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Let the Graduation Stories Commence

Commencement – it’s what we call the ceremonies that take place this time of year. Speeches are given, accomplishments celebrated, and students are called to walk across the stage, marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Here is a quintet of graduation stories that capture an essence of life beyond high school.

Kill All the Happies by Rachel Cohen

“This is it. Graduation.…

For me, the best thing about this awful, distressing, horrendous year was being able to read regularly after such a long time. Reading helped me forget - or at least stop obsessing - about so many things (my worst personal year ever). When I started in February I thought I’d read maybe 25 books in the year, but I finished my 109th book today, so yea me!

If you look at my reading list you might be thinking, “Damn, Ronnie, you sure gave a lot of 5-Star ratings. Giving them out like candy?” But I say, “No!!! I was lucky and picky.” Here are the highlights and lowlights from 2017’s books…

The Best 5:

James Joyce: Ulysses. This is now my Current All-Time Favorite Book.

Aldous Huxley: Island. This one surprised and floored me. Huxley was a genius.

Boris Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago. I’m a sucker for Historical Fiction concerning the Russian Revolution or the turn of the century.

William Clark Styron: Sophie's Choice. Ripped out my heart and twisted it dry.

Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway. Where my love of Modernist authors started.

The Worst 5:

Adair Hart: The Evaran Chronicles: Books 1-3. Mr. Hart shouldn’t be allowed within 500 feet of a keyboard. Or a number 2 pencil. This was A Crime Against Literature. Worst Science Fiction I’ve ever read, probably just my worst read, period.

Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest. A fluffy, boring play and I will never understand its popularity. Love Wilde’s quips, though.

Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land. Sexist, dated, and the plot fizzled near the halfway point.

Scott Semegran: Boys. A horrible, shallow set of short stories with truly awkward grammar. How did this get published?

Nikolai Gogol: Dead Souls. A Russian Classic (now a favorite genre of mine), but I found it tedious and uninteresting.

And thanks to everyone who gave me book recommendations. My Want To Read List is huge!