Book #35 of 2018: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe This classic man-versus-nature castaway novel has been hugely influential, but it’s pretty rough for a modern reader. 300 years after its initial publication the plot feels threadbare and glacially slow, with little to distract from the author / narrator’s racist views on the inferiority of Africans …
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Book #34 of 2018: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore This is an interesting account of two black boys with the same name who grew up in similar Baltimore neighborhoods, one of whom became a Rhodes scholar and one of whom is now serving a life sentence without parole. Both …
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Book #33 of 2018: A Beautiful, Terrible Thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal by Jen Waite On the one hand: this is a gripping true story, told engagingly in alternating chapters of the author first falling in love with her husband and then discovering years later that he’s been harboring a dark secret. On …
Book #32 of 2018: Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman Not nearly as funny as I expected from a comedian of Nick Offerman’s caliber. I still enjoyed the autobiographical sections on the author’s bucolic childhood and subsequent acting career, but without more jokes to leaven the life advice …
Book #31 of 2018: Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View edited by Elizabeth Schaefer In honor of the 40th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie, this book presents 40 short stories retelling the events of that film from the perspective of various minor characters — from Jawas to stormtroopers to the thing …
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Book #30 of 2018: Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3) I’m satisfied by the conclusion of this trilogy, but I do find it a tad underwhelming after that excellent middle volume. There’s a lot of attention given to a brand-new viewpoint character of dubious importance to the …
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Book #29 of 2018: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz The entire first half of this novel is an extended Agatha Christie pastiche, wherein a Poirot-like detective investigates some suspicious deaths in a quiet English village. It’s very well done, and would be a fun pastoral whodunnit even on its own merits. But as it turns …
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Book #28 of 2018: Warp by Lev Grossman It turns out this short first novel by The Magicians author Lev Grossman went out of print for a reason, and the success of that later work doesn’t really justify this new edition. You can almost see the origins of Magicians hero Quentin Coldwater in its aimless …
Book #27 of 2018: Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo What a great read! And one that, I’m happy to report, doesn’t require a reader to know anything about Wonder Woman or the greater DC Comics canon to enjoy. This is an alternate version of the heroine’s origin story, where a teenaged Diana leaves her …
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Book #26 of 2018: Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar I find that I often react to novellas by wishing they were longer, and this recent Stephen King collaboration is no exception. (If nothing else, expanding the book would help to distinguish it from the classic Richard Matheson short story / movie …
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