The OWU English Department Blog
For our farewell post of the semester we conclude our Winter Break cozy reading recommendations from Anna Condo, this time from the genres of fantasy and sci-fi. Fantasy and science fiction offer a comforting escape from reality and into a world where winters are as magical as they are harsh and long. …
As a lover of sunshine, I’m not particularly fond of the winter months, but even I can’t deny that it’s the perfect season for reading. There’s something so comforting about curling up with a good book when the days turn shorter. Snowfall, a warm crackling fire, a soft blanket, and a fresh hot drink–I’m partial to hot chocolate–are ideal, but winter doesn’t always look like that.…
Recommended by Serena Sweeney
East of Eden follows the histories of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, from the mid-1800s until the early 1900s, and explores how their lives intertwine and influence each other. Adam Trask and his sons Aron and Cal live on a farm in California’s Salinas Valley.…
The figure who inspired Babylonia was unknown to me before reading this novel, but I did recognize two other aspects of the book–the author, Costanza Casati, and my fondness for books with blades on the cover. A little different from the previous books in this series, there is at least confirmation of its titular figure being a real person. …
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel follows the titular character, Kaikeyi, a figure from the Hindu epic the Ramayana, which I’m admittedly much less familiar with than Greek mythology. Unlike Circe, I was drawn to this book (and impulse bought it at a Goodwill bookstore) less out of familiarity with the original story and more out of my interest in stories of mythology.…
My fascination with the stories of women in myth and history began with Circe. My first exposure to the mythological figure of Circe was in The Sea of Monsters, book 2 of the Percy Jackson series. Embarrassingly, it wasn’t until I read the Odyssey for the first time my freshman year of high school that I realized the “real” Circe does not, in fact, turn men into guinea pigs, but into regular pigs.…
Happy Halloween! Here are a couple more recommendations from editor Serena Sweeney:
1) I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
A film you should try to watch this fall if you have not already is I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), a psychological thriller directed by Charlie Kaufman, and is based on a book by Ian Reid.…
Looking for some good thriller movies to watch this Halloween? The Sturges Script has you covered! Check out these recommendations from editor Serena Sweeney:
1) Pearl (2022)
Pearl (2022) is a film directed by Ti West and is set in 1918 Texas. It is bursting with horror, gore and emotion. The film follows Pearl, a young woman brought up on a solitary farm who strains under the pressures of caring for her immobilized father, beneath the scrutinizing eye of her demanding mother.…
“Organic Evil.” These are two words that Alfred Hitchcock uses to describe the tone of the stories that make up the collection titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories NOT for the Nervous. Hitchcock and author Robert Arthur worked together to gather many thriller short stories that they thought were amazing and put them all together in this collection.…
I originally downloaded Avalanche Software’s “Hogwarts Legacy” during its release in February 2023. During this time, there was some controversy surrounding the author of the Harry Potter Franchise, J.K. Rowling due to her transphobic remarks. One of these remarks was tweeted in response to a woman being fired from her job for being transphobic in the workplace, “Dress however you please, but force women out of their jobs for saying sex is real?…