Book #49 of 2018: Out of Orange by Cleary Wolters The Netflix prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black began as an adaptation of a true-life memoir, with the character Alex Vause based on a figure from author Piper Kerman’s past. Out of Orange is that woman’s own account of her time as a smuggler-turned-prisoner, …
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Book #48 of 2018: Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (Enchanted Forest Chronicles #3) I’ve liked the first two books in this children’s fantasy series, but this third one is a misfire for me. Its issues might not trouble a younger reader, but the humor is way more slapstick than before, and the new …
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Movie #3 of 2018: Ocean’s Eleven (2001) We had some bad family news yesterday, and when I got home I needed a comfort watch. Enter this movie, which is near and dear to my heart despite its flaws (like Don Cheadle’s atrocious attempt at a cockney accent or Julia Roberts being literally the only woman …
Book #47 of 2018: Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb (Liveship Traders #1) As always, I have mixed feelings about this book and its sequels. On the one hand, you couldn’t ask for better atmosphere in a fantasy yarn of pirates, sea serpents, and talking figureheads, and the rich worldbuilding wonderfully fleshes out an area …
Book #46 of 2018: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng This is a stunningly beautiful story that blossoms from a small family drama into a whirlwind of class and racial politics in a wealthy Cleveland suburb. The narrative darts here and there, fleshing out different characters’ perspectives and backstories so that even the most odious …
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Book #45 of 2018: How to Stop Time by Matt Haig There’s a lot of potential to this novel about a man aging at 1/15 the usual rate, but it’s sunk by certain elements that feel barely sketched in. Most glaring is the secret society of people with the narrator’s condition, of whom we only …
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Book #44 of 2018: Star Wars: Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray This prequel novel depicts sixteen-year-old Princess Leia coming of age alongside the fledgling rebellion against the corrupt empire that rules her world. Like author Claudia Gray’s earlier novel Lost Stars, it’s a great character-driven drama that asks some smart questions about reform …
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Book #43 of 2018: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins This is a pretty weird book, and I’m still not entirely convinced it’s my kind of weird. But it definitely comes close at times, and by about the halfway point of the novel, I found I simply couldn’t put it down. I think …
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Book #42 of 2018: The Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie This obscure Agatha Christie title is a bit of a head-scratcher. The short stories in the collection have the general structure of detective fiction, but in lieu of her usual sort of investigator, Christie has penned a borderline-supernatural figure who immediately knows the answer …
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TV #12 of 2018: The Mindy Project, season 4 I’ve been pretty critical of this show in the past, but I thought season 3 was at least a little step up from its early clumsiness, and I had hopes that the move from Fox to Hulu for season 4 would boost the program creatively even …
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