Book #95 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #1) Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz series starts out with a bang, combining one of his trademark creative magic systems with a narrator as snarky as Peter David’s Sir Apropos of Nothing in this fun novel for junior readers. We only get the first …
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Book #94 of 2016: Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #3) It’s really frustrating how often the solution to one of Agatha Christie’s mysteries hinges on a clue that the detective noticed but the author never actually shared with her readers. A big thrill of this genre of fiction comes from trying to solve …
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Book #93 of 2016: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (Leviathan #2) This second novel in Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk retelling of World War I is an improvement over the first, which didn’t develop its two main characters into likable people until the very end. Here it’s easier to root for them right from the start, give or …
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Book #92 of 2016: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale A fascinating look at the real-life murder mystery that gripped Victorian England twenty years before Jack the Ripper and helped usher in the modern age of police detectives. Jack Whicher’s deductions were …
Book #91 of 2016: Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation by Aisha Tyler Aisha Tyler’s comedy should be an example in the dictionary entry for self-deprecating humor. Self-Inflicted Wounds is a little bit of a self-help book – one where help usually consists of the advice to just keep failing until you start succeeding …
Book #90 of 2016: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen I liked this book, but I had rather a difficult time keeping the various characters straight in my head. (I think this problem was exacerbated by listening to the novel as an audiobook, with a reader who didn’t do much to distinguish voices, but Austen’s …
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TV #44 of 2016: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 3 My wife was still catching up on this show, so I’ve been rewatching it while she does. And now we’re both ready for the new episodes – including that New Girl crossover – starting soon! My reaction to the season this time is that it continues to …
Book #89 of 2016: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker A lovely coming-of-age story, set in a world where the earth’s rotation has suddenly slowed, leading to all sorts of natural and sociological problems. Although unsettling, I particularly liked the gradual way that the characters come to discriminate against anyone still trying to …
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Book #88 of 2016: Joyland by Stephen King Stephen King captures the particular aimlessness of a college student currently in between life dreams, but the plot of Joyland doesn’t have any real flashes of brilliance like the best of his work. It’s a perfectly adequate summer read, but so much of it – the psychic …
Book #87 of 2016: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald This book is justifiably a classic, and I’m glad that I finally got around to reading it — but wow, what a miserable bunch of characters. As much as I love a good take-down of the American Dream, I just couldn’t wait to be …
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