#67 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

He once had a girl,

or should I say,

he once had two

Her knew one awhile

She was the yen

Of his best friend

But when his best friend commits shocking and sad suicide

The boy and the girl take to walking around side by side

She must go away

he’s left alone, in love with her

He meets someone new

They have lots of fun

Could she be the one?

He’s thinking back to the 60’s and life in Tokyo

He also recalls a sanitarium in Kyoto

Naoko’s one girl

Midori’s the other

And he is Turo

Which love will survive?

He’s so confused

Whom will he choose?

#66 Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

“We are not dogs!” This abrupt statement is what sends Eleuterio Reyes back to Mexico to fulfill his obligations as a father. It’s also what makes later generations of the Reyes family possible. Celaya Reyes, born years later in America, tells stories of her family’s complicated past, stories that contain more twists than a telenovela. Though her book is a novel, Cisneros includes many historical facts, such as a description of the Ten Tragic Days, which occurred during the Mexican revolution. It is this mix of fiction and reality that shows that the Reyeses are indeed, not dogs, but a proud family with a heritage as rich and sweet as caramelo.

#65 Disappearing Moon Cafe by Sky Lee

Torrid passions, secrets and lies envelop the Wong family in this surprising and alluring novel. Kae Ying Woo, the narrator of this tale, delves into her family's tangled past and discovers the truth behind her aunt Suzanne’s death: suicide over a star-crossed love. Hidden family ties have led to accidental incest, and Kae finds out that many relatives throughout her family tree have tasted the bitter fruit of forbidden love. Kae’s discoveries help her find the will to rekindle a past romance of her own. The loves in this book are as fleeting as the disappearing moon of the title, yet they all leave a permanent longing in each lover's heart.

#64 Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum

That little girl from Kansas just can’t seem to stay put. In this third installment in the Land of Oz series, Dorothy gets herself thrown off a ship during a raging storm and washes up on the shores of the fairy land of Ev. The Land of Ev lies just opposite the Land of Oz, across a deadly desert, and Dorothy must, of course, find her way home. But first, Dorothy must have a few good old-fashioned adventures, which include rescuing the royal family of Ev and defeating the Nome King. Good thing she has her old friends from Oz and a few new companions to help her along the way.

#63 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The master, a writer who becomes mentally ill when his novel about Pontius Pilate is met with public derision, and Margarita, the beautiful woman who falls in love with him, are but a small part of this classic novel. Bulgakov’s story cross-cuts back and forth between Satan and his retinue unleashing hellish chaos on 1930s Moscow, and Pontius Pilate and Yeshua (Jesus) Ha-Nazori (of Nazareth), fatefully interacting in Biblical Jerusalem.

The sacred and profane, the tragic and comic, are all present in this teeming montage. Behemoth, a big, black cat who talks, walks upright and eats with a fork, is absurdly amusing. Bulgakov’s uncannily detailed recounting of Jesus’s crucifixion? Not so much.

#62 Essays of E.B. White

Each of these essays displays White’s trademark precision of language and thought. They remain timely. With the recent passage of the START agreement, in which the U.S. and Russia commit to reducing their cache of nuclear weapons, one hopes that White’s assertion that “A disarmament arrangement backed by controls and inspection… is simply a veiled invitation to more and greater secrecy” is incorrect, though White’s reasoning is so clear and methodical, one cannot help thinking that perhaps it is not.

His writing makes the reader feel as though he is simply having a conversation with a friend who knows of what he speaks. It is in the reader’s interest to listen.

Why Harry Potter Makes Me Want To Be British

On July 15^th, Harry Potter will pop back onto his broomstick and fly into movie theatres in over thirty countries. All over the world, people will gasp, cheer and even shed tears when their favorite boy wizard crosses wands with his adversaries one last time. What is it about this particular fantasy that has made us pour so much of our hearts and minds into its books and films, and has made sure that the Sun never sets on J.K. Rowling’s empire?

Sure, who doesn’t fancy they could do magic? It would be great to simply say “Hooverus Totalis” and have your floors vacuumed in an instant. But for me, there’s another appeal.

Harry Potter makes me want to be British. “British-ness” in itself seems to be a main character in the Potter franchise, and these films give such a whopping great dose of it, that I find myself saying things like, “I’m just going to nip to the loo,” for weeks after I’ve seen one.

I know, America is # 1 and Britain’s a wet little island with soggy weather and bland food. But there must be something they have that we lack… Diction, perhaps? Perfectly round, bouncing Oh’s and lilting Ahs’s, popping briskly, crisply out, while our American vowels drag out nasally, bleating their last like lambs being carted off for slaughter.

Maybe it’s no coincidence that Harry Potter became so popular just when the world decided it wasn’t so keen on the United States telling everyone else what to do anymore. Maybe there’s a certain nostalgia for a time when someone other than those barbarous American Muggles was there to rubbish things up. Certainly, the word “America” is conspicuously absent from the books and movies.

So much the better. As Americans, we are forbidden from ever being the underdog, but Harry Potter can defeat Lord Voldemort in every book and every movie, and still seem like he has the odds stacked against him every time. He shrugs off his triumphs over evil, and makes self-effacing statements like “Harry Potter’s a bit of a tosser, really.” Harry Potter can make winning look like losing, and it takes being British to pull that off.

The veteran actors in the films embody this particularly British wit and restraint. Alan Rickman as Snape is an actor so wickedly precise he can make a quiet word communicate resignation, spite, and confirmed desperation all at once. Maggie Smith as McGonagall admonishes her young charges with a bemused look and a drolly articulated phrase.

Okay, Great Britain. You gave us constitutional government and the language of Shakespeare, we gave you freedom from Fascism and ketchup on your fries—I mean chips. You gave us Harry Potter, and in return, I agree to walk around speaking in my most terrible British accent for a week after I watch the next movie. I think that’s an even exchange. Pip, pip, Cheerio!