Book #93 of 2022: Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid This 2013 debut is the fourth Taylor Jenkins Reid book that I’ve read, and the first one that hasn’t really wowed me. The premise is certainly designed to tug at heartstrings — a young woman is widowed not even two weeks into her marriage — …
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Book #92 of 2022: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas An underwhelming cross between Rebecca and The Haunting of Hill House, in which a recently-married woman finds her new home literally haunted by the malevolent spirit of her husband’s first wife. (The publisher’s blurb compares it to Mexican Gothic too, but that similarity is basically limited …
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TV #25 of 2022: Star Trek: Voyager, season 4 This is far and away the best run of the series yet, partly because the writers have gotten much of the early silliness out of their system as they determine what stories work well for the premise, but mostly because of the introduction of new main …
Book #91 of 2022: Shelter by Jung Yun Just like author Jung Yun’s second novel O Beautiful, her 2016 debut is an absolutely brutal read, this time beginning with the protagonist’s elderly immigrant parents suffering assault and rape during a terrifying home invasion. In the aftermath, the story explores everyone’s deep layers of trauma, both …
Book #90 of 2022: Wool by Hugh Howey (Silo #1) This book, the first in the Silo trilogy, is itself made up of five sections, each originally published as a standalone novella: Wool (later renamed Holston), Proper Gauge, Casting Off, The Unraveling, and The Stranded. Of those, the debut is a wicked slice of science-fiction …
TV #24 of 2022: Russian Doll, season 2 The story of a couple New Yorkers repeatedly dying in a loop of the same birthday party was always going to be a difficult act to follow, and this second season makes the smart choice to keep those characters but totally reinvent the premise. This time, there …
Book #89 of 2022: The Crossing by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #18) This is one of the better Harry Bosch titles I’ve read, which makes me particularly excited that it’s reportedly going to be the broad basis for the upcoming second season of Bosch: Legacy, despite how the TV canon has diverged from the novels. …
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TV #23 of 2022: Bob’s Burgers, season 4 After three seasons right on the cusp of greatness, I am willing to say that this fourth year of Bob’s Burgers has finally crossed that quality threshold for me. We have a few all-time classic installments like Fort Night and Christmas in the Car — a Halloween …
Book #88 of 2022: The Revelation by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #45) [Note: Spoiler warning! It was too hard to write a review for this book without going into significant detail about its various surprises.] This series has been spinning its wheels for a while now, putting out volumes that are sometimes better and sometimes …
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Book #87 of 2022: The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs A fun but lightweight survey of different puzzle types from around the world and across history, sporadically broken up by brief musings on the human preoccupation with …
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