A Good Place to Start

This piece originally appeared in the Media/Tech column of Walla Walla University’s student newspaper, The Collegian

Hey! My name is Matt Fennell. I’m a senior computer engineering major from Maryland (go Ravens!), and I’m here to talk to you about my absolute favorite things in the whole world: stories.

Every week, I’ll do my best to bring you my recommendations for whatever story-based content I think you should be consuming. Sometimes I’ll talk about just one new or old thing that I’ve recently enjoyed; other times I’ll share recommendations from the rest of The Collegian staff. Today, however, I’ve put together a quick list of the things going on right now that I really think you should get into. Here goes!

The Good Place—The newest sitcom from Michael Schur (“The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) is the story of Eleanor Shellstrop, a woman who dies and goes to “The Good Place,” where people are paired with their perfect soul mate to live in their perfect dream home in an absolutely perfect neighborhood (complete with dozens of frozen yogurt stores). Except everything isn’t perfect because Eleanor was supposed to be sent to “The Bad Place.” Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix and the season 2 has just started airing, so now is the perfect time to jump in. Don’t miss this one!

Libby—Technically, I’m also the technology writer, so I want to take a second to tell you about this really cool app for your phone called Libby. Libby is run by OverDrive, a company that used to manage an absolutely terrible audiobook-lending software for libraries. Libby is a new version of this idea that 1) also includes e-books and 2) isn’t absolutely terrible. If your local library uses OverDrive you can create an account with your library card and check out thousands of e-books and audiobooks straight to your phone for absolutely no charge (unless you’ve racked up late fees, which, oops, I had).

The Magicians—Using Libby, I checked out the first installment of Lev Grossman’s trilogy which is sort of a weird hybrid of “Narnia,” “Harry Potter,” John Green books and “Dungeons and Dragons.” The story focuses on Quentin Coldwater, an absolutely miserable teenager who is accepted into a magical college hidden away in upstate New York. He thinks he’s finally found his place and people as he studies the science and practice of magic, but after graduating, realizes he’s still pretty miserable. Quentin and his friends eventually embark on a quest to save a magical world somehow tied to our own. In the process they’re forced to face more than they expected and, perhaps, more than they can handle. In the end, the book is a story about dealing with depression and struggling to find joy in the circumstances and blessings we’re presented with. Please, check it out.

Well I think that’s all I have room for this week, but before I close I want to thank you for reading this far—it means a whole lot to me. I want this column to be something that’s fun to read, so if you have any suggestions, comments, questions or complaints, please feel free to email me, and I’ll do my absolute best to get back to you. Bye!