Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – Hedda 

Do you want to read an impactful book? Homegoing will take you on a thrilling roller coaster ride, leaving you feeling enlightened, emotional, and wanting more. This piece of contemporary fiction is based on two half-sisters in eighteenth-century Ghana, born into different villages. As teenagers, one is married to an Englishman and lives comfortably on the Cape Coast, while the other is sold into slavery and shipped off to America. The book follows the descendants of both Esi and Effia, one thread telling the stories of life in Ghana, where rivaling tribes, Fante and Asante, wreak havoc on the villages, and the other thread telling the stories of life in America, where plantations, coal mines, and dope houses are no surprise. This masterful novel includes many memorable characters, whose lives are constantly influenced by outside forces beyond their control, and are bound to teach you many important life lessons.

“Mineral Love” by Bibio – Audrey 

UK artist Bibio’s 2016 LP “Mineral Love” is an absolute new favorite of mine. The title matches the album’s elements of wonder, yet down-to-earth sensibilities. Listening to this album is like exploring a lavish and green wilderness. There’s sounds and signatures that I’ve never heard until I played this record. “Mineral Love” highlights Bibio’s expansive musical arsenal; there’s synth, acoustic, saxophone, electric riffs, and plenty of bass. Within a single song (like “Town & Country”), you can pick up six or seven different instruments, but what sets Bibio’s record apart from all the other incredibly talented multi-instrumentalists’ is his talent and joy for layering. While some of the percussion and bass lines within the album are more heavy and edgy, Bibio’s lilting voice and acoustic strums imbue buoyancy and carry a sweetness throughout his discography. When melding many different instruments and tones, artists can often be weighed down by the sheer sensory abundance. When navigating this jungle, Bibio’s careful musical placement and harmonious clarity hinders discordancy, instead, allowing each piece to speak in turn and have their rightful spotlight on the record. If you’re a fan of ambient albums like “Plantasia”, “In Rainbows”, or “Drukqs”, you’ll love Bibio’s ambitious, symphonic, “Mineral Love”.

About Time – Eva 

About Time might seem like a classic rom-com from the Netflix cover photo. However, this is more than your typical weekend flick. Set in Cornwall and London, the story follows Tim, played by Domnhall Gleeson, a Hugh Grant-in-Notting Hill type. He finds out at twenty one that the men in his family are able to travel back in time in their own lives. Upon meeting Mary (Rachel McAdams), Tim realizes he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Four or five first meetings later, they’re getting married. The audience watches Tim become a father, cope with his sister’s alcoholism, and learn how to use his abilities. The shining star of the movie is Tim’s dad, played by Bill Nighy (from Love Actually). “Live life as if there were no second chances,” Tim muses at the end of the movie. It will leave you questioning what you would do with the ability to turn back the clock, planning a trip to Cornwall, and reminding yourself to spend more time with the ones you love. And, if you are human, it will definitely leave you teary.