Book #116 of 2016: The Giver by Lois Lowry (The Giver #1) I remember really liking The Giver when I was growing up, but I was still a teenager at the oldest the last time I read it, so I only really had fuzzy memories of its specifics. Of course, it more than lived up …
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Book Review: Desperation by Stephen King
Book #115 of 2016: Desperation by Stephen King Desperation is a decent Stephen King story, flavored with hints of Dark Tower connections but never really connecting with that other mythos. This novel features King at his scariest, but only for its first hundred pages or so, when it appears to be just about a deranged …
Book Review: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
Book #114 of 2017: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (The Last Policeman #1) Apocalyptic fiction and detective stories are two genres that I particularly enjoy, but I believe this is the first time I’ve ever seen them blended. The result is The Last Policeman, a novel about a detective trying to solve the …
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Book Review: Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones by Brandon Sanderson
Book #113 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #2) Another fun YA novel from Brandon Sanderson, who blends his usual high fantasy style with something closer to Harry Potter and then adds a snarky narrator offering meta-commentary on the nature of stories throughout. Book 2 in this series fleshes out …
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Book Review: A Whole New World by Liz Braswell
Book #112 of 2016: A Whole New World by Liz Braswell (Twisted Tales #1) This novel offers a “what-if” spin on Disney’s animated Aladdin movie: what if the evil Jafar made wishes with the genie’s lamp before the hero got the chance? The result has some interesting moments, especially with Aladdin and Princess Jasmine leading …
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Book Review: The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Book #111 of 2016: The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Ascendance Trilogy #2) This book is the Catching Fire to its predecessor’s Hunger Games – a sequel that faces the tricky task of recapturing what readers loved about the very particular scenario of the first book. The plot mechanics that get the orphan-turned-king …
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Movie Review: Hamilton’s America (2016)
Movie #21 of 2016: Hamilton’s America (2016) This documentary is a fun look at the Broadway musical sensation as well the real-life history of US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. It’s informative enough on that last count that I could see schoolteachers getting away with playing it to their classes, and it’s charmingly bipartisan in having …
Book Review: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Book #110 of 2016: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #3) A tremendous end to the Imperial Radch trilogy, following several threads from the first two books to their natural conclusions in a way that still manages to surprise. Author Ann Leckie clearly has a lot of thoughts on the notions of consciousness, sentience, …
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Book Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Book #109 of 2016: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver The concept of a teenager reliving the same day over and over again (like in the movie Groundhog Day) is intriguing, and high school is a great setting to explore as a sprawling interconnected community that Samantha would ordinarily never get to see in its …
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Book Review: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
Book #108 of 2016: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (Colonel Race #1) A fun, droll adventure elevated by the wit of its plucky heroine. Agatha Christie’s thrillers aren’t as beloved as her mysteries, but the author’s intricate plots with their well-disguised twists are just as enjoyable in this format. (This particular …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 