TV #21 of 2025: Andor, season 2 I went into the second and final season of this Star Wars prequel prequel with reservations on two separate fronts. First, the debut run back in 2022 was simply astonishing, representing the franchise at its utter best. Was there any way the followup could possibly match it? It …
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Book Review: The Expert of Subtle Revisions by Kirsten Menger-Anderson
Book #78 of 2025: The Expert of Subtle Revisions by Kirsten Menger-Anderson I’ll fully admit that I picked up this novel on the basis of its clever cover design resembling a Wikipedia article, and that site does in fact wind up impacting the plot, albeit not as much as I would have expected. But overall, …
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Book Review: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
Book #77 of 2025: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell One of fantasy’s most truly distinctive protagonists anchors this delightful tale, achieving a tone that’s somewhere between Hell Followed With Us and Killing Eve. Our antiheroine narrator is an inhuman creature who begins her story by describing how she ate her …
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Book Review: Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell
Book #76 of 2025: Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell As a reader with a master’s degree in linguistics who used to research and lecture within its sociolinguistics branch, there are three main things I’m looking for in a popular science title like this: 1) Does it seem …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 18
TV #20 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 18 Airing from 1980 to 1981, Tom Baker’s final season is a turbulent time for Doctor Who — and not just because it finds him finally departing the series after a still-unbroken record of seven years / 172 episodes as its star. This run also sends off …
Book Review: Doctor Who: The Cloud Exiles & Other Stories edited by Michael Stevens
Book #75 of 2025: Doctor Who: The Cloud Exiles & Other Stories edited by Michael Stevens I’m going to quote from my own review of 2024’s Doctor Who: The Phaser Aliens & Other Stories — which I coincidentally listened to one year ago today — as so much of it applies to this subsequent release …
Book Review: The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley
Book #74 of 2025: The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley This title is a good example of why I often struggle with historical fiction as a genre. On the one hand: author Natasha Pulley has plainly done her homework here, and she ably depicts her chosen setting, which is a clandestine Soviet …
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Book Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Book #73 of 2025: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #2) In certain ways, I think this dystopian YA sequel improves upon its predecessor. Whereas the series debut focused — understandably! — on the setting, the characters, and the inherent brutality of the premise, this volume is more able to expand on the …
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Book Review: Traitor by John Peel
Book #72 of 2025: Traitor by John Peel (2099 #3) Another quick but propulsive adventure, bringing us to the halfway point of this middle-grade sci-fi series from 1999-2000. Our main hero Tristan begins this installment in police custody (thanks to innocently sharing identical DNA to his terrorist clone twin), and after dodging an attack from …
Book Review: The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E. Wein
Book #71 of 2025: The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E. Wein (The Lion Hunters #1) This 1993 novel offers a limited yet engaging retelling of the Arthurian legend, centering on the king’s illegitimate son Medraut (or Mordred, as he’s known in other versions). The primary innovation, which I don’t believe I’ve encountered elsewhere, is that …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 