The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Movie Review: Wonder Woman (2017)

Movie #8 of 2017:

Wonder Woman (2017)

Wonder Woman is neither a perfect movie nor even a perfect superhero movie, but it’s such a refreshing change of pace from the typical male-heavy entries to that genre that it’s pretty easy to overlook the minor flaws and celebrate its accomplishments. And it is a good movie, easily the best one for a DC character since The Dark Knight in 2008. Diana is impetuous yet heroic, and her emotional arc resonates strongly across the film. It was the villains that I found to be the most lacking, but then, that’s an issue that Marvel frequently struggles with as well. I still haven’t seen Batman v. Superman – and I thought the linking material at the start of Wonder Woman was entirely unnecessary – but this movie was strong enough that I’ll probably go see Justice League regardless.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin

Book #125 of 2017:

Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin

The best part about this collection of loosely-related stories is captured by the pun in its title, reflecting the overall conceit that the unique combination of boredom and frustration experienced by a person waiting at the airport can enable travel to a different astral plane. And as an ethnographic travelogue of alien worlds, the book is evocative and wildly inventive, but there’s almost no plot even within individual planes. It’s basically just a placid stroll through the multiverse, which is nice but not particularly fulfilling.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Feed by Mira Grant

Book #124 of 2017:

Feed by Mira Grant (Newsflesh #1)

Once you set aside this book’s ludicrous premise – not the zombie uprising, but the idea that independent teen bloggers represent a trusted news source – it ends up being a lot of fun. The story is set several decades after the undead outbreak, and American society has remained similar enough that there are still presidential elections, albeit with fewer in-person campaign events and ubiquitous blood tests at every building entrance to check for signs of infection. The heroes are a brother-sister blogging team following one of the candidates across the country, only to stumble across a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of government. Amid the zombie action there’s heartbreak and smart political commentary on increased security at the cost of personal freedom, not to mention a heroine whose disability (extreme light sensitivity due to a weaker strain of the zombie virus) informs but never undercuts her characterization. I admit to rolling my eyes at the early chapters of this novel, but I really liked it once it got going and I’ll definitely be checking out the sequels.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Book #123 of 2017:

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Bill Hodges Trilogy #1)

This novel lost steam for me as it went along (especially once I realized that a promising new character was just Stephen King’s version of Lisbeth Salander), but for the most part King has delivered an exciting crime thriller about a retired cop exchanging taunting messages with the serial killer he never caught. The plot mechanics that keep Bill Hodges from telling his former police colleagues what he’s doing are a bit hard to believe, and I would have personally preferred more of a detective story where the readers get to put together the clues alongside Hodges, but these are ultimately minor quibbles. Mr. Mercedes is that rare Stephen King novel without even a hint of the supernatural, and it’s generally just a well-told thriller from a master of his craft.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Book #122 of 2017:

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Idiot — which might more fairly be called The Naïf — follows a wide-eyed innocent as he leaves his Swiss sanitarium for Russian high society and generally finds himself unprepared for its corruption and amorality. Some of these events are droll, but I felt there were too many tangents and too many instances of characters sounding like mouthpieces for the author’s philosophizing rather than distinct and realistic personalities. Ultimately I didn’t get much out of this read.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Book #121 of 2017:

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger (Finishing School #1)

A lightweight little YA steampunk fantasy novel about a finishing school for teen girl spies. A good summer read, it was fun but not particularly deep. I believe it’s also in the same setting as some of author Gail Carriger’s other works, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything by reading this one first.

★★★☆☆

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TV Review: Arrow, season 5

TV #20 of 2017:

Arrow, season 5

Arrow honestly had an amazing season this year. It’s kind of hard to believe after how weak the past two had been, especially when you consider that the main novelty this season was adding a new batch of lower-tier comics characters like Wild Dog for the Green Arrow to mentor. But this really was a comeback season for Arrow, telling smart, pointed stories that reflected on the early show and Oliver’s growth since then in a nuanced way. And the flashbacks were better too, not just by finally delivering the long-hinted-at Bratva arc, but by bringing the past timeline up to the point where the present show started and utilizing the flashbacks to again emphasize just how much Oliver has changed over these five years we’ve been with him. Honestly, if you liked the first two seasons of Arrow but had given up the show sometime after that, season 5 is definitely worth skipping ahead to watch. I’m really excited to see where the show goes from here.

★★★★☆

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TV Review: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 4

TV #19 of 2017:

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 4

B99 is getting a little long in the tooth, but it’s still regularly delivering a funny character-driven story with a diverse cast and a definite focus on inclusive feminist storytelling (with regular callouts of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and more). The major end-of-season plot twists generally don’t end up mattering too much, so it’s disappointing that the show went back to that well again, but this is still a sitcom that I really enjoy watching.

★★★☆☆

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Movie Review: Doctor Strange (2016)

Movie #7 of 2017:

Doctor Strange (2016)

I’m still happy with my decision to wait until Doctor Strange was on Netflix to watch it (so as to hurt box office returns in protest of the casting). But having now finally seen the thing, I will freely admit that it was a pretty good movie in and of itself. They did a good job making Strange’s initial downfall be entirely his own fault, and let him grow some as a character as he went on. Cool effects, a decent ending, and plenty of levity throughout. This was an overall solid Marvel movie, and it definitely shows that the equally-problematic casting for Marvel’s Iron Fist wasn’t the only thing that wrecked that show.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Book #120 of 2017:

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Mixed feelings on this one. I appreciate the overall message that economic principles can be applied to subjects far afield from the traditional bounds of the discipline, but the examples included in this book are riddled with bad data, problematic study design, and ideological blindspots. (The authors’ tone can be a bit condescending, too.) It’s a good work for provoking discussion and further study about what social factors might unexpectedly be related, but I would consider all the actual conclusions presented to be highly suspect.

★★☆☆☆

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