Book #9 of 2016: The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks (Shannara #2) I originally read the first dozen or so Shannara books back in middle and high school, before finally getting tired of the series. I don’t remember any of them particularly well, but I did have this vague memory that Elfstones (the second …
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Book #8 of 2016: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Todd Family #1) I normally love the premise of characters reliving moments from their lives over and over again, but this novel was just so frustrating. To start with, the rules for how each go-through differs are never made clear. Sometimes it seems like the …
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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 …
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