Book #16 of 2017: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy As many others have noted, the title Anna Karenina is somewhat misleading, as the novel devotes more space to the story of Anna’s brother-in-law and author stand-in Konstantin Levin than it does to Anna herself. (“Brother-in-law” is a simplification, and suggests a closeness between Anna and …
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Book #15 of 2017: The Painter of Battles by Arturo Pérez-Reverte This was kind of a strange book, about a former war photographer who gets tracked down in retirement by a soldier he once photographed who now blames the man for ruining his life and says he’s come to kill him. The two men proceed …
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Book #14 of 2017: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake (Three Dark Crowns #1) I loved the atmosphere in this book, which is set on a secluded magical island slowly gearing up for its sacrificial rites – a tradition that no one really questions, which is delightfully eerie in a Shirley Jackson kind of way. …
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Movie #1 of 2017: Howard the Duck (1986) Okay, so there’s no denying that this is a bad movie, but it’s definitely one that’s so bad it’s good (especially when watched with a group of friends making jokes throughout about possible connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like how the technology that brings Howard to …
Book #13 of 2017: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett The first third of this book is a bit of a bore, as the heroine’s only real character trait is that she is nicer and smarter and with a better relationship to her father than all the other girls at her boarding school. And …
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Book #12 of 2017: The Big Four by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #5) Agatha Christie at her worst. I could be charitable and say that this book is an homage to Poirot’s literary predecessor Sherlock Holmes, as it involves the Belgian detective going up against an international crime syndicate and faking his own death in …
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Book #11 of 2017: The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip (Riddle-Master #1) Like the best of fantasy, The Riddle-Master of Hed reads like a beautiful dream. And the reluctant warrior at its center, fated to be a powerful figure of prophecy despite all his wishes for a quiet life back home, makes for …
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TV #6 of 2017: The Magicians, season 1 This show’s writers made a lot of very smart choices when it came to adapting Lev Grossman’s book series, seamlessly weaving together plot points from the first two novels to create the arc for this season. Some of it was faithful adaptation, some of it was a …
Book #10 of 2017: The Help by Kathryn Stockett I loved this novel’s focus on black domestic servants during the Jim Crow era, which is an aspect of American history that doesn’t get talked about as much as it should – and is more recent than some folks might like to admit. I would have …
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Book #9 of 2017: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #8) This early Discworld novel introduces the character Sam Vimes and the rest of the City Watch, although it’s clear that author Terry Pratchett was still figuring out who they would be at this point. Here the Watch investigates the sudden appearance of a dragon …
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