The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket

Book #50 of 2017:

The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events #12)

Probably the best book of the series so far, with plenty of characters from earlier novels making surprise returns and the lines between good and evil continuing to blur. The Baudelaires and Count Olaf are all shaded into more nuanced human characters here, and well-meaning but ineffective adults like Justice Strauss are respectively celebrated and called out for their actions. It’s a very good look for the series as it heads into its final installment.

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Book #49 of 2017:

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Very reminiscent of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, in part because the narrator isn’t really at the center of her own story. Here, our unnamed protagonist alternates between childhood memories and more recent life history, each of which sees her drastically eclipsed by another figure: first by the childhood friend who shares her dark skin color and love of dancing, then later by the popstar employer she follows on a humanitarian mission to a similarly unnamed country in Africa. There was some very pretty writing in this novel, but the character vacuum at its center ultimately left me a little cold, and the ending seemed very much tacked on rather than arising naturally. But it was great for showcasing diverse perspectives, and I appreciated how it never felt like author Zadie Smith was reducing her characters or cultures to stereotypes.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

Book #48 of 2017:

Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce (The Immortals #1)

More confident and less problematic than author Tamora Pierce’s earlier work Song of the Lioness, but with its same fun sense of magic and adventure. The Lioness Alanna and her friends return as supporting characters this time, with the main focus given over to new character Daine and her own distinct magical powers. This first book in the Immortals quartet tells a satisfying story in its own right, but it also sets up a larger plot and character arc for Daine that should follow through to the other books nicely.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Book #47 of 2017:

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (The Queen of the Tearling #1)

This post-apocalyptic fantasy was a little bit underbaked, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. (It helps to have a protagonist whose first act as queen is to storm in Daenerys-like, freeing a bunch of slaves and setting fire to their empty cages.) The book has its share of flaws – especially in its pacing and worldbuilding – but there’s a certain charm to it that makes me want to read on and see if those flaws are addressed in the sequels.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t by Nate Silver

Book #46 of 2017:

The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t by Nate Silver

The prose is sometimes lacking (and the baseball sections could not have been more boring), but FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver writes an easy-to-follow introduction to the science of analysis and prediction. It’s less of a quantitative how-to and more of a theoretical grounding, but Silver is good at teaching his readers how to approach any consideration of potential events, from poker hands to extreme weather to the housing market and more. As the title indicates, Silver’s main message concerns how to separate meaningful information from the overload of data that faces our networked world, and how it’s easy to trick yourself into thinking that you’ve found a clear signal when you have so much data at your fingertips. It’s a tough lesson, but definitely an important one.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

Book #45 of 2017:

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

An outstanding memoir of life in rural Appalachia at the turn of the 21st century. A lot has been said about this book inadvertently offering insight into the angry voters who swept Donald Trump into office, but even setting aside our current political moment, it’s a tremendous and clear-eyed look at a downtrodden people who are falling behind on the American Dream and at how hard it is for them to escape from that trap. Author J.D. Vance and I don’t see eye to eye politically – I think he’s too quick to call certain government programs irreparably broken rather than in need of reform – but his perspective was one that I really valued and would like to hear more from. And his hard-learned lessons of the “social capital” that the working poor miss out on formed a powerful reminder of how devastating class privilege can be. It’s heartening to hear success stories of people like Vance who overcame great odds to get ahead in life, but his real triumph is in crafting this ethnography of his home culture that so eloquently frames it for an outsider.

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Book #44 of 2017:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1)

I loved the atmosphere at the beginning of this novel, all dark and gothic and promising of mysteries hidden in forgotten libraries. And I especially liked Zafón’s descriptions of what it’s like to fall in love with a book only to discover its complete obscurity in the wider world. But the story lost some of its charm for me as it went along, with an obtuse protagonist, tired coincidences, sexist descriptions of female characters, and ultimately disappointing answers to its initial riddles. I still liked the novel alright by the end, but reading it was kind of like watching the first act of The Phantom of the Opera followed by the second act of Bye Bye Birdie.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer

Book #43 of 2017:

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer

An infuriating and depressing account of how the super-wealthy have quietly influenced popular discourse through the funding of think tanks and campaign contributions to bring about policies protecting their own wealth and business interests. I knew before reading this book that rich donors could have an outsized effect on election results, but I was blown away by the scope of the concerted efforts this small group of citizens has made to push the libertarian views that would lower their own tax rates and allow their businesses to cut corners with the safety of their employees and the environment.

Investigative journalist Jane Mayer notes that money is no guarantee of election results, and that there are a few wealthy individuals on the left who have put their own ‘dark money’ into the political system in support of progressive causes. But as she describes with overwhelming evidence, this phenomenon has largely been the domain of billionaire Republican donors like the Koch brothers seeking to buy the election results they want while keeping their own involvement hidden behind shell companies and ostensibly charitable donations. It’s a problem for which there are no easy solutions – and as Mayer shows, one that has been developing gradually for over a hundred years now – but one that is important for anyone interested in politics to recognize.

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Six Earlier Days by David Levithan

Book #42 of 2017:

Six Earlier Days by David Levithan

I loved David Levithan’s novel Every Day about a teenage entity who wakes up each morning in a different body, but this prequel just didn’t do it for me. I think the intent was to showcase how A adopted their principles and grew to be the kind of person who would fall for Rhiannon at the start of Every Day, but there’s not really a huge disconnect between the characterization here and there, and I didn’t feel like I learned anything new about A’s character in this story. Read Every Day and consider the companion novel Another Day, but don’t bother with this one.

★★☆☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Get in Trouble by Kelly Link

Book #41 of 2017:

Get in Trouble by Kelly Link

An overall solid short story collection, although I think I would have liked it more if the stories had been more focused on their fantastic elements. Most of this collection could be classified as either sci-fi or fantasy (especially if you include superheroes and ghosts in those genres), but there was a lot of that stuff just happening in the background of a story without really impacting the characters or plot.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter