TV #60 of 2021: Justified, season 6 There are elements in Justified that have kept me from ever wholly embracing the show, but it goes out on perhaps its finest run yet, an operatic movement that delivers poetic justice to most of our major players. True to its roots in the fiction of Elmore Leonard, …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Lux: A Texas Reckoners Novel by Brandon Sanderson and Steven Michael Bohls
Book #212 of 2021: Lux: A Texas Reckoners Novel by Brandon Sanderson and Steven Michael Bohls Although not a complete misfire, this YA spinoff prequel — currently only available on audio, with print and ebook editions eventually to follow — comes up decidedly short when weighed against the original Reckoners trilogy and author Brandon Sanderson’s …
Book Review: The Forgotten by K. A. Applegate
Book #211 of 2021: The Forgotten by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #11) In the first half of this story, the Animorphs are investigating a spaceship crash site, eventually embarking on a plan to steal the vessel and fly it to the White House. It’s one of those tossed-off elements that the series never really thinks …
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Book Review: Lost Light by Michael Connelly
Book #210 of 2021: Lost Light by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #9) This Harry Bosch title is told in first-person narration, which is a slight but noticeable deviation from the third-person-limited perspective of the last eight novels. It’s not immediately clear why the new POV has been adopted, although it may have to do with …
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Book Review: Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin DiAngelo
Book #209 of 2021: Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin DiAngelo This new release from racial sensitivity trainer Robin DiAngelo is an excellent follow-up to her earlier book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. (And they do appear to form a single curriculum; …
Book Review: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Book #208 of 2021: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams The Jamaican-British heroine of this contemporary novel has an engaging character voice, and her foibles with casual sex during a “break” from her boyfriend play out like a bleaker Bridget Jones’s Diary, a tone underscored by debut author Candice Carty-Williams layering in a variety of #ownvoices experiences …
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Book Review: The Double Life of Danny Day by Mike Thayer
Book #207 of 2021: The Double Life of Danny Day by Mike Thayer This middle-grade novel goes far on the strength of its high-concept premise, which is that the ten-year-old protagonist lives every day twice. He treats the original go-round as a bit of a practice session, either goofing off or scribbling notes on quiz …
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Book Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Book #206 of 2021: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #17) This is one of the better entries in the series, I think, close in spirit to its famous sister volume Murder on the Orient Express, which likewise finds detective Hercule Poirot stumbling upon a deadly plot in a confined space whilst …
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Book Review: The Android by K. A. Applegate
Book #205 of 2021: The Android by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #10) I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a series-best Animorphs volume, but it’s one of the stronger entries for sure. It’s also the rare case of an item in this franchise with an unambiguous, straightforward title: this is in fact a …
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Book Review: The Born Queen by Greg Keyes
Book #204 of 2021: The Born Queen by Greg Keyes (The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone #4) This high fantasy quartet never quite regains the propulsive rush of its initial entry, and there are a few too many dramatic reversals and reveals in the lengthy climax of this last novel for each to land with …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 