Ladies by the Lake

  The Folklore Love Triangle: A Story of Unrequited Love by Lily Rowell      In this week’s blog post I will be discussing Taylor Swift’s album, folklore and the story behind the album. Swift’s first Covid studio album describes the love triangle between 3 teeangers, James, Betty, and Augustine.       The opening song that discusses the teens' relationship is titled, cardigan , which is also Swift's most popular song off of the album. The song is from the perspective of 17 year-old Betty, James’ prior love interest to his summer “fling”, Augustine. The lyrics express the pain that Betty feels after James has left her for another girl over the summer. The song expresses the longing for the relationship they had before and her cardigan that she owns is a constant reminder of what they once had. Swift also includes lyrics that imply that James was chasing two girls but “lost the one [Betty]”. One lyric (that will also be compared to another later on...

      "A Dream With a Baseball Player" is a piece written by indie singer-songwriter and musician Faye Webster. Her music blends elements of indie folk, indie pop, and alternative country. Her work is often characterized by dreamy melodies, their relatable lyrics, and her distinctive vocal style. She's known for her poetic storytelling and unique blend of genres, creating a sound that's both nostalgic and contemporary. Recently, she’s been blowing up on various social media platforms for the depth in many of her song lyrics and their appeal and relatability to a teen girl audience. Despite only gaining popularity fairly recently, she actually debuted with her first song and album “Dancing With the Angels” and “Faye Webster” all the way back on June 5, 2012.         Being a part of her target demographic - that is teenage girls - I’ve enjoyed listening to many of her songs, and have particularly liked her well-known "A Dream With a Baseball Player....

  WARNING I WILL TRY TO BE AS VAGUE AS POSSIBLE TO KEEP SPOILERS TO A MINIMUM, BUT I WILL STILL BE DISCUSSING THE ENDING OF A SERIES               Attack on Titan (AoT) is one of my favorite mangas/animes of all time. It has a gripping story with real stakes and interesting ideas/themes. I started by watching the anime and I was hooked. I remember spending several hours a day just watching the show, until I ran into a problem: I really wanted to see the ending, but the anime was still a few years from completion. And with the very misleading naming system of the anime* I decided to check out the manga. Luckily I though the ending was pretty good. Not super great, but still a decent ending to one of my favorite shows. Although I had heard that the anime had made some changes when compared to the source material based on the general consensus of how the fans felt about certain parts of the manga. This made for an interes...

  If you've watched any of the 8 seasons of Gilmore Girls on Netflix, then you would know that Rory Gilmore is a huge bookworm, and always seems to be reading. She even tells Dean, her first boyfriend and love interest, that she always carries a book around with her to read if things get boring. She reads classics, non-fiction, more modern books (for the time, which is the 2000's), and many more throughout the seasons. In fact, Rory alone has been seen reading or referencing 339 books throughout the show's run. If you want a harder challenge, there is a similar one that includes all 3 of the Gilmore girls, with over 400 books to read. This challenge is definitely something to look at if you're curious to see which books you've read, are bored over summer, or want some new book recommendations! If you don't want to read over the summer, and haven't watched Gilmore Girls, I would highly recommend it. I took one quiz to see how many books I've read, and hav...

  Hi! In this week's blog post I will be discussing the certain literary elements that Ethel Cain uses in her debut album Preacher’s Daughter to inflict a sense of dread, sadness and anger. To start, this album is one of my favorites not just because I have been a fan of Ethel’s music since 2021, but because her songs always make me feel what she wants the listener to feel for the entirety of the song. The way she creates a story through every single song and leads the reader on an emotional journey is something that I find valuable in a singer-songwriter and is one of the reasons I enjoy her music so much. Below is the official tracklist (I will be referencing this quite a bit) and a link to the album on Spotify if you want to give it a listen :) Tracklist:  Family Tree (Intro) - 3:41  American Teenager - 4:18 A House in Nebraska - 7:46 Western Nights - 6:05  Family Tree - 7:10 Hard Times - 5:03  Thoroughfare -  9:27 Gibson Girl - 5:42 Ptolomea - 6:23...

      Book Commentary by Shanna Nayely Duay      When I was younger, I had a huge thing for the Addams family and loved the idea of a character like Wednesday Addams. Especially in my fifth-grade year, I was fascinated with grim tales and fables and I enjoyed reading books of that nature. So when the annual book fair rolled around and a book titled The Addams Family: Wednesday's Library  caught my eye, I knew I had to have it.      The Addams Family: Wednesday's Library was a book aimed to compile different works that the character Wednesday Addams would find interesting. The collection is comprised of works from authors I was familiar with like Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. But it was also the first time I was introduced to ones like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, and Joseph Conrad. Stories like Dracula, Jane Eyre, Heart of Darkness, and The Divine Comedy were featu...

The first time I heard about the Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan was a month after I had finished the Heroes of Olympus series (the sequel series to Percy Jackson & the Olympians). I was a massive Percy Jackson fan (very original opinion I know); it had all the elements to a story I didn’t even know at the time I wanted like a low fantasy setting and being based in mythology. So, when I finished the series and couldn’t find any more Percy Jackson related books to read, I naturally fell into a deep depression as if the book had taken part of my soul with it. And so I did the obvious thing and searched for another book to avoid dealing with my feelings. I looked around a bit and got suggestions from my family until I heard that Rick Riordan had written another series based on Egyptian myths instead of Greek ones. This book sounded interesting enough so I decided to read it.   Honestly I don’t remember my first read through of this book too well, which is to be expected because ...