LA's fine but it ain't home...

New York's home but it ain't mine no more.

Oh, Neil! How true, how true.

I finished 'Animal Farm'. A quick but fun read. After my semester-long course on Dystopian Lit for my senior "ILA" (I honestly don't even know what that stands for), I've gotten used to fictional totalitarianism regimes (we read 1984, Brave New World, Farenheit451, A Handmaid's Tale, A Clockwork Orange, etc. etc.), but this one still holds its own. I won't forget it anytime soon. Orwell's prose is just excellent, and the similarities to real-life figures was hilarrrriouuuussss. I felt so bad for Snowball, the swine version of Trotsky who was dispelled from the farm after his inital, peaceful version of the revolution was overtaken in a coup by Napoleon, aka Stalin. Snowball being blamed for the later catastrophic events on the farm, and the back-and-forth between the 2 neighboring farms being friends and enemies, were very similar to plotlines in 1984. Snowball is like their Goldstein, and the two farms their Eurasia and Eastasia.

Now I'm reading 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter'. I feel like it's an Oprah's book club read or something, but my mom recommended it, and if I don't read something she's recommended soon, it will probably hurt her feelings. I'm going to hit 'To Kill a Mockingbird' after that, since it's been since 7th grade.

Finally, my mom was gone visiting her brother all weekend, and when she got home my dad had one of her favorite meals, slow-cooked prime rib, waiting for her. With grilled veggies and baked potatoes. My dad can be a really good guy sometimes.