For this blog post, I drew my inspiration from our very own Technical Services Coordinator, Allison Liesz. Go check out her blog post “Five Books That Got Me Through Grad School”. I myself have been a reader on and off since middle school. It can be hard to read when I am back in school, but when I do, I go for the books that will drive a metaphorical knife through my heart. I personally am a mood reader, so on any given day I can decide to read wherever my heart takes me. Typically, it takes me to sad novels.
This is your official warning: these books are sad…proceed with caution.
(Or don't; I didn’t.)
These books are ordered by sadness:
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
This novel is dark academia and is told by Oliver Marks who just spent the last ten years in prison for a murder he may or may not have committed. Oliver recounts the events of his time at Dellecher Shakespeare Conservatory. Pieces of Shakespeare's plays are woven into the lives of the characters, blurring the lines of their lives and a play. Although this group of friends is close, they fight each other for the main roles in the plays. Tensions build, friends are hurt, and someone ends up dead.
This book will keep you guessing while you try to decide whether Oliver is actually a murderer. While this book is not entirely sad, readers may be left with an ache in their heart.
Sadness Rating: 1.5/5
If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin
This novel follows the main character Autumn who is next door neighbors with Finny. Their moms are best friends, Finny and Autumn were raised together, inseparable…until high school. Everything changed in high school. Finny was considered popular while Autumn was considered an outsider and kind of weird. They both avoided each other, their friend groups being enemies. The story moves all throughout high school with flashbacks to their childhoods intertwined. Read to find out if their paths ever really cross over again.
I have read this book almost once a year since middle school. It is a quick read and brings me so much comfort. You may cry, I cannot confirm or deny. Bonus! In 2024, Laura Nowlin published a sequel to this book; If I Had Told Her. It is told through the perspective of three different characters recounting the events of the last book from different character's POV, as well as the future. The second book is much sadder than the first in my opinion, but tied together, they are a tragic duo.
Sadness Rating: 2.75/5
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
This novel follows two main characters, Sam and Sadie. They met when they were children at a hospital not really thinking they would cross paths in the future. But when Sam is attending Harvard, he bumps into Sadie who is attending MIT. Both have a love of video games, it was originally what they connected over when they were children. But as adults, their love of playing video games has shifted to creating. After their run in, they begin to create a game together. The novel moves through the next couple years of their life.
This was my first read of 2024 and it has stayed with me since then. When I play video games, I wonder what Sadie and Sam would have to say. Even if you personally don’t play video games, this book is a must read. It has a diverse cast and the characters feel real.
Sadness Rating: 3.5/5
Call Me by Your Name by Andre Aciman
I first watched the movie a few times before I decided to pick up the book and boy was it worth it. This book is a very quick read, coming in at just about 280 pages. Taking place in Italy during the 1980s, Elio and his family take in PhD student Oliver. Elio and Oliver spend the summer together where Elio is discovering his sexuality. They both know that the summer will end and Oliver has to return to America, but that doesn’t change how they feel towards one another. If you have watched the movie, you may think their story ends when Oliver leaves, the book however chronicles 20 years of their relationship. All the missed chances and longing they both feel.
As I said before, I originally watched it before I read it. The movie does an amazing job at staying close to the book but the book just provides so much feeling and desire. Elio discovers who he is while Oliver has other obligations. There is no avoiding the sadness you will feel at the end of this book.
Sadness Rating: 4/5
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
I will start off by saying that you must check Trigger Warnings before picking up this book. A Little Life follows four college friends: Jude, JB, Willem, and Malcolm. They started off as roommates but quickly became lifelong friends. Although they all hail from various backgrounds, cultures, economic statuses, and family upbringings, they always have time for each other. Jude, who hides his past but is truly the glue to the group, is a lawyer. JB is an artist who likes to play with all different mediums and chronicles the group's friendship through his art. Malcolm is an architect who makes a career for himself and is constantly trying to accommodate for Jude. And Willem is the actor of the group who is kind and compassionate. Hanya Yanagihara beautifully writes these characters and while you read, you will feel like an invisible fifth friend. Watching all four men grow and each individually face hardships is gut-wrenching but real.
Not a week goes by where I do not think about Jude. He really is the main focal point that brings all the other characters together. His slowly unraveled past will keep you holding a box of tissues at your side. All the tears will be shed throughout this book.
Sadness Rating: 5/5
I know these books are sad but that is what makes me love them. I constantly say to myself and those around me that it is good to feel things and I believe that to be true. Without a doubt, these books will make you feel things. Fret not, I will provide a happy list for those of you who do not want to be sad.
I am not an AI skeptic, necessarily. I see artificial intelligence making valuable contributions in the fields of research, the health sciences and towards more accessible design. I love technology and gadgets, and despite my feelings towards the large tech firms, I generally am still optimistic about what technology has and can do for us.
That said, I also see a trend of large (respectable?) organizations cramming AI into their products and services. A few interesting ones have stood out to me recently: Amazon's Rufus, and Reddit's Answers. I thought I would put both to the test and report back: Are these useful tools or more examples of the end of the AI hype cycle?
Disclaimer: Both of these features are currently in BETA so I am sure they will be improved or discontinued or more likely commodified at some point. Let's start with Rufus.
RUFUS
I noticed this a few weeks ago at the top left of Amazon's web page - a prominent place considering how people read the internet. After clicking on “Rufus” the following appeared on my screen:
About three months ago I searched for new work shirts, so I suppose the “Keep shopping” prompts make some sense. The fact that this is the top result is revealing. The “Compare options” suggestions were tangentially related to my previous searches but I am honestly not to sure why I would be asking Rufus to compare quilts and comforters. The suggestions in the “Learn before you buy” section was even stranger: but let's play along. I clicked “What does cocktail attire mean?” and was given the following LLM-like response:
And of course, underneath the explanation were links to various things I can buy (now that I know what cocktail attire is, of course…):
So a relatively boring rabbit hole and not too useful in my opinion, but Lets see how Rufus responds to an actual user prompt: “What is the best laptop”. When I first tried this out last week, I was honestly surprised to see a somewhat useful response about “things to consider” before buying a laptop (operating system, processor, storage, display etc.), and as I scrolled down further I saw advertisements for large laptop manufacturers. This time, it was just the adds for the largest computer brands, with the links to the products underneath. I was quite disappointed by this development.
Overall Rating: Could be somewhat useful, but in the end I do not trust the intentions or the long term stability of this product. I am also still wondering why I would ever be asking Rufus or Amazon what Cocktail Attire is. Not very fun. Not very useful.
Reddit Answers:
As far as I can tell Chat GPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google Overviews, and Deep Seek have all scraped Reddit to some extent to help generate their responses. Reddit obviously noticed this as well and decided to create a LLM (perhaps a medium language model?) that has been trained exclusively on Reddit posts and comments. Or as Reddit puts it, Answers is “a new way to get the information recommendations, discussion, and hot takes people are looking for - on any topic - from real conversations and communities across all of Reddit.” Hmm…
Having spent some time on Reddit, this sounded pretty interesting (and potentially horrifying…) so I wanted to test the guard rails. I started immediately with a rather loaded question: "Is Donald Trump corrupt?" I was surprised to get an actual answer which included a very Perplexity-like response that included a general overview of the topic including sections about: “Allegations of Corruption and Criminal Activity”, “Public Perception and Defense”, and “Concerns about Future Actions”.
It concluded with this: “The debate over whether Donald Trump is corrupt is complex and multifaceted, involving numerous allegations of illegal activities and concerns about his potential future actions. Opinions on Reddit reflect a wide range of perspectives, from staunch criticism to strong defense.” There were also links to reddit posts and conversations about this topic, recommended Subreddits where you can discuss this more, and related follow up questions. I thought that this was a fairly balanced response to an obviously contentious question.
My unrelated follow up (which is equally contentious in some corners) “Is Messi or Ronaldo the GOAT?”. I received an equally balanced and I would argue useful response. I think that this is perhaps a slight improvement over Reddit's current search engine, but it is also limiting the context of the information that users are seeing.
Overall Rating: Despite my low expectations, I actually found Reddit Answers to by useful and dare I say fun - especially for niche questions or content recommendations. That said, typing your questions directly into the regular OG Reddit search bar would often return many of the same results. Fun. Somewhat Useful.
If any of this is worth destroying the rainforest for - is another question for another day.
(Spoilers: It's not)