Last October, Jeffrey Eugenides ’83, author of Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides, published The Marriage Plot, a novel that follows Brown students from their 1982 Commencement through their following year in the harsh real world. Although the ensuing literary hoopla has subsided, I still haven’t forgotten the relatively extreme existential crisis the book triggered in me.

I’d picked up a copy at the Brown Bookstore and settled into a Blue Room sofa. As I flipped through the pages, moving through the Commencement-day flashbacks, it slowly began to dawn on me that I was messing with the fabric of time and space. I WAS A CHARACTER IN THE MARRIAGE PLOT EVEN AS I PERUSED IT. How did Jeffrey Eugenides know my life?

“Ok, calm down,” I reminded myself. “First of all, it’s set in the 1980s. Secondly, Eugenides went to Brown, so obviously he’d know the day-to-day existence of an average student.” But I still couldn’t shake the feeling he was writing about me. Consider the evidence:

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We know Thanksgiving is all about family time food, but it it also marks our last few days of freedom before finals come rolling through (eeeek!). What will you do with your time on these precious days? Well, chances are you probably haven’t been able to read or watch something for yourself since the semester started, so you can’t pass up on the opportunity to veg out with a good book or movie. But which to do? Read a book? Watch a movie? We have the perfect compromise! Here’s a list of some quick reads that are being adapted into films in 2012! While you’re traveling home or maybe while you’re nursing that turkeystuffingpumpkinpie-induced food baby, dig into one of these movies-t0-be.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

A badass teenage girl named Katniss fights to the death with a bow and arrow. Drama, violence, a love triangle and a man-made killer (literally) arena are all televised to the nation of Panem, the tattered remains of what was once North America. [Read more →]

Carrie Bradshaw is joining the slew of fictional characters who ‘attended’ Brown. Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City, recently released Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel as part of her young adult series that follows the Sex and the City characters as teenagers. Set in the early 1980s, Summer and the City follows Carrie after her high school graduation as she prepares to attend Brown in the fall. To Sex and the City fans like myself, it comes as no surprise that Carrie went to Brown. We should’ve known that such a character obviously spent her undergrad years on College Hill…

1)    In the pilot episode, Carrie and her friends vow to challenge gender roles and start  having sex “like men.”

2)    Her only employment comes from her job as a weekly sex columnist. Her ‘assignments’ require her to go to various bars, clubs, and other NYC hot spots to meet men—sounds sort of like something that could be a GISP.

3)    She has commitment issues. Clearly, she enjoyed Brown’s lax policy about being able to drop a class at any point in the semester.

4)    She’s a pro at living in a cramped, small apartment. She probably gained those skills after a housing lottery disaster.

5)    She is trendy, expressive, and bold—which makes sense since Brown is the most fashionable Ivy, according to Women’s Wear Daily. The respected trade journal wrote that styles at Brown include “downtown NY hipster,”  “stiletto-clad sophisticate,” and “patch-worked bohemian.” Carrie Bradshaw rocks all three of these looks.

Tired of all the sweatpants and pajama bottoms, super-skinny jeans and plaid shirts? Ready for a return to a more classic, preppy style?

Take your inspiration from Take Ivy, a Japanese book featuring candid photos of people (okay, men) on Ivy League campuses, originally published in 1965. It became a big hit in Japan in the ’60s, as people started to imitate the Ivy League preppy style. The book was reprinted at the end of August, and may be seeing a bit of popularity. There certainly are a lot of people writing about it. Jack Spade is even creating a Take Ivy Kit, featuring a preppy shirt, a book strap, and a copy of the book. (Don’t worry, we secretly want one too.)

Maybe we’ll see a resurgence of the preppy style? Let’s hope so.

Shopping suggestions? Insistence on continued hipsterism? Tell us in the comments!

In case you missed Wild Animus (the “storytelling experiment that takes you inside the world of a young man, Ransom Altman, who transforms himself into a wild ram.”) being passed out on Thayer this weekend in front of the Brown Book store, we’ve got  your back with a recap of the highlights.

The package includes a novel, three CDs (featuring eye-caching track titles such as “tower of blood” and “dazzling dome”) and a letter from the storyteller Rich Shapero, with instructions for maximizing the experience.

The back of the box in which all these come warns the reader/listener/experiment subject “The sweetest kiss leaves a chest wound.” However it is unclear whether this constitutes a rather alarming metaphor for heartbreak or an indication that vampire books are so hot right now.

In case you’re skeptical about the literary merits of Animus, take note that it was very positively blurbed by both a world-class mountain climber and the owner of a gallery (and friends of Shapero, one might suspect). And keep in mind that he wrote the novel while “traversing 400 miles of mountainous terrain solo.”

Intrigued? You’ll find at least one free copy of Animus at The Herald’s offices at 195 Angell. Or you could go to RichShapero.com and try to request a copy yourself. If you’re lucky Shapero will trek hundreds of miles to deliver you a copy himself. If so, be sure to get an autograph.

— Ben Schreckinger