Book #178 of 2018: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin A powerful memoir from a wrongfully-convicted black man who spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row before finally being exonerated in 2015 by the efforts of appeals lawyer Bryan Stevenson. …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz
Book #177 of 2018: Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz (Alex & Eliza #1) This historical fiction novel presents in the form of a Young Adult love story the real-life romance of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler during the American Revolution. In the process author Melissa de la Cruz has taken a few …
Continue reading “Book Review: Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz”
TV Review: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, season 1
TV #40 of 2018: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, season 1 This musical comedy starts off strong and only gets better from there. The original numbers – generally two per episode, spanning a wide range of different musical styles – are all hilarious, but it’s the focus on character work that really makes this program soar as it …
TV Review: Breaking Bad, season 1
TV #42 of 2018: Breaking Bad, season 1 This is my first time rewatching this show since it ended, but it remains an electrifying experience. The character arcs are not quite on the level of what these writers are achieving nowadays on Better Call Saul – and I cannot understand those viewers who don’t get …
TV Review: Orphan Black, season 5
TV #41 of 2018: Orphan Black, season 5 I’ve always felt an odd dichotomy with Orphan Black, in that the main appeal for me as a viewer is Tatiana Maslany’s amazing acting range at embodying all these different characters, but the main focus of the writers often seems to be on their labyrinthine plots of …
Book Review: The Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure: Classic Tales of Dashing Heroes, Dastardly Villains, and Daring Escapes edited by Lawrence Ellsworth
Book #176 of 2018: The Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure: Classic Tales of Dashing Heroes, Dastardly Villains, and Daring Escapes edited by Lawrence Ellsworth This book collects some older adventure stories about pirates, musketeers, and so on, many of which had been out of print for decades before the collection was published in 2014. The …
Book Review: The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy
Book #175 of 2018: The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy (Skulduggery Pleasant #3) I’ve been waiting for this Irish children’s urban fantasy series to really grab my attention, but at this point I think I’m ready to call it quits. (It doesn’t help that this third novel is the last one that my library has …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy”
Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
Book #174 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #2) The first Harry Potter book was a tremendous debut, but this sequel surpasses it on just about every level. The plot, the characters, and the setting are all delivered far more confidently this time around, and author …
Continue reading “Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling”
Book Review: The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
Book #173 of 2018: The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain #1) Somehow I missed out on this series when I was growing up, which is a shame, since this first novel has turned out to be an excellent classic of children’s fantasy literature. The tone is somewhere between J. R. …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander”
Book Review: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Book #172 of 2018: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Thursday Next #1) This story is fairly bursting with ideas — from time-travel to dodo clones to secret agents and criminals jumping in and out of novels like Jane Eyre — but it’s all a bit chaotic, and a lot of the apparent comedy doesn’t …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 