Book #55 of 2023: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Entrées by Agatha Christie The criteria for inclusion in author Agatha Christie’s short story collections is often somewhat haphazard, and in the case of this 1960 publication, it turns out that I’ve read four of the six entries elsewhere already (or …
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Book Review: The Killing God by Stephen R. Donaldson
Book #54 of 2023: The Killing God by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Great God’s War #3) If book 1 of this fantasy trilogy offered an allegorical fable, and the sequel delivered a stream of complicating intrigues amid some thankfully deepened worldbuilding, this closing volume brings everything together for an action-packed finale as the threatened war …
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TV Review: Six Feet Under, season 3
TV #15 of 2023: Six Feet Under, season 3 This HBO drama about a family who run an independent funeral home has been steadily growing on me, but even in this third season I still don’t think the series is consistently strong enough to deserve a rating higher than three-out-of-five stars. The first episode of …
Book Review: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson
Book #53 of 2023: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.] This is the second of author Brandon Sanderson’s four “Secret Project” novels, which he wrote over the pandemic lockdowns of 2020-2021 in the time he’d normally spend traveling and making public appearances …
Book Review: League of Liars by Astrid Scholte
Book #52 of 2023: League of Liars by Astrid Scholte (The League of Liars #1) I was intrigued by the notion of a YA fantasy legal thriller, but the result here is severely underwhelming at every turn. Take the minimal worldbuilding, for starters. This is nominally set on a different plane than ours, with magic …
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Book Review: The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
Book #51 of 2023: The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi Based on the lush prose, the flowery title, and the other pieces I’ve read by author Roshani Chokshi, I was expecting this novel to fit squarely in the fantasy genre, but to my surprise, it’s relatively rooted in reality instead. Although …
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TV Review: Star Wars: The Bad Batch, season 2
TV #14 of 2023: Star Wars: The Bad Batch, season 2 The first year of this Clone Wars spinoff was a surprisingly propulsive affair, but this sophomore season struggles to recapture and maintain that sense of momentum. It’s still a solid delivery of weekly Star Wars thrills — although I question the decision to have …
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Book Review: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Book #50 of 2023: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl Everyone in this 2006 debut novel is either deeply pretentious and misanthropic or else a fringe figure patronizingly pitied by those who are. They’re regularly sexist and racist, too! I actually tried reading this once before, five years ago, and put it down …
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TV Review: Gilmore Girls, season 3
TV #13 of 2023: Gilmore Girls, season 3 This year is probably peak Gilmore Girls for me, although it’s overall a show that’s remained consistently strong across its tenure. (I’m already looking forward to defending the less popular final original season and subsequent Netflix revival miniseries when I get to my reviews of those.) Rory’s …
Book Review: Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander by Victoria Goddard
Book #49 of 2023: Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander by Victoria Goddard I like this midquel novella to author Victoria Goddard’s excellent fantasy tome The Hands of the Emperor, but I think I’m not totally impressed by it, especially after the previous short spinoff work for this series Petty Treasons seemed to up the …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 