Book #97 of 2016: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe I like Randall Munroe’s xkcd webcomic, but this book of outlandish inquiries was a big letdown. A few of the passages stand out, like which US state is flown over by the most airplanes each day, or what would …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Book #96 of 2016: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (The Neapolitan Novels #1) The bildungsroman is a genre that generally doesn’t interest me, but My Brilliant Friend is a very well-executed instance of it. Elena Ferrante’s tale of two girls growing up in 1950s Naples is undeniably charming, even in translation and viewed from …
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Movie Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Movie #16 of 2016: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) Hands-down the best Star Trek adventure I’ve seen yet (which means it was better than the first movie, the three Chris Pine ones, and all of TOS and TAS). Part of me wonders why they even bothered to make more Trek after this, …
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Movie Review: Terminator Genisys (2015)
Movie #15 of 2016: Terminator Genisys (2015) I definitely understand where all the criticism of this movie is coming from. It is bleeding plot holes left and right, to the point where the whole thing makes no sense even by the very loose standards of the Terminator franchise. But that being said, there’s a whole …
TV Review: Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, season 2
TV #45 of 2016: Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, season 2 It’s really hard to review this season, given how screwed over it was by the network / production company. (I don’t know who’s ultimately most responsible for the episodes airing out of their intended order, but even on Netflix it’s a hot …
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Book Review: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
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 Review: Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
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 Review: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
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 Review: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
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 Review: Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation by Aisha Tyler
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 …
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