Book #54 of 2021: Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston (Supernatural Investigations #1) Harry Potter comparisons can be a tad reductive and overdone, but that really is the vibe of this middle-grade adventure from debut author B. B. Alston, with a tween hero’s introduction to a hidden society of strange creatures and …
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Book #53 of 2021: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes Everybody seems to be comparing this book to Madeline Miller’s Circe, and the similarities are admittedly striking between the two feminist retellings of Greek myth. But I think this title asks more of its readers in terms of bringing prior knowledge of the old stories …
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Book #52 of 2021: A Man Rides Through by Stephen R. Donaldson (Mordant’s Need #2) This 1987 sequel is a significant step up in pacing and action from its already-great predecessor, but it exhibits the same disappointing levels of sexism, torture, and rape, which are not always treated with the care that such sensitive topics …
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TV #20 of 2021: Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7 With very few exceptions, this final span of TNG plays like a program that has essentially run out of fresh ideas. There’s no real shame in that — the series already had over 150 episodes under its belt ahead of this last run, not …
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Book #51 of 2021: The Listerdale Mystery by Agatha Christie A fine collection of short stories, although perhaps a bit too similar to one another overall. Despite the title, these are not mysteries in author Agatha Christie’s usual sense; there are no investigations or clues that a clever reader can race to put together before …
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Book #50 of 2021: Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor A fascinating deep dive into The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide that was self-published by a small press from 1936 to 1966 with lists of businesses around the country that had been verified safe …
TV #19 of 2021: Justified, season 2 I like the idea of the Bennett hillbilly crime family — as well as Margo Martindale’s powerhouse portrayal of its cagey yet honorable clan matriarch — but the surrounding plot is messy and uneven, and a number of writing decisions leave me frustrated. I don’t mind making the …
TV #18 of 2021: The Queen’s Gambit An outstanding character study and period piece, offering the same sort of lush mid-twentieth-century design details that bring the era to life on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The main focus here, however, is on our complicated protagonist, a brilliant but lonely young prodigy struggling to understand the world …
Book #49 of 2021: You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson This is a really cute #ownvoices queer love story, and while it’s a little hard to suspend my disbelief that a race for prom queen could be this intense — or that the nerdy protagonist is pinning all of her scholarship …
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Book #48 of 2021: The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease by Charles Kenny An informative yet somewhat dry overview of the history of pandemics, focusing less on the science of disease origin, spread, and containment / cure, and more on the human policy response (or lack thereof). I’d recommend this …
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