Book #7 of 2016: The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Last Survivors #4) This is the fourth (and last?) book in Pfeffer’s teens-making-poor-life-decisions-in-the-apocalypse series, and it is definitely the wildest one yet. The earlier books were tightly focused on individual families struggling to survive in a time of cataclysm; this one verges …
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TV #6 of 2016: New Girl, season 4 This was a really funny season of a really funny show, although still not quite on the level of the impeccable season 2. Coach is (was?) a great addition to the ensemble, and the last two episodes did a good job at wrapping up story arcs and …
TV #5 of 2016: Doctor Who, season 9 I know I just watched it as it first aired, but last year’s season of Doctor Who was just as incredible the second time around. My review from a month ago stands: I know a lot of people have cooled on Doctor Who lately — or perhaps …
Book #6 of 2016: The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill The Witch’s Boy was a swing and a miss for me. This middle-grade fantasy had some interesting ideas, but they just weren’t well developed enough to cohere into a satisfying story. The whole book needed some major rewrites, and apparently it wasn’t even the author’s …
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TV #4 of 2016: The Legend of Korra, season 3 I’m not a very big fan of the Avatar franchise, and Korra’s second season (as well as how it ended season one) just about drained what little good will I had in the first place. I really only decided to keep watching this show because …
Book #5 of 2016: Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Welcome to Night Vale #1) It’s really hard for me to separate my thoughts/feelings about this book away from those about the podcast, especially because I listened to this as an audiobook (narrated by Cecil, natch). What I mean is, I …
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Book #4 of 2016: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #2) Facebook memories reminded me that a year ago last night, I stayed up past midnight for finish an ebook I was hooked on: Firefight by Brandon Sanderson, an outstanding sequel to one of the freshest series premieres I had read the …
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TV #3 of 2016: The Good Wife, season 5 I’m utterly gobsmacked by how amazing this season of television is. I loved the show to pieces already, but this stretch really elevates it to a whole new level. (I’ve already gone back and watched “Hitting the Fan” several times, and it works even better in …
Book #3 of 2016: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo Somewhat cute, but the author’s voice was a little too intrusive for my tastes. It’s also weird that there’s an evil rat clearly hypnotizing people throughout the book and then nothing ever comes of that. But whatever. I was definitely not in the intended …
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TV #2 of 2016: Master of None, season 1 This is my second time watching this odd comedy / experimental short film series from Aziz Ansari, and I think I liked it even better — there were a lot of subtle foreshadowing hints about how the season ends that I didn’t pick up on before. …
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