TV #39 of 2022: Better Call Saul, season 6 An utterly masterful end to one of the great modern dramas of our time. This Breaking Bad prequel about Walter White’s shady lawyer has always been stronger than anyone could have predicted, and its final outing is truly one of its best. At long last we …
Tag Archives: five stars
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
Book #121 of 2022: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien (Rats of NIMH #1) I’m happy to revisit this beloved childhood classic today and discover that yes, it’s still an outstanding (though quick) story. The characters make an indelible impression, and the structure is fun, with a relatively lengthy nested …
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Book Review: Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Book #110 of 2022: Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher An exquisite dark fairy tale, about a woman seeking the services of a necromancer to save her sister from the abusive husband who’s likely to murder her as soon as she produces a male heir. There are impossible tasks met with fierce determination, hard-won and …
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Book Review: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Book #103 of 2022: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami First published in 1999 (or 2003, for the English translation), this controversial thriller posits a dystopian Japan where school classes of fifteen-year-olds, selected by random lottery, are forced to fight one another to the death each year. The children are kidnapped, locked into metal collars lined …
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Book Review: Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones
Book #79 of 2022: Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones This 1984 sci-fi / fantasy novel, which I read and reread countless times as a child and is apparently one of Neil Gaiman’s favorites as well, opens with an irresistible premise: a hulking enforcer camps out in the thirteen-year-old hero’s kitchen, saying his mysterious employer …
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Book Review: Back to Before by K. A. Applegate
Book #52 of 2022: Back to Before by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Megamorphs #4) The fourth and final Megamorphs volume opens in media res, with the bloody aftermath of a recent Animorph skirmish against the Yeerks. By this point in the wider franchise, we don’t need any specifics about that particular mission; we can simply …
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TV Review: The Shield, season 1
TV #14 of 2022: The Shield, season 1 This is not an easy program to watch, even by the standards of other crime dramas. (Take a glance at the content warnings I’ve listed below, and realize that many of these behaviors are present in the ostensible good guys of the series.) It’s fantastically written, directed, …
Book Review: Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
Book #30 of 2022: Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman (Tess of the Road #1) My original review from when I read an Advance Reader’s Copy of this book in 2018: Practically from the start, I’ve been reeling over the emotional journey that the heroine makes in this intensely personal fantasy novel. Largely eschewing …
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Book Review: Visser by K. A. Applegate
Book #16 of 2022: Visser by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Chronicles #3) The Chronicles have been a consistently strong corner of the Animorphs franchise — perhaps surprisingly so, given how little they feature of our familiar teenage animal-morphing freedom fighters. In this third volume, for example, the spotlight lands on Visser One, the Yeerk commander …
Book Review: The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
Book #14 of 2022: The Actual Star by Monica Byrne There’s so much to love about this novel that I hardly know where to start. It’s speculative fiction, yet thoroughly researched, with a thoughtful and detailed note at the beginning reviewing the care with which author Monica Byrne has approached this project as well as …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 