Book #142 of 2026: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub (The Talisman #1) I wasn’t overly impressed when I read this novel a decade ago, but with the news that another sequel would be coming soon, I wanted to return to it to refresh my memory. On this reread I was joined by …
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Book #141 of 2026: The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe (The Devoured Worlds #1) A dark but excellent science-fiction debut, in which humanity’s future comes increasingly under threat from dangers both internal and external to the species. The worldbuilding here is very reminiscent of Altered Carbon, with people surviving death by downloading copies of …
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Book #140 of 2026: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders An ambitious and experimental novel that ultimately doesn’t quite work for me. I like this conceit in the abstract, of a purgatory populated by spirits who can’t pass on because they won’t admit that they’re dead, and I love the detail of the real …
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Movie #42 of 2026: Jurassic Park III (2001) The first JP film not to be directed by Steven Spielberg also marks a clear point of diminishing returns for the franchise, which might explain why it went dormant afterwards until the reboot Jurassic World in 2015. It’s the shortest installment as well at a mere 92 …
Book #139 of 2026: Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund by Molly Crabapple A startlingly urgent and cogently argued work of twentieth-century history, shining a welcome light on a sect of Jewish thought and political action that has largely been forgotten or obscured in the modern discourse. As …
Book #138 of 2026: Saturn by Ben Bova This is the thirteenth novel set in author Ben Bova’s epic Grand Tour of the solar system, and if you’ve been reading them through in chronological order as I have, the previous volumes Mars and Jupiter might lead you to expect another hard science-fiction tale of humans …
Book #137 of 2026: Doctor Who: The Dr Who Annual Compendium One edited by Michael Stevens For two decades during the run of Classic Doctor Who (1965-1985), a licensed third-party publication called an annual was released every year, containing tie-in stories, comics, and other materials involving the characters from TV. More recently, some of these …
TV #38 of 2026: Homicide: Life on the Street, season 5 Probably my favorite run of this program yet, and not only for the snazzy update to the opening credits (although it is a definite upgrade). We get a new major character too in the form of Michelle Forbes as the incoming chief medical officer …
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Movie #41 of 2026: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Sequels pose an interesting creative dilemma: how do you recapture the magic that audiences loved in your original piece without repeating yourself to weaker effect (and ideally push some sort of larger story forward in the process)? Overall, this oddly-titled JP film manages to thread …
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Book #136 of 2026: The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher When they were eleven, Briar Jones anxiously waited in vain for an admittance letter from Britain’s famous magic boarding school. Their rich best friend did get in as a legacy student, and our protagonist never saw him again — until seven years …
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