TV #37 of 2018:
Lost in Space, season 1
This reboot grew on me as it went along, but it’s still not exactly great television. I think the problem for me as a viewer is that the show mirrors the look and feel of a serious, grounded sci-fi story, but the plot mechanics and character motivations are often straight out of a children’s cartoon. Parker Posey’s take on Dr. Smith as basically a female Gaius Baltar is pretty great, though.
★★★☆☆
Book #156 of 2018:
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
This richly-detailed historical fiction novel about the Jewish population of 17th-century London brings to mind Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book, but in my opinion author Rachel Kadish does a much better job of making the lives of researchers in the modern age as compelling as the story unfolding in the past — especially near the end, when the two narrative threads begin to parallel one another in some interesting and unexpected ways.
THEN: a young woman serving as scribe to a blind rabbi struggles against the limitations society puts on her gender and her religion, desperate for the freedom to pursue her scholastic interests. NOW: a lonely history professor on the verge of a forced retirement and her assistant, a Jewish grad student stuck on his dead-end dissertation, uncover a cache of documents from the rabbi’s household and begin to piece together who could have written them. All three are fierce characters that I came to cherish, and the novel as a whole contains some beautiful meditations on love, history, gender roles, and Judaism. It’s currently my top new read of the year, and I’ll be thinking over its insights and most poetic passages for quite some time to come.
★★★★★
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Book #155 of 2018:
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
This YA love story is a sweet high school romance with realistic, well-drawn characters. I especially like that the two protagonists are not more of the rail-thin, white, conventionally attractive figures that often dominate our media landscape, and that each one has friends and a rich inner life apart from their relationship. They can still be frustrating in a believable teenage way, but I could generally sympathize and enjoyed following this tale of young love all the way to its bittersweet end.
[Trigger warning for school bullying and emotional abuse by a parent]
★★★★☆
Book #154 of 2018:
The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #4)
The Vorkosigan series is fun enough that I keep coming back to it, but I’ve yet to be really blown away by any single title. This one is yet another solid space opera romp, with our returning hero Miles Vorkosigan wildly improvising his way around a developing war situation and cleverly escaping from a succession of imprisonments. As with its later prequel Barrayar I’m a little surprised that this novel won the Hugo Award, but I admit I had a good time reading it.
★★★☆☆
TV #36 of 2018:
Marvel’s Jessica Jones, season 2
The storyline is unfortunately not as tight as the first season of this show, but it remains a trenchant examination and critique of gendered violence. Without getting into spoilers, this season also explores a particular dynamic between superpowered loved ones that felt new to me for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and this genre at large. I wanted more of the focus that Killgrave brought to the proceedings of season one, but I’m still really happy to see Jessica grumbling her way towards becoming a hero.
★★★★☆
Book #153 of 2018:
Florida by Lauren Groff
The short stories in this collection are not all set in the title locale, but Florida’s presence looms large over the characters even when they leave its oppressive humidity in search of a more hospitable clime. Author Lauren Groff, a ten-year Florida transplant, has absolutely nailed the wild essence of her adopted state, and her vivid descriptions bring to life its sultry soup of an atmosphere and the deadly fauna that dwell beside its suburbs, as well as the overall Floridian mindset that people living in that sort of environment require.
Having grown up in the Sunshine State myself, I’m probably predisposed to recognize and appreciate these aspects of Groff’s writing, but the stories would be powerful even without that personal connection. Groff writes movingly of her characters, mostly women and children, and how they struggle against nature both without and within themselves. I was left unsatisfied by the author’s full-length novel Fates and Furies, but her talents are perfectly tuned to the structure of the stories here.
★★★★☆
TV #35 of 2018:
Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, season 1
This is pretty much the weirdest corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there’s a lot about it that doesn’t work for me in this first season. The title characters are kept isolated from one another too much of the time, and each one’s special power is woefully under-explained, ultimately resulting in that nonsensical dramatic climax from the finale. But I like that Marvel feels confident enough at this point to keep trying out new things, and the 10-episode season gives this show a quicker pace than its longer Netflix brethren. It ain’t the best show in its fictional universe, but it’s got more heart to it than Runaways, and on balance I guess I like it alright.
★★★☆☆
Book #152 of 2018:
Everless by Sara Holland (Everless #1)
This YA fantasy novel can sometimes lean a bit hard on its tropes, but as the story progresses, it proves to be a cut above the usual fare for the genre. There are solid twists and unexpected flairs, and its system of time magic — which the upper-class use to literally steal years off the lives of the poor — offers great potential even beyond what’s explored here. The whole book is quite good for a debut work, and I’m excited to see where the series goes next.
★★★★☆
Book #151 of 2018:
Star Wars: Canto Bight by Saladin Ahmed, Rae Carson, Mira Grant, and John Jackson Miller
Four loosely connected Star Wars novellas, all set in the decadent casino city from The Last Jedi. They’re generally solid but unremarkable little sci-fi action tales, entertaining but adding little to our understanding of Canto Bight beyond what’s in the movie. The only real stand-out is Mira Grant’s “Wine of Dreams” for its meditations on the power of stories and a truly alien perspective that’s surprisingly uncommon in Star Wars. As a whole, though, the book can feel a bit predictable and repetitive.
★★★☆☆
Book #150 of 2018:
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies by Jason Fagone
Author Jason Fagone sometimes gets a little lost in the weeds recounting the details of Elizebeth Smith Friedman’s codebreaking activities, but he shines a welcome light on her forgotten contributions in this first biography of the woman who should be considered the mother of modern cryptanalysis. Long-overshadowed by her equally-genius husband due to twentieth-century sexism, the classified nature of their work, and her own inclination against publicity, Friedman made extraordinary breakthroughs of her own in the U.S. counter-espionage and anti-smuggling efforts during the two World Wars. Fagone’s delivery can be rough, but he’s done valuable research in enabling this incredible story to finally be heard.
★★★★☆
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