Book #27 of 2017: How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain by Gregory Berns The science is interesting, but the writing is stilted and the author frequently comes off as arrogant. Plus, as he admits, the fMRI research on dogs really just confirms what pet-owners have known about …
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Book Review: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In by Bernie Sanders
Book #26 of 2017: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In by Bernie Sanders The first third of this book is essentially a play-by-play of Bernie’s recent presidential campaign, which is less interesting for someone who followed it closely to begin with, but effectively establishes the popular support behind the senator’s ideas. The remainder of …
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Book Review: The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman
Book #25 of 2017: The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (The Magicians #3) An improvement over the first two novels, and a satisfying end to this loose adult fantasy trilogy. Both protagonist Quentin Coldwater and writer Lev Grossman feel like they’ve grown up a lot for this novel, and both approach their tasks here as …
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Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Movie #2 of 2017: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) I saw this movie for the first time in ages, and it was better than I had remembered. The digital aging / de-aging effects are neat, and the script taps into some grand poetic longing of the Anne Rice variety. It’s still way too …
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TV Review: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, season 1
TV #7 of 2017: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, season 1 A very smart, very funny adaptation of the beginning of this book series. (This first season covers the first four novels, out of a total of 13. The movie adaptation only spanned the first three.) Neil Patrick Harris and Patrick Warburton are …
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Book Review: 1984 by George Orwell
Book #24 of 2017: 1984 by George Orwell 1984’s vision of a dystopian future has only grown more eerily prescient since I first read it back in high school, foretelling a rise in the surveillance state and government efforts to repress reality through propaganda. The storyline and the characters are honestly not so great, but …
Book Review: A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd
Book #23 of 2017: A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd (The Madman’s Daughter #3) This final book in the Madman’s Daughter trilogy is a welcome return to form after a disappointing middle volume. Restricting the action to an isolated estate in the Scottish highlands helps bring back the tight focus of the first book, and …
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Book Review: Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
Book #22 of 2017: Inkspell by Cornelia Funke (Inkworld #2) I have mixed feelings on this one. Exploring the “Inkworld” that the characters in the previous story came from is a smart move on writer Cornelia Funke’s part, and I like that Meggie has grown as a character from the plucky kid in Inkheart to …
Book Review: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Book #21 of 2017: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North I’m a big fan of time loop stories, but even in the context of that particular genre, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is remarkable. (I’d personally put it second only to Ken Grimwood’s novel Replay, which is one of …
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Book Review: The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller
Book #20 of 2017: The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker #2) A definite improvement over the first book, although at the cost of a few narrative threads and characters that are unceremoniously dropped in the transition. And I still don’t understand how Asher earns the love and devotion of so many other characters …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 