Book #103 of 2021: The Truth by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #25) Overall this is a fine comic romp through the fantasy city-state of Ankh-Morpork as it’s introduced to the concept of print journalism, and the novel comes late enough in author Terry Pratchett’s career that it largely avoids the needless sexism and classism that sometimes …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Truth by Terry Pratchett”
TV #35 of 2021: Lovecraft Country, season 1 This series requires a major content warning for everything from domestic abuse to jump scares to homophobia to gore, but first and foremost for racism in practically all of its vile and violent forms. As I noted in my 2017 review of the title it’s loosely adapting, …
Book #102 of 2021: Angels Flight by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #6) This 1999 novel is interestingly (and depressingly) timely two decades on, as it plays out against a backdrop of police brutality and an ensuing race riot. Author Michael Connelly may have been drawing on the recent high-profile Rodney King and OJ Simpson cases, …
Continue reading “Book Review: Angels Flight by Michael Connelly”
Book #101 of 2021: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood In the parlance of this novel: “I’m in this photo and I don’t like it.” Which is to say, a lot of the story is an attempt to portray what it’s like to be Extremely Online, tapped into that stream of global …
Continue reading “Book Review: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood”
[Review originally written 4/1/16, updated 4/10/21] Book #100 of 2021: Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson This novella is honestly not one of Brandon Sanderson’s strongest examples of self-contained storytelling. But that’s fine, because it’s not aiming to be. It’s instead a behind-the-scenes sort of deal, showing one particular character’s actions during the second and …
Continue reading “Book Review: Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson”
Book #99 of 2021: Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad A searing first-hand account of author Suleika Jaouad’s experience contracting a rare form of leukemia in college, the years of medical anguish that followed, and her faltering attempts to rejoin regular life after being one of the lucky few …
TV #34 of 2021: Amend: The Fight for America This Netflix show is an informative six-part series on how the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution established a standard for equal treatment under the law that everything from civil rights to abortion access to interracial and gay marriage would later build upon — as well …
Book #98 of 2021: Game Changer by Neal Shusterman Overall, this YA novel strikes me as a well-meaning but clumsy effort to awaken its audience to societal problems like racism and homophobia that may not affect them directly. It specifically feels aimed at young, straight, white, male jocks like its hero, who suffers a brain …
Continue reading “Book Review: Game Changer by Neal Shusterman”
TV #33 of 2021: Julie and the Phantoms, season 1 Okay, the concept here is a little convoluted and ludicrous — three members of a boy band die in the 90s, then get brought back as ghosts by a girl in the present who can see them at all times, whereas they only appear to …
Continue reading “TV Review: Julie and the Phantoms, season 1”
Book #97 of 2021: A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland (A Conspiracy of Truths #2) In the final analysis I think I don’t love this spinoff sequel to A Conspiracy of Truths quite as much as the original novel, but it’s a welcome return to a land where diversity in race, gender, sexuality, disability, …
Continue reading “Book Review: A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more