Book #66 of 2017: 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence by Howard Means This began as kind of a frustrating read, in that the author assumed far more initial familiarity with the Kent State shootings than I personally was able to bring to the table. That got better as it went …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: It Happens All the Time by Amy Hatvany
Book #65 of 2017: It Happens All the Time by Amy Hatvany A raw and emotional novel about a rape and its aftermath, told in alternating perspectives of the victim and the friend who assaults her. Author Amy Hatvany presents a compulsively readable narrative of an issue that, as her title suggests, is all too …
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Book Review: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
Book #64 of 2017: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg This 1967 story of a brother and sister running away from home to live in a museum – and the old lady chronicling their adventure – is simply darling. Two kids on their own in New York City …
Book Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Book #63 of 2017: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Years ago, the aristocratic Blackwood family sat down to dinner at their New England estate, but poison in the dishes left only three survivors. Now Merricat, her sister, and her uncle live on in the home where the rest of their …
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Book Review: The Regulators by Richard Bachman
Book #62 of 2017: The Regulators by Richard Bachman This pseudonymous Stephen King novel has too many characters with not enough characterization, which makes it hard to keep track of them or even care when they kept getting gunned down. It doesn’t help that most of the characters share names – but not much else …
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Book Review: Touch by Claire North
Book #61 of 2017: Touch by Claire North A neat spy thriller about a character who can flit from body to body through skin contact, temporarily taking over other people’s lives while they black out. The entity known as Kepler has lived for hundreds of years that way, ever since discovering the power when facing …
Book Review: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin
Book #60 of 2017: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin Early on in Gretchen Rubin’s year spent practicing habits aimed at her own happiness (and writing about it), an acquaintance tells …
Book Review: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Book #59 of 2017: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn A People’s History of the United States is really two books, and one of them is significantly better than the other. Author Howard Zinn’s thesis is that any telling of history is inherently political, and his stated goal is to present …
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TV Review: Santa Clarita Diet, season 1
TV #10 of 2017: Santa Clarita Diet, season 1 It seems like every time I convince myself that zombies are played out, some new property comes along and shows just how much rich material there still can be in the concept. In this case, it’s a laugh-out-loud half-hour sitcom about a middle-class suburban mom turning …
Book Review: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Book #58 of 2017: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond A brutal firsthand study of eviction, emphasizing both its high frequency and the devastating toll it takes on families. Matthew Desmond, an ethnographer who spent years living in low-income neighborhoods and trailer parks to research this book, shows how precarious …
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