Book #189 of 2025: The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen (The Dragonships #1) A fun little blend of Ender’s Game, Red Rising, and Fourth Wing, all age-appropriate for the middle-grade audience. Dragons exist in this setting as avatars of every planet and moon, and they each choose one human rider in a generation …
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Book #188 of 2025: Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow A dense and meandering novel, full of witty observations and [pseudo-]intellectual digressions but light on any actual story. This 1976 Pulitzer Prize winner is apparently author Saul Bellow’s most autobiographical work, detailing his fixation on an influential older writer who ended up dying penniless and alone …
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TV #56 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 22 Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor is a hard incarnation to love, especially here in his first full season (after regenerating near the end of the last one). He’s pompous and insulting to everyone, but particularly to his companion Peri, whom he yells at, belittles, fat-shames, leaves for …
Book #187 of 2025: The Summer War by Naomi Novik A lovely little fantasy novella that feels creatively adjacent to author Naomi Novik’s earlier title Spinning Silver, as both involve an engagement to an austere fae lord who must be cleverly manipulated via magic binding oaths. (I do think the longer work is the better …
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Movie #25 of 2025: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) A fun little story about two California slackers who travel around in a time machine that looks like a phone booth — surprisingly not intended as a Doctor Who reference — collecting famous historical figures to include in their class project. The boys are dim …
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Book #186 of 2025: Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang This title starts off well, as a sort of YA Yellowface meets Ripley, but it takes some decidedly odd turns and gets pretty unhinged by the end. The initial premise at least is fun — the protagonist stumbles across the body of her estranged …
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Book #185 of 2025: Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution by Una McCormack Una McCormack makes it look easy. She takes a fun but messy installment of Doctor Who, which on TV struggles to balance introducing the new companion and season-long plot with the immediate wacky adventure at hand — involving an ordinary nurse getting whisked …
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Book #184 of 2025: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl #1) I hate to be contrarian when I’ve heard such promising chatter about the title, but this 2020 series debut is an unfortunate miss for me. Although I can understand why it’s found an audience, it’s not a piece I’ve particularly enjoyed …
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Book #183 of 2025: The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa I’m a sucker for a good time loop story, but I’m afraid this 1995 Japanese novel, newly translated into English, doesn’t get there for me. It’s not a fault in the premise, which isn’t that absurd for this particular genre: the teenage …
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Book #182 of 2025: Star Wars: The Acolyte: The Crystal Crown by Tessa Gratton I remain dissatisfied with Disney’s treatment of the Acolyte branch of its Star Wars universe: first canceling the flawed-but-engaging TV show after a single season that ended on several obvious cliffhangers, and then, presumably recognizing that the program had amassed a …
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