Movie #19 of 2025: V for Vendetta (2005) Seemingly more timely now than it was two decades ago upon release, this movie offers a thrilling tale of a terrorist antihero inspiring people in dystopian England to rise up against their oppressive government. (Things in the U.S. are obviously nowhere near as bad as they are …
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Book Review: You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White
Book #172 of 2025: You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White If you’ve read any of author Andrew Joseph White’s YA works, you know that they tend to be rich in both horror themes and #ownvoices details pulled from his own transgender experiences, often with those two elements structurally intertwined in order …
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Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Movie #18 of 2025: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) I’ve long held that this second Indiana Jones feature is the worst of its series (or of the original trilogy, at least), which in consequence has meant that I’ve probably seen it the least often. And though I tried to approach this rewatch …
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Book Review: Star Wars: Dark Legends by George Mann
Book #171 of 2025: Star Wars: Dark Legends by George Mann This 2020 title, recently re-released as an audiobook, offers a fun concept, executed well: seven short stories in the Star Wars universe, all with some sort of spooky flair. I don’t want to oversell the horror here — these are PG scares, and not …
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Book Review: Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith
Book #170 of 2025: Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith (The Ripliad #2) I’m finally checking out the rest of the Talented Mr. Ripley series, beginning with this first sequel that followed in 1970 (fifteen years after the original volume, although only six have passed for our protagonist). When we rejoin him, he’s living a …
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Book Review: Just Another Judgement Day by Simon R. Green
Book #169 of 2025: Just Another Judgement Day by Simon R. Green (Nightside #9) This urban fantasy sequence has been in a bit of a holding pattern since the end of the Lilith arc in volume six (half a series ago now), and this next installment doesn’t do much to change that. Suzie and John …
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Book Review: Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig by Jordan D. Rosenblum
Book #168 of 2025: Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig by Jordan D. Rosenblum This 2024 title is a fascinating account of how abstaining from pig meat became emblematic of Judaism, in a way that indexes Jewish / non-Jewish identity far beyond any other kosher practice. Author Jordan D. Rosenblum, a religious …
Book Review: The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly
Book #167 of 2025: The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly (Mickey Haller #8) A timely, enjoyable, and yet ultimately anticlimactic legal thriller. The case is almost ripped-from-the-headlines: a high school student murders his ex-girlfriend at the apparent behest of his A.I. chat companion, leading her mother to sue the tech company behind the product. Attorney …
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Book Review: Come My Boys: Memoirs Of Thirty-Four Years On The American Stage And A Lifetime In Theta Delta Chi by Norman Hackett
Book #166 of 2025: Come My Boys: Memoirs Of Thirty-Four Years On The American Stage And A Lifetime In Theta Delta Chi by Norman Hackett I have the dubious honor of being the first person on Goodreads to ever review this title, which was printed in 1960 for a very specific audience. Norman Hackett was …
Movie Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Movie #17 of 2025: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) There are some movies that I think, if you see them when you’re young enough, you can never hope to be truly objective about their qualities. Such is the case with Raiders of the Lost Ark (retroactively retitled Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 