What did I expect from The World According to Star Wars? I’m not sure, but, after reading others’ reviews of it on Goodreads, I’m pretty sure a lot of people didn’t get what they were hoping for out of Cass R. Sunstein‘s book of Star Wars-themed analysis. The World According to Star Wars had a lot of potential, but I found its lack of focus — or possibly its desire to cover too many topics without enough depth — disturbing. Continue reading
A sparse, bittersweet romance for misfits, Mooncop is the graphic novel I can’t stop recommending. Without much in the way of dialogue or narration, Tom Gauld‘s lovely little tale crafts a toast to endings and beginnings that is infinitely memorable. Continue reading
A series of improbable and unfortunate events leave an astronaut stranded on the Red Planet in Andy Weir‘s The Martian. The novel is a unicorn in fiction, the rare title that can impart scientific accuracy without losing readers who lack the education to follow along. Continue reading
What happens when a rabies-like disease that targets only blonde women — natural and dyed — sweeps the Western world? That’s the crisis that surrounds The Blondes‘ heroine, Hazel: a redheaded grad student, pregnant with her married advisor’s child. Continue reading
Years after a mysterious border shut Area X off from the rest of the continent, the Southern Reach research organization has sent in a dozen expeditions. When Jeff VanderMeer‘s Annihilation opens, readers know little about the four experts making the twelfth trek. By the time the novel closes, we hardly know more, but the ride along is a Lovecraftian trip that shouldn’t be missed. Continue reading
