TV #32 of 2017: Master of None, season 2 On balance, I think this season was about on par with the first one, which I really liked. Some things were even stronger here, such as that standout Thanksgiving episode about Denise, but the love story in this season never really hooked me. I think Francesca …
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TV Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 2
TV #31 of 2017: Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 2 Well, this is a step up from the rough edges of season 1, but it’s still a little uneven. As with the original series (and just, serialized fiction in general), TNG seems to be strongest when it focuses on character work and recurring worldbuilding, …
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TV Review: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, season 3
TV #30 of 2017: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, season 3 It’s weird to say that this season felt less ambitious in its storytelling, since we got fairly major new developments like Kimmy going to college, but somehow it does seem like everyone’s character development has sort of stalled at this point. The show is still reliably …
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Book Review: Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner with David Fisher
Book #176 of 2017: Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner with David Fisher A touching tribute from William Shatner to his fellow Star Trek alumnus Leonard Nimoy after the Spock actor’s passing in 2015. It’s an inside look at how the two men’s friendship changed over time, and at how …
Book Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
Book #175 of 2017: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray (Firebird #1) The beginning of this book is pretty weak, with a revenge quest that’s hard for readers to care about when we don’t have any emotional connection to the characters yet and a whole lot of infodumping about the technology that enables …
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Book Review: Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix
Book #174 of 2017: Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix (The Keys to the Kingdom #2) This sequel felt like a formulaic retread of the first novel in the Keys to the Kingdom series, which was already a pretty generic fantasy adventure story. I’m still waiting for that Garth Nix magic that I love from his …
Book Review: Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
Book #173 of 2017: Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody This book is the incredibly gripping memoir of a poor black woman who became an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement, published in 1968 when the author was not yet 30 years old. Those first decades of her life were packed with …
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Book Review: Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
Book #172 of 2017: Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie (Tommy and Tuppence #2) Tommy and Tuppence might be my favorite Agatha Christie characters, a pair of lovebirds and amateur detectives who are generally more interested in exchanging witty banter with one another than in solving the cases in front of them. (Nick and Nora …
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Book Review: Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Book #171 of 2017: Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan #1) If you can get past all the early-twentieth-century racism, this first Tarzan novel is a pretty fun adventure story. It’s complete pulp fiction with larger-than-life escapades and improbable developments, but sometimes that sort of romp is just what you need in …
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Book Review: They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45 by Milton Sanford Mayer
Book #170 of 2017: They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45 by Milton Sanford Mayer This 1954 book draws on interviews with German citizens to explore the typical actions and attitudes of everyday members of the Nazi party, with particular focus on why they were drawn to the movement and how they viewed their …
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