Book #7 of 2017: You May Also Like: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice by Tom Vanderbilt A sprawling but deeply engrossing read on how personal tastes function: why we like the things we like, how tastes intersect with our social identities, and how context-dependent, variable, and ultimately arbitrary those preferences can be. I …
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Book Review: The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Book #6 of 2017: The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (The Chocolate War #1) This early YA novel about a Catholic schoolboy resisting peer pressure to participate in a corrupt fundraising scheme didn’t really do it for me. The story was well-written, but the villains were all way too over the top to be taken …
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TV Review: 11.22.63
TV #2 of 2017: 11.22.63 I ended up really liking this adaptation of the Stephen King story where the guy goes back in time to try and save JFK, even though they changed a lot of what I loved about the book. But the core of the story is still there, and even James Franco …
Book Review: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
Book #5 of 2017: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg An eye-opening account of class distinctions in America that have often been downplayed or ignored in popular history. Nancy Isenberg traces the white lower class from the early days of Bacon’s Rebellion through the populism of Andrew Jackson …
Book Review: The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller
Book #4 of 2017: The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker #1) This was a pretty adequate fantasy novel. It wasn’t awful, but it was definitely bogged down by the slow reveal of its relevant worldbuilding and a perpetually surly protagonist whose only friends spend the whole novel lying to him. Things pick up …
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Book Review: A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green by Thomas Cahill
Book #3 of 2017: A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green by Thomas Cahill Green’s story is heartbreaking, but Thomas Cahill’s account of it really only scratches the surface. There’s pathos here for any reader already opposed to the death penalty, but not really any new information or insight that could sway …
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TV Review: Jane the Virgin, season 2
TV #1 of 2017: Jane the Virgin, season 2 Still a fun show with great – nearly all Hispanic! – performers, but perhaps a tad more predictable in its sophomore year. (Luckily this is definitely a show where the twists are still enjoyable even when you see them coming.) The Mutter and Derek storyline(s) kind …
Book Review: The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
Book #2 of 2017: The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit I tried to keep an open mind while reading this novel, because I knew it was published in a very different era. And it is interesting as a historical artifact, offering a glimpse not only of 1907 Britain, but also of the state of children’s …
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Book Review: Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens by Brandon Sanderson
Book #1 of 2017: Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #4) Like Harry Potter, this series gets darker and more mature as the books progress. Even though the protagonist in this case is still a thirteen-year-old boy, he’s grown up a lot just by going through the events of these novels. Author …
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Book Review: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Book #152 of 2016: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang Science-fiction is generally concerned with exploring the unknown: potential future technologies, or alien lifeforms, or anything else that could perhaps be possible. And there’s some of that in this collection of stories from Ted Chiang, but the strongest entries are more fantastical …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 