Book #142 of 2017: Marian by Ella Lyons I’m of two minds about this book. On the one hand, I love the idea of a lesbian retelling of Robin Hood, and this is a cute story of two girls falling in love in quasi-medieval England. On the other hand, it bears almost no resemblance to …
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Book Review: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Book #141 of 2017: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly Although the fact is not widely known, the government agency that preceded NASA began hiring black female mathematicians to work as human ‘computers’ during World War II, …
TV Review: Elementary, season 5
TV #26 of 2017: Elementary, season 5 Okay, I’m done with this show. It hasn’t been great TV for a while now, but I’ve still kept watching on the strength of the cast and the hope that the writers will rediscover the magic of that first season. And every once in a while there are …
TV Review: The West Wing, season 5
TV #25 of 2017: The West Wing, season 5 This show never quite gets bad during its run, but this season is probably the closest it gets (which makes it all the more surprising that 5×17 The Supremes is one of the show’s all-time best episodes). Josh’s annoying intern is a big part of the …
Book Review: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Book #140 of 2017: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs #1) I mostly liked this novel, but it has a decidedly odd structure: the first third of the book introduces readers to private investigator Maisie Dobbs as she’s solving a case, the middle third shows an extended flashback of Maisie’s childhood as a maid …
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Book Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Book #139 of 2017: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (Winternight Trilogy #1) There’s a beautiful atmosphere to this book that really makes you feel like you’re caught up in a snowy Russian fairy tale. I found I cared more about that sense of rich Slavic folklore than I did about the characters …
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Book Review: Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Book #138 of 2017: Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Every Other Day is the story of a teenage girl with Buffy-like powers, but only on alternating days. (In between, she’s as human as the next high schooler.) That’s a fun hook, but the story beats were fairly predictable and I had a hard …
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TV Review: Doctor Who, season 10
TV #24 of 2017: Doctor Who, season 10 Not as great as season 9, which was a real series high for the show, but still really quite good. Bill was an absolute gem, and I liked that the season finale left her fate open enough that she could plausibly either return or not, based on …
Book Review: A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
Book #137 of 2017: A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson There are some truly lovely moments throughout this book, and its interracial gay love story is a real breath of fresh air for the fantasy genre. But the disjointed chronology didn’t work for me, and I felt like there were so many missing …
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TV Review: Sense8, season 2
TV #23 of 2017: Sense8, season 2 I have the most mixed feelings about Sense8. On the one hand, it’s like no other television show out there, and I feel like it gets at some really profound truths about living in a networked society where your friends around the globe can be there for you …
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