For most, summer is a season for skimpy bikinis and cold Coronas, or whatever those zany teenagers do these days. Along with such activities, Bwog staffers Lucy Tang and Daniel D'Addario will while away these months of freedom in (partial) devotion to literary pursuits, and then discussing these books in a nifty little feature called "Joy Luck Book Club."

Now what makes these two qualified for literary criticism? Absolutely nothing. How regular will these discussions be? The frequency will be inversely proportional to the number of open bars we find each week.

First victim: Barnard alumna Marisha Pessl's much-lauded Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

Reading Rainbow!

Lucy: It's impossible to have a discussion about Special Topics in Calamity Physics without mentioning all its hype.
1. Marisha Pessl's huge (and undisclosed) advance. (Great for her!)
2. Marisha Pessl is hot! (She's no Zadie Smith)
3. The New York Times's "The 10 Best Books of 2006"

Needless to say, I am one of those mindless drones who take the Times's recommendation as gospel, so after seeing that prestigious title placed upon it, I was extremely eager to actually read the book, and five months later, I did. After I finished skimming the last fifty pages, I was left unsatisfied and disappointed, but on a second consideration, it was a good book.