Author: Ann Mayhew

Like the variety of films presented, the crowd at the City of Lights, City of Angels (COL-COA) Film Festival was an eclectic mixture—the young and the old, college students dressed down and adults dressed up, and fleeting whispers in both French and English. The annual French film festival took place

By the time I got to the final page of Yann Martel’s latest book, Beatrice and Virgil, published earlier this month, there were chills running down my spine. Famous for his award-winning novel Life of Pi, Martel has once again created a clever page-turner, addressing a multitude of issues. There

As finals and end-of-semester projects draw closer and closer, one drink has become a favorite across all five campuses: coffee. Available in a variety of forms (latte, mocha, black) and desired for its caffeine content, coffee is a vital survival tool for most college students. But where is the best

“When I think of hostels, all I think of is the movie,” was most people’s response when I explained that my roommate, Willa Oddleifson SC ’13 and I would be staying in a hostel in Santa Monica for three nights during spring break. This was not the most encouraging picture,

There are five rules in Jodi Picoult’s latest page-turner, House Rules, but two are repeated the most. Rule #2 is “Tell the truth,” and Rule #5 is “Take care of your brother: he’s the only one you’ve got.” Rules themselves are an important theme in the novel, because it centers

When millions of people worldwide are watching you, you seem naturally to become much more aware of appearances. The Winter Olympics in Vancouver this year have proven this rule. Suddenly the world is fascinated with the Norwegian curling team’s choice of pants, Shaun White’s distressed denim, and figure skaters’ politically-incorrect

Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids is a fascinating and beautiful journey into the Bohemian world of New York City in the 1960s and 1970s. Told in the first person, the novel centers on Smith’s relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Having only known Smith as a 1970s poet and rock musician,

Yeasayer is one of those bands that is always difficult to describe to other people. Very generally, the group is often labeled as “experimental pop,” but one reviewer on Amazon.com goes as far as to call it “an eclectic, genre-bending journey into pop, rock, Middle Eastern and African musics, folk,

On the back of Craig Nova’s latest novel, The Informer, bold yellow letters claim that this is “a story of a time and place like our own.” Seeing as the book takes place in Berlin during the Weimar Republic of the 1930s, I cracked open the book a skeptic. As

It’s hard to believe, but Christmas is just around the corner and it’s time to start figuring out the perfect gifts for your loved ones. Out of gift ideas? Here are some suggestions to help you brainstorm:To start off, gift cards are always an option when you’re unsure about what