The Wall

We all overthink sometimes, which means following our own thoughts exclusively when we could be trying some other strategy to figure things out. Here are a few of many possible alternatives: 1. ask yourself what you’re feeling. If you’re not sure, here’s something to help you figure it out: bit.ly/wheel-emotion. 2. do something else for a few hours or days and come back to it. 3. phone a friend for a new perspective.

It’s a lovely thought, but we really don’t have the space. There are also some practical hygiene and safety concerns that would make it a bad idea for us. That said, students DO nap all over the library. Level 1 has lots of big chairs, and the booths by the vending machines also seem popular, particularly during exams.

James Cagney’s 1947 spy movie “13 Rue Madeleine” was partly filmed in O’Connell house, but most of the big Hollywood Boston movies tend to focus on places over the river. If you include inspirations, BC Nursing professor Ann Burgess was the model for the professor character in Netflix’s Mindhunter.

“Dystopia” and “not dark” is a rare combination! You may have to write it yourself. You’ll find some elements in the following: the short story “The Gondoliers” in Karen Russell’s Orange World (O’Neill Library PS3618.U755 A6 2019) probably comes the closest. Others with some shared elements: The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin (O’Neill Library, Course Reserves) and Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072, by M. E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi (O’Neill Library PS3615.B75 E94 2022)

The question has many dimensions: does my life have value? Is human life significant? Does a life have virtue independent of one’s actions? Is there a purpose, divine or otherwise? I highly recommend reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning: bit.ly/bcl-frankl-meaning (ebook), in which he claims that the primary human drive is a search for meaning, not pleasure. He spent 4 years in Nazi concentration camps, so his claims about meaning are worth a listen.

Thanks ❤️

They’ve been taking awesomeness vitamins since they were knee-high to a duck.

My advice would be to let the name evolve from the campaign. One of my helpers told me about a party who specialized in really violent ambushes who came to call themselves The Rude Awakening. It made everything more epic to have the name come from specific memories.

Alas, I have no magic powers, but I do have helpers who make it possible for me to answer as many questions as I can. There’s a magic wall at CNN (bit.ly/magic-wall) that I might be related to, but I haven’t found proof of that yet.

Pearl is certainly transformative, but Hawthorne does such a remarkable job imbuing the child with the liveliness of an unfettered child that imagining her as a stone is difficult. And yet… Hawthorne had friends who’d read widely in Hindu and Buddhist works, and might have been familiar with Chintamani, a wish-giving jewel sometimes referred to as a pearl.

I don’t consume anything but Post-Its so I don’t have an opinion, but lots of my helpers are huge cheeseheads.

It’s quite different for different fields and careers. The best I can recommend in general is to a) pretend you’re the executive assistant to an early career person with great promise, so sending applications becomes a simple & efficient office task and b) make use of BC’s Career Center (bit.ly/BC-career) early and often.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (O’Neill Library, PS 1868 .A1) is certainly a classic worthy of reading and re-reading! I hesitate to apply labels like “best” to any art because there isn’t objective criteria for making that definitive a claim, but it’s certainly in a class of literature for which superlatives are regularly used.

Forgive me, but I’ve difficulty reading your letters. acus? acas? ucus? gcgs? gcus? acgs? I would be very grateful if you helped me solve the mystery.

“Only in Love” on Visual Music reminds me of OMD (I’m an 80’s Wall). I look forward to hearing your new song!

Norman Mailer was a major 20th Century author, journalist, and filmmaker who published novels, biographies, and other nonfiction, and won several prizes, including multiple Pulitzers. He courted controversy, with violent views on masculinity, his own violent behavior, and an unsuccessful run for mayor of New York on a platform of making the city the 51st state. His best known novel is The Naked and the Dead, published in 1948, about his experiences in WWII in the Philippines. You can find his novels and critical writing about him in O’Neill Library at call number PS3525.A4152 on level 4.

It can be helpful to ask what you find exciting about a science career, and if it connects with your talents and goals. The Career Center (bit.ly/BC-career) is also a great place to help you answer these questions.

Reading for pleasure really is a gift! I spoke with my library helpers and they put together a list of historical fiction recommendations for you to enjoy:

-Artifice by Sharon Cameron
-Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
-The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
-Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore
-The Women by Kristin Hannah
-The Huntress, by Kate Quinn (Partially set in Boston!)
-The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
-The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley
-Babel by R.F. Kuang
-The Binding by Bridget Collins
-The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
-The Pretender by Jo Harkin
-Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
-Since I lived in Chicago for a while, I am partial to “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson. Also, I enjoy the writing of David Grann. They are both journalists, so it is very easy reading–perfect for summer.
-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
-Playworld by Adam Ross
-The Bull From The Sea by Mary Renault
-Nuestra Señora De La Noche/ Our Lady of the Night by Mayra Santos-Febres
-Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
-Bernard Cornwell’s series of Richard Sharpe novels is fantastic if action and adventure in the Napoleonic wars appeals to you
-Delayed Rays of a Star by Amanda Lee Koe
-Sarah MacLean’s Hell’s Belles Series (Romance + Victorian Era)
-The Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian
-The Parisian by Isabella Hammad
-You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue
-Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
-Anything by Bernard Cornwell

There are no books currently banned by the United States government on a federal/national level. However, the American Library Association does keep track of bans and challenges on the school/district/state level, which you can find here: https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data.