Book #52 of 2019: Assignment in Eternity by Robert A. Heinlein This 1953 anthology collects four stories by Robert A. Heinlein originally published over the preceding decade. Each has its moments of rip-roaring sci-fi fun, but none are particularly great as a whole, and the author’s flaws are unfortunately on full display throughout. There’s casual …
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Book #51 of 2019: Becoming by Michelle Obama Overall a fantastic memoir from the former First Lady, spanning from her 1970s childhood in the South Side of Chicago through her departure from the White House in 2017 at the end of her husband’s second term. As an author, Michelle Obama is a consummate storyteller, reflective …
Book #50 of 2019: Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala This is a well-written if depressing slice-of-life novella about a gay Nigerian-American teenager navigating police discrimination, his father’s expectations, and his best friend’s well-meaning interference. However, the project as a whole feels somewhat aimless, especially given that it jumps suddenly to the friend’s perspective for …
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Book #49 of 2019: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd This post-apocalyptic novel takes a little while to click into place for me, in part because its inciting plot doesn’t exactly endear me to the characters and in part because the rules of its world feel hazy in a magical realist way that I …
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Book #48 of 2019: Off the Sidelines by Kirsten Gillibrand This 2014 memoir / female empowerment guide is essentially my introduction to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a 2020 presidential candidate who has only been peripherally on my radar before now. Reading it hasn’t convinced me to vote one way or another in that upcoming primary election, …
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Book #47 of 2019: Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi (Pandava Quartet #1) This is one of those books that I don’t really love myself, but am glad exists in the world for other people. I’m sure many young Hindu readers will see themselves in the heroine, and children in general …
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Book #46 of 2019: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller As in her later book Circe, author Madeline Miller has crafted an immersive retelling of Greek mythology, here bringing to life the tragic love story of Achilles and Patroclus. The latter figure has always struck me as a bit of an afterthought in The …
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TV #10 of 2019: Breaking Bad, season 4 Another superb year of ratcheting tension, untenable situations, and wonderfully complex character arcs. I have some issues with where the story goes from here, mostly in how it sometimes frames Walter White as more of a hero than I think is merited, but this penultimate run of …
TV #9 of 2019: Friday Night Lights, season 3 This season is a bit of a soft reboot for the show… which was arguably necessary after the trainwreck of melodrama the year before, but is still somewhat jarring for viewers. Several characters are in very different places — both plotwise and emotionally — than when …
Book #45 of 2019: Golden State by Ben H. Winters This dystopian police procedural has a premise that irresistibly recalls earlier sci-fi classics like Fahrenheit 451 or Minority Report: it’s set in a future version of California where lying has been outlawed, and special detectives with the ability to detect falsehood are tasked with preserving …
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