Movie #13 of 2018: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) I went into this movie with fairly low expectations, but ended up really enjoying it. Jurassic Park films have a tendency to copy the major plot points of the original movie’s storyline, but this one takes serious risks that pay off tremendously for me as a …
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Book #126 of 2018: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly I think I would like this historical fiction novel better if it had focused solely on the Polish girl sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp to be the subject of Nazi medical experimentation. Her story is understandably poignant, but it’s weakened by splitting its time with …
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Book #125 of 2018: Star Wars: Rebel Rising by Beth Revis A solid if somewhat unremarkable Star Wars adventure, fleshing out Jyn Erso’s early life after she gets adopted by the terrorist Saw Gerrera at the beginning of Rogue One. The whole book reads mostly like a series of deleted scenes from that film, and …
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Book #124 of 2018: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë I know it’s not entirely fair to judge a book of 160 years ago by today’s standards, but I have some major issues with how this Victorian classic glorifies an abusive relationship and demonizes mental illness (to say nothing of the novel’s sporadic antisemitism, blackface, and …
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Book #123 of 2018: Blackout by Mira Grant (Newsflesh #3) I’ve enjoyed Mira Grant’s bloggers-fighting-zombies trilogy far more than I ever expected to, but the plot in this final volume is pretty slow and coincidence-heavy compared to what’s come before. One character spends the entire first half of the book quarantined in a CDC hospital, …
Book #122 of 2018: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman A very short book — the unabridged audiobook lasts less than two hours at normal speed — that showcases Neil Gaiman’s great storytelling skills and love for Norse mythology. His original tale of a young disabled boy’s chance encounter with Thor, Loki, and …
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Book #121 of 2018: Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (Skullduggery Pleasant #1) Fantasy novels about a child discovering a hidden world of magic alongside our own are a dime a dozen at this point, and this book is a fine exemplar that doesn’t really distinguish itself in such a crowded field. I especially wish that …
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Book #120 of 2018: Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy This Victorian novel about a poor rape victim is surprisingly modern in the sympathy it extends to its heroine, and author Thomas Hardy does not shy away from depicting the unjust hostility and blame that she faces after the attack — or how it …
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Book #119 of 2018: Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans by Eric A. Johnson First published in the year 2000, this book feels a bit dated today, and the author perhaps over-extrapolates certain statistics from the sample of Gestapo records that he has examined. Nevertheless, it’s a good overview of the role of …
Movie #12 of 2018: Thor: Ragnarok (2017) By far the best Thor movie, and one of the better Marvel Cinematic Universe movies overall. Lots of humor, neat worldbuilding, and actual character growth for Thor and Loki! It could have done better by its female characters, but all in all it was a fun ride and …
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