Book #150 of 2021: The Red Threads of Fortune by Neon Yang (Tensorate #2) A nice return to the fantasy setting of The Black Tides of Heaven, where children are raised gender-neutral and announce themselves as something else only if/when they’re ready. This spinoff sequel doesn’t really develop the worldbuilding or larger plot much further, …
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TV #48 of 2021: Justified, season 5 A very meandering plot, especially after the intricate construction of the Drew Thompson case last season. The Crowes are more bumbling sideshow than credible threat to anyone, and too much screentime is dedicated to Ava’s stint in a women’s prison — a pretty blatant ripoff of Orange Is …
Book #149 of 2021: How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore Somewhere between essay collection and memoir, this debut title from comedian Lane Moore covers a lot of ground with a few puzzling omissions. The author tells us her childhood dream was to write for The …
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Book #148 of 2021: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed In the conclusion to this book, author Annette Gordon-Reed describes it as a “brief sketch of the history of Texas told through vignettes of my family.” And that’s pretty accurate, I would say. Despite what the title suggests, it is mostly not about Juneteenth, the holiday …
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Book #147 of 2021: Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older (Dactyl Hill Squad #1) This is a fun little historical fantasy romp. Dinosaurs in the Civil War era! A mostly-POC cast including a protagonist who can control the animals with her mind! But as with many middle-grade projects, the characters don’t always feel like …
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Book #146 of 2021: True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News by Cindy L. Otis Despite the how-to title, this book is mostly a popular history of misinformation — and a spotty and jumbled one at that. Author Cindy L. Otis jumps from Jack the Ripper to Emperor Justinian to America’s …
Book #145 of 2021: The Invasion by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #1) At the start of this long-overdue series reread, I am struck by how well the first Animorphs book holds up decades on, both from the perspective of a now-older reader and as a cultural artifact removed from its original pre-9/11 context. (The last …
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Book #144 of 2021: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Teixcalaan #2) This sci-fi sequel has a broader scope than its Hugo-winning predecessor, which is both a blessing and a curse. Additional viewpoint characters help flesh out the Aztec-inspired Teixcalaan culture beyond Mahit’s outsider perspective, and the court intrigue is joined by some delightful …
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Book #143 of 2021: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin This 1963 title has long been on my radar as a foundational text of antiracism, and you can definitely see a throughline from its essay “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation” to Ta-Nehisi Coates writing …
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Book #142 of 2021: Red Glove by Holly Black (The Curse Workers #2) I’m still not comfortable with the ethical implications of the memory and emotion manipulation magic in the Curse Workers setting, but I like how this sequel finds the hero himself grappling with the problematic nature of his family’s abilities as well. At …
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