mean, I’m a big Black Sabbath fan, but Ozzy is not exactly the first person I’d think of to impart wisdom (that person would be Roseanne Barr, which is totally convenient because she just happens to be BUST’s new advice columnist).  The Sunday Times of ... Read More

The well-respected and long-standing literary magazine, Granta: The Magazine of New Writing’s spring 2011 edition is titled “The F Word.’” Though the book contains many words that begin with ‘f,’ the overarching theme is perhaps the most controversial f-word of all—feminism. With a mix of photos, drawings, poems, memoirs, and realist fiction each of the 23 female contributors add their own unique ... Read More