Book #191 of 2017: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel Lane Roanoke has never known any family except her mother Camilla, who left home when she was pregnant with Lane and cut off all ties to her past. But when Camilla kills herself, the orphaned teen is sent to live at the Roanoke family estate …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel”
Book #190 of 2017: The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Elio M. García Jr., and Linda Antonsson The World of Ice & Fire is a Silmarillion to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, providing an exhaustive (and somewhat …
TV #39 of 2017: Jane the Virgin, season 3 Same great cast, same terrific writing, and definitely a return to form after season 2 got a little lost in the weeds with its plot. I was a little bit afraid that this season was going to feature more wheel-spinning as we approached the midpoint, but …
TV #38 of 2017: Cop Rock, season 1 This is such a… unique show. It’s not exactly the trainwreck that its reputation would suggest, but it certainly comes near to that at times. Picture a musical show like Glee (particularly the times when the singing is just supposed to represent characters emoting and not rehearsing/performing …
Book #189 of 2017: The Infinities by John Banville This story of the Greek god Hermes narrating the events surrounding a modern patriarch’s deathbed is unbearably pretentious and unforgivably cruel to its characters. Add to that an utterly inconsequential plot and I just couldn’t wait to be through with it. ★☆☆☆☆
TV #37 of 2017: Game of Thrones, season 3 Another solid season of Game of Thrones, although this is definitely where the seams of adapting A Song of Ice and Fire into a network television show really start to appear. In the books, characters can sit out entire novels when nothing interesting is happening to …
Book #188 of 2017: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison There’s a little Game of Thrones in this standalone fantasy story of an honorable figure coming to court and facing palace intrigue, but it more closely resembles Assassin’s Apprentice in centering its narrative around an abused and friendless child whose station prevents others from getting …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison”
Book #187 of 2017: Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey #1) The aging barrister Horace Rumpole was originally created as a television character, but his writer John Mortimer soon adapted those stories for the literary medium, resulting first in this collection of short stories that presents some of Rumpole’s most …
Continue reading “Book Review: Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer”
Book #186 of 2017: The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez (Constance Verity #1) Constance Verity is fated to live a life of pulpy adventure, always saving the world from robots and ninjas and alien overlords, and it’s a lot of fun to see author A. Lee Martinez throw out all sorts …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez”
Book #185 of 2017: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett This was a fun hardboiled detective story, and one that I ultimately liked better than the author’s more famous work, The Maltese Falcon. That’s largely due to Nick and Nora Charles, a retired Pinkerton and his wife who are reluctantly dragged into the unfolding investigation …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more