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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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Movie Review: Men in Black II (2002)
Movie #55 of 2026: Men in Black II (2002) I remembered not liking this sequel as much as its 1997 predecessor, but I wasn’t expecting it to have aged quite as poorly as this, to the point where I’m now struggling to come up with anything positive to say about it at all. Rosario Dawson… Read more
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Book Review: Doctor Who: Legends of Camelot by Jacqueline Rayner
Book #181 of 2026: Doctor Who: Legends of Camelot by Jacqueline Rayner (Puffin Classics Crossovers #2) The first entry in this Doctor Who series used the Land of Fiction to justify sending the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions through a loose Wizard of Oz retelling, but this next one takes a more interesting approach to… Read more
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TV Review: VisionQuest, season 1
TV #49 of 2026: VisionQuest, season 1 This latest Marvel miniseries starts off strong, flattens out in the middle, and then somewhat recovers itself for the finale. It’s a sequel to WandaVision (and to a lesser extent Agatha All Along) but with newcomer Terry Matalas replacing Jac Schaeffer as showrunner. It reminds me a little… Read more
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Book Review: Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
Book #180 of 2026: Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor #4) This middle-grade fantasy series has been steadily improving with every volume, and this latest release is the best one yet. Granted, it rests upon a pretty significant retcon, suddenly revealing that the thirteen-year-old heroine’s dead mother came from a noble… Read more
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Book Review: The Wind’s Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
Book #179 of 2026: The Wind’s Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin This 1975 collection presents 17 stories that author Ursula K. Le Guin had previously published elsewhere, several of which I’d already read myself. Like many such projects, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, especially as it extends back to some of… Read more
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TV Review: Doctor Who, season 2
TV #48 of 2026: Doctor Who, season 2 Doctor Who is many different kinds of show at once. That’s part of its inherent appeal as an anthology series with a consistent cast, of course, because you can invest in the characters but still be surprised by whichever new genre they wind up in from week… Read more
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Movie Review: Men in Black (1997)
Movie #54 of 2026: Men in Black (1997) I had forgotten just how funny and fun this sci-fi action-comedy is, but it’s really a delight. The humor is sardonic without ever tipping over into Whedonesque quipping, and the plot zips along by combining an audience-identification protagonist’s entrance into this world with a larger threat storyline… Read more
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Book Review: The Hollow by Michael Connelly
Book #178 of 2026: The Hollow by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #21) The wide universe of stories around detective Harry Bosch (by now long retired from the LAPD, but still working cases as a PI and concerned private citizen) is a bit of an amorphous series, but I believe this is the 21st novel focusing… Read more
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Book Review: Building 903 by Lois Lowry
Book #177 of 2026: Building 903 by Lois Lowry Beloved children’s author Lois Lowry is apparently still writing despite pushing 90, but this new title is pretty underbaked, to the point where I frankly don’t think it would have been published without her name attached. Even going into it skeptically, assuming that the middle-grade dystopia… Read more
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Book Review: Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
Book #176 of 2026: Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel Largely fine on a scene-by-scene basis and as an exploration of the setting(s), but pretty weird, elliptical, and frustratingly non-urgent as an overall story. I think part of the problem here is that author Emily St. John Mandel is trying to do too much:… Read more
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