1. Spinner Dolphins 2026

Tears pricked at his eyes as he sat at his desk, writing yet another letter to “Friend.” This anonymous recipient that Charlie, our protagonist, divulged his life to through written letters is the backbone of the entire movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower . The story is narrated in Charlie’s perspective, structured as a series of letters. I feel that this perspective was chosen to truly torment the viewer and make them feel the worst kind of pain right in their hearts, the kind that causes headaches to form and tears to gush down their cheeks. I say this because Charlie’s life can be described as passive angst, to say the very least. He experiences traumas that would destroy a weaker person (I won’t go into depth—your tear ducts will thank me later—but you should know that he has experienced tremendous loss and it can be inferred that he suffers from mental disorders due to said loss), and keeps them to himself as he enters high school all alone. Yet, Charlie does not think of himse...

Isn’t it interesting how the first day you log in into a new social media account, your “for you page” is a cluster of aimless videos that hardly appeal to you, yet just after a few days of scrolling, all of a sudden it recommends videos about topics that interest you: sports, movies, fashion, gaming, etc. This made me wonder an important question: does a curated feed reflect my character, or does it shape my character? Commenting, liking, disliking and sharing videos are all pieces of data that social media apps take to evaluate the person you are in order to present the “perfect feed” to keep you engaged with their app for longer. I also noticed that this concept applies in many other places: streaming services recommending your next show to binge; music platforms suggesting personalized playlists; and online stores arranging products based on your search history.  And I find it almost scary how accurate they can get . It creates an uncanny illusion that an algorithm can decipher...

  Jayne is a Korean-American design school student in New York with few friends, a crappy apartment, and lots of issues. Her older sister June has all the love and adoration from their parents back home in Texas; a well-paying finance job and expensive high-rise apartment; and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer.  It’s the premise for Mary H. K. Choi’s book Yolk , which follows Jayne as she reconnects with her estranged sister after hearing the news of her cancer. The book is told in first-person, and I was struck by how it feels so realistic and crazy at the same time. Jayne starts off with a few traits that are easy for the reader to pick out. You can find her Korean heritage when she points out ingredients in the fridge; her eating disorder first hinted at in mentions of weight and food; and her prickly sarcasm when she argues with her sister.  But it all becomes so much more. Being Korean-American for Jayne means literally struggling to speak to her parents, getting her wei...