Book 210 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #4) This middle volume marks a major shift in the Harry Potter series in a number of ways. It’s much longer than the previous novels, but it’s also significantly darker and more mature. The title wizard and his …
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Book #211 of 2018: Wildcard by Marie Lu (Warcross #2) One of the best things about author Marie Lu’s novel Warcross is its surprise ending, which pulls the rug out from underneath characters and readers alike and dramatically raises the stakes of the series. Accordingly, it’s the failure to adequately deliver on that promise that …
Book #209 of 2018: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (Strange the Dreamer #2) A lovely conclusion to the story set up in Strange the Dreamer, especially for how it resolves that wicked cliffhanger from the first book. Author Laini Taylor’s fantasy storytelling and rich mythic worldbuilding is as terrific as ever (with even more …
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Book #208 of 2018: Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed An arresting blend of The Giver and The Handmaid’s Tale, depicting a dystopian island community ruled over by a patriarchal cult that insists the rest of the world has been destroyed. Girls are brought up to submit to men in all ways, and what they …
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Book #207 of 2018: The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson This is a ridiculous collaboration on its face, but it never quite lives up to that inherent goofiness, and even ignoring who the authors are, it’s not that great of a story either. (It’s also bizarrely titled… Despite some early fake-outs, …
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Book #206 of 2018: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians #1) I haven’t yet seen the new movie adaptation, but this original novel is pretty trashy. And that’s not a bad thing! This story is exactly what it’s aiming to be, which is a fictionalized Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous for …
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Book #205 of 2018: Beartown by Fredrik Backman (Beartown #1) An intimate portrait of a small town pinning all of its hopes on a junior hockey championship, packed with well-drawn characters and insightful reflections into the human condition. The third-person omniscient narrator that bounces around Beartown to illuminate the web of connections between its residents …
Book #204 of 2018: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon This debut sci-fi novel from author Rivers Solomon is one of those books that many readers will justifiably love but that doesn’t quite hit the spot for me. With a dark-skinned intersex autistic heroine — and plenty of other diversity among the supporting cast …
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Movie #19 of 2018: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) A big improvement over the first Ant-Man movie, which was funny but had some definite character issues and lousy gender representation. This one feels stronger on all fronts, and there are a lot of clever uses of the shrinking and growing technology that don’t just copy …
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TV #47 of 2018: Fargo, season 3 This show has always been in danger of substituting style for substance, given that its essential MO is to just remix the themes, characters, and events of the original Coen brothers movie. And while the first two seasons largely managed to chart their own strong courses of midwestern …
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