"The amazing, inspiring true story of a young woman raised by a fundamentalist Mormon family in Idaho – she had no birth certificate, never attended school, never saw a doctor – who eventually, through sheer force of will, manages to leave, go to college, and ultimately receive a PhD from Cambridge. A lesson in what people can overcome."

"A first-generation college student navigates the challenges and privileges of an elite Northeastern university, while back home in Miami, her family and boyfriend do and don’t move on without her. Crucet has so much to say about class and relationships and politics, and she says it by writing terrific, deeply satisfying scenes featuring complicated and realistic characters."

"Post-college malaise. The quarter-life crisis. Obviously another huge inspiration for Garden State. So beautifully acted and photographed and written and directed. As you can tell from my list, I love movies about lonely people finding people to make themselves feel a little less lonely. That look on both of their faces on the bus at the end . . ."

"I saw this movie at Film Forum when I was in college. I remember watching all three hours of it with my mouth open. It fueled my interest in so many things: monks, bells, medieval Russia, structuring movies and plays like novels . . . I was taking a really dumb screenwriting class at the time, and this contradicted everything I had just been taught."

"This is a book that found me. I read it the summer after college, right before moving to NYC and starting out on my own personal legend. The Alchemist has found me every time I’m about to embark on a new path, or during a major transition. I’ve read it each time, and every time there are even more treasures to discover."

"TWO criminally underrated John Hurt movies in one list?!? This is about a stuffy, old English author with a distaste for the lowbrow who happens to step into the wrong movie, Hot Pants College 2. He becomes infatuated with its teen heart-throb star (Jason Priestley) and goes on to stalk and befriend him. Just a brilliantly written slow-burn character study."

"In my 30s when I taught college English, freshmen had to take a Great Books course, so I got to teach Oedipus and Aristotle — a real disconnect for Americans whose gods were Reason and Progress. For years I kept a black and white photo of a stone-carved head of blind Oedipus next to a photo of Ezra Pound just before his death."