Why you should read "Call Me By Your Name"

Call Me By Your Name 👨‍❤️‍👨🙍‍♂️😭

“Call Me By Your Name”, by Andre Aciman, is a love story that unfolds between two young men, 17-year-old Elio and 24-year-old Oliver. Oliver is a handsome, doctoral student from America. He is invited to stay six weeks at Elio’s home in the Italian Riviera, to serve Elio’s father as an academic apprentice. Elio is a shy, intelligent teenager with a love for music and literature. “Call Me By Your Name” takes place in the 1980s, and follows Elio as he narrates his unfolding romance with Oliver, one that neither ever forgets, and one that lasts a lifetime.

“Call Me By Your Name” explores two major themes that I believe to be: compulsive love, and the passage of time. Elio observes Oliver’s every move and habit during the first few weeks of Oliver’s stay. Elio looks for signs of Oliver becoming sexually or romantically involved with anyone and secretly yearns for a relationship with Oliver. I would describe this behavior as compulsive, because Elio wants to continue living his life without the gnawing attraction towards Oliver, yet he constantly thinks of him. Oliver actually drops hints of attraction towards Elio for a while, until the two finally kiss at a valley, much to Elio’s happiness.

Eccentric happiness always comes to an end though. It is interrupted by periods of calm, or sadness, and then again eccentric happiness, thus repeating the cycle. This is another major theme I observed whilst reading “Call Me By Your Name”. The cycle of emotions is accompanied by the passage of time. Oliver eventually has to go back home and continue on with his life, without Elio. They are both sad during this period, but time goes on, and the summer ends. The winter comes, and we see Elio as calm and happy until he receives a call from Oliver. Oliver shares some shocking news that neither of them wants to believe is real. Elio experiences sadness, but readers know that Elio and Oliver will be just fine because the cycle of emotions will resume just as surely as time continues.

“Call Me By Your Name” is a book that makes an impact on readers, regardless of the genre they are accustomed to reading. It has a few parts I would not recommend a person under 13 read, but other than that the book really does live up to its hype. The book wouldn’t have been turned into a 4 time Academy Award-nominated movie if it wasn’t good, therefore, you should read it.

A Curious Look into a Curious Incident

I have been reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon. The book is about an autistic kid, about 15 years old, named Christopher John Francis Boone, who lives in Swindon, England. One night he finds the dog, Wellington, that belongs to his neighbor, Mrs. Shears, dead. This book is the story of him fighting his autism, while also using it to aid him, to solve the mystery. 

Against his father’s wishes, Christopher writes this book about his adventure for a school project. During a misunderstanding, Christopher hit a policeman and went into custody only briefly and with a warning. His release had the condition that he stopped his investigations into the dog’s murder immediately. Despite this, he continued to search for the truth.

This book is not like other mystery books. Rather than being all about the mystery, it is more about his relationships with people and how his autism affects the investigations and his relationships with people. A major relationship in this book is with his mother. He initially thinks that his mom is dead because that is what his father told him. Instead, he finds her in London after finding letters from her that had been hidden. 

I think that this book is a great read and is even divided into sections which makes it easier to read and unique. The book provides a great balance between the mystery section of the book and the relationships section of the book. It also gives a decent insight as to what it is like to be autistic because the author worked with autistic individuals.

A Futuristic Narrative: The Martian

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18401393-the-martian

A Futuristic Narrative: The Martian

     The Martian is a 2011 science fiction novel set in the year 2035 on the planet mars. This book which has since been made into a film, focuses on Mark Watney, an astronaut specializing in botany who has accidentally been left behind on Mars. While evacuating the planet during a harrowing windstorm, the rest of the crew falls under the impression that Watney was hit and killed although as we see later on, he actually survived, and is now stuck alone on a planet with no communication, no plan, and no way home. The novel, written in a diary or log format, follows Watney as he struggles to come up with a plan to stay alive and get home safe, while in unknown territory millions of miles away from earth. I would recommend this book to almost anyone, and it can be an enjoyable read for teens and adults alike. 

     One of the reasons I like this book, is that it is simply entertaining and funny to read. The book is told in a very raw journal format, which allows for a lot of Watney’s humor to show through. Without the humor in the book, it may seem too scientific or dull for some readers who aren’t as interested in the technical aspects. While recovering an extremely dangerous radioactive generator that was not supposed to be accessed, Watney comments “I wonder what NASA would think about me ****ing with the RTG like this. They’d probably hide under their desks and cuddle their slide rules for comfort,” (Weir ch. 7). While some people in this situation may be ridden with anxiety and try to find another option, he decides to cope by making a joke about the situation to give himself confidence about what he is doing. While this example on its own may not be mind-blowingly funny, and the humor doesn’t always present itself as a specific joke, the book has a witty feel to it, and it is apparent that Watney is able to take depressing and hopeless situations and make them positive.

     One of the other reasons that I like The Martian is how it is exciting and suspenseful, and I like watching how Watney is able to solve problems that seem completely impossible, while living on the edge of failure. While I wouldn’t classify this as a mystery novel, it certainly has a lot of the same aspects. As one can imagine when accidentally living alone on a foreign planet with no plan to get home, Watney faces a lot of strange obstacles that he was not intended to encounter. In order to keep himself alive he must figure out how to grow crops, communicate with earth, live for years on a few weeks’ worth of food, and not die of hypothermia. I think watching other people working through difficult problems, even if it is in a book, can be interesting and also a learning opportunity. It can be helpful and fascinating to see how other people may approach problems, and this book is perfect for that. Reader’s can sort of play along with Watney and try to guess how he will figure things out which is fun. 

     Overall I would definitely recommend The Martian to most people as I think it is very well written and entertaining. I think that it is better for older audiences such as high school and up, but anyone younger may be bored. Even withing these age groups, if you aren’t interested in science, it may not be the best book for you. If you are however, and like mysteries, humor and books that you just can’t stop reading, then The Martian might be just the book for you.