TV #6 of 2021: Killing Eve, season 1 I have a lot of open questions about this show, some of which might fall under the category of plot holes, but are perhaps more charitably labeled as simply ‘details the writers aren’t interested in.’ At a minimum, this first season seems to revel in ambiguity, throwing …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
Book #18 of 2021: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #6) I still like this series of novellas about children who temporarily stumble into various fantasy worlds and later yearn to return there, but the past few volumes have been a little underwhelming. I think the format tends to work best …
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Book Review: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Book #17 of 2021: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) A quiet but captivating #ownvoices fantasy novella, rich in feminist character work and immersive East Asian-inspired worldbuilding. I’m always so interested in stories like this that can compel the reader’s attention despite a complete lack of traditional …
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TV Review: Kim’s Convenience, season 3
TV #5 of 2021: Kim’s Convenience, season 3 This sitcom has always had a fairly stable status quo, so I was excited by the genuine potential for change in last season’s finale, when Jung quits his job and finally kisses his long-term love interest, who at first reciprocates but then pulls away when she remembers …
Book Review: The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo
Book #16 of 2021: The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo A short collection of dark fables from author Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, some of which have been referenced before in the main novels and others that merely add further texture to the local cultures of the setting. It’s an interesting addition to series canon, especially …
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Book Review: The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis
Book #15 of 2021: The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis (Tales from the Chocolate Heart #1) A cute little book about a young dragon who gets cursed into the body of a human and discovers her true passion for hot cocoa. Unfortunately, it has a few issues typical of the middle-grade fantasy …
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Book Review: Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
Book #14 of 2021: Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman (The Rabbi Small Mysteries #1) This series has been on my radar for a while, and although I’m not sure I’m going to read all dozen volumes, the first one is pretty neat. It’s one of those stories in which a police investigation …
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Book Review: The Hound of Death by Agatha Christie
Book #13 of 2021: The Hound of Death by Agatha Christie A charmingly creepy departure for author Agatha Christie, who trades in her usual detective fiction for a dozen tales of the supernatural (or supernatural-adjacent). Normally when she’s written of things like possessions and premonitions, their reality is ultimately undermined Scooby-Doo-style by some more mundane …
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TV Review: Justified, season 1
TV #4 of 2021: Justified, season 1 I’m not thrilled with the first hour of this show about a trigger-happy US Marshal, which has a whole lot of white supremacist violence and rhetoric used as an apparent shorthand for villainy, I assume so that audiences can know which group of white gentiles are the good …
Book Review: The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
Book #12 of 2021: The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty An interesting but digressive text, blending personal memoir and genealogical research with an effort to trace the roots of southern cuisine through enslaved and free black traditions. Author Michael W. Twitty’s passion for …
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 