Since ancient times, there has been a lot of thought about what happens when we die — if we are drawn to a bright light, reborn as a stinkbug or sacred cow, or ascend to some version of heaven. If I Stay, by Gayle Forman, explores not just what happens after we die, but what goes on as we are dying and imagines we have a choice on whether to hang on or let go.

Mia is a 17-year-old musical prodigy who enjoys a pretty happy life with her hipster parents, 8-year-old brother and budding rock star boyfriend. All of that changes on a snowy day when a family road trip ends in a terrible car accident. Thrown from the car, she is plunged into a coma, which allows her spirit to escape from her body and witness the scene unfold. With her parents dead and her brother critically injured, she watches as doctors work on her battered body and as her family and friends gather at the hospital. She becomes aware of the choice she has to make: fight her extreme injuries and the grief of losing her parents to survive, or give into the sadness and let go. When she seems ready to give up, her body experiences complications and she is rushed back into surgery. When she is hopeful, her body seems to grow stronger. Taking such an emotional journey with Mia was heart-wrenching, and I agonized with her as she waffled between wanting to live and giving in to death. It reminded me of the whispered conversations I had with my own mom in the last hours of her life: stay because I want you here, but if you’re too tired to fight anymore, it’s okay if you go.

The book takes place in the span of one very long day, with flashbacks interspersed to tell us more about Mia’s family, boyfriend and future hopes and dreams. The flashbacks made her feel like a real person, one whose decision I really cared about. I never saw the recent movie made from the book, so I can’t compare the two. But the book was an engaging, fast read that I had a hard time putting down.

Fifty-four years ago, Harper Lee wrote the outstanding novel “To Kill A Mockingbird.” I remember reading this sophomore year, and groaning over how much I hate books that have anything to do with trials. But the book was more than just a trial. It stressed the importance of moral education and showed a major lack of social equality. I also found the novel incredibly charming, especially because the book is from the perspective of the little girl protagonist, Scout. This was actually one of the few books I did not use Sparknotes on.

Despite the novel being an amazing success, “To Kill A Mockingbird” was the only book that Harper Lee ever published. But that is about to change. A year ago, Lee’s friend and lawyer rediscovered a manuscript that Lee wrote before Mockingbird that was never published. The book was called “Go Set a Watchman,” and featured Scout as an adult returning to her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1950s to see her father Atticus.  Lee actually wrote this book before “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but when she presented it to her editor, his favorite scenes were the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood. He persuaded her to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout, which she agreed to do. The result: Mockingbird became a hit and Watchman was lost and presumably forgotten.

After the manuscript was found, the media-shy author was encouraged by her friends and family to publish it. Lee issued a statement saying she is “happy as hell” about the upcoming novel. “I
hadn’t realized it [the original book] had survived,” she said. “After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication.”

“Go Set a Watchman” is set to be released July 14th, but if you want, you can pre-order right now on Amazon. I am stoked about the novel and July 14th cannot come soon enough.

Every Wednesday at around 2:07 pm, I step into the news club conference room to talk with my fellow writers and editors. Usually I suggest to the chief, David Raab, that I write an article about whatever crazy event is going on at the time. But on this particular Wednesday, I was told by David that I would be writing an article on pop music. Rather than lash out in front of my peers with my feelings toward pop music, I decided to follow through with the article. Here it goes . . .

Do you ever get the most annoying song stuck in your head because it was played on the radio a good 42 times that day? I have a feeling that you have a pop song stuck in your head! Do you ever get the aux cord taken away from you because you were playing songs that nobody wants to hear? I bet you were playing pop music! Now if you truly enjoy pop music, or specifically any pop song from the hit top 100, please read the rest of the article at your own risk.

Let’s start by sinking our eyes and ears deep into the song “Lips are Movin” by Megan Trainor. Now I really have nothing against Megan Trainor, she’s just a young woman trying to bring out everybody’s confidence with repetitive song lyrics and techno noises. But I do have to say I learned many things from this popular tune. I learned that if my lips are moving in any way, I am lying. So for all you gum chewers and pencil biters, you are all lying. In her first verse I learned that Megan Trainor supposedly came from outer space. When Megan sings “I come from outer space,” I guess you could say that she’s the one who’s lying considering there is proof she was born right here in Massachusetts. And might I remind you that her lips are moving throughout her whole music video, so maybe Megan is the biggest liar of them all!

As we skip past more songs that hurt my ears, we arrive at “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift. Does anybody remember the Taylor Swift who wrote country songs? And does anybody know where she disappeared to? I don’t even know how people are still calling her music “country.” I hate to break it to you but this is hardcore pop music. In the music video, clips switch off between Taylor in her bedroom with two white horses and Taylor smashing things with mascara all over her face. In all honesty, I just don’t really understand the song lyrics or the music video or Taylor herself. If this song were to be described with four words, many would suggest “Corrupting To Today’s Youth.”

To continue ranting about this mind-damaging genre of music, I bring up the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. I just wanna start by saying that there is nonstop clapping in this song and frankly it makes me unhappy. It’s annoying (as is the beat of most any pop song). But anyway, in this song I learned that I need to clap along if I “feel like a room without a roof.” I regret to tell Pharrell that I don’t know what a room without a roof feels like so I will not be clapping along. He then repeats that exact verse six more times in the song, making it nearly impossible to even listen anymore. Sorry to anyone who adores this song if I’m making you the opposite of happy.

To wrap up this article, I’d like to say that at the moment I am surprisingly tolerating a pop song. “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars is a guilty pleasure of mine right now and I actually think everybody should give it a listen. But if it’s any other pop song you go and listen to, I hope you find yourself lost with the old Taylor Swift and her acoustic guitar.

I could watch Benedict Cumberbatch read from the phone book and enjoy myself. I love the blend of quirky genius and nerdy awkwardness he shows in Sherlock. I also adore the unabashed goofiness of his countless appearances on awards shows and TV (This clip of celebrity impressions is one of my favorites). But I have to be honest and admit that I haven’t seen many of his most famous movies, such as The Fifth Estate and Hawking. When I get to the movies, it’s usually to see something my 10-year-old daughter will enjoy, not high brow, intellectual “cinema.” So when I had the chance to see a grownup movie recently,  I chose The Imitation Game for the chance to see Cumberbatch in action.

Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, a British mathematician who helped crack Nazi Germany’s most complicated code during World War II. Using ideas far ahead of his time, he created a machine that allowed the Allied forces to decipher Nazi messages and anticipate attacks, saving thousands of lives and, experts say, shortening the war by years. But Turing had a secret, one that would not only embarrass him in the repressed times in which he lived, but could make him a criminal: he was gay. Although his work during the war was nothing short of heroic, he was condemned after the war for his sexuality, publicly humiliated and forced to undergo chemical castration (hormone therapy that made him impotent). He committed suicide in 1954.

As expected, Cumberbatch was brilliant. He makes you feel that Turing’s arrogant pursuit of his ideas is justified, his social awkwardness is endearing, and his persecution is beyond unfair. Keira Knightley gives one of her best performances as Joan Clarke, a lone woman on the code-breaking team who is Turing’s biggest ally and, for a brief time, his fiancee. Together, they make the work of the code-breakers feel as important, and dangerous, as that of any soldier on the front lines.

In the past decade, the British government declassified Turing’s work, giving him the respect and recognition he long deserved. The government also apologized for prosecuting him for being gay. Still, his story is one I had never come across, which is incredibly sad when you think of the influence his work had. (The code-breaking machine he invented led to the development of a little something you may have heard of, the computer)

While not exactly light, “feel-good” fare, The Imitation Game is a moving and thought-provoking film worth seeing. It sheds light on a little-known aspect of World War II while also exploring what it means to be different. Whether it was for his sexuality or his abrasive genius that rubbed many of his colleagues the wrong way, Turing lived most of his life as an outcast. Most of us can relate to feeling like a misfit at one time or another. But the message of the film, repeated by several different characters, is inspiring: “Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”