Book #218 of 2020: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Last Survivors #1) I already loved this novel when I first read it five years ago, and I’ve only grown more appreciative over time. The narrator is a realistically flawed teenager, alternately moody and intensely caring, and her slice-of-life diary entries document …
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Book #217 of 2020: I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick I love the idea of a (loose) YA retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, but the danger in that sort of project is that I’m probably not going to enjoy the new take as much as I do the original. Here, for instance, although …
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TV #38 of 2020: The Office, season 2 There may be better individual seasons of television than this, but I can’t think of another program that improves so much from its first year to its second (except maybe The Office’s spiritual descendant Parks and Recreation). The tweaks to the cringe-humor formula inherited from this show’s …
Book #216 of 2020: Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #3) This novella is another fun outing with everyone’s favorite heavily-armed cybernetic introvert, but the events feel somewhat less significant for either the protagonist or the ongoing plot than the two previous installments. Even a filler adventure with Murderbot offers the usual delights …
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Book #215 of 2020: Diana and the Island of No Return by Aisha Saeed (Wonder Woman Adventures #1) I suppose I’d recommend this new middle-grade series to tweens who love the Wonder Woman character already and are excited to see more of her childhood, but I haven’t gotten much out of the first volume myself. …
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Book #214 of 2020: The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey This 2020 novel is an exquisite piece of mid-century historical fiction, rich in gothic atmosphere and consideration of women’s oppression within the family unit and the larger society. Our two heroines are the daughter of a wealthy household and the museum curator sent …
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TV #37 of 2020: The Good Wife, season 6 It was perhaps inevitable that The Good Wife would tumble from its near-perfect fifth year, but this following run is still a major disappointment. I actually don’t mind the first part of the season so much, although it’s very plot-driven compared to the program before, with …
Book #213 of 2020: Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale A one-star rating feels perhaps too harsh for this title, which I didn’t exactly hate reading. But structurally it’s a mess that inelegantly transitions from one lackluster concept into another near the end, lowering my appreciation after I’d already spent most of the …
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Book #212 of 2020: Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson (Goddess in the Machine #1) High marks for this new science-fiction novel, which has a few reliable YA tropes but mostly takes its plot in interesting directions that I wouldn’t expect. The biggest twist is right in the premise, with our teenaged heroine …
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Book #211 of 2020: The Bright Lands by John Fram There’s a thriving sub-genre of suspense novels about a protagonist returning to their childhood home in the wake of tragedy and uncovering old secrets, and in theory, I like the idea of mashing that together with something like Friday Night Lights. A small town in …
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