The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

TV Review: The Good Place, season 3

TV #3 of 2019:

The Good Place, season 3

Three seasons in, this sitcom about the afterlife is still one of the funniest, smartest, and most warm-hearted shows on television. It regularly redefines its own premise and is hard to describe without spoilers (and probably impossible to watch out-of-order), but I love that its exploration of moral philosophy has now reached the No Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism stage. I wish the writers weren’t quite so fond of wiping character memories to get out of a narrative bind, as that can make it harder to track an emotional throughline, but I love the risks they take and just how different this series is from anything else in its genre.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Book #17 of 2019:

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

An excellent yet uncomfortable character study of a woman’s struggle with depression and prescription drug abuse. I’m lucky to have never gone down the route of overmedication myself, but I recognize a lot of the narrator’s thought processes from my own lowest moments. It’s sharp and bitter and hilarious, and I suspect it might be an exasperating read for people who don’t see something of themselves in the main character’s self-destructive impulses. (Readers who say they want to yell at her to shape up are missing the point that people with mental health issues yell that at ourselves, internally, all the time.)

With such a well-drawn protagonist at the center of this story I’m not particularly bothered by the thinness of the plot, but I do wish the two major supporting figures of her best friend and her therapist weren’t such over-the-top caricatures. Even allowing for how they likely aren’t being portrayed objectively, these two don’t seem to fit with the otherwise grounded mood of the novel. Overall, however, that’s a minor issue that doesn’t detract from my appreciation for what author Ottessa Moshfegh has accomplished here.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris

Book #15 of 2019:

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris

A campaign book is probably never going to be great literature, but this one presents a solid introduction to its author, California Senator Kamala Harris, as she launches her run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Presumably an extended version of her forthcoming stump speeches, it neatly lays out the candidate’s background, politics, and general governing philosophies. This last area is perhaps most interesting to me as a primary voter, and I’m heartened by Harris’s belief that politicians must ‘show the math’ that leads to their specific policy positions as well as her call for everyone to regularly examine their thought processes for implicit biases.

Living up to these ideals, the senator walks readers through several political stands that she’s taken over the years, including her opposition during the recent confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I don’t know if Harris will ultimately earn my vote, and this book is certainly not a balanced critical look at the author’s platform and record. But there’s nothing in here that I would personally consider to be disqualifying, and if you’re seeking to form a first impression from the candidate’s own words, I’d say this is a fine place to begin your vetting process.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Slayer by Kiersten White

Book #16 of 2019:

Slayer by Kiersten White (Slayer #1)

The last act of this Buffy/Angel spinoff novel is strong enough (and similar enough to the original TV shows) that I’ll probably check out its forthcoming sequel as well, but everything is unfortunately just a little tedious until then. The new gang of sixteen-year-old heroes feel immature even for their age, and there’s altogether too much focus on embarrassing memories from their childhood and too many secrets being kept from one another without real justification.

The endgame is pretty neat, however, and the whole story — which I understand is set soon after Buffy destroys the Seed of Wonder in the comic books, although I haven’t read any of those — is packed with fun references to characters and events from across the franchise history. This is definitely a book for (patient) fans, and not one I’d recommend to anyone who hasn’t already seen and loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Book #14 of 2019:

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson (Skyward #1)

I mostly enjoy this Young Adult novel about a girl following in her father’s footsteps to join their planet’s defense armada, although I do feel there are some issues with people’s motivations at the very beginning. That’s not a problem I normally experience with either author Brandon Sanderson or the YA genre at large — or even Sanderson’s previous works therein — but everyone’s actions at the start of this story seem like they’re mandated solely by plot concerns, rather than arising organically from the characters.

Luckily these feelings drop away by the time the heroine joins flight school at around the 10% mark of the book, and from there on out, it’s an engaging coming-of-age narrative that substitutes the author’s customary intricate magical systems for thrilling aerial dogfights among pieces of falling space debris. The worldbuilding is simple but effective, the characters are a lot of fun, and Sanderson sets up some interesting mysteries and plot threads for the remainder of the series to unspool. Between pilot lessons and the discovery of an abandoned ship with a mind of its own, the narrative blends Ender’s Game with How to Train Your Dragon, all developed with typical Sanderson flair. I highly recommended checking this one out, even if you don’t love it right away.

★★★★☆

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

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Book Review: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

Book #13 of 2019:

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (Beartown #2)

This sequel feels somewhat aimless compared to the first Beartown novel and its vivid picture of a rural community’s complicated relationship with the local hockey team. Although I generally enjoy author Fredrik Backman’s writing style and his regular insights into his characters, there aren’t really any lingering issues from the previous book for him to explore, and so this follow-up never quite manages to justify its existence. (An intriguing early possibility of a Beartown without hockey is quickly dropped, and the sports rivalry with the next town over proves far less interesting.) I would probably read a further entry in this series regardless, but I hope that Backman finds more of a story to tell again.

★★★☆☆

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Movie Review: On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Movie #3 of 2019:

On the Basis of Sex (2018)

The first act of this Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic is somewhat choppy, jumping from year to year in the 1950s without giving the audience enough room to really invest in its heroine and her struggles. Luckily once the film skips ahead to 1970, the narrative slows down and tells a great story of how the future Supreme Court justice began working with the ACLU to overturn the long-standing precedent of legalized gender discrimination in America. The screenplay, written by Ginsburg’s nephew, is apparently quite true to life, and includes some lovely moments of the lawyer and her husband as a partnership of equals, quietly challenging traditional roles in their own right. Although “RBG” is best known today as a liberal icon on the Court, the movie mostly steers clear of contemporary political divides to present a historical fight for equality that everyone can celebrate.

★★★★☆

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Movie Review: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Movie #2 of 2019:

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

I hadn’t watched this movie in many, many years, but it holds up better than a lot of comedies from that era. (The two lead characters are con men who prey on wealthy women, so there’s a slight degree of sexism, but the narrative undercuts them more than it invites viewers to share their perspective. I think the script could basically be filmed again today without requiring any changes.) It’s not really laugh-out-loud funny for the most part, but it’s fun to watch the guys play off one another to spoil each latest scheme.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Book #12 of 2019:

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Legacy of Orïsha #1)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A small band of commoners discover a secret that could bring down their evil empire and restore the old order, but when their home is attacked, they are forced to flee, maybe joined by a runaway princess, perhaps pursued by a conflicted enemy. Sound familiar? It’s Star Wars, it’s Dragonlance, it’s Lord of the Rings, it’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, and any number of other stories that take their basic plot points straight from the hero’s journey monomyth. And now it’s Children of Blood and Bone, the debut novel in author Tomi Adeyemi’s new Young Adult fantasy series.

The familiar plot is at least told well, even though the characters generally feel like pretty standard YA figures as well. The best thing this book has going for it is its Nigerian Yoruba-inspired mythos, which is admittedly a strong flavor given the usual eurocentric offerings in this genre. Even here, however, the worldbuilding could stand to be better realized and more descriptive throughout. It’s a promising start, and I’m excited by the possibilities of where the narrative could develop next, but this first volume feels far more rote than it should.

[Content warning for torture and racialized state violence.]

★★★☆☆

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TV Review: Orange Is the New Black, season 6

TV #2 of 2019:

Orange Is the New Black, season 6

Moving the action over to the long-mentioned Maximum Security branch is a reasonable way for this prison show to keep itself fresh (and cut loose some of the huge cast it’s assembled over the years), but the writers have made some odd choices about which plot threads to develop there. The rivalry between Max blocks rarely feels grounded in any real stakes for the returning characters, and no one in the new bunch ever does much to win my sympathy. It also seems like the post-riot trial should have been a much bigger deal within this narrative, rather than the few isolated scenes we actually get. Certain actresses’ availability may have influenced decisions like that, but the resulting season is weaker than it could be.

★★★☆☆

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