Book #85 of 2017: Ever by Gail Carson Levine I’ve liked Gail Carson Levine’s other works, but Ever was a bit of a misfire for me. The ancient Mesopotamian setting felt very surface-level, as though Levine had only a cursory understanding of the area and its culture when she decided to use it for her …
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Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Book #84 of 2017: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn This thriller from Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn lives up to its title, spinning a dark story of a woman trying to piece together the night from her childhood when someone murdered her mother and sisters just outside her bedroom door. It’s a well-told mystery populated …
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Book Review: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt
Book #83 of 2017: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt A raw and unflinching look at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who organized the mass transportation of Jews into concentration camps and gas chambers. Hannah Arendt was a Jewish author who sat in on his …
Book Review: Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce
Book #82 of 2017: Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce (The Immortals #2) An okay follow-up to Tamora Pierce’s earlier novel Wild Magic. I liked that Pierce went out of her way to emphasize that not all creatures who look like monsters are evil, but this was kind of a weird message in a novel where the …
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Book Review: Games Wizards Play by Diane Duane
Book #81 of 2017: Games Wizards Play by Diane Duane (Young Wizards #10) This tenth book in the Young Wizards series is also by far its longest, which gives the characters a little bit more time to breathe before the usual crisis hits. The main plot revolves around a wizarding competition, and author Diane Duane …
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Book Review: The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
Book #80 of 2017: The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North Another wildly inventive thriller from author Claire North, this one about a woman who fades from people’s memory as soon as she’s out of their sight. That concept leans a bit close to North’s earlier novel Touch, since the characters who forget their …
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Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Book #79 of 2017: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz I mostly enjoyed this sprawling look at three generations of a Dominican family possibly suffering under an inherited curse. I just didn’t have much patience for the title character, who regularly develops crushes on girls, gets close to them as friends, …
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Book Review: The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris
Book #78 of 2017: The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris (Loki #1) A great rendition of Norse mythology from the perspective of its trickster god Loki. Sometimes these tales are in line with their traditional versions and just punctuated by Loki’s droll observations, and sometimes the trickster asserts an entirely alternate course of …
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Movie Review: Suicide Squad (2016)
Movie #3 of 2017: Suicide Squad (2016) A complete mess, squandering some pretty good actors who make the most of the bad material they’re given. I’m not particularly invested in the DC Extended Universe in the first place, but this movie gave me absolutely no reason to rethink that decision. ★☆☆☆☆
Book Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Book #77 of 2017: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #1) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is basically about an X-Men sort of school populated by the children from creepy vintage trick photography, all of whom have real superpowers. (The actual photos that inspired particular characters or …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 