“Ngoc.” “Knock?” “No. Ngoc. N-G-O-C.” “Like egg-nog?” My name, which means “ruby” in Vietnamese, is always somehow butchered into the name of an alcoholic Christmas beverage. The six-foot, caramel-skinned boy in front of me shakes his dreadlocks in confusion and bares an amused, gap-toothed smile at the unusual syllables. “Angweng Baptiste. Pleeaz’ ta make your ‘quaintince” His accent is indiscernible, a fact he later explained stems from his Belgian and Dominican heritage. That brief introduction marks the first of many...

List the books you read for pleasure in the past year:: Life of Pi – Yann Martel, The History of Love – Nicole Krauss, It’s Not the Bike – Lance Armstrong, Les Miserables – Victor Hugo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling, Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely, One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Gospel According to Larry – Janet Tashjian List the required readings you enjoyed most in the past year:: Siddhartha – Herman Hesse, A Tale of Two Cities –...