TV #32 of 2024: The Acolyte, season 1 Despite a few unfortunate structural flaws, this is easily in the top tier of live-action Star Wars shows — which is to say, a step below Andor but about on par with the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, while far more confident and engaging than The …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Murdle: Volume 1 by G. T. Karber
Book #100 of 2024: Murdle: Volume 1 by G. T. Karber I wouldn’t ordinarily rate and review a puzzle book like this, but this one is special enough that it seems worthwhile to highlight its unexpected strengths. It’s not just a collection of those logic puzzles that are solved with the conventional square grids — …
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Book Review: Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
Book #99 of 2024: Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie Interesting yet somewhat rambling, though short enough overall that that discursiveness doesn’t bother me too much. I’ve never read any Salman Rushdie before, but I was attracted to this title by the story behind it, which I saw the author describe on …
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Book Review: Doctor Who: Ruby Red by Georgia Cook
Book #98 of 2024: Doctor Who: Ruby Red by Georgia Cook A fine but ultimately forgettable Doctor Who adventure. I had high hopes for this project as the first novel to feature Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor, but there really isn’t much here that feels distinctive to his particular incarnation of that regenerating alien hero (like …
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Book Review: Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case by Agatha Christie
Book #97 of 2024: Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple #12) More or less the end of author Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series, published posthumously in 1976 although written and set several decades beforehand. (It would be followed by one final short story anthology a few years later, collecting tales …
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Book Review: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Book #96 of 2024: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley The publisher’s description of this novel calls it “a time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all.” I would contend that it is none of …
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TV Review: Seinfeld, season 7
TV #31 of 2024: Seinfeld, season 7 We have an ongoing plot again! Sort of. This one doesn’t really develop and shift as the year goes on, but it does bookend and provide a distinctive atmosphere to that run. In the first episode, George suddenly decides that it’s time for him to settle down, leading …
Book Review: The Will of the Many by James Islington
Book #95 of 2024: The Will of the Many by James Islington (The Hierarchy #1) This fantasy novel starts off strong and gets even better from there, spinning a tale that’s rather reminiscent of Red Rising in both its Roman-inflected worldbuilding and its rage-filled protagonist infiltrating the high society of his enemies (and subsequently feeling …
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Book Review: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Book #94 of 2024: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio I was initially charmed but ultimately dissatisfied with this paths-not-taken novel, in which an unmarried London woman suddenly finds a husband of several years sharing her flat. No sooner has he arrived than he’s gone again, replaced by yet another stranger — for it turns out …
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Movie Review: Enchanted (2007)
Movie #16 of 2024: Enchanted (2007) Basically as delightful as I had remembered, and my 3y/o and 5y/o seemed to like it too, despite not being very into live-action stuff yet as a rule. This movie is so fascinating to me, because it rides a really fine line between lovingly mocking various Disney Princess tropes …
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