TV #28 of 2019: Jane the Virgin, season 5 What a beautiful send-off to a beautiful show. Jane the Virgin has gone down a few narrative dead-ends over the years, but its final season leans strongly into the character relationships that have always made its telenovela twists and heightened magical realism elements land so well. …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Jade City by Fonda Lee
Book #138 of 2019: Jade City by Fonda Lee (The Green Bone Saga #1) Let me start with the good and say that I love the setting of this book. It doesn’t offer the most fleshed-out worldbuilding, but it’s the rare fantasy story told in a place that’s not our own yet has comparable levels …
July 2019 Recap
Over on Patreon, I just posted a recap of everything I read (and watched) in July, including links to individual reviews and an update on my progress in migrating the older reviews over to this new blog site. Thanks to everyone who has already subscribed!
Book Review: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Book #137 of 2019: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt An evocative travelogue of late-twentieth-century Savannah that could use greater structure throughout. The introduction of a certain true crime element around the midpoint adds some focus to the back half, but before then I kept wondering where this narrative was …
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Book Review: Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster
Book #136 of 2019: Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster One of the major challenges facing new parents is the sheer over-abundance of advice out there — which has admittedly always been somewhat of an issue, but is exacerbated by the explosion of digital resources …
Book Review: The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple
Book #135 of 2019: The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple There’s no such thing as a truly neutral history, but author Brenda Wineapple has assembled a fine presentation of the facts surrounding America’s first presidential impeachment attempt. She does not shy from calling Andrew …
Book Review: Witchmark by C. L. Polk
Book #134 of 2019: Witchmark by C. L. Polk (The Kingston Cycle #1) A charming story, both for its Edwardian-flavored fantasy setting and for the tender gay romance at its heart. The worldbuilding details of bicycle traffic and early electric lights stop just short of twee, but my favorite is possibly that there’s no signs …
Book Review: The Binding by Bridget Collins
Book #133 of 2019: The Binding by Bridget Collins There’s a decent gay love story somewhere in here, but overall this is a real mess of a novel. The entire arc of the first third is just an ignorant protagonist gradually becoming more informed about the magic of the setting, which is frustrating since it …
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Book Review: The Test by Sylvain Neuvel
Book #132 of 2019: The Test by Sylvain Neuvel Let me be the latest reviewer to compare this novella to an episode of Black Mirror. (In fact, I’ll go further: since author Sylvain Neuvel was contracted to write an original piece for an announced Black Mirror book that never did get published, there’s a strong …
Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Book #131 of 2019: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid I adore the story of this aging Hollywood starlet presenting her memoirs, especially once it becomes clear that the true love of her life was not any of the men in the title, but rather a fellow actress — a relationship …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 