TV #18 of 2026: Abbott Elementary, season 5 As a sitcom, this series has always had a somewhat tenuous connection to any sort of grounded reality, but like The Office, it feels as though the comedy is getting broader and the characters more flanderized as the program ages. So here, for example, the teachers spend …
Tag Archives: three stars
Book Review: Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski
Book #58 of 2026: Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski This is an incredibly long novel — 1232 pages in hardback; 58 hours to listen to the audiobook on regular speed — that in my opinion never quite manages to justify its heft. It’s a pretty straightforward story, especially compared to author Mark Z. Danielewski’s …
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Movie Review: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Movie #18 of 2026: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) This third Terminator feature is a deeply cynical film. It would almost have to be, since series creator James Cameron famously considered the story to have finished with the exemplary Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991 — and so for the new rights holders …
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Book Review: Love at Second Sight by F. T. Lukens
Book #53 of 2026: Love at Second Sight by F. T. Lukens It’s great that today’s young readers have stories like this 2025 YA urban fantasy title, in which queerness is totally normalized. The protagonist is a fifteen-year-old boy with a crush on a male classmate, his best friend uses they/them pronouns and has two …
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Book Review: The Rubber Band by Rex Stout
Book #50 of 2026: The Rubber Band by Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe #3) This third Nero Wolfe mystery, also published under the alternate title of To Kill Again, is fine, much as the previous installments have been. The best elements remain the eccentric homebody detective and his banter with his assistant Archie, while the specific …
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Book Review: Moonrise by Ben Bova
Book #49 of 2026: Moonrise by Ben Bova (Moonbase Saga #1) I remember liking this mid-90s duology about the first lunar settlement within author Ben Bova’s larger Grand Tour sequence of space exploration stories, but mainly for the political element, which it turns out is mostly in the sequel Moonwar. Here that takes a backseat …
Book Review: Doctor Who: Frida Kahlo and the Skull Children by Sophie McKenzie
Book #48 of 2026: Doctor Who: Frida Kahlo and the Skull Children by Sophie McKenzie (Icons #1) Doctor Who as a franchise has a long history of introducing its alien time-traveler to historical celebrities of Earth, dating all the way back to the Marco Polo serial of its very first season in 1964. This newer …
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Book Review: The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker
Book #47 of 2026: The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker (The Prince of Nothing #1) I know that I read this fantasy novel around when it came out back in 2004, but I couldn’t remember anything about it and I don’t think I ever got to any of the sequels. Revisiting it …
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Book Review: Last One Out by Jane Harper
Book #45 of 2026: Last One Out by Jane Harper Australian author Jane Harper typically excels at depicting the outback settings of her novels, but I don’t feel quite as struck by the location of this one, which takes place in a dying small town. The dynamic there is interesting, with a local mining company …
TV Review: Tin Man, season 1
TV #14 of 2026: Tin Man, season 1 This 2007 miniseries had been on my radar for a long while due to its great main cast, so I’m glad I finally tracked it down to watch it. (A quick note on that: the show is supposed to be three episodes of roughly 90 minutes each. …
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