Book #134 of 2018: The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel H. Wilson I’m not usually keen on the steampunk genre, but thankfully the mechanical ‘avtomats’ in this novel are less like clanking robots and more like Anne Rice’s vampires: functionally immortal humanoids whose origins are shrouded in mystery and who live among us in secret. In …
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Book #133 of 2018: Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon This debut novel from author Rachel Lyon paints a sickeningly captivating picture of a starving artist who accidentally captures her neighbor’s nine-year-old son falling to his death in the background of a photography session. The resulting image of the dying boy is the best art …
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TV #31 of 2018: iZombie, season 4 I really admire how iZombie has blown up its own premise in every finale (except this one, oddly) and expanded the scope of its story in every season premiere, but this time the writers have really bitten off more than they could chew. The worldbuilding in this season …
Book #132 of 2018: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown (Red Rising #4) A thrilling return to the Red Rising series, set ten years after the conclusion of the original trilogy. This time author Pierce Brown is juggling three new character perspectives in addition to his returning hero Darrow, the slave who rose up to topple …
Movie #14 of 2018: Avengers: Infinity War (2018) This is a weird movie to review. On the one hand: I really enjoyed watching it! The 2:40 runtime absolutely flies by, and it’s such a joy to see all (okay, most) of the characters Marvel has built up over the years finally bouncing off one another. …
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Book #131 of 2018: Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #6) The first few Vorkosigan books haven’t really gripped me, so I decided to jump forward to this one (which was the third to be published, anyway — these books are all out of chronological order). It’s more of a spinoff, sharing …
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Book #130 of 2018: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Grief memoirs are tricky; they’re obviously cathartic to write, but can easily turn into a wallowing in loss that shuts out their readers. Author Joan Didion largely avoids that trap by focusing on the more mundane aspects of her husband’s death, centering this …
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Book #129 of 2018: The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper Much like his on-air news persona, there’s a certain boyish earnestness to journalist Jake Tapper’s debut novel. It’s fun to see the author venturing into the world of historical fiction, and to speculate on possible connections between his tale of government intrigue during the heyday …
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Book #128 of 2018: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather A fierce and elegiac tale of early female empowerment, first published in the decade before (white) American women won the right to vote. The heroine, introduced shutting down a catcaller with an “Amazonian” glance, is the eldest sibling in her family and the one tasked with …
Book #127 of 2018: One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul A hilarious and heartfelt collection of essays from Canadian author Scaachi Koul, focusing on her life as the millennial daughter of Indian immigrants. It’s a short book that finds humor in heavy subjects, from online harassment …
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