Book #9 of 2021: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow Although author Cory Doctorow’s debut novel doesn’t indulge in the patronizing moralism of some of his later works, its edgy nihilism is nevertheless nearly as tiresome. There’s a neat concept here about an “adhocracy” stepping in to keep a beloved theme …
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TV #3 of 2021: Kim’s Convenience, season 2 A slight improvement over the first year of this Canadian sitcom, both by making Appa a bit less caustically opinionated and by finally introducing some plot developments at the end of the season that speak to exciting shake-ups ahead. For now, though, it’s a lot of status …
Book #8 of 2021: The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia #3) This is one of my favorite Narnia installments, in part because it’s an odd misfit even for such a haphazard and eclectic series. The fifth volume to be written, it’s also the first time author C. S. …
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Book #7 of 2021: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F. C. Yee (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo #1) This is a fun little #ownvoices YA novel, a contemporary fantasy featuring the Chinese folk hero Sun Wukong the Monkey King. I’m not terribly familiar with that character, so I can’t speak to the …
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Book #6 of 2021: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen I have very mixed feelings about this work, which is partly a Howard Zinn sort of attempt to tell a more honest history of America informed by diverse voices and partly an exploration of why …
Book #5 of 2021: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson The beginning of this sci-fi epic is a little exposition-heavy, but I’m so glad I pushed through to the heart of the story, which is full of the great characters, big ideas, and exciting action that I so adore in the genre. It’s the …
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TV #2 of 2021: The Good Fight, season 2 Although still not hitting the dramatic heights of its parent series, especially in terms of personal stakes for the protagonist(s), this second year of The Good Fight remains quite riveting. It’s been the tale of high-powered liberal attorneys in the Trump era all along, but the …
Book #4 of 2021: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig A surprisingly lovely story about a woman who tries to kill herself only to appear in an unearthly library, an afterlife halfway-house full of books describing the parallel lives she might have led. Reading from these volumes takes her into those realities, where she sees …
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Book #3 of 2021: Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (Ready Player One #2) I liked the first Ready Player One novel more than I know a lot of people did, for although I’m sympathetic to the criticisms of gatekeeping and mansplaining, the earnestness of its nerdy passions and fun VR action sequences were enough …
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TV #1 of 2021: Kim’s Convenience, season 1 I like the distinctive perspective of centering a sitcom around a Korean-Canadian family running a convenience store, but I could do without all the stubborn bigotry of patriarch Mr. Kim. While it never feels as though we’re meant to side with his racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., too …
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