Book #156 of 2021: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race edited by Jesmyn Ward Not every entry in this collection of essays and poems quite lands for me, but all told it’s a powerful reflection from various African American writers near the start of the Black Lives Matter movement and just …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Black Heart by Holly Black
Book #155 of 2021: Black Heart by Holly Black (The Curse Workers #3) By finally telling a story that doesn’t hinge on the magical manipulation of memory and emotion, this third entry is the least problematic of its YA urban fantasy trilogy. Unfortunately, it’s also the most boring, with no clear motivation or stakes driving …
Book Review: Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
Book #154 of 2021: Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #14) This 1936 novel sends Hercule Poirot to the site of an archaeological dig in Iraq, where a member of the expedition has just been murdered. (The action actually starts a bit earlier, as the story is narrated by a different character already …
Continue reading “Book Review: Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie”
Book Review: White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson
Book #153 of 2021: White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #3) A satisfying conclusion to this second trilogy in the Land, that mystic realm that can be understood as either a real place to which denizens of our world are magically summoned or an internal dreamscape in which …
Continue reading “Book Review: White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson”
Book Review: The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
Book #152 of 2021: The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross I expected to like this 2020 novel better from its premise, which is that an old Jewish town nestled in Poland’s forests somehow fell out of contact with the outside world, escaping the pogroms and the Nazi purge to remain undetected until the modern day. …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross”
Book Review: The Visitor by K. A. Applegate
Book #151 of 2021: The Visitor by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #2) This first Animorphs sequel continues the thrilling fun of the debut, while simultaneously deepening the darker themes of the series. Turning into an animal and back is now described in a way that emphasizes the unnatural body horror of the experience, and the …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Visitor by K. A. Applegate”
Book Review: The Red Threads of Fortune by Neon Yang
Book #150 of 2021: The Red Threads of Fortune by Neon Yang (Tensorate #2) A nice return to the fantasy setting of The Black Tides of Heaven, where children are raised gender-neutral and announce themselves as something else only if/when they’re ready. This spinoff sequel doesn’t really develop the worldbuilding or larger plot much further, …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Red Threads of Fortune by Neon Yang”
TV Review: Justified, season 5
TV #48 of 2021: Justified, season 5 A very meandering plot, especially after the intricate construction of the Drew Thompson case last season. The Crowes are more bumbling sideshow than credible threat to anyone, and too much screentime is dedicated to Ava’s stint in a women’s prison — a pretty blatant ripoff of Orange Is …
Book Review: How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore
Book #149 of 2021: How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore Somewhere between essay collection and memoir, this debut title from comedian Lane Moore covers a lot of ground with a few puzzling omissions. The author tells us her childhood dream was to write for The …
Continue reading “Book Review: How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore”
Book Review: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
Book #148 of 2021: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed In the conclusion to this book, author Annette Gordon-Reed describes it as a “brief sketch of the history of Texas told through vignettes of my family.” And that’s pretty accurate, I would say. Despite what the title suggests, it is mostly not about Juneteenth, the holiday …
Continue reading “Book Review: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 