TV #30 of 2018: The Mindy Project, season 6 I know I’ve been complaining about this show’s inconsistent characterization and plotting for its entire run, but this abbreviated final season somehow makes those issues even worse. Everyone feels two-dimensional, there’s no emotional core to any of the story developments, and Hulu’s budget has apparently required …
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Book Review: Star Wars: Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp
Book #110 of 2018: Star Wars: Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp Set five years after Revenge of the Sith in the new Disney canon, this Star Wars novel is a propulsive rush as the early rebel movement attempts to assassinate Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine and then pursues them across the hostile …
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Movie Review: Avatar (2009)
Movie #9 of 2018: Avatar (2009) I haven’t seen this movie since its original theatrical run almost a decade ago, and in my memory it had been only a decent story mostly buoyed by its special effects – which I figured would surely seem dated at this point and less impressive on a TV than …
Book Review: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Book #109 of 2018: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue I really like the immigrant family at the heart of this novel, whose experiences are drawn with a rich specificity from Cameroonian author Imbolo Mbue’s real life. As the title suggests, theirs is a typical American Dream narrative, and I hope it reaches those readers …
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Book Review: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
Book #108 of 2018: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore A welcome spotlight on the factory workers who suffered radiation poisoning in the early 20th century, before modern workplace safety regulations were in place and before the dangers of working with radium were widely known. Author Kate Moore …
Book Review: Night of Cake & Puppets by Laini Taylor
Book #107 of 2018: Night of Cake & Puppets by Laini Taylor Laini Taylor is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, thanks to the gorgeous emotional landscapes that her lyrical prose always ends up painting for me. In this short book, she uses that gift — and the help of actual illustrations from her …
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Book Review: The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein
Book #106 of 2018: The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein This 1957 sci-fi romp is fun, but it bears many problematic hallmarks of the genre fiction written by white men in that era. Minor setbacks are blithely compared to slavery and rape, female characters are treated patronizingly, and the 30-year-old protagonist kind of …
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Book Review: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Book #105 of 2018: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan I wanted to be drawn in by this novel about a secret society operating out of a used bookstore, but I ended up rather put off by the tech bro vibe of its protagonist. There’s a lot of casual sexism in how he and …
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Book Review: A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
Book #104 of 2018: A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey Former FBI Director Jim Comey is a polarizing public figure, and it’s nearly impossible for a contemporary reader to set aside their preconceptions of him in reading this book. (He’s also a fellow graduate of my alma mater and someone with …
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Book Review: A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths by Tony Fletcher
Book #103 of 2018: A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths by Tony Fletcher I am probably not the ideal reader or reviewer for a book about The Smiths, a band with which I have little familiarity and no emotional attachment. (As a partial defense, they had already split up …
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