TV #27 of 2017: Game of Thrones, season 1 We’re watching this show for my wife’s first time and as my first rewatch after catching the seasons basically as they aired. (I believe I binged season 1 just before season 2 started, then watched live from then on. But I’ve never before gone back and …
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Book Review: Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
Book #158 of 2017: Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray An outstanding story of star-crossed lovers in the Star Wars universe, following a pair of Imperial cadets (one of them later a Rebel) as they weave in and out of the major events of the original film trilogy. This is obviously a novel that …
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Movie Review: Snakes on a Plane (2006)
Movie #13 of 2017: Snakes on a Plane (2006) It’s hard for me to be objective about this movie, or to say anything new about it. (The closest I’ll probably get on this viewing is to note that the Julianna Margulies character is about to go off to law school, and it’s pretty hilarious to …
Book Review: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Book #157 of 2017: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (Book of Ember #1) I had a really hard time suspending my disbelief for this novel, which admittedly may be less of an issue for the younger readers in its intended audience. But so many aspects of Ember’s civilization just didn’t ring true for …
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Book Review: Runemarks by Joanne M. Harris
Book #156 of 2017: Runemarks by Joanne M. Harris (Loki #3) This is a fun fantasy adventure story, drawing on Norse mythology but set several centuries after Ragnarok when the gods have largely passed into legend. Still, young Maddy Smith dreams of them, and she seems to have inherited some measure of their magic. Of …
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Book Review: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Book #155 of 2017: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is as well-written as you would expect from a world-famous singer-songwriter, but his choice of topic doesn’t always live up to his considerable talents. The book alternates between a straightforward presentation of facts and a more soul-searching memoir style, and for a …
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Book Review: S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
Book #154 of 2017: S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst S., as written by Doug Dorst from an original idea by J.J. Abrams, is an incredibly immersive reading experience. It’s produced to resemble an old library book, complete with handwritten notes in the novel’s margins, and the physicality of that product makes it easy …
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Book Review: Deadline by Mira Grant
Book #153 of 2017: Deadline by Mira Grant (Newsflesh #2) Mira Grant’s bloggers-fighting-zombies novel Feed was a surprising amount of fun, but this sequel surpasses it in just about every dimension. Partly that’s because the team has matured, so they seem less like teens on Xanga and more like real investigative journalists, and partly it’s …
Book Review: The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
Book #152 of 2017: The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie (Superintendent Battle #2) I’ve learned to be a bit wary of lesser-known Agatha Christie titles, but this one was pretty fun. The ending admittedly comes out of nowhere and isn’t a particularly satisfying resolution to the central plot, but that’s a few pages at …
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Book Review: A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh
Book #151 of 2017: A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh Partly an ethnography of burglary practices and overlooked vulnerabilities, partly a thoughtful exploration of how burglars interact with architecture in ways counter to expectation or design intent, A Burglar’s Guide to the City is a deeply engrossing and thought-provoking work. I loved …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 