Book #40 of 2021: Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein Another podcast turned pop science book, this one offering a whirlwind tour of the history of money as a concept, from its earliest known appearance in ancient civilizations through today’s cutting-edge developments of cryptocurrency and MMT. Author Jacob Goldstein clearly …
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Book #39 of 2021: The Effort by Claire Holroyde There are occasional glimmers of potential to this new sci-fi release that tempt me to award a 2-star rating — ‘it was ok,’ on the Goodreads scale — but the bad parts are honestly pretty bad and even the best sections aren’t great. The sex writing …
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TV #14 of 2021: The Americans, season 1 I’m really enjoying this tense spy thriller, which so far has been equally about its outlandish premise of Soviet operatives in deep cover as a normal American couple and the quieter moments within their marriage (or sham thereof). There’s a natural thematic element of negotiated trust in …
Book #38 of 2021: From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty A short but interesting travelogue exploring different funerary customs around the world. From ancient practices of cannibalism to modern peoples who mummify and go on living with their deceased loved ones to body farms that study …
Book #37 of 2021: How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana with Abigail Pesta A harrowing account of author Sandra Uwiringiyimana’s early life during the Second Congo War, in which she was forced to flee her childhood home, witnessed the murder of her younger sister in an armed massacre …
TV #13 of 2021: The Good Fight, season 3 This series is still doing the best job of anything I’ve seen on TV at capturing the actual experience of living through the Trump presidency, and even as that era recedes behind us, it remains validating to see these protagonists grappling with the issues of family …
Book #36 of 2021: Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker (The Up-and-Under #1) This is a cute children’s fantasy adventure, sort of like a cross between The Phantom Tollbooth and L. Frank Baum’s classic Oz series. It’s also a bit metatextual, as “A. Deborah Baker” is a pen name for the real author …
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Book #35 of 2021: The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones It’s always neat to see a fantasy story built on Welsh mythology, but the plot to this one is a slower and pretty generic quest narrative, and I haven’t quite found the protagonists interesting enough to justify spending so much of the novel with just …
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TV #12 of 2021: Fleabag, season 2 I’m aware that I’m joining the chorus here, but it’s frankly astonishing how much Fleabag has improved in its sophomore outing — possibly more than any program I’ve seen since Parks and Recreation. Although still relying slightly on cringe humor, now that the protagonist is no longer sabotaging …
Book #34 of 2021: Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Susan Ryeland #2) This is another fun postmodern detective story, but it’s a bit too similar to its predecessor Magpie Murders, in a way that rather strains credulity. (The same dead writer knew about a second killer who had escaped justice and placed subtle clues to …
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