Book #108 of 2016: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (Colonel Race #1) A fun, droll adventure elevated by the wit of its plucky heroine. Agatha Christie’s thrillers aren’t as beloved as her mysteries, but the author’s intricate plots with their well-disguised twists are just as enjoyable in this format. (This particular …
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Book #107 of 2016: A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren Not what I was expecting, honestly. I’m a big fan of Senator Warren, and I imagined this book – her first since being elected – would be all about her economic views and the resulting political philosophy which together have made her so popular on …
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Book #106 of 2016: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld (Leviathan #3) A fun conclusion to Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk retelling of World War I. (Now with Nikola Tesla! At this point, I’m half-convinced that Westerfeld kept adding characters of new nationalities to the story just to hear audiobook reader Alan Cumming do more accents.) The action is …
Movie #20 of 2016: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) This movie is a little clunky at times, and definitely not in the same league as The Wrath of Khan or even The Voyage Home. But it mostly all works, and it’s still way better than Star Trek I, III, or V. It’s not …
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Book #105 of 2016: My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmair A powerful memoir, but one that I had to put down several times for something lighter. You might think the title would make the subject matter clear, but it actually doesn’t …
Book #104 of 2016: The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events #9) These books are gradually becoming less episodic, but they still move at a glacier’s speed when it comes to moving the series plot along. The Baudelaire children learn no new information in this book, and they end up in …
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Book #103 of 2016: How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon #1) Very different and substantially worse than its movie adaptation. (And also far less diverse – no female characters have lines, and neither Hiccup nor Toothless have disabilities as they do in the film.) The audiobook was elevated …
Book #102 of 2016: The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Ascendance Trilogy #1) The False Prince has a crackerjack plot, focusing around a group of orphans collected in secret and competing to be the one chosen by their new master to impersonate the missing heir to their kingdom’s throne. It feels a little …
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Movie #19 of 2016: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) Much like The Search for Spock, it seems like not a whole lot happens in this film. It’s basically just Spock’s brother trying to recruit the Enterprise crew into joining his weird cult thing, with no real stakes or clear reason for bringing back …
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Movie #18 of 2016: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) I really used to think people were joking about the Star Trek movies, when they said that the even ones were good and the odd ones were bad. But that’s honestly exactly how it’s been shaping up so far. I was expecting Star Trek …
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