Book #129 of 2026: A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck This is an odd little novella that definitely has a plot to it, but mostly registers as an abstract thought experiment like the old idea of monkeys pounding away on typewriters to eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. I’m reminded as well …
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TV #36 of 2026: Mad Men, season 2 A little more scattered than the debut run, but still an enjoyable character study and look at the changing culture as the sixties carry on. We’ve skipped over fifteen months since the end of season 1, bringing the action to February 1962 when we check back in …
Book #128 of 2026: The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious by Scott Lynch A charming — pun intended — little fantasy novella, in which a group of sorcerers gather for a regular beachside conclave of their order that takes a surprising turn into a Columbo-like murder mystery investigation when one of them is struck dead. …
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Movie #38 of 2026: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) Jack Sparrow was the major breakout character of the original Pirates of the Caribbean film, and whether rightly or not, it’s clear that Disney doesn’t believe the resulting franchise could work without him. Hence this sequel to the initial trilogy, which cuts loose …
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Book #127 of 2026: The Aftermath by Ben Bova (The Asteroid Wars #4) This is marketed as the final entry in the Asteroid Wars sub-series of author Ben Bova’s Grand Tour, but it’s so disconnected from the main plot there that it’s really more of a spinoff sequel. (Plus the titular conflict technically ended in …
Book #126 of 2026: Doctor Who: Shadowmind by Christopher Bulis (Virgin New Adventures #16) I’m surprised this 1993 novel has such a poor reputation — including a 2.85 average rating on Goodreads — since I’ve found it to be a generally enjoyable time myself. A lot of the reviews complain that it reads more like …
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Book #125 of 2026: American Afterlives: Reinventing Death in the Twenty-First Century by Shannon Lee Dawdy An engaging nonfiction account of U.S. funerary practices — and to a lesser extent beliefs about the afterlife — and how they’ve been changing since the turn of the century. Coinciding with the rise in people identifying as “spiritual …
Book #124 of 2026: Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman I like the idea of a character with dementia revealing details of an old forgotten crime to his visiting son, along with the background tension of the adult child having to navigate that new family dynamic. Unfortunately, the execution in this novel loses me, with greater …
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Book #123 of 2026: Sleep Donation by Karen Russell Interesting speculative premise here — an insomnia plague that’s killing people, the invention of a way to safely donate sleep to the afflicted à la blood transfusion, an Omelas child who’s potentially being exploited to power that, the discovery that someone else’s donation was tainted and …
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Movie #37 of 2026: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) I saw this movie on opening night, came home, and proceeded to write over a thousand words in my livejournal complaining about its various plot holes. (Don’t worry, I’ll spare you this time.) I’m slightly more sympathetic to the thing on today’s rewatch, …
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