TV #49 of 2021: The Americans, season 4 This remains a good show from scene to scene, but I’m growing frustrated with some of the larger plotting decisions. Last year built up a few tense and untenable situations that never came to a head, like Kimmy’s advances and the literal Chekhov’s gun in Martha’s kitchen …
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Book Review: The In-Between by Rebecca K. S. Ansari
Book #159 of 2021: The In-Between by Rebecca K. S. Ansari Too many under-explained elements in the magical side of this middle-grade story, about a young teen who becomes convinced that his next-door neighbor is a harbinger of disaster. Why do the pencils on her desk vanish? What’s ultimately up with that distinctive yet fake …
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Book Review: A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly
Book #158 of 2021: A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #7) Author Michael Connelly’s first big crossover project is intriguing in concept, teaming up his usual hero LAPD detective Harry Bosch with retired FBI agent Terry McCaleb from the novel Blood Work. Jack McEvoy, reporter protagonist of The Poet, is here …
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Book Review: The Encounter by K. A. Applegate
Book #157 of 2021: The Encounter by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #3) There isn’t much additional worldbuilding in this third novel, and I’m not a huge fan of the action being driven by a one-off ‘Animorphs notice something weird and investigate’ event rather than anything with larger plot implications. Nevertheless, this is an interesting and …
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Book Review: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race edited by Jesmyn Ward
Book #156 of 2021: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race edited by Jesmyn Ward Not every entry in this collection of essays and poems quite lands for me, but all told it’s a powerful reflection from various African American writers near the start of the Black Lives Matter movement and just …
Book Review: Black Heart by Holly Black
Book #155 of 2021: Black Heart by Holly Black (The Curse Workers #3) By finally telling a story that doesn’t hinge on the magical manipulation of memory and emotion, this third entry is the least problematic of its YA urban fantasy trilogy. Unfortunately, it’s also the most boring, with no clear motivation or stakes driving …
Book Review: Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
Book #154 of 2021: Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #14) This 1936 novel sends Hercule Poirot to the site of an archaeological dig in Iraq, where a member of the expedition has just been murdered. (The action actually starts a bit earlier, as the story is narrated by a different character already …
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Book Review: White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson
Book #153 of 2021: White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #3) A satisfying conclusion to this second trilogy in the Land, that mystic realm that can be understood as either a real place to which denizens of our world are magically summoned or an internal dreamscape in which …
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Book Review: The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
Book #152 of 2021: The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross I expected to like this 2020 novel better from its premise, which is that an old Jewish town nestled in Poland’s forests somehow fell out of contact with the outside world, escaping the pogroms and the Nazi purge to remain undetected until the modern day. …
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Book Review: The Visitor by K. A. Applegate
Book #151 of 2021: The Visitor by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #2) This first Animorphs sequel continues the thrilling fun of the debut, while simultaneously deepening the darker themes of the series. Turning into an animal and back is now described in a way that emphasizes the unnatural body horror of the experience, and the …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 