Book #123 of 2021: Passing Strange by Ellen Klages There’s a lot to enjoy in this detail-heavy novella of queer life (and particularly its romance of two women) in 1940 San Francisco, but I wish it would provide greater connective tissue between its chapters — and that the minor fantasy element at the start and …
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Book #122 of 2021: Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher Early on in this book, there’s the death of a friend who’s like a sister to the protagonist, and it’s to author Ashley Schumacher’s credit that she’s able to make readers feel that loss so sharply when we haven’t known either character for long. Unfortunately, however, …
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Book #121 of 2021: Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #6) It’s always a joy to spend time with Murderbot, the increasingly-poorly-named security cyborg who has reluctantly come to care for the humans of its new home, even if it still mostly wishes they would leave it alone or at least not look …
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Book #120 of 2021: Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson Short even for a novella and with somewhat generic characters and plot, this piece reads more like a proof-of-concept for its setting than a full story, especially by the standards of author Brandon Sanderson’s usual stellar output. The basic idea is a neat spin on the Star …
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Book #119 of 2021: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy (Danielle Cain #1) The setting to this supernatural horror novella is a lot of fun, offering a sort of queer punk commune made up of squatters and/or idealistic radical leftists who are noticeably less common in fiction than in real life. I …
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Book #118 of 2021: A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed this volume, especially after not really caring for author Daniel Defoe’s more famous Robinson Crusoe. This later book also lacks a lot of the fundamentals that I typically look for in a novel, like …
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Book #117 of 2021: Blood Work by Michael Connelly This 1998 novel is one of those Michael Connelly crime thrillers that’s not technically a Harry Bosch story, but still takes place in that same L.A. setting with a few shared characters. It also introduces protagonist Terry McCaleb, a former FBI agent who later features in …
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Book #116 of 2021: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman This latest novel from international bestseller Fredrik Backman has been getting his usual rave reviews, but it’s a bit of a misfire for me. Although the author often aims for profound observations on the human condition, too many of them here feel either overly broad or …
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TV #41 of 2021: Broadchurch, season 1 Like any good mystery, this series derives its power not from the hook of its whodunnit alone — the case of a young boy found murdered on the shore of a quiet British beach town — and all the ensuing twists, but from the rich character histories that …
Book #115 of 2021: Pax by Sara Pennypacker (Pax #1) Largely a Homeward Bound / The Incredible Journey sort of tale, in which a child and his pet are separated and try to return to one another. It’s a split narrative of alternating chapters between the perspective of the domesticated fox and the boy, but …
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