Book #114 of 2018: Renegades by Marissa Meyer (Renegades #1) The beginning of this YA superhero novel creaks under the weight of so much exposition, and when author Marissa Meyer does manage to show and not tell, the results generally feel more like standard comic book cliches than anything particularly original. Remembering how I hadn’t …
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Book Review: One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps by Andrea Pitzer
Book #113 of 2018: One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps by Andrea Pitzer When we think or talk about concentration camps, we often and understandably limit our focus to the atrocities of Nazi Germany, which cannot be overstated. Yet that program did not arise in a vacuum, and in this book, author …
Movie Review: Ocean’s 8 (2018)
Movie #11 of 2018: Ocean’s 8 (2018) Overall this is a fun heist movie, although the pacing lags near the end and some plot holes make it harder to enjoy the clever bits. Still, it’s easily on par with Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen, and the new cast is great. I don’t know that I need …
Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Book #112 of 2018: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury I like to revisit this 1953 dystopian classic at least once a decade or so, and I inevitably find it richer and deeper whenever I do. Author Ray Bradbury has packed an incredible amount of ideas into such a slim volume, and although the overall thrust …
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Book Review: Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Book #111 of 2018: Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Starbound #3) I like how every book in this trilogy focuses on a different pair of starcrossed lovers, but I have to admit that I don’t care much for this last couple. They meet when they both happen to break into the …
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Movie Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Movie #10 of 2018: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) I missed this Marvel movie in theaters, in part because I didn’t see a whole lot of people talking about it. (And, honestly, because my fatigue over Spider-Man reboots had finally reached Batman levels.) As much as I liked Spidey in Captain America: Civil War and as happy …
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TV Review: The Mindy Project, season 6
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 …
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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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 