Book #43 of 2022: The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman A whirlwind overview of the history, culture, technology, and politics of the titular decade in America — which, while acknowledging that such a construct is necessarily artificial, author Chuck Klosterman (born in 1972) argues is reasonably bounded by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 …
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Book #42 of 2022: The Drop by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #15) The two cases that make up this Harry Bosch novel are both fine, but not exactly remarkable, especially this deep into the series. In the first, a corrupt politician’s son has fallen from the top floor of a high-rise hotel, and the detective …
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Book #41 of 2022: In the Serpent’s Wake by Rachel Hartman (Tess of the Road #2) This fantasy sequel has some compelling things to say about indigenous complexity and sovereignty to resist the forces of empire, even when cloaked in the name of science or protesting that they’ve come there to help. It’s an interesting …
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Book #40 of 2022: The Hidden by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #39) I don’t always love the weirder Animorphs plots, but this one lands just right for me. In a sudden flare-up of simmering continuity, the Yeerks have repaired a piece of Helmacron technology from #24 The Suspicion, allowing them to track down incidents of …
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Book #39 of 2022: How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur A fun and educational read from TV writer-showrunner Michael Schur, sharing some of what he learned about different schools of moral philosophy for his hit series The Good Place, which grappled with thorny ethical dilemmas to a …
TV #10 of 2022: Classic Doctor Who, season 1 It’s been over a decade now since the first/only previous time I ever watched all of Classic Who straight through, so I figured I was probably due for a rewatch. Doctor Who is still my very favorite franchise, and in the years since, I have of …
Book #38 of 2022: Gwendy’s Final Task by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar (The Button Box #3) I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed this latest Stephen King / Richard Chizmar collaboration, given how I was generally lukewarm on the authors’ original Gwendy’s Button Box and cared even less for Chizmar’s solo followup Gwendy’s …
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Book #37 of 2022: Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir by Bob Odenkirk An interesting reflection from actor Bob Odenkirk on his unlikely rise to global stardom: through fairly obscure sketch comedy gigs for decades before being offered a career-reorienting role as the sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman on the critically-acclaimed series Breaking Bad, who would …
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Book #36 of 2022: Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #29) Note: This 1948 Agatha Christie offering has also been published under the title There is a Tide . . ., part of the same quote from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that forms the novel’s epigraph: “There is a tide in the …
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Book #35 of 2022: Against All Things Ending by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #3) This penultimate volume has perhaps the slowest start of any Thomas Covenant story, with literally the first five chapters — one hundred full pages, almost a fifth of the whole text — spent on an extended …
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