Book #76 of 2017: Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Mark of the Thief #1) I loved Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Ascendance trilogy, but this book (the start of a new series) felt really under-baked to me. The main character mostly just reacts to the decisions of others, his relationships nearly all seem plot-driven …
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Book #75 of 2017: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie Completely deserving of its status as classic literature, with an appropriately timeless archetype at its center. I’m really glad I finally got around to reading this; the familiar story is so much deeper and weirder in its original form than I’d ever imagined. There’s a …
Book #74 of 2017: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (The Crossover #1) I’m generally not big on either novels in verse or stories that center around sports, but Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover won me over despite being both. It helps that this is a shorter book for middle-grade readers, but also the author’s characters feel …
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Book #73 of 2017: Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke (Inkworld #3) This was an okay adventure story, but it dragged a lot in the middle, and the returning characters felt nothing like the people they were in the first two books. This trilogy has really offered diminishing returns as it went along, so as much as …
Book #72 of 2017: The End by Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13) The A Series of Unfortunate Events books have always made clear that the Baudelaires are only a small part of a much larger story that is playing out mostly beyond our view. That expansiveness isn’t a problem per se, but …
Book #71 of 2017: The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx with Ian Gittins A series of diary entries from Mötley Crüe musician Nikki Sixx, annotated 20 years later by Sixx, his bandmates, and other colleagues. The diary was written during a time of intense drug …
TV #13 of 2017: New Girl, season 6 I might be mistaken about this, but my understanding is that Fox has not yet made a decision as to whether to renew New Girl or not, so season 6 may be the last season that we get. And honestly, I’d be perfectly happy if that turns …
TV #12 of 2017: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, season 2 This show is still goofy as hell, but this season is a big improvement over the first one. Mostly that’s because it finally leans into the wacky fun of the premise, offering up loads of the ridiculous comic book stuff that its more serious sister …
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Book #70 of 2017: The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson A rather haunting Sliding Doors-type story about a woman who starts having realistic dreams about an alternate life she could be living if some small moment from her past had gone differently. In one life she’s married with children and in the other she runs a …
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Book #69 of 2017: Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer A tough read about five women in Missoula, Montana who were raped by members of the local college football team and faced incredible difficulty in bringing their rapists to justice when the athletes were protected by police, university …
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