Book #149 of 2018: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #1) Over a decade and countless rereads later, this long-time favorite of mine is still an incredible read. It’s an Ocean’s Eleven or Mission: Impossible style heist story crossed with a Godfather-esque tale of honor-bound criminal vengeance, all set in a …
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Movie #16 of 2018: The Greatest Showman (2017) A musical thrives first and foremost on its music, and I’m sad to say that the original numbers in this film fall short for me in that regard. Much like La La Land, the songs are fine in the moment but have not at all stuck in …
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Book #148 of 2018: Force of Nature by Jane Harper (Aaron Falk #2) This Australian crime thriller is not quite as good as its predecessor in the series, which offers more emotional resonance via its setting in the detective hero’s hometown. Here Falk is on a new case far from home, investigating the disappearance of …
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Book #147 of 2018: Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead Informative but dense, and lacking much of a narrative throughline. It’s also a little difficult to keep track of the sprawling cast of characters, especially when listening to the audiobook. Still, this is an interesting look at the resistance …
Book #146 of 2018: Song of Susannah by Stephen King (The Dark Tower #6) The Dark Tower series really requires readers to get on its wavelength of mystical intuition and fated coincidence, which is usually not a problem for me when there’s enough weird science magic and post-apocalyptic western worldbuilding on display. This sixth book, …
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Book #145 of 2018: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy (Skulduggery Pleasant #2) Tighter and funnier than the first book, which was already a solid piece of children’s urban fantasy. Having introduced this world and its characters in the previous volume, author Derek Landy is here free to simply set them loose on their next …
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TV #34 of 2018: Westworld, season 2 The first season of this show was at least moderately more enjoyable than frustrating, especially since the rich premise of a cyborg theme park gone haywire still had a sheen of novelty to it. It could at times be something of a mystery-for-the-sake-of-mystery J. J. Abrams puzzlebox, but …
TV #33 of 2018: American Gods, season 1 It took me a little while to get on board with this adaptation and stop feeling disappointed by everything that’s different from the book, which at one point was my absolute favorite novel. But honestly, this season is a gorgeous and soulful examination of the same themes …
Book 144 of 2018: Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark MIT professor Max Tegmark has a habit of seeming either alarmist or pie-in-the-sky when discussing the future of artificial intelligence, but he’s much better at relaying the current state of the field and contextualizing important historical breakthroughs. The …
Book #143 of 2018: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup This harrowing true story of a black man kidnapped and sold into slavery is fairly well-known thanks to the 2013 Oscar-winning film adaptation, but hearing it in the author’s own words is still incredibly powerful. As fiction, it would be a sensational adventure of …
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