Book #49 of 2017: Swing Time by Zadie Smith Very reminiscent of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, in part because the narrator isn’t really at the center of her own story. Here, our unnamed protagonist alternates between childhood memories and more recent life history, each of which sees her drastically eclipsed by another figure: first …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
Book #48 of 2017: Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce (The Immortals #1) More confident and less problematic than author Tamora Pierce’s earlier work Song of the Lioness, but with its same fun sense of magic and adventure. The Lioness Alanna and her friends return as supporting characters this time, with the main focus given over …
Book Review: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Book #47 of 2017: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (The Queen of the Tearling #1) This post-apocalyptic fantasy was a little bit underbaked, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. (It helps to have a protagonist whose first act as queen is to storm in Daenerys-like, freeing a bunch of …
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Book Review: The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t by Nate Silver
Book #46 of 2017: The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t by Nate Silver The prose is sometimes lacking (and the baseball sections could not have been more boring), but FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver writes an easy-to-follow introduction to the science of analysis and prediction. It’s less of a …
Book Review: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
Book #45 of 2017: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance An outstanding memoir of life in rural Appalachia at the turn of the 21st century. A lot has been said about this book inadvertently offering insight into the angry voters who swept Donald Trump into office, but …
Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Book #44 of 2017: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1) I loved the atmosphere at the beginning of this novel, all dark and gothic and promising of mysteries hidden in forgotten libraries. And I especially liked Zafón’s descriptions of what it’s like to fall in love …
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Book Review: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
Book #43 of 2017: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer An infuriating and depressing account of how the super-wealthy have quietly influenced popular discourse through the funding of think tanks and campaign contributions to bring about policies protecting their own wealth and business …
Book Review: Six Earlier Days by David Levithan
Book #42 of 2017: Six Earlier Days by David Levithan I loved David Levithan’s novel Every Day about a teenage entity who wakes up each morning in a different body, but this prequel just didn’t do it for me. I think the intent was to showcase how A adopted their principles and grew to be …
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Book Review: Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
Book #41 of 2017: Get in Trouble by Kelly Link An overall solid short story collection, although I think I would have liked it more if the stories had been more focused on their fantastic elements. Most of this collection could be classified as either sci-fi or fantasy (especially if you include superheroes and ghosts …
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Book Review: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Book #40 of 2017: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi A heartbreaking memoir of a neurosurgeon dying from lung cancer at age 36, published after he ultimately succumbed to the disease. As a doctor, Paul Kalanithi is clear-eyed about his diagnosis and his low chances for survival, and his quiet acceptance of these facts …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 