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Featured
Blog Launch
Hello! My name is Joe Kessler, and I’ve been blogging in one form or another since 2004. This is the launch of my new home for that, where I’ll be posting book reviews and other short pieces of writing. I’m also debuting a Patreon site for anyone who would like to support my efforts through… Read more
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Book Review: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
Book #80 of 2026: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (The Belgariad #1) I suppose I’m interested enough to read more of this 80s fantasy saga, but it all feels pretty generic so far, and this initial volume doesn’t build to much of a climax. The teenage hero is your typical orphan farmboy with a… Read more
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Movie Review: Mallrats (1995)
Movie #25 of 2026: Mallrats (1995) Kevin Smith’s second picture wasn’t especially good upon release, and hasn’t aged all that well either. It’s a slacker comedy about two guys whose girlfriends dump them, who then spend the day at the local mall and subsequently win them back. In the sidekick Brodie’s case there’s at least… Read more
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Book Review: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
Book #79 of 2026: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #3) I’m definitely not in the target audience for this middle-grade fantasy series, but I liked the first volume (and of course author Suzanne Collins’s unrelated Hunger Games novels) enough that I feel compelled to finish the pentalogy… Read more
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TV Review: Saturday Night Live, season 51
TV #26 of 2026: Saturday Night Live, season 51 I think a helpful framework for considering a season of a sketch comedy show like this is not only whether it was funny, but also what it did differently this time around. And in the wake of SNL’s landmark 50th anniversary, this follow-up feels a bit… Read more
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Book Review: Ironwood by Michael Connelly
Book #78 of 2026: Ironwood by Michael Connelly (Catalina #2) Author Michael Connelly could probably write a crime novel like this in his sleep at this point, and occasionally I wonder if he has. His latest volume returns to the setting and characters of last year’s Nightshade, where a detective has been punished for still-murky… Read more
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TV Review: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, season 1
TV #25 of 2026: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, season 1 This show is very much Terminator filtered through the particular ethos of a 2000s teen drama, which is not an approach I felt like I needed to watch after the first few episodes back when it originally aired. (The network may have been Fox,… Read more
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Terminator movies, ranked
Overall rating: ★★★★☆ Previously on Film Franchise Fridays:
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Rocky / Creed movies, ranked
Overall rating: ★★★★☆ Previously on Film Franchise Fridays:
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Book Review: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
Book #77 of 2026: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn I struggled a lot with this heroine early on, finding her woe-is-me, not-like-other-girls attitude incredibly childish and off-putting. She’s also the sort of character who bemoans her supposedly plain looks while ignoring how the romantic interest is practically throwing himself at her feet in worship.… Read more
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TV Review: Barry, season 1
TV #24 of 2026: Barry, season 1 SNL alumnus Bill Hader isn’t as funny in the title role of this series as I would have expected, but he’s certainly not the first established comedian to pivot to a more dramatic footing (Bryan Cranston and Bob Odenkirk both coming immediately to mind). And there is a… Read more
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 