Book #84 of 2018: Universal Harvester by John Darnielle This novel by the Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle is fairly well-written, but its weird 90s midwestern gothic vibe doesn’t really work for me. (The comparison that keeps coming to mind is the old show Twin Peaks, which I gave up on in frustration after the …
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Book #83 of 2018: Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb (Liveship Traders #3) The Liveship Traders trilogy has been steadily improving as it goes along, and this action-packed final volume is particularly great for weaving back together the various storylines that have diverged over the course of the previous novels. It’s downright thrilling to see …
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TV #18 of 2018: Better Call Saul, season 3 At this point, I’m almost ready to declare Better Call Saul the superior program to its parent show Breaking Bad. (It helps that there doesn’t seem to be the same toxic fandom around it, with people mistaking a critique of harmful behaviors for a celebration or …
Book #82 of 2018: Doctor Who: Bad Therapy by Matthew Jones (Virgin New Adventures #57) This novel was written as part of an ongoing series back when Doctor Who was off the air in 1996, and is probably best read within that context. Readers picking up the book in isolation, as I did, will still …
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TV #17 of 2018: Jane the Virgin, season 4 This season is so propulsive in forward momentum, and it’s fantastic to see Jane blossoming into such a capable adult. Petra, Alba, and Xiomara also get some particularly great plot arcs this season, and I love how fiercely celebratory of Latinx culture the writing has grown. …
Book #81 of 2018: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware The more suspense novels that I read, the less patience I have with narratives that keep readers in the dark about backstory that is clearly relevant and on the characters’ minds. This particular novel is halfway through before we find out what happened 17 years …
Book #80 of 2018: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara The day I picked up this book, police in California announced that they had finally made an arrest in the cold case of serial rape and murder described within its pages. I’ve put …
TV #16 of 2018: Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 3 After some early stumbles, TNG has really settled into itself at this point and is clearly capable of delivering greatness. Not every episode shines – as is often the case with American TV, I think a smaller season order would have let the writers …
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Book #79 of 2018: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (Takeshi Kovacs #1) This hardboiled science-fiction novel is rich in premise and atmosphere, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the recent Netflix adaptation has done with both. The story is a fairly straightforward noir investigation — and unfortunately comes with the oversexualization of women …
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Book #78 of 2018: Fortunate Son by Walter Mosley In this novel by Walter Mosley, two boys of different races are initially brought up as brothers before circumstances send them off on very different paths. When they reconnect as adults, the white boy has lived a seemingly charmed life but struggles with depression, while his …
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