The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Finders Keepers by Stephen King

Book #162 of 2017:

Finders Keepers by Stephen King (Bill Hodges Trilogy #2)

This second novel in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges trilogy presents a more interesting case than the first, even if the detective and his partners feel largely extraneous to the story. The principal conflict centers on a villain who killed a famous author and stole his unpublished manuscripts, but then got locked away in prison for a different crime before he could do anything but hide them. Upon his release decades later, he discovers that a teenage boy has found the hidden notebooks, and the two embark on a cat-and-mouse game with Hodges perpetually a step behind. It’s a fun return to the crazed reader themes that King has previously explored in books like Misery and Lisey’s Story, but it’s hard not to think this one would have been stronger as a standalone novel without Bill Hodges and all the obvious setup for the next book shoehorned in.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Book #161 of 2017:

Room by Emma Donoghue

A masterful story from the point of view of a 5-year-old child who’s spent his entire life in a small shed with just his mother and occasional visits from the man who kidnapped her. Author Emma Donoghue excels at conveying Jack’s perspective of his world in a way that rings true to his particular social development but also allows readers to see certain truths that Jack can’t. It’s a sad but ultimately hopeful book, and I suppose I should probably now watch the award-winning film adaptation at some point.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes

Book #160 of 2017:

Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes

Drawing on interviews with over 100 campaign insiders and political allies, Shattered offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as she faced off against first Bernie Sanders and then Donald Trump. It’s an interesting look at what all was going on behind the scenes, but it doesn’t really come close to answering the question of why the candidate lost to Trump or what she and her staffers could have done differently to avoid that outcome. (Weirdly, the authors do a much better job of dissecting the good and bad strategic calls in her primary campaign against Sanders, which takes up twice as much space in this book as the general election does.) There aren’t any shocking revelations here, and the book isn’t going to go down as any sort of classic for people to study up on years from now. But it’s fine now while it’s still relevant, especially as background for Clinton’s own forthcoming campaign book, which will hopefully dive more deeply into the hows and whys of her electoral defeat.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The End of the Day by Claire North

Book #159 of 2017:

The End of the Day by Claire North

This novel was a bit of a departure for author Claire North, and I have to admit that I didn’t care for it as much as her earlier books. There’s definitely stuff to enjoy here as North sends the Harbinger of Death out to honor the people, ideas, and institutions that are soon to pass away from this world, but the whole thing is very experimental and it didn’t all work for me. At its best The End of the Day reads like Good Omens with more heart, but there’s not much in the way of plot and far too heavy use of ellipsis. It’s deeply humanistic, but I don’t think it really succeeds at whatever the author was trying to express about the human condition. It’s ultimately a weird book that I basically liked but wouldn’t really recommend.

★★★☆☆

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TV Review: Game of Thrones, season 1

TV #27 of 2017:

Game of Thrones, season 1

We’re watching this show for my wife’s first time and as my first rewatch after catching the seasons basically as they aired. (I believe I binged season 1 just before season 2 started, then watched live from then on. But I’ve never before gone back and rewatched even a single episode, I think.)

It definitely holds up well, although the early episodes really throw a lot of exposition at you in terms of who these people are and how they’re all connected. The twists land well too, even knowing what’s coming. It’s surprising to rediscover which characters and plot events loomed large in the early days given how much the landscape of the show has changed over the years, and it’s definitely a little jarring to realize how much the child actors have changed in appearance. But still: good fun, and I’m glad that Gabby’s liking it, since I wasn’t really sure in advance whether it would be up her alley or not.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray

Book #158 of 2017:

Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray

An outstanding story of star-crossed lovers in the Star Wars universe, following a pair of Imperial cadets (one of them later a Rebel) as they weave in and out of the major events of the original film trilogy. This is obviously a novel that couldn’t exist without those movies, but it’s so well-told that it actually comes pretty close to standing on its own. It even improves upon the movies in several respects, offering a stronger and more moving love story and providing some much-needed moral shading to the Empire. Instead of treating every Imperial as a villain, author Claudia Gray wisely humanizes her characters and shows them grappling with a stable government whose atrocities and corrupt leadership are only gradually made clear.

She also neatly avoids so many lazy tropes that could easily have fleshed out this story in the hands of a weaker writer; there are no rom-com misunderstandings or awkward love triangles, and no quick abandonment of love for honor or the reverse. Thane and Ciena are devoted to one another as well as to their respective causes, and Gray makes us ache along with her characters over the inevitable conflicts that arise from that divide. It’s a great story, and one I recommend wholeheartedly to any lover of Star Wars, even if it’s the only spinoff novel you ever read.

★★★★★

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Movie Review: Snakes on a Plane (2006)

Movie #13 of 2017:

Snakes on a Plane (2006)

It’s hard for me to be objective about this movie, or to say anything new about it. (The closest I’ll probably get on this viewing is to note that the Julianna Margulies character is about to go off to law school, and it’s pretty hilarious to pretend that this is a prequel to her lawyer show The Good Wife.) Snakes on a Plane is delightfully and knowingly terrible, and this was at least the eighth time I’ve seen it — four of those being in theaters upon its initial release. I own this masterpiece on DVD, I can quote a fair chunk of it from memory, and I will defend it against its detractors with my dying breath. Also we had friends over to watch it this time as part of a creepy crawly theme night, where I cooked octopus and one of our friends brought “dirt dessert.” A fun night and a great piece of entertainment.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Book #157 of 2017:

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (Book of Ember #1)

I had a really hard time suspending my disbelief for this novel, which admittedly may be less of an issue for the younger readers in its intended audience. But so many aspects of Ember’s civilization just didn’t ring true for me, from the drawing of job assignments out of a bag to the utter incuriosity at innovation even in the face of looming disaster to the spottiness of what has and hasn’t been remembered from the world before. If you can set all of that aside, The City of Ember is a decent story of humanity’s bleak future and the children who try to escape it, but for most of the book I just wasn’t able to get beyond those flaws and believe in this world.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Runemarks by Joanne M. Harris

Book #156 of 2017:

Runemarks by Joanne M. Harris (Loki #3)

This is a fun fantasy adventure story, drawing on Norse mythology but set several centuries after Ragnarok when the gods have largely passed into legend. Still, young Maddy Smith dreams of them, and she seems to have inherited some measure of their magic. Of course, it turns out the gods are not as dead as her people believe, and before long the girl is caught up in their schemes as they try to navigate a changing world. Maddy herself gets a little lost in the shuffle as the action reaches its climax, and I don’t think a reader unfamiliar with these myths would enjoy the book as much, but it’s all still pretty charming.

[Note: this novel was later incorporated into the author’s Loki series, but it reads fine as a standalone.]

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Book #155 of 2017:

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is as well-written as you would expect from a world-famous singer-songwriter, but his choice of topic doesn’t always live up to his considerable talents. The book alternates between a straightforward presentation of facts and a more soul-searching memoir style, and for a casual fan like myself, the latter was far more interesting than the former. The sections where the writer engages with his family history of mental health problems are gripping and emotionally honest, but the endless recounting of musicians he’s played with, songs he’s written, and shows he’s played aren’t really that compelling on the page without a reader bringing an existing knowledge and appreciation of Springsteen’s music to the task. There are some memoirs that captivate you no matter how well you know the subject, but Born to Run is definitely one for the fans alone.

★★★☆☆

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