reviews

Courage and Culture Shock... Author: Liz Stephens As hard as it is to believe, aspiring writer Liz Stephens isn’t completely satisfied with her current career providing snacks on the set for a commercial production crew in Southern California.  While sweating and toiling to make sure that the “Taco Bell people” are happy with their 30 second product, Stephens dreams of something more.  Almost on a whim, she and her new husband pack up, leave Los Angeles behind, and courageously head to the remote mountains of northern Utah – at the other end of the cultural universe.  Chaos, turmoil and heartbreak [...]

An Intimate Look at One Man's Anxiety Disorder Author: Scott Stossel As someone who was diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – a subset of anxiety disorders) shortly before college, I was impressed with Stossel’s bravery when I read a teaser article in the Atlantic describing an embarrassing visit to the White House caused by the breadth of his near crippling anxiety. The candor with which he depicted his misery, and the very illogicality of his fears, was inspiring for other, closeted phobic people, such as yours truly. I picked up a Kindle edition of his story and began [...]

The Violence of Beauty Author: Victor Hugo The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a macabre story, concentrating on lust, rape, obsession, betrayal, and death. It’s hardly the expected Disney ideals with a singing and misunderstood Quasimodo and a naively innocent and un-sexual Esmeralda. The story opens on Epiphany as the much hated Quasimodo, a monster both deaf and blind, is crowned King of Fools in a raucous celebration that speaks to the festering evil of the just post-Revolutionary France where the blood lust wasn’t quite calmed and there was a commiseration between superstition and the gallows that made life short and [...]