TV #5 of 2023: Leverage: Redemption, season 2 Another pleasantly satisfying year of the Leverage revival, although I think I’ve finally keyed into why it’s not quite soaring for me as its predecessor often did. It’s hard to spot at first, because the cast is nearly all the same, and they are still adults facing …
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Book #13 of 2023: The Stars Undying by Emery Robin (Empire Without End #1) [Thank you to the publisher Orbit for providing me with a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review!] I appreciate this debut novel as an intellectual exercise, but somewhat less as an engaging story in the moment. …
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TV #4 of 2023: Star Trek: Voyager, season 6 Right now in my Star Trek watch-through, I am alternating a season of Voyager with a season of Enterprise, which provides an interesting and productive contrast. While this will never be my favorite iteration of the franchise, and I have to say that this penultimate year …
Book #12 of 2023: Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea #5) Although I’ve generally been enjoying the Earthsea setting / franchise, I confess that I expected this 2001 book of short stories to be somewhat extraneous and non-essential. Luckily, however, with the exception of the dry historical account “A Description of Earthsea” …
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Book #11 of 2023: The Burden by Mary Westmacott The sixth and final novel that author Agatha Christie published under her Mary Westmacott pseudonym is unfortunately also the weakest. It starts off alright, tracing the childhood of a girl whose mother and father both resent her for living when her older brother dies of polio, …
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Book #10 of 2023: After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid One-and-a-half stars, begrudgingly rounded up for my enjoyment of the heroine’s extended family. I nearly quit this book several times, and it’s by far my least favorite of the five Taylor Jenkins Reid titles I’ve now read. The characters are decently fleshed-out, and the …
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Book #9 of 2023: The Secret History by Donna Tartt I’ve seen so many book reviews and even official publishing descriptions that compare other titles to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History — it’s apparently a belated inspiration for the modern ‘dark academia’ genre — so I knew that I would eventually need to check out …
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TV #3 of 2023: Gilmore Girls, season 1 This will be at least my third full watch-through of Gilmore Girls, which I think speaks to the overall quality of the program, but also to the ways in which a multigenerational drama like this can resonate with various audiences at various ages. The first time I …
Book #8 of 2023: Book Lovers by Emily Henry Romance is not one of my typical genres, but every once in a while, a title picks up enough positive chatter to break through and catch my attention. It probably helps that this particular novel is about two very bookish characters — the heroine a literary …
Movie #1 of 2023: The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022) This seemingly-unnecessary feature film installment for the long-running Fox cartoon turns out to be a delightful surprise, especially coming after several seasons of television that haven’t struck me as all too creatively fruitful. Perhaps the production team’s attention was on this project instead? Whatever the reason, …
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