TV #50 of 2022: Happy Endings, season 2 This is probably never going to be one of my favorite shows, but it’s improved so much between seasons that I’m willing to round up my rating accordingly. Every single character feels more sharply defined, and while Penny frequently proclaims this the “year of Penny,” it’s really …
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Book Review: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Book #156 of 2022: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng An unexpected misfire from acclaimed author Celeste Ng. While it’s clear this novel is a very personal project that she’s poured a lot of herself into, and the anti-Asian bigotry throughout is as painful to read as intended, there’s just not much story or character …
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TV Review: Bob’s Burgers season 9
TV #49 of 2022: Bob’s Burgers season 9 After watching roughly an episode a day for the past eight months, I’m now caught up to the point I was at in 2019 when I quit this program before. I noted back then: “As expected for an animated sitcom this far into its run, Bob’s Burgers …
Book Review: The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
Book #155 of 2022: The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #3) Because of the way that this YA fantasy trilogy has been structured, the concluding volume is at a bit of a disadvantage right from the start. Book one introduced a magical boarding school in a pocket dimension where Lovecraftian monsters feed on …
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TV Review: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, season 1
TV #48 of 2022: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, season 1 Origin story. Spinoff. Legal comedy. Rom-com. Fourth-wall-breaking commentary on typical TV and comic-book tropes. Straightforward MCU entry itself. Feminist critique of chauvinism in fandom. This first season of She-Hulk is trying to be a lot of different things all at once, and they unfortunately cut …
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Book Review: After the Funeral by Agatha Christie
Book #154 of 2022: After the Funeral by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #26) The setting: a wealthy man’s funeral, at which his estranged family has gathered to hear the will, when his sister awkwardly suggests that his death of apparent illness might in fact have been a murder. The next morning, she is found brutally …
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Book Review: Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternack
Book #153 of 2022: Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternack Another outstanding middle-grade Jewish fantasy novel from #ownvoices author Sofiya Pasternack, who had previously dazzled me with her Anya and the Dragon debut. I love this one even more, from all the subtle authentic touches of lived-in Judaism and lesser-known mythological nods to the …
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Book Review: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw
Book #152 of 2022: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw With one bizarre caveat that I’ll get to below, this 2022 sequel novel to the 1993 stop-motion classic is a worthy follow-up and a great adventure in its own right. It’s certainly far better than I expected …
Movie Review: Werewolf by Night (2022)
Movie #17 of 2022: Werewolf by Night (2022) This is a weird one! Marvel Studios dropped the hour-long “special presentation” on Disney+ today with very little fanfare, but it is apparently an official Marvel Cinematic Universe release. I say apparently because, like the Moon Knight miniseries earlier this year, there are exactly zero explicit canonical …
Book Review: Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Book #151 of 2022: Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb #3) I am starting to feel about this no-longer-a-trilogy the way I do towards HBO’s Westworld program, where I continue to enjoy the premise and the general vibe — in this case, snarky queer interstellar necromancers — but am often too frustrated …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 