Book #55 of 2024: Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins A remarkable inside look at a complicated political figure: the 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who as a senator during the Trump presidency then became one of the few members of that party willing to publicly stand against the president’s erratic, abusive, and outright …
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TV #12 of 2024: Classic Doctor Who, season 11 A true end of an era for this show, but unfortunately not one that finds it at its best. The current star Jon Pertwee makes his exit here, of course, but behind the scenes, the influential producer Barry Letts and his script editor Terrance Dicks (who …
Book #54 of 2024: The Warrior of the Third Veil by Victoria Goddard (The Sisters Avramapul #2) This title has swiftly become one of my favorites in the constellation of supporting novellas that seem to make up the bulk of author Victoria Goddard’s sprawling Nine Worlds fantasy saga. It’s a direct sequel to The Bride …
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Book #53 of 2024: Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros [Disclaimer: I am Twitter mutuals with this author.] Another powerful #ownvoices Jewish historical fantasy novel from author Aden Polydoros, this one centering on a female golem in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. Forged from the corpse of a slain teenage freedom-fighter — the original daughter of her grieving …
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Book #52 of 2024: Nemesis by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple #12) This 1971 title was the last Miss Marple novel that author Agatha Christie ever wrote, although Sleeping Murder, published posthumously in 1976, was the final entry in the series to be released. It functions as a fairly direct sequel to #9 A Caribbean Mystery, …
Book #51 of 2024: Book of Oceans by John Peel (Diadem: Worlds of Magic #8) Unfortunately the weakest Diadem title yet. This next sequel finds Pixel’s new girlfriend Jenna still squabbling with Helaine, despite six months having passed since they left their homeworld’s rigid class system behind them at the end of the previous volume. …
Book #50 of 2024: Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra This 2024 thriller reads like vintage Stephen King — I’m thinking specifically of books like Cujo or Misery or Gerald’s Game — for placing a protagonist in a simple untenable situation and watching them frantically scramble for a way to escape. In such a work, the space …
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TV #11 of 2024: Star Trek: Picard, season 2 Not great, but a noticeable step up from the blandly underwritten chaos of this modern Star Trek show’s first season. Picard’s old superpowered tormentor Q is as maddeningly inscrutable as ever, but bringing him into play as the new big bad for the year is a …
Book #49 of 2024: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff A brutal piece of historical fiction about an abused servant girl in colonial Virginia who flees that famine-struck settlement into the nearby woods. Author Lauren Groff’s prose is as wickedly sharp as ever, and she pulls no punches in describing both the natural and human …
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TV #10 of 2024: Seinfeld, season 5 This season of Seinfeld doesn’t have a major arc like the meta show-within-a-show factor of the previous year, but it’s nevertheless a strong run of episodes made distinctive by the development of George moving back in with his parents, which allows for new kinds of story premises and …
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