Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a masterpiece of country-flavored heartland angst,” I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, may pluck a resonating chord with many Midwestern listeners.

The fifth full-length studio album from 24-year-old Nebraskan native Conor Oberst and his right hand band, Bright Eyes.

Oberst’s sullen voice and emotionally spiced poetry belts unabashed, personal feelings of love and loneliness, death and drugs, as well as the utter indecision of life in contemporary America through the album’s ten angst-ridden acoustical ballads.

The band, supported by Oberst’s own independent record label, Omaha’s Saddle Creek, has succeeded in creating a simple folk sound laced with mellow interludes similar to those of Damien Rice, Dashboard Confessional and Elliot Smith.

Lyrics like “If you hate the taste of wine/Why do you drink it till you’re blind,’ and “Why are you scared to dream of God, when it’s salvation that you want?” define this album, like previous efforts, as an introspective investigation into human consciousness.

Found on the song “At the Bottom of Everything,” are the orders: “we must blend into the choir, sing as static with the whole/we must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul,” which state the difficulty of creating an individual identity in the “endless race for property and privilege to be one.”

A few particulars, however, strike my ear in an irritating manner. First, his duet with Emmylou Harris on “Landlocked Blues” is an awful, scattered attempt to break new ground. Keep the guitar, Conor-please, no a cappella. The album also falls into a thematic rut, yet again failing to leave the depressed nihilism of earlier albums behind.

Bottom line: if you’re a fan, pick this album up, and if not, borrow it from someone who is a fan.

The Story: Crime and Punishment is a psychological thriller set in St. Petersburg, Russia during the 1860′s. The story’s main character is a young, broke but educated loner named Raskolnikov, who resents society and its values.

Burdened by his own boredom and radical view of utilitarianism, Raskolnikov decides to murder a greedy old pawnbroker and steal her money. The story follows Raskolnikov through his planning the crime and committing it, describing in vivid detail the mental justification for each action the character takes.

Laced with intriguing subplots and intellectual dialogue, Crime and Punishment keeps readers hooked by offering an interesting new addition to the suspense in every chapter.

The second half of the novel focuses on the vicious moral dilemma Raskolnikov faces within his own mind. Confession or freedom? Truth or lies? Either choice contains a punishment of insurmountable anguish.

The Author: Born in Moscow, Russia in 1821, Fyodor Dostoevsky graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Military Engineering in 1843. In 1849 he was arrested for his involvement in a group that published socialist propaganda.

After spending a total of four years in a Siberian prison, Dostoevsky participated in mandatory military service for another four. His time spent in prison is said to have been a major influence on his writing, and is found in certain scenes of Crime and Punishment.

Dostoevsky suffered from epilepsy, depression and an addiction to gambling later in life. Before his death in 1881 Fyodor Dostoevsky also authored several other novels including: The Gambler, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot.

Why is it essential?

* Brings to light the moral dilemma behind every important decision.

* Considered influential in Psychology and Philosophy as it is in Literature.

* Crime and Punishment was published in book form for the first time in 1867 and is still being printed today.

* Will make you think twice before killing someone.

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Someone once wrote that an old book is a new book if you haven’t read it, or maybe it was any book is a new book if you haven’t read it. The point is that Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse definitely fits the criteria of an old book, yet its message of personal discovery is as important today as it was seventy years ago.

A timeless tale that explores the bigger questions of life through individual art and intellectual thought, To the Lighthouse hits a soft spot in the heart by drawing on our most human emotions pertaining to love, war, and the essence of morality.

Based loosely on Virginia Woolf’s childhood experiences, the story’s colorful cast of characters allows readers to feel as though they are part of the struggle.

The story, set at the summer beach house of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, searches for the meaning of life through the thoughts of a range of characters including the Ramsey’s eight children, an opium-addicted poet and an abstract artist.

While quite philosophical in nature, To the Lighthouse is a beautifully crafted work of art. Woolf’s stream of consciousness approach to writing contains a limited amount of dialogue, yet thoroughly explores the thoughts of each character, offering a more substantial and rewarding relationship with the text.

Critics say To the Lighthouse is a feminist struggle that clearly captures the conditions of early twentieth century English life. I urge readers to see this novel as a type of history lesson, to better understand the types of roles women played in the past as opposed to the present; to understand why Lily Briscoe’s desire to work on her art and not raise a family seems so unusual during this time period.

Almost eighty years after the original expedition, we are still able to embark on our own journey to the lighthouse. To discover just how Mr. Ramsey defines the nature of reality, why Lily Briscoe is so insistent on creating her “moment” in time, and why the philosophical metaphor of thinking of a kitchen table when you’re not there allows us to better understand ourselves and the world in which we live.