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"This Is How You Lose Her" by Junot Diaz

11/18/2013

Title: This Is How You Lose Her
Author: Junot Diaz
# pages: 240
Date published: 2012
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it? Yes

Simply put, Junot Diaz is incredible. Thrust into the spotlight by his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz has only confirmed with his most recent work, This Is How You Lose Her, that he writes more beautifully than any author I have encountered in quite some time. The novel is composed of a series of vignettes centered around his main character, Yunior, who seeks only to love and be loved in return. Through the often shockingly honest and raw narrative, challenging in a way a lot of contemporary fiction doesn’t dare, Diaz captures the human spirit. Despite his characters’ mistakes and flaws, you find yourself root for their success anyway.

Love holds together the many and varied vignettes of This Is How You Lose Her: a mother’s love, a father’s love for the son that he hasn’t claimed, the wrong kind of love, true love, the love you lose, complicated love, and love that keeps you coming back for more, even when it tears you to pieces in the process. There is something so irrevocably human about these stories that you can’t possibly pull yourself away. This is the best kind of fiction, fascinating without feeling overly constructed.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. Despite its 240 pages, it flies by. Diaz has found the perfect combination of pulling at your heartstrings while remaining entirely relatable with his flawed, but tough and real protagonist, Yunior. If you want a book that will sweep you away into a world that is entirely different—yet eerily similar—to your own, then This Is How You Lose Her is for you.

Review by Molly Saint, A&S '15

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"Francona: The Red Sox Years" by Terry Francona & Dan Shaughnessy

11/18/2013

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Title: Francona: The Red Sox Years
Author: Terry Francona & Dan Shaughnessy
# pages: 368
Date published: 2013
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it? Yes

Because of my family’s background with the Boston Red Sox (read: obsessed), I couldn’t have been more excited to read Francona: The Red Sox Years, which details the career of Terry “Tito” Francona as manager of the Boston Red Sox. The highlights of Francona’s career include the World Series that broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, followed by another win in 2007.

When I first started reading, I worried that his would be a stereotypical memoir—a little mundane and a little too long. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a perfect glimpse into the life of Manager Francona, written with enough personal touch to feel like I was sitting in a room hearing his stories firsthand. Tito is hilarious—he tells it like it is, and he really cares about his players. With a perfect balance of insight into the inner workings of the franchise alongside contributions from players, managers, and others, this memoir proved easy to read, and it helped me understand the ups and downs of Red Sox fandom. Francona comes across as witty, grounded, and talented, and Dan Shaughnessy, his co-author, demonstrates a gift for highlighting these qualities while moving the story forward at a reasonable pace.

I highly recommend Francona: The Red Sox Years to any Red Sox fan, baseball fan, or anyone trying to better understand the culture of Boston—the Sox are undoubtedly a large part of the city. Getting a look into the real Red Sox, not just their games on TV, made me love them more despite their faults and their quirky (and sometimes difficult) personalities. The memoir is great look into what it takes to be a good manager and the debate between winning games and making money, and I learned that baseball is as much about the people who make it possible as it is about pitching and hitting a baseball. Ultimately, I finished both informed and entertained.

Review by Molly Saint, A&S '15

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"Mergers and Acquisitions" by Dana Vachon

3/25/2013

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Title: Mergers and Acquisitions
Author: Dana Vachon
Genre(s): Fiction
# pages: 240
Date published: 2008
Rating: 2.5 out of 5stars
Would you recommend it? Yes

Mergers and Acquisitions follows the life of Tommy Quinn, a young man who has just graduated from Georgetown and is setting out on a career in banking in New York City. He is hired in the Mergers and Acquisitions department at J. S. Spenser, a ritzy firm where the bonuses are big, the talk is cheap, and everyone’s priorities are completely out of line. With his lack of ambition, sub-par GPA, and inability to add or subtract, Tommy has absolutely no business being in banking; yet connections and social circles get him the job, the girlfriend, and the experiences – which are not what he thought they would be. Written before the collapse of the financial industry, this novel is a flashback to what the realities of banking were pre-2008. In addition to all-nighters spent pulling together projects at the last minute, a banker’s “responsibilities” often included drugs, parties, and entertaining clients. The world is dark, funny, and constantly moving. The characters are relatable in that they reminded me of people I know – individuals who are both entitled and completely qualified.

This was definitely an easy read; it was quick (it only took two days between class readings) and easy to understand. What I really appreciated was that it was similar to chick-lit, but instead of taking the perspective of a young, love-stricken female, it was written by a man from a man’s perspective (think Holden Caulfield all grown up), which enables Mergers to reach a wider audience. Despite the escape it provided me from the reality of midterms, it wasn’t anywhere near the best light book I’ve read. It was similar to Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis, but not quite as captivating. If you’re looking for something different, and something quick, Mergers and Acquisitions is a good read. However, if you are looking for something with a lot of substance or complex characters, this is not the book for you.

Review by Molly Saint, A&S '15

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"Drop Dead Healthy" by A.J. Jacobs

2/5/2013

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Title: Drop Dead Healthy
Author: A.J. Jacobs
Genre: Memoir
# of Pages: 371
Date Published: 2012
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Recommend: Yes

I’ve read A. J. Jacobs’ work before. In addition to being an editor at Esquire, he has filled the bookstore shelves with funny memoirs about the crazy experiments he regularly attempts. The last book of his I picked up, A Year of Living Biblically, portrayed his experience trying to live a year following every rule of the Bible. Full of sass, he drives his family crazy with his social experiments. Jacobs’ books move quickly with reasonably paced chapters that get to the point and include pictures to hasten the dialogue! Normally, I’d give any book two stars minimum for having pictures. His latest work is the concern of this review, however. In Drop Dead Healthy, Jacobs attempts to become the healthiest man alive. After having a mid-life crisis, he realizes that he needs to get his act together on the health and fitness front. This book follows his journey as he embarks on a series of entertaining visits to a myriad of health experts.

I’m always trying to read different things and push myself out of the comfortable light reading I like to do outside of class. Being a tame yoga-going, stationary bike riding, sometimes-elliptical-if-there’s-no-one-to-watch-me-fall-off kind of girl, I was intrigued by the extreme health trends Jacobs tried; he described his experiences in a way that didn’t leave me feeling like I was reading another textbook for class. Instead of going to get acupuncture, going vegan, or turning my own desk into a treadmill, I witnessed him consult experts in every field in the hopes of finding the very best, but easy to follow advice for all aspects of health. From confronting germ phobias to discovering new tricks for dealing with stress, to trying out the “caveman movement” (don’t ask, just read), he attempts all sorts of extreme “hip” movements as well as trusted, old-fashioned exercise.

I’m pretty picky when it comes to books, so I gave this one three stars. It moves quickly enough hold your interest, but I didn’t find it as witty as his other works. Overall, he addressed a lot of different issues in a casual way that held the reader’s attention from the very beginning. If you’re curious about ways to live well, just want to laugh, or need a fast read for your time on the treadmill/stationary bike/elliptical, this is the book for you!

Review by Molly Saint, A&S '15 Illustration by Kayla D'Ambrosio, A&S '14

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"This Is How You Lose Her" by Junot Diaz

"Francona: The Red Sox Years" by Terry Francona & Dan Shaughnessy

"Mergers and Acquisitions" by Dana Vachon

"Drop Dead Healthy" by A.J. Jacobs

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