Book #200 of 2020: Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C. Dao I wasn’t sure what to expect of a standalone spinoff sequel to the Rise of the Empress duology, whose cruel first volume of an antiheroine’s ascension engaged me far more than its softer follow-up tracking her defeat. For this new book, author …
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Book #199 of 2020: Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference by David Shimer A fascinating and even-handed account of how America and Russia / the Soviet Union have each played a role in other countries’ elections — sometimes openly and sometimes not — from the end of World War I …
Book #198 of 2020: Mirage by Somaiya Daud (Mirage #1) I love the rich cultural history that author Somaiya Daud pours into this YA sci-fi debut, much of it drawn from her own Moroccan heritage. She has clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the politics of occupation and resistance, and although the plot …
Book #197 of 2020: Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix This story of a haunted IKEA-type store plays out about as expected, but I think it’s my least favorite of the four Grady Hendrix novels I’ve read so far. Too much in the early chapters seems like a cartoonish satire on corporate retail culture, so when the …
Book #196 of 2020: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison This 1992 book is a short but super interesting piece of literary criticism, adapted from a series of lectures given by author Toni Morrison several years before. She argues for viewing classic works by white American writers through a …
Book #195 of 2020: Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America by Sarah Kendzior Moderately informative about the pre-2016 Donald Trump, but significantly hampered by author Sarah Kendzior constantly begging the question on his corruption and guilt rather than presenting neutral facts and building a convincing argument towards …
Book #194 of 2020: Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio (The Sun Eater #1) This feudal space opera reads like a sci-fi version of The Kingkiller Chronicle, in which a dreaded figure of whispered legend recounts his humble beginnings (including a lengthy sojourn reduced to a street urchin — the parallels are at times so …
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Book #193 of 2020: File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents by Lemony Snicket (All the Wrong Questions #2.5) This is a fun little diversion, albeit one wholly unnecessary to the series in which it takes place. The book is structured like an Encyclopedia Brown title, with short mysteries solved by the protagonist but not explained until …
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TV #33 of 2020: The Good Wife, season 5 Although it peters out slightly at the very end, this is overall an electrifying year of television, boldly delivering on character and plot arcs that have been in motion since practically the pilot. The Good Wife has been plenty strong to begin with, but the momentum …
Book #192 of 2020: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones There’s a real visceral horror to this new 2020 release, in which a group of adult friends are revisited by a supernatural manifestation from their youth. I was expecting the book to be structured something like Stephen King’s It, but it plays out …
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