The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: I Want To Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

Book #286 of 2020:

I Want To Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

A short but funny memoir / comedy essay collection from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and star Rachel Bloom. It’s not as entertaining as that show, and contains fewer behind-the-scenes stories than I would have hoped, but the author is refreshingly upfront about her flaws and mental health issues and how they have shaped her life and career thus far. Overall I’d say the book stands with comparable titles like Tina Fey’s Bossypants or Colin Jost’s A Very Punchable Face, so if you loved those and are a fan of this writer’s other work, you’ll probably enjoy the millennial cringe humor on display here as well.

[Content warning for graphic discussions of sex, coprophagia, and antisemitism including slurs.]

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro

Book #285 of 2020:

Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro

Although the narrative loses a little focus and momentum in its back half, for the most part this is a strikingly original post-apocalyptic fantasy, rich in #ownvoices Latinx cultural details and queer representation and distinctive in structure as one long chapterless text addressed in second-person to the heroine’s sun-god. She’s a sort of sin-eater for her desert community, literally banishing people’s demons by hearing their confessions — which she then recounts Scheherazade-like as nested tales within her ongoing prayer — and the story ends up being about her interior journey to define herself beyond that role more than the nominal plot that sends her away from home in the first place. It’s a slow-paced but arresting piece of magical realism, and while it doesn’t all entirely work for me, I really admire the ambition and the craft that author Mark Oshiro has brought to such a clearly personal project.

[Content warning for gore.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

Book #284 of 2020:

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

This urban fantasy reads like a quirkier Neverwhere, and its worldbuilding isn’t really distinctive enough to merit all the heavy infodumps in the first half of the novel. I know from works like Sabriel that author Garth Nix can introduce a setting more naturalistically through an unfolding story, but here he regularly drags the plot to a halt in order for characters to orate the necessary exposition at us / each other. It’s otherwise a solid magical romp around British folklore, and I appreciate the heroine’s genderfluid love interest, yet it’s far from the instant classic that this writer has produced in the past.

★★★☆☆

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TV Review: Fargo, season 4

TV #52 of 2020:

Fargo, season 4

The latest year of this midwestern crime drama is circling an interesting idea of rival families exchanging child hostages a la Game of Thrones, but there’s not much of a plot to latch onto here beyond random violence. The most intriguing element, a 1950s black mafia, isn’t really developed in a distinctive fashion, and there are too many peripheral characters who never quite manage to justify their presence in the narrative.

The past couple seasons of Fargo have tended to fall back on style over substance, and buoyed by generally fine performances, the worst-case-scenario is often an entertaining but hollow piece of storytelling. I’m seldom bored by this show, but it’s now been a while since it managed to deliver anything particularly memorable either.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Soulswift by Megan Bannen

Book #283 of 2020:

Soulswift by Megan Bannen

Too many little things bug me about this standalone fantasy novel for me to rate it highly, but I think it will find a receptive audience among the YA star-crossed-lovers crowd. The arc of two sworn enemies gradually growing more tender towards one another is well-wrought, and the worldbuilding has some interesting wrinkles, particularly in the cultural implications of the warring religious camps. I also appreciate that neither of these sects ends up having the whole truth in their dogma, even if it seems weird that all the characters who can literally commune with the divine have remained oblivious to that fact until now.

On the other hand: naming the heroine and hero whose love is apparently fated the holy vessel and the holy sword is incredibly tacky, and no amount of sweet words later can make me forget that he loudly calls her ugly the first time they meet. I’ve rolled my eyes at a few of the tropey developments like a pretend marriage and being forced to share a single bed too, although again perhaps I’m just not the right sort of reader for this. And without getting into spoilers, it feels like the eventual ending is both sudden and unearned.

That’s a lot of negativity for a story which by and large I don’t mind, and I’d happily check out something else by author Megan Bannen on the various strengths of this one. But as a coherent and cohesive total product, Soulswift doesn’t quite succeed for me.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

Book #282 of 2020:

Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive #3.5)

This novella was released shortly before the fourth proper Stormlight volume, initially as a Kickstarter exclusive, and I have to admit that I didn’t have great hopes for it despite generally enjoying author Brandon Sanderson’s works. I know plenty of folks will skip over this one, after all, so it seemed unlikely to contain anything crucial — particularly as its two viewpoint characters, Rysn and Lopen, are fairly peripheral players in the main series.

And I haven’t yet read Rhythm of War, so I can’t comment directly on how the events in this story impact that book or beyond, but I suppose I should have known better than to doubt Sanderson at this point. It turns out Dawnshard is a pretty momentous account for both the world of Roshar and the wider cosmere setting, in a way that will be exciting to die-hard fans without alienating a more casual audience. (And I’m honestly somewhere between those camps myself — I do like The Stormlight Archive, but I find the long novels overly dense at times and I occasionally need to look details up online when a name from the past resurfaces. Yet I’ve genuinely grinned at a few of the reveals here.)

This is a fun high-seas adventure in its own right too, making good use of its distinctive protagonists, one of whom is paralyzed from the waist down and the other of whom had formerly lost an arm (which has since been magically regrown in a previous title). In his introduction, the writer specifically thanks the experts who gave early draft feedback on issues of accessibility and paraplegia, and the treatment of these topics rings with authenticity as well as registering as a clear rarity in the fantasy genre. There’s also a very minor gesture at trans representation, in the person of a king who’s used the power of stormlight to transition, although the description is so subtle that it could easily go unnoticed and I have to cynically wonder if that was an intentional choice to not anger conservative readers.

On balance, though, this is another strong entry that is worth checking out, and I’m glad that one of my Patreon donors submitted it as their nomination for what I should read and review this month.

[Disclosure: I’m Facebook friends with this author.]

[I read and reviewed this title at a Patreon donor’s request. Want to nominate your own books for me to read and review (or otherwise support my writing)? Sign up for a small monthly donation today at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke !]

★★★★☆

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TV Review: The Office, season 7

TV #51 of 2020:

The Office, season 7

Theoretically I suppose a modern audience could approach this year of The Office not knowing it was Steve Carell’s last, but since it was crafted by the writers and understood by contemporary viewers as such, I think that remains the key lens with which to consider it. Plotwise Michael’s exit plays out somewhat abruptly, but the season beforehand lays the groundwork both by giving a degree of closure to his most important relationships and by periodically centering other characters as though to test out the new cast dynamic.

The former goal works better than the latter, unfortunately, and although we don’t get to see much of a Carell-free Office yet, the warning signs are all there. This sitcom has grown steadily zanier and more polished / less realistic over time, and even discounting the distracting slew of high-profile guest stars that close out this run, the writing is rapidly losing sight of who these people are and what they mean to one another. Everyone’s flattened and flanderized in a way that keeps the jokes zipping along but rarely makes space for the genuine human connections that were such a draw in the early years. In place of the poignant yearning between Jim and Pam, we’ve here got Andy and Erin: two goofy folks we’re never given any particular cause to root for, save that they had been together once, broke up, and now apparently regret it.

For the most part, these issues don’t stem from the main actor leaving his role, but they’re certainly revealed in the wake of that decision, and the creative team displays no sign of figuring out how to get the program back on track without him. The result isn’t awful — this is generally still a funny series of half-hour entertainment — and I wouldn’t even suggest that anyone should stop watching the show either before or after reaching this point. But there’s not really any good artistic reason for why things kept going for so long past the Michael Scott era, and absent the presumed network demands to that effect, it sure seems like we could have gotten a stronger and more resonant ending had everything wrapped up when he did.

[Content warning for racism, transphobia, and workplace shooting.]

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster

Book #281 of 2020:

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster

I went into this 2013 read with high expectations based on author Emily Oster’s later parenting text Cribsheet, but unfortunately, I haven’t found this one nearly so helpful (although as the partner of a pregnant person I am admittedly not the exact target audience). In my review of that semi-sequel, I praised how the writer “guides her readers on Bayesian priors, opportunity cost, risk comparison, and other economic tools for critical thinking so that we can evaluate further inflection points ourselves” — and there’s too little of that here. Instead, the two titles mostly share a meta-study approach to their respective topics, wherein Oster reviews the scientific literature and presents her own best understanding of particular risks. In this work, for instance, she somewhat-controversially signs off on moderate alcohol and caffeine consumption while expecting (one glass of wine per day; three cups of coffee) and explains how difficult it is to accurately control for outside factors when comparing home and hospital births.

This is still a handy guide for sorting through conflicting recommendations, but it provides too much information about the author’s specific experience and not enough of a comprehensive look at pregnancy in all its contentious aspects. While I think a reasonable case could be made that Cribsheet is the only book you need for the early years of raising a child, this absolutely cannot serve a similar function in its own domain.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Book #280 of 2020:

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (Legendborn #1)

A wicked smart fantasy from debut author Tracy Deonn, as much about the experience of a black girl entering college (or any other traditionally white and patriarchal space) as it is about the demon-hunting order of Arthurian knights she ends up joining there. The plot of a regular person stumbling upon a hidden world and proving herself capable of meeting its high standards isn’t exactly the most original idea ever — and the attempted memory wipes are practically straight out of Men in Black or Torchwood — but the familiar formula gains added poignance from the #ownvoices observations on race and gender that Deonn builds into the work.

The racism in particular that her protagonist faces manifests in both subtle and dramatic ways, and this definitely seems like the sort of book that will prove eye-opening to younger white readers who aren’t used to being in that position. The writer’s gift for evocative detail further extends to Bree’s haircare routine and even the Cheerwine and Bojangles meals that bring the North Carolina setting to life, resulting in an effect somewhat like Octavia Butler’s Fledgling crossed with Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle.

It’s YA through and through, from the fairly chaste physicality to the developing love triangle, and the secret society’s wizardry can’t help but feel a little tame after the brutality in Leigh Bardugo’s recent Ninth House. But it’s a really fun and thought-provoking read regardless, full of #blackgirlmagic and a confident launch to the series.

[Content warning for parental death, slavery, implied rape, gaslighting, and transphobia.]

★★★★☆

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TV Review: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 1

TV #50 of 2020:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 1

My standard rating for a season of Star Trek has been three-out-of-five stars, reflecting a franchise sensibility that can land as either clichéd or solidly unremarkable as often as it hits genuinely effective heights. Imagine my surprise, then, at how strong this first year of Deep Space Nine is, right out of the gate. Granted, it’s still not all fantastic, and there are a lot of episodes that feel as though they either began as scripts for sister series The Next Generation or could have become so with minimal rewrites. Yet the backwater setting is so much more interesting than any iteration of the wayfaring starship Enterprise, allowing for an organic sense of lived-in history and community with any number of possible story engines. The penultimate hour “Duet” alone justifies this entire experiment, and since it seems like the sort of narrative the writers have been wanting to tell all along, I’m so excited to see that as a model for the show going forward.

[Content warning for religious extremism, assassination, school bombing, and mention of rape, torture, and death camps.]

★★★★☆

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