Book Review – Superfoods, Silkworms and Spandex

Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex: Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life by Joe Schwarcz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Joe Schwarcz delivers what he promises: a set of blog-post-sized considerations of the intersections between extraordinary science and ordinary daily existence. The author’s specialty is clearly chemistry, which forms the bulk (but not all) of the entries. Here and there he gets technical enough to lose readers whose familiarity with formal science education ended in high school. And his attacks on pseudoscientific con artists are obvious enough to be entertaining without being especially edifying. Overall, however, this is a fun and fascinating collection of technical trivia with a historical bent.

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Review – The Haunted Palace

Though the title promises Poe, the story delivers Lovecraft. “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” crops up here and there. The rest follows the heir to the eponymous location possessed by the evil spirit of his ancestor, who resumes efforts to summon evil forces from another dimension. Vincent Price is the main draw of this otherwise largely forgettable production. Mildly amusing

Review – The Fear of Darkness

Anytime horror and psychiatry mix, there’s a good chance that a big part of the plot will turn out to be pure hallucination. Throw in a hearty dose of DMT, and there’s almost no chance that anything we see will be anything but imaginary. This production has a few interesting visual twists, so it’s a shame they were wasted on a largely non-functioning story. See if desperate

Book Review – Fall of Civilizations

Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline by Paul M.M. Cooper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Arguably this book could have been shortened to “greed.” Or at least some of the chapters could have been effectively summarized as “Rome” or “Spain.” And yet the fascinating parts of the deaths of civilizations lie in the details, here copiously supplied by the author. I particularly loved the range of dead societies covered by the text, from the ancient to the nearly modern, from the places everyone’s heard of to whole civilizations frequently omitted from high school history texts. Paul M.M. Cooper’s writing is engaging, neither frivolous nor academically stuffy. Though it took me awhile to get through it, I enjoyed the experience.

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Book Review – Pox Romana

Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World by Colin Elliott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Colin Elliott serves up an exceptionally thorough consideration of the Antonine plague, the world’s first pandemic to leave a written historical record and a contributing factor to the end of the Pax Romana period in Roman history. It’s amazing that such a relatively short book can include careful (and unfortunately occasionally repetitive) study not only of the disease itself but also its complex interrelationship with climate, famine, war and social mismanagement, all of which proved to be a deadly combination in the later years of the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This is worth a read for anyone with an interest in the history of either Rome or epidemiology or both.

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Book Review – More Weight: A Salem Story

More Weight: A Salem Story by Ben Wickey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As one of untold thousands of people who appeared in a high school production of The Crucible, I was curious to see the actual story unfold in sequential art format. Ben Wickey has a gift for both words and images, which works wonders for the parts of the narrative devoted to the judicial murder of innocent people. I particularly enjoyed the clear visual distinctions between victims and perpetrators alike, most helpful in cases where the names and circumstances are often hard to tell apart. I even liked the interludes where Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wander the streets of Salem musing philosophically. The meandering, repetitive outro ended things on a down note, but otherwise this was a great read.

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Review – 28 Years Later

A quarter century (give or take) later, Danny Boyle’s rage zombies still hold dominion over the UK. Only now they’ve grown larger, more naked and considerably more boring. There seem to be three or four different stories going here, none of which meshes especially effectively with the others. See if desperate

Review – Censor

I’m actually kinda impressed by movies where even on first viewing you can pinpoint the exact moment when they go completely off the rails. I won’t spoil it, but it’s pretty obvious. The story – film censor for the British government gets caught up in the bloody violence from a “video nasty” – had potential, and the art direction recreates mid-80s in the UK quite well. But despite getting off to a good start, by the end it’s too random and ridiculous to care about. If nothing else, this should serve as a reminder to me that the “leaves Prime in less than a day” warning message isn’t necessarily a good reason to watch a movie. See if desperate

Review – Halloween Party

The generative AI strings for this one must have been something like “college students Halloween computer virus.” And though most of the tech in the story appeared to be fairly current, some of the elements (pixellated screens for the virus, computer science students who are exclusively male incels) seemed at best retro and at worst incongruous. The result is a movie that wasn’t terrible but missed a lot of opportunities to be better. See if desperate

Review – Gaslit

Though the cast of this latest take on Watergate includes several familiar faces, the real star of the miniseries is the art direction. The recreation of the hideous mid-century tastes of the upper class in the early 1970s is spot on. Despite the fresh perspective from Martha Mitchell’s point of view, this is yet another iteration of the time-worn trope that the whole affair was roughly akin to the plot of a Three Stooges movie. If we could get past the notion that stupid things are automatically harmless, we wouldn’t be in a lot of the mess we’re in now. Mildly amusing

Review – The Long Walk

Can it be? Has the Curse of Terrible Movies Based on Stephen King Novels finally been lifted for good? I was genuinely concerned about the wisdom of attempting to make a movie out of a novella that’s a fairly even mix of introspective thought and children being murdered for failing to walk in a psychotic cross-country death march. But the personal interactions stay interesting for the most part, and the sudden violence is graphic enough to underscore the cruelty of the whole exercise. I also found the framing of the drama intriguing, particularly the art direction. This tale appears to be set in some alternate America that went bad sometime in the 1960s, which relieves the storytellers from the obligation to deal with a lot of 21st century media tropes that would have complicated the story considerably. And if nothing else, I hope this wins the Oscar for Best Sound, as this is the first time I think I’ve ever seen a movie with gunfire that actually sounds like gunfire. Worth seeing

Review – Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies

If I keep watching this series long enough, eventually I’ll get to Wishmaster: Wish I’d Skipped It. But like its predecessor, this one’s more mediocre than genuinely terrible. This time around the Djinn is stuck in prison (which cuts down on the screaming women at least) trying to grant 1000 wishes so he can kick-start the apocalypse. Fewer familiar faces, less Wes Craven, but otherwise second verse same as the first. See if desperate

Book Review – Dinner with King Tut

Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations by Sam Kean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was a bit iffy about a couple of things at the outset of this reading experience. Some “experimental archaeologists” I’ve read about in the past have struggled with the distinction between speculative re-creations and definitive proof about long-lost moments in the distant past. And when Sam Kean – whose nonfiction I enjoy – decided to interweave each chapter with a fictional account of people, places and things from the past, I admit I was skeptical. But the interviews and experiences share a sense of curiosity and fun rather than academic pedantry. And the fiction supplements the facts nicely. To be sure, a lot of this is pretty hard on the animals (even after the book makes it to agrarian societies). That difficulty aside, this is fascinating stuff.

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Book Review – Disney Adults

Disney Adults: Exploring (And Falling In Love With) A Magical Subculture by AJ Wolfe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Creator and voice of Disney Food Blog AJ Wolfe shares her thoughts on the devoted fan base of the Holy Rodent Empire. This is very much an inside-looking-out perspective. The advantages are that Wolfe knows her subjects – customers and corporation alike – quite well. In particular, the chapter on the range of adults with Disney obsessions benefits from her broad base of acquaintances. On the other hand, her livelihood depends on the goodwill of the PR folks at the House of Mouse and a social media audience from a wide range of tastes and political beliefs. So the result – however well researched and cleverly composed – has an unfortunate tendency to dance around issues such as racism, exploitation of emotionally vulnerable people, and other controversial topics that might ruffle the wrong feathers. She also makes many “if you know you know” references, occasionally forgetting to explain them to a more general audience. But overall this is a good introduction to the topic.

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Review – The Substance

I was on board with this for most of the ride. The “Picture of Dorian Gray” theme meshed well with the darkly humorous criticism of Hollywood’s obsession with toxic beauty standards for women. Some over-arty visuals, some odd plot twists, but overall it did a solid job of making its points and keeping the story moving. In particular, the close up of Dennis Quaid eating was disgusting enough to rival “Un Chien Andalou.” But then the third act problems set in. The story goes so far off the rails in pursuit of more body horror gags that it starts to seem like a dumb hallucination, which of course kills its credibility. See if desperate

Book Review – The Assassination of Julius Caesar

The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome by Michael Parenti
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Perhaps Michael Parenti doesn’t exactly deserve “Historian of the Year” for stating painfully obvious facts about the death of the Republic. But as he rightly points out, the Optimates’ constant motive of insatiable greed is all too often downplayed or outright denied by historians ancient and modern who seek to keep the likes of Cicero and Cato on their pedestals. That these men managed to engineer the demise of their own self-serving system in less than 100 years seems somehow just, though of course Augustus and his followers were seldom any kinder than the Senate had been to Parenti’s beloved common people. Though this contains little new information for even casual students of Roman history, it’s nice to see the facts presented in a way that’s genuinely critical of the ruling class.

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Review – Wolf Man (2025)

If you typed “werewolf clichés” into a generative AI engine, you’d likely end up with the script for this clunker. Indeed, I’m starting to feel like I could type “Hoffman Lens 2020s movie review” into that same device and get “The cast was good, production values were high, but the story was somewhere between terrible and nonexistent.” See if desperate

Review – Clown in a Cornfield

This was about as good as any movie called “Clown in a Cornfield” was likely to be. The story was beyond stupid, but the acting and production values were fine. Mildly amusing

Book Review – The Icepick Surgeon

The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sam Kean does an excellent job of supplying the human perspective on the inhumane by recounting the circumstances surrounding several serious breaches of scientific ethics. The stories flow well, and the author carefully walks the line between making light of atrocity and subjecting his audience to a grim slog. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in examples of the difficulties that arise when trying to strike a balance between scientific curiosity, human ego and humane treatment of the people affected by experiments.

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Book Review – The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery

The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult by Sol Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sol Smith has clearly devoted a lot of thought and research to the question of unmasking as an autistic adult. And that may be the problem, as this book reads more like an info dump than an organized guide. Digressions are so frequent and extensive that they replace the chapters’ narratives. He also tends to rely on analogies and personal experiences, pushing both well beyond their natural limits. I’m guessing Smith does an excellent job of one-on-one coaching for autistic people. But when he has to communicate in more general terms, he frequently seems lost.

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Review – War of the Worlds (2020)

This time around the Martians (or whatever they are) attack Earth during the pandemic, and they’re after our data. I’d add “for reasons that aren’t exactly clear,” but then nothing in this whole movie makes much sense. Alien motives aren’t really the worst of it. If you’ve been pining away for a long Zoom call in which the hero spends more time fussing with his family than attending to his national security duties (which seem kinda important given the circumstances), then pine no longer. See if desperate

Review – The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout

This is basically Downwind with less time for Native Americans and way more information about The Conqueror. To be sure, nuclear test fallout remains an important topic. And The Conqueror was a creative failure that should never have been made. But honestly the latter does little more than add a dumb twist to the former. Mildly amusing

Review – The Compleat Al

I watched this so many times back in the 80s that I had a pretty good chunk of it memorized. So it was interesting to see which jokes were still funny and which ones didn’t age all that well, either because I matured away from them or circumstances changed their context (especially the Michael Jackson stuff). On the other hand, Weird Al is sufficiently charming that this mockumentary about his career survives a few rough patches. Mildly amusing

Book Review – Designing and Prototyping Interfaces with Figma

Designing and Prototyping Interfaces with Figma: Elevate your design craft with UX/UI principles and create interactive prototypes by Fabio Staiano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you’ve an interest in the title topic, this is a reasonably good place to get started. I found some of the prose excessive and confusing in places. Overall, however, the author supplies a comprehensive how-to for the app’s many features. Full disclosure: I skimmed two of the later chapters that covered topics I intend to neither use myself nor teach to my students.

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Book Review – Dark History of the Tudors

Dark History of the Tudors: Murder, Adultery, Incest, Witchcraft, Wars, Religious Persection, Piracy by Judith John
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This almost works as a light summer read about the Tudor dynasty. If you’ve seen The Tudors or maybe two or three movies on the topic, you won’t find a ton of new information here. But the prose is far from scholarly and the story keeps moving fairly well. Copious sidebars and illustrations help keep things from getting dull. My only big gripe is that this reads like a long Wikipedia entry, complete with choppy shifts back and forth in the timeline and oddly shifting points of view about who’s genuinely horrible and who’s simply misunderstood.

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Review – Candy Corn

Actual candy corn would have been scarier than this movie, though in fairness candy corn is scary stuff. The filmmakers here possess two undeniable talents: backwoods location scouting and stunt casting. Courtney “Malachi from Children of the Corn” Gains plays one of the leads, but P.J. Soles and Tony Todd seem more like maybe they were in Ohio for HorrorCon Toledo 2019 and accepted a few extra bucks to show their faces briefly on screen. Beyond familiar faces and abandoned buildings, there’s nothing to this dumb attempt at supernatural revenge. If you do opt to take this on, try counting the number of unique angles Gains employs when parking a police car. See if desperate

Review – The Sadness

This Taiwanese take on rage infection zombies introduces two new twists. The disease starts out as something straightforward – kinda Corona-esque – before mutating into a more apocalyptic form, and it leaves its victims’ brains intact but turns control over to the limbic system. So the monsters retain their ability to speak, use tools and otherwise function, but they can no longer control their violent and sexual urges. The result is what one might expect from a movie produced and partially starring folks from Taiwan’s sex work industry. It’s brutal stuff, but production values are high and the plot keeps itself moving. Mildly amusing

Review – Sputnik

At the outset I need to note the sheer awfulness of Amazon Prime’s excuse for dubbing. This was listed as “English dub,” which it definitely was not. However, when the audio description track was turned on, the description (including the dialogue) was in English. Which made for an odd way to watch a movie. Fortunately there wasn’t all that much movie to watch. The story – cosmonaut comes back from space possessed by an alien – functioned well enough for maybe the length of a Twilight Zone episode, and the rest of the running time was padded out with slow moments and illogical twists. But what else might one expect from Russian sci fi? See if desperate

Review – Monster Island

This movie needed way more Tina (for a better understanding of that joke, do a search for “Tina is king of monster island”). Two survivors from a torpedoed Japanese WW2 prison ship wind up stranded on a Pacific island with a monster. The result is the back half of Predator with the Creature from the Black Lagoon as the bad guy. The pace is inconsistent at best, but otherwise it’s a reasonably good monster movie. Mildly amusing

Review – Wicked

The Wizard of Oz gets a postmodern reimagining and a very expensive Hollywood makeover. If you’re a fan of Broadway musicals in general or this one in particular, I imagine this will meet your needs. Though I was impressed by the talent and effort that went into this lavish production, the plot still suffers from the same weaknesses as the source novel. Mildly amusing

Book Review – An Atlas of Extinct Countries

An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Gideon Defoe serves up quite a cross-section of the title topics. Now-vanished countries on the list range from tiny to huge and from those that lasted decades to some that barely lasted hours. They’re slightly more uniform in their causes of death, with most succumbing to imperialism in one form or another. As tragic as that sounds, Defoe employs enough sarcastic wit to either find or create some humor in even the worst of situations. Entries are also impressively uniform in length and level of detail. Though this is sort of a sideways approach to learning history, it worked well for me.

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Book Review – The World of Lore: Dreadful Places

The World of Lore: Dreadful Places by Aaron Mahnke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The third volume of the World of Lore series runs the gamut on the title subject: places with dark pasts, places haunted by their dark pasts, and places haunted for no obvious reason. Aaron Mahnke remains informative and readable, though once again there’s a lot of well-trodden territory here.

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Review – Before Dawn

It’s interesting to see a story about ANZAC soldiers in World War One that doesn’t involve Gallipoli in any way. Instead this is a standard tale of life in the trenches of the western front, with impressive care taken to portray battlefield conditions as realistically as possible. Mildly amusing

Review – Journey’s End

R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play gets a 2017 movie revival to reasonably good effect. The story is grim stuff, as one might expect for a tale set in the trenches of the western front during World War One. Likewise a lot of the despair is weakened slightly by having become cliché in the century since its origin. But it still retains a lot of its original power. Mildly amusing

Review – Aces High

Though I didn’t intend this at the outset, this turned out to be the first of two different adaptations of the same story that I watched back to back. This effort from 1976 relocates R.C. Sherriff’s World War One play from the trenches to the Royal Flying Corps, but otherwise the story remains largely the same. Malcolm McDowell stars as a cynical commander trying to manage naive rookies, a PTSD’d pilot and other woes amid the war’s blend of grim death and trivial melodrama. The movie is also notable for its impressive (however combat-unrealistic) aerial stunt work. Mildly amusing

Book Review – Quick and Simple Painting in Procreate

Quick & Simple Painting in Procreate: Achieve impressive results with speed on the iPad by 3dTotal Publishing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Overall this is a good starting point for anyone who’s new to both digital illustration and Procreate. Except for the last one, all the tutorials are easy to follow. Even the confusing spots have good lessons to teach. To be sure, there are some devils in the details. I was particularly puzzled by the frequent use of the selection tool for drawing. This fails to take advantage of Procreate’s full range of options, and it produces results that – while not full-on Corel Draw – still aren’t the most visually appealing. But perhaps that’s part of the “quick and simple” thing. My only other gripe was that the Hoopla version was hard to read, a problem I’ve had with 3dTotal publications in the past. If you can get beyond that and are a member of the target audience, this book is worth your time.

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Book Review – Worst Laid Plans

Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror by Samantha Kolesnik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vacation horror indeed, not only thematically but also by challenge level. After trying to plunge into some other anthologies where the waters ran fast and deep, I was pleasantly to find these tales more like an easy wade. None of the entries here are likely to win literary awards, but just about all of them tell fun, spooky stories. Very welcome in mid July. As a quick side note, I find it odd that the author who wrote the introduction gave the book itself only four stars out of five, which I found odd.

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Review – Everybody Wins

Everybody should have won, given the reputations of the director, writer and cast. But nobody brings their A game. Arthur Miller’s script is particularly noteworthy for its awfulness. The dialogue left me wondering if the famous playwright had heard an actual conversation between human beings anytime since maybe the mid 1950s. I don’t even know where to begin with the plot and characters. It’s like he has no idea how to function in a medium that isn’t confined to a single location on a stage. And the end, well, wow. I won’t spoil it for you because if you sit through this whole thing the end will spoil itself. See if desperate

Book Review – The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals by Aaron Mahnke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For anyone new to the creepy corners of history, this is a good starting point. If you’ve spent a little more time with this kind of thing, names such as H.H. Holmes and Urban Grandier are naturally going to be familiar. But Aaron Mahnke has enough storytelling skills to keep things interesting even in well-trodden territory. I admit I wish he’d use the reveal (“and that man’s name was Abraham Lincoln” and the like) a little less often. And though this is purely personal, I don’t share the author’s fascination with spontaneous human combustion. Otherwise, however, this was a thoroughly enjoyable summer read.

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Review – Hide and Seek (2021)

If you’re going to tell a story that pits wealthy people against the poorest of the poor, maybe don’t make the rich folks the heroes. Or at least don’t cast Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the hero, leaving him to struggle against his American accent and his past performances as literal or figurative monsters in positions of power. Any chance that this might have recovered from its own premise is crushed when the plot pushes itself into that most terrible of thriller conundrums: is the villain exactly who we’ve suspected from the start, or is it someone completely out of left field? As there’s no good answer to that question, I won’t spoil things by ruining the reveal. But it really wasn’t worth it. See if desperate

Review – Nosferatu (2024)

Director Robert Eggers continues his career as the bizarro world Wes Anderson. His fanatical filtering (goth grey rather than plastic-lens pastels) and obsessive centering of nearly every shot dominate the appearance of this movie so much that they distract from the story and characters, not that the latter represented much competition. Every new entry in the Murnau sub-reddit gets duller and more pointless. If there’s another one – please let there not be another one – it probably won’t even have a vampire. Not that an otherwise-talented actor stomping around in a getup that makes him look like a Russian from a McCarthy-era propaganda cartoon is much of an excuse for a bloodsucking demon. See if desperate

Review – How to Kill Monsters

Humor and Lovecraft are never not going to be an awkward mix. Case in point here. Shambling horrors are inadvertently drawn to a British police station, where inept cops and random ne’er-do-wells battle to prevent the earth from getting sucked into a dimension of chaotic horror. See if desperate

Review – Howl (2015)

This is one of those movies that traps the protagonists in an enclosed space and then spends the bulk of its running time having them stubbornly refuse to either escape or successfully defend against attack. Usually this sort of thing involves zombies, but this time around it’s werewolves. So kinda Train to Busan only in the UK with lycanthropes. Occasional humor, occasional horror, but mostly just flailing. See if desperate

Review – Into the Abyss

If you sense that the earth is in imminent danger from a cosmic horror apocalypse, the first rule of survival is to make sure you aren’t in Argentina when it happens. Because apparently the end of the world there is going to be both catastrophic and really stupid. Thanks to the actor/director’s stubborn refusal to follow any kind of logic or plot structure, the movie depends entirely on the occasional appearances of monsters (occasionally good) and violent, nonsensical interactions between survivors (uniformly terrible). It’s hard to tell if this is deliberately awful or merely incompetent storytelling. Either way, it’s simply bad. Wish I’d skipped it

Book Review – The Complete Book of Calligraphy and Lettering

The Complete Book of Calligraphy & Lettering: A comprehensive guide to more than 100 traditional calligraphy and hand-lettering techniques by Cari Ferraro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good but somewhat uneven treatment of the title topic. It’s good because it provides well-written text (somewhat rare in art technique guides) to accompany the copious, useful illustrations. The uneven part mostly comes from the organization. For example, the “getting started” stuff doesn’t show up until more than 100 pages in. Some topics get much more thorough treatment than others. The chalk drawing section in particular struck me as too extensive compared to some of the considerations of other media. And every once in awhile the author will show something that she doesn’t explain. But if you’re interested in learning calligraphy, this is an effective place to start.

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Book Review – Children of Lovecraft

Children of Lovecraft by Ellen Datlow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When these stories are good, they’re reasonably good. But when they’re bad, wow. The failures break down into two categories. Some of them are bewildering slogs through over-arty prose. Others sour the experience by relying on the suffering and death of animals and children (the beginning of the book is particularly rife with this type, so much so that I almost abandoned it). I prefer to do a good job of reading everything in any book I review, but here I was sorely tempted to skim or skip any entry that wasn’t to my taste. That would have made the experience considerably better and considerably shorter. But I did appreciate one factor that was consistent throughout the anthology: all the authors made use of Lovecraftian themes without resorting to hackneyed pastiche.

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Review – Flu

The really amazing thing is that this predates the COVID-19 pandemic. Though I was mostly here for the spread-of-a-deadly-disease stuff, for the most part I didn’t mind the sappy character development (though I felt that they went to the pre-teen-in-peril well a little too often). But the production values were good, and it was charming to see a scene in which a South Korean official actually stood up to a government bully from the US. Mildly amusing

Book Review – The Red Market

The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers by Scott Carney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In traditional journalism style, Scott Carney delivers a little about a lot. As the international trade in body parts (and in adoptable children as well) is broad and complex, this could have been a much longer book. Most of the author’s focus is on the supply side of the marketing process, with particular emphasis on his familiar stomping grounds in India. The reporting is good, but here and there it left me wondering about the demand side of things. For example, Carney thoroughly describes a case of a child kidnapped in India and sold to an unwitting couple in the United States. The story left me wondering about why anyone in a country with millions of legitimately-orphaned children would need to resort to kidnapping, and why the notoriously racist US adoption system would create any kind of a black market for non-white children. There are answers to these questions (and many others like them) that I wish had been within Carney’s scope. That aside, the book is well researched and well written.

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Review – Abigail

The child vampire story gets a “Ransom of Red Chief” twist as a team of mercenary kidnappers fall victim to their own victim. Acting and production values are good, and the script strikes a nice balance between too light and not light enough. Despite some third act problems, the movie overall works well. Worth seeing

Review – Zombiology

This is my first experience with Chinese zombie comedies, so there may be some subtleties I’m missing here and there. On the other hand, maybe not. The plot overall doesn’t seem to rely on anything subtle. Two friends with half-baked superhero cosplay fantasies find themselves fighting against a zombie-plague-spreading chicken monster. Mildly amusing

Review – Killjoy

How did something this terrible even get made, let alone spawn several sequels? A killer clown seeks revenge against the criminals who murdered his summoner, and that’s about as close to coherence as the story ever gets. Even the video itself is terrible, created or compressed to that annoying, jumpy quality of old Youtube stuff. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Creepypasta

Even for this particular sub-genre, the entries in this anthology are boring beyond belief. Almost every one of these semi-related video shorts start with an innocuous setting and end with someone being grabbed by a monster without so much as a “Who’s got my golden arm?” See if desperate

Book Review – Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting read, particularly compared to the two main movie adaptations. In particular, there’s a subtle yet strong subtext here, but it wasn’t at all what I expected. Rather than a warning about the Red Menace or McCarthyism, the concern seems to be more about the erosion of the white, middle class lifestyle. As if it isn’t bad enough that humans are being replaced by pod people, but the aliens aren’t even bothering to keep the streets clear of trash or paint the eaves on a regular basis. This is also very much a creature of its own time in narrative style and social consciousness. It’s particularly hard for a reader in the 21st century to know what to do with the virulent sexism of a book written in the 1950s and set in the 1970s. In general, however, fans of the films should give this a read. If nothing else, it supplies an ending that seems neither tacked on nor nihilistic.

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Review – The Puppet Masters

Heinlein’s novel gets simplified considerably into an Invasion of the Body Snatchers knock-off with slugs instead of pods. The plot follows a predictable path as government agents race against the clock to isolate the aliens and destroy their hive mind. Mildly amusing

Book Review – A Brief History of Stuff

A Brief History of Stuff: The Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Objects by D.K. Publishing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Because you don’t sell as many copies of a book called “Why Everything in Your Life Secretly Sucks.” On the one hand, I appreciate the unflinching look at how racism, sexism and other evils have helped shape ordinary household goods. But on the other hand, I picked this up in hopes of having a light summer reading experience rather than an unflinching look at anything. So the authors did a good job, but reader experience depends a lot on mindset.

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Review – Forget Me Not

Given how often vengeful spirits return for payback, I’m surprised witless teenagers bother killing anyone at all. So this is that. Production values are okay. Most of the actors have professional headshots on IMDb. But the story is strictly leftovers, and even the shocks that work get old after awhile. See if desperate

Book Review – The Secret Loves of Geek Girls

The Secret Loves of Geek Girls by Hope Nicholson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Love” here refers to the romantic type, so the short essays and sequential art here center around pop culture’s influence on geek girls’ human relationships rather than their passions for pop culture itself. I was impressed by the consistent quality of the entries. Anthologies are almost inevitably mixed bags, with at least some excellent contributions and at least some pieces submitted by talentless friends of the editor. But everyone here does a solid job of storytelling. Most of the tales are entertaining and informative. And even the less engaging ones were more matters of my personal, subjective disinterest in their topics rather than an objective problem with communication quality. This is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the subject, and even more disinterested readers will find lots to like.

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Book Review – The Omen

The Omen by David Seltzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As novelizations of movies go, this one isn’t bad. David Seltzer follows the plot of his script fairly closely, occasionally taking advantage of the omniscient narrator’s ability to supplement the story with the characters’ thoughts or an extra twist. In a couple of spots the flow gets sidetracked by unnecessarily elaborate interpretations of scripture, which I suppose is a natural byproduct of doing a lot of background reading (some prosaic, some far more imaginative). In particular, if you felt the movie didn’t supply enough backstory for the supporting characters (good and evil), you get a dose of that here. Otherwise if you’ve seen the movie, you already know what you’re getting from the book.

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Book Review – The Thing

The Thing by Anne Billson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Writing about John Carpenter’s once-panned-now-praised horror masterpiece, Anne Billson recounts the plot with plenty of digressions along the way. Most of the added obsessions are interesting and pertinent, though some of it’s a bit of a dead end. Die hard fans will also notice minor inaccuracies here and there, though overall the author’s evident affection for the movie renders the occasional goofs irrelevant. I’m actually sorry this wasn’t longer.

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Book Review – End of Watch

End of Watch by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been dreading this one for quite awhile now, but I decided the time had come to finish the trilogy. Stephen King has more than enough talent and experience to create a compelling villain, which he’s proven on any number of occasions. But Brady Hartsfield just isn’t one. He’s intelligent without being clever, elaborate without being interesting, pathetic without being sympathetic in any way. He might have worked for a short story. Even one novel was pushing it. But the only saving grace of this set is that Hartsfield isn’t in the second one much. In the plus column, King recognizes that Holly Gibney is the real star of the show, thankfully the only major character to go on to subsequent works. As for this one, I’m mostly just glad not to have it in my to-read stack anymore.

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Review – Bornless Ones

But not bore-less, alas. A handful of 20-somethings move into a cabin that turns out to have a demon infestation problem. Nothing new here. See if desperate

Review – Playback

In 2010 Kiefer Sutherland lost a Super Bowl bet and had to wear a dress for his appearance on Letterman. Something similar to that must be the only possible explanation for why Christian Slater would play a pedophile voyeur cop in this low budget piece of crap. Someone here has heard of early motion picture pioneer Louis Le Prince, and that could have been the foundation for a really good story. Instead it turns out to be a witless parade of weak horror movie clichés. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – The Closet

Eh, it’s not the worst ghost story I’ve ever seen. Ghost kids have their pluses (creepy) and their minuses (often not all that menacing), which is very much the case for this elaborate Korean rework of Poltergeist. Mildly amusing

Review – American Nightmares

Rusty Cundieff doesn’t make it all the way back up to what he did with Tales from the Hood, but at least he’s playing in the same ballpark. This one features seven shorts, which means that the stories spend less time on buildup and character development, cutting more directly to the punchlines. The only part I genuinely didn’t like was the bracket, as I felt it made little sense and seriously under-used Nichelle Nichols. Even this late in her career, she was capable of doing so much more than just sitting there looking vaguely confused by Danny Trejo. Otherwise if they make a series out of this I will definitely be back for the sequels. Mildly amusing

Book Review – Chasing America’s Monsters

Chasing American Monsters: Over 250 Creatures, Cryptids & Hairy Beasts by Jason Offutt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jason Offutt goes state by state, telling stories of four or five cryptids from each. As a result, things get a little repetitive. The local bigfoot. The local giant bird. The local lake monster. The local absurd chimera with an often-fake-and-thus-kinda-racist Indigenous name. Still, the author does his best to keep things interesting. The illustrations are fun, too.

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Book Review – Sex Lives of Superheroes

Sex Lives of Superheroes: Wolverine's Immortal Sperm, Superman's Porn Career, the Thing's Thing, and Other Super-Sexual Matters Explained by Diana McCallum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about how superpowers could make sex better or – more frequently – much much worse. I was lured in by the author’s work on “Texts from Superheroes” and wasn’t disappointed to find the same kind of humor at play in this longer format. Added bonus: along the way we get entertaining lessons in biology, psychology and even physics. If there’s a sequel, I’ll definitely keep reading.

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Book Review – You Like It Darker

You Like It Darker by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not a bad collection overall. I’m not a big fan of the “wrong man” story, and that’s a well King goes to more than once here. Also for those of us who yearned – eventually not in vain – for the author to get past his “protagonist hit with a van” phase, I don’t think there’s much hope of him breaking out of his “old white guy hero” era. Beyond that, this is King doing what he does, which as usual provided a pleasant start to the summer reading season.

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Review – The Painted

This movie has two things in common with an average episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery series: it’s a supernatural thriller that centers around paintings, and it packed enough plot for around 20 minutes. Sadly, it’s feature length. The digital liquid effects are fun when evil spirits emerge from or return to their canvases. Otherwise this is a mostly dreary ghost story with some awkward anti-porn subtext. Mildly amusing

Book Review – The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures

The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m usually disappointed to find that a book by a podcaster has been written at a middle school reading level more appropriate for the non-print medium. But at this point in the semester that’s about where I’m at, so it actually worked okay for me under the circumstances. What I wish Aaron Mahnke hadn’t done was save the ghost stories for last. I’m not fond of the genre, at least not as non-fiction, and these also tended to be longer than the more fun stuff about cryptids and the like. Overall, however, this was a fun way to kick off the summer reading schedule.

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Review – Gladiator 2

What happened to Ridley Scott? He used to be really good at storytelling. But this grandiose flop is anything but. It’s fidgety, moving from one brief, unrelated scene to the next with the attention span of a pre-teen child living on a diet of Pop Tarts and Pepsi. Fans of actual Roman history will find this particularly hard to follow; the plot ostensibly includes historical figures and yet the movie intersects with reality only by coincidence. I was particularly taken with the part where Caracalla makes his pet monkey and the bad guy co-consuls. After the emperor and the villain are both slain (spoiler alert, to the extent that’s a spoiler), shouldn’t that make the monkey the next monarch? Actually, Gladiator 3: Monkey Emperor might well prove to be a better outing. See if desperate

Review – Mothman (2010)

Add the title cryptid to the list of things that are apparently oddly difficult to make into a non-terrible movie. This go-around gets off to the wrong start with a “Mothman Knows What You Did Last Summer” plot construction. And though I imagine the monster itself was the best a low-budget CGI team could produce in 2010, its crappiness still detracts from an already bad experience. See if desperate

Review – The Crucifixion

The story is pure tedium: journalist investigates the case of a possessed nun who died during an unconventional exorcism. Though the plot is paper thin, it holds together enough to tie some creepy sight gags together into a movie. Production values are also high enough to distance this from much of the rest of the sub-genre. Mildly amusing

Review – Demonic (2015)

Maybe 20 minutes’ worth of plot gets stretched to feature length by annoying cliches such as hopping unnecessarily (and sometimes confusingly) back and forth in the timeline. Detective and psychologist good-cop-bad-cop the sole survivor of a ghost hunting team that held a seance in a demonic murder house. Wow, that was barely a sentence. So not even 20 minutes. See if desperate

Book Review – What If?

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Physics is fun, at least when it’s applied to absurd-yet-intriguing scenarios that someone somewhere somehow thought up. This is Randall Munroe’s xkcd comics in book form, tackling questions such as “what would happen if the earth expanded at the rate of one centimeter per minute?” In the course of answering questions of arguably little practical value, the author delves into some intriguing, unfamiliar corners of natural science. And the sections tend to be brief, well illustrated and cleverly written, which makes this a perfect book for brief intervals.

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Book Review – Hauntings

Hauntings by Ellen Datlow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to give this anthology a higher rating. Some of the stories included herein are really good, either excellent throughout or finishing strong after a slow start. Alas, the impressive stuff just has too much bad company, particularly tales that start off tedious and stay that way. I can tolerate a certain amount of obscurely poetic prose, and I can even cope with a measure of torture and death of pets and children as long as there’s some purpose to it. But when the underlying plot is odd or cliché rather than enlightening and engaging, the welcome gets worn out swiftly. I loved the cream but could barely stand the dregs. And though this isn’t a criticism of the book itself, I should note that the pagination was messed up on the Hoopla e-book edition. The errors made it hard to tell where one was at in the stories, which of course made the bad ones even harder to take.

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Book Review – War Against All Puerto Ricans

War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony by Nelson A. Denis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At times like this I wish I believed in Hell. So many people involved in the abuse of Puerto Rico and its people deserve the direst of punishments, and yet almost all of them prospered throughout their lives and died peacefully in their beds. Nelson A. Denis does an excellent job of narrating the history of “America’s colony” using the individual stories of people and events. This leads to some repetition, which normally I’d be against. But here the repeated accounts of moments such as the Ponce Massacre provides context and perspective that a single telling couldn’t convey. Though this is as far from pleasant reading as it’s possible to get, it’s a well written, insightful account of just how awful the United States can be when it really puts in the time and effort.

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Review – The Menu

Clever and cruel by turns, this stylish production manages to eerily evade its own apparent purpose. As the chef of an ultra-exclusive restaurant sets about murdering his foodie clientele, a woman who ended up at the dinner by mistake struggles to prove that she’s not one of the victim group’s snobbish ilk. And therein lies the difficulty. Production values cost money, and a star-studded cast helps ensure return on investment. As a result, however, the movie becomes an example of the same superficial obsession with wealth that’s being slammed by the story. It’s still fun to watch, it’s just too morally ambiguous to do as much moralizing as it does. Mildly amusing

Review – Conclave

Despite its immense importance, the process of selecting the next Pope isn’t inherently all that interesting. Novelist Robert Harris stirs in a range of intrigue to spice things up and make a political point or two, but it still doesn’t amount to enough for anyone to sacrifice two hours of their lives. However, the production values make this worth a look. The sets, costumes and other visual elements are way more fun than the characters and plot. Mildly amusing

Book Review – James

James by Percival Everett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Percival Everett starts with a simple premise: what if a Black character from a Mark Twain novel was an intelligent human being with feelings and motives all his own? He transforms Twain’s Jim from Huckleberry Finn’s kind-but-witless sidekick into a man trying to escape slavery and rescue his wife and daughter. Some of the plot twists are new takes on the familiar story, while others are entirely new. I was particularly impressed by the treatment of code switching, which would make this an excellent read for anyone who doesn’t understand the concept. Despite a few third act problems, overall this is a brilliantly sad, angry and occasionally joyous view of racism in the prewar South.

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Review – Twisters

The original was one of those odd movies that’s insanely popular when it first comes out and then disappears almost entirely. This sequel skipped the first part and went straight to obscurity after some initial interest during its theatrical run. The effects are good, which is fortunate because they’re the clear star of the show. The rest of the movie is a parade of threadbare excuses for getting dangerously close to dangerous storms. Mildly amusing

Review – H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch House

Ah, to have no greater ambition than to be Stuart Gordon and to fall miserably short of even that modest goal. The basic ingredients are there: the expired copyright on “Dreams in the Witch House,” confusing script, gratuitous nudity. But it’s all too amateur hour to hold attention for an hour and a half. See if desperate

Book Review – Fundamentals of Character Design

Fundamentals of Character Design: How to Create Engaging Characters for Illustration, Animation & Visual Development by Publishing 3dtotal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a well-assembled and reasonably comprehensive guide to the title topic. Particularly for aspiring sequential artists who are new to character design, the principles and practices outlined here will help get you off to a good start. The text was created by professional designers, many of whom write like designers (which is to say that the prose is often less than engaging). But the visual examples more than make up for weak spots in the text. If I could change one thing, I’d bring in a wider variety of graphic styles. Though examples clearly come from different illustrators, none of them depart too radically from Disney/Pixar styles. I should also note that borrowing this from Hoopla was a mistake. It’s set up as an eb00k rather than a comic, which makes the tiny type difficult to enlarge enough to make it readable. And the book features several galleries of suggestions for facial expression, body posture, clothing and the like. I wish I could hang onto those valuable references for longer than 20 days.

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Book Review – Manga Classics: Macbeth

Manga Classics: Macbeth - Full Original Text Edition by Crystal S. Chan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting new way to experience a Shakespeare classic. Based on my past attempts to read manga, I was concerned that the characters would prove hard to tell apart. But except for some of the supporting cast, the characters were easy to distinguish. I also liked the almost surreal quality of some of the art, providing literal depictions of the allusions in the 400-year-old prose. I also read the modern English version, which I’m not separately reviewing here beyond the observation that it was easier to follow but not as beautiful.

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Book Review – The Abominable

The Abominable by Dan Simmons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dan Simmons is an author with special interests, and here he gives full vent to an obsession with mountain climbing. All of the suspense scenes – and much of the rest of the narrative – get bogged down with details that non-experts will need a stack of climbing manuals, equipment catalogs and guides to the geography of Mount Everest to have any hope of following. The fussy details combined with the constant peril and physical agony of high altitude climbing make for difficult reading. Further, act three is rife with disappointments that can’t be described without major spoilers. Disappointing. I used to love Simmons’s writing, but I fear at this point he’s lost me.

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Review – The Land That Time Forgot

I remember taking these movies ever so seriously when I first saw them. Of course I was a pre-teen at the time. All these years later I still find them fun in a crappy sort of way, though perhaps those with no associated sense of childhood nostalgia will react as positively. This is a sequel to The People That Time Forgot, and it completely lives up (or down) to the standards of the original. Mildly amusing

Review – At the Earth’s Core

To this day I wonder what Peter Cushing might have accomplished if he’d gotten a crack at better roles. He was talented. He had good screen presence. And yet more often than not he ended up in crap like this. Edgar Rice Burroughs gets blamed for this silly story about a giant drilling machine that accidentally bores a hole to a subterranean realm in which primitive people are ruled by huge, telekinetic rubber birds. Mildly amusing

Book Review – Mavericks

Mavericks: Life stories and lessons of history's most extraordinary misfits by Jenny Draper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can hear Jenny Draper’s voice in every word of this book. She writes with the same wit and expertise that she brings to her excellent Youtube videos. Further, she’s chosen a series of fascinating subjects: people throughout UK history whose nonconformity was both important and interesting in some way. If there’s a follow-up volume, I’ll definitely be waiting.

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Book Review – How to Hide an Empire

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There just isn’t a good approach to imperialism. Manifest Destiny was a cruel power grab. Traditional colonization was a cruel power grab. The globalization that replaced it at the end of World War Two might have seemed better on the surface, but it too turned out to be a cruel power grab. Though the subject here is clearly depressing. Daniel Immerwahr tackles it with precision and wit, moving skillfully between the big picture and the small details. I particularly appreciated the anecdotes that illustrate the issues involved with the United States’ wide variety of territorial entanglements.

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Book Review – Beginning Illumination

Beginning Illumination: Learning the Ancient Art, Step by Step by Claire Travers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent treatment of the subject, though sadly all too brief. Aspiring artists should find this fascinating and helpful, as it covers the technical side of illumination thoroughly and with excellent step-by-step descriptions and examples. I just wish it had been more in-depth, with more space devoted to history, a longer gallery with more extensive interpretive text, and perhaps a bit more on the interrelationship between text and graphics.

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Book Review – Kawaii Kitties

Kawaii Kitties: Learn How to Draw 75 Cats in All Their Glory (Volume 6) by Olive Yong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fun! Olive Yong’s cat drawings don’t vary greatly in their basic design, which is helpful for beginners. But she builds in enough variety of themes to keep things from getting monotonous. Step by step instructions are easy to follow, especially if you’re working with flexible tools such as tablet and drawing app. As a personal note, this is the first time I’ve ever done all the lessons in a how-to art book.

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Review – Vlad the Impaler

Every once in awhile you owe it to yourself to watch a propaganda movie from another nation. That way you can clearly see the witless stupidity without the cultural pressure to uncritically accept the story and its morals. So if you don’t happen to be Turkish, this should be a good choice for you. A 15th century commando squad working for Mehmet the Conqueror goes in search of revenge against Vlad Tepes. Dracula is nobody’s notion of a benevolent ruler, which makes him a natural bad guy from the Muslim perspective. Still, this is so cartoonishly dumb that it almost makes him look good. See if desperate

Book Review – Vlad the Impaler

Vlad the Impaler: In search of the real Dracula by M.J. Trow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When this book is good, it’s very good. M.J. Trow’s prose is engaging, and the subject of course is fascinating. As long as the subject is Vlad the Impaler, that is. The first third of the book is devoted to vampires, which I found more than a little tedious (at least in part because I already knew almost all of it). The text occasionally hits snags, such as strange digressions (applying Chinese phrenology to a portrait?) and unfathomable barrages of names of people with little relevance to the narrative. Overall, however, this is a good attempt to reach into the murky depths of biased historical accounts and retrieve some sense of who Vlat Tepes was as a person, a prince and a monster.

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Review – The Unwilling

A rich old man dies, leaving his obnoxious heirs a box that, when opened, releases a supernatural force that’s equal parts evil, stupid and predictable. Bickering and bush league gore ensues. The cast includes a few faces – particularly Lance Henriksen and Dina Meyer – who used to have better agents. See if desperate

Review – Smile 2

I admit to skipping the first one (cat death), so if there’s something significant about characters occasionally grinning like idiots – beyond the explanation awkwardly shoehorned in toward the end of act two – then I may be missing the reference. Beyond that this is an exceptionally mopey piece about a singer slowly going nuts. Or is she? Or does it even matter? Honestly this spends enough time on centered shots to come across as Wes Anderson on PCP and horse tranquilizers. If your notion of horror is mostly just awkward, prepare to be chilled to the bone. See if desperate

Book Review – The Punisher MAX: The Complete Collection

The Punisher MAX: The Complete Collection, Vol. 7 by Jason Aaron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though this review appears on Goodreads for only the seventh volume in the set, it’s intended to cover the entire series. And an uneven experience it was. One expects some variation in the quality of the writing and the art, though overall both were good. What caught me by surprise was the variety of the hero’s targets. Though originally at war only with the Mafia, it’s natural enough for the Punisher to branch out to newer, less cliché opponents. Some are obvious enough, such as Russian mobsters, drug cartels and sex traffickers. Others are more exotic, including redneck cannibals and an ENRON-esque corporation. I admit to having less affection for the episodes in which Frank Castle goes to work for the government as a special forces operative (though the Born series was good), nor did I like the story lines in which he was sidelined or entirely absent. Overall, however, these thousands of pages of vigilante violence hit more often than they miss.

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Review – The Quatermass Xperiment

Though clunky by modern standards, this is a revolutionary blend of space travel and cosmic horror from Hammer Films way back in 1955. The notorious Dr. Quatermass shows a stereotypical scientist’s disinterest in the human effects of an unauthorized space travel experiment that kills two astronauts and turns the third into a human-alien blend. This would have gotten a higher rating if not for all the animal deaths. Also released as The Creeping Unknown. Mildly amusing

Review – The Resonator: Miskatonic U

Nostalgic for the heyday of Full Moon Videos? Apparently you aren’t alone. This is a semi-loving homage to what Stuart Gordon did with H.P. Lovecraft’s “From Beyond,” complete with rubbery effects and gratuitous boob shots. See if desperate

Abandoned movie – Riddick

Ten minutes in, the relentless animal death showed no signs of stopping. The fact that all the animals were obvious CGI didn’t make it any better.

Book Review – Domina

Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome by Guy de la Bédoyère
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Writing a history of women and power in Roman history is tricky business. Contemporary accounts – and subsequent versions based on now-lost documents – are almost universally sparse and antagonistic when dealing with anyone other than men of senatorial rank. Nonetheless, Guy de la Bedoyere does a competent job of gleaning what may be considered accurate and recognizing problems with the rest of the record. Though the book’s title implies an ambitious ambit, most of the focus is on the Julio-Claudians (with a relatively brief epilogue devoted mostly to the Severans). The author makes some excellent points about the importance of matrilineal lines of descent and the tricky business of women exercising control of a system that denied them all official forms of authority. My only gripe is that this could have been a considerably shorter work. Much of the text is repetitive, and frequent numismatic digressions vary between historically significant and irrelevantly trivial. Overall, however, this is a worthwhile read.

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Book Review – The World Remade

The World Remade: America in World War I by G.J. Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a worthy follow-up to A World Undone. For the US side of things, G.J. Meyer justifiably focuses a lot of attention on Woodrow Wilson. Fans of the 28th President be warned: Meyer’s view isn’t exactly anti-Wilson, but he openly explores his faults and the troubles he caused at home and abroad. The book also covers plenty of other topics, particularly in the interludes between chapters. After Meyer’s first consideration of the Great War stressed social change wrought by the conflict, I thought his emphasis here might have been somewhat more concentrated on similar alterations in the fabric of American society. However, as a general history of the time and place this functions quite well.

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Book Review – Totally Chaotic History: Roman Britain Gets Rowdy

Totally Chaotic History: Roman Britain Gets Rowdy! by Greg Jenner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Chaotic indeed, and not just the subject matter. The text flow here is full of static, including frequent interruptions not just for graphics and sidebars but also notes and exchanges between the author and the “expert interruptions.” But because those interruptions are written by Emma Southon – the reason I picked this up to begin with – I won’t complain about them. Overall this is a good if occasionally silly way to learn about the history of the Roman empire’s far northwest edge.

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Review – Werewolves Within

The time-honored tradition of making terrible movies based on video games continues. This time the source was a game I’ve never heard of and definitely won’t be seeking out. Sitcom B-listers do their best to make the sitcom script seem quirky rather than juvenile. But there just isn’t enough story here to last for anything near the running time. Particularly annoying was the “who’s the werewolf?” trope, a question that was rendered almost completely moot by the high casualty rate prior to the lycanthrope’s only actual onscreen appearance late in the movie. See if desperate

Book Review – Good-Bye to All That

Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography by Robert Graves
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Robert Graves, poet and author of I, Claudius, delves into autobiography. The bulk of his tale is devoted to his experiences in the First World War, a subject he treats with unflinching frankness and wry wit. His accounts of service as an officer in the trenches of the western front are a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the war. Thus I felt particularly let down by the last 50 pages or so, which he devotes to his post-war life of dull domesticity and service as a teacher in Cairo (prompting considerable condescension to the locals). The text is also peppered with British-isms, many of which aren’t covered by the brief glossary at the beginning of this edition, and by occasional lapses into other languages. That notwithstanding, this is a well-written account of an important period in a remarkable life.

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Review – 15 Minutes of Shame

Monica Lewinsky narrates this exploration of the often-disastrous consequences of unintentionally getting caught up in controversies, especially in the age of social media. The production provides excellent background information about how the system works. My sole misgiving about this is that the case studies seemed oddly off point. The first guy was making money reselling on Amazon, a pastime he might easily have avoided, especially when it drew him into the middle of the hoarding and profiteering scandals of the COVID pandemic. The second subject tells a better story, the only problem being that he would likely have told the same story as a cover if he’d been malicious rather than careless. The final example – and the saddest of the three – was in fact minding her own business when she ended up in the crosshairs of internet scum. But she wasn’t being shamed for anything. She was being attacked for being Black, which was both true and not shameful. Though I appreciated the information and analysis, I’d love to see this remade with a different set of demonstrations. Mildly amusing

Review – The Exorcism

 When did horror movies turn so damn mopey? Probably around the same time a casting call for “corpulent and dull” got the attention of Russel Crowe’s agent. This is a fictionalized “making of” adaptation of The Exorcist, with scary replaced by strange. For example, the protagonist horrifies his long-suffering 16-year-old daughter (played by 25-year-old Ryan Simpkins) by pulling a Verne Troyer in the lobby of their apartment building. Is he possessed by a demon? Has he fallen off the wagon? Is he gripped by PTSD from being molested by a priest as a child? After an hour and a half of this, I honestly didn’t care. See if desperate

Review – The 800

Action movie meets propaganda picture in this telling of the Thermopylae-esque tale of Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1937. A small cadre of (mostly) brave soldiers fight the cruel, relentless enemy for possession of a factory, gradually winning support from the residents of the British protectorate across the river. Though the storytelling is ham-handed, production values are high and slow points are rare. Mildly amusing

Book Review – Art of Atari

Art Of Atari by Tim Lapetino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When video games first hit the market – especially via consoles for home use – their marketing was almost as important as their technology. Often the games themselves were so rudimentary that they weren’t much fun without adding a little imagination. Pictures in ads and on boxes supplied the visual storytelling that could transform a handful of blocky pixels moving around on a screen into space battles, Olympic sports, and a host of other engaging pursuits. Thus the title subject is a particularly interesting point in the history of art and tech, given Atari’s creation of the 2600 cartridge-based game system (among other key moments in the early years of video gaming). Though the pictures are naturally the stars of the show, the text also supplies good background information. I admit I would have liked more specificity about dates and fewer passages devoted to corporate roll calls. Those small problems aside, this is an excellent presentation of the images that made the games worth playing.

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Review – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

I made the mistake of watching this back to back with the original, which served to accent the utter charmlessness of the sequel. Rather than a cohesive story, this is more of an assemblage of inside jokes and other sub-references. Typical of the experience is the musical number: Harry Belafonte gives way to an awkwardly-choreographed and far too long lip sync to “MacArthur Park.” Between the odd bits of improv and dancing around absent cast members from the first one, there just isn’t enough to make this entertaining. See if desperate

Book Review – Strange Weather

Strange Weather by Joe Hill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This collection of four novellas gets off to a reasonably good start, but it goes downhill from there. Though there wasn’t much to “Snapshot,” it was entertaining enough (other than the protagonist’s weight-based self loathing). “Loaded” was absolutely not what I needed to read in the wake of the 2024 elections. “Aloft,” though the opposite of its predecessor in many ways, was also hard to get through. I’d previously read the graphic novel adaptation of “Rain” (lured in by Zoe Thorogood’s art), but I decided to give it a try anyway. When I got to the part about the dying cat, I called it done. Also though I feel it’s unfair to critique Hill’s work by comparing it to his dad’s writing, the structural similarities between this and Different Seasons are a little hard to ignore.

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Review – Chiefsaholic

Xaviar Babudar had it all: a fanatical love of the Kansas City Chiefs, an active social media presence, a powerful passion for high stakes gambling, and a willingness to rob banks to fund his habits. Stir in a bail jump followed by a cross-country chase, and you’ve got enough for a two hour documentary, more or less. Mildly amusing

Book Review – Napoleon’s Hemorrhoids

Napoleon's Hemorrhoids: ... and Other Small Events That Changed History by Phil Mason
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As quirky, bite-sized histories go, this one’s reasonably good. The perspective is British, which US-based readers may find a bit parochial in the chapters on politics and sports. And here and there entries depend more heavily on rumor than established historical fact. Still, it’s a fun read about moments in which relatively small events led to much larger consequences.

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Review – Mascots

I almost skipped this one, in part because I’m not currently a Netflix subscriber and in part because I’ve been unimpressed by the trajectory of Christopher Guest’s ensemble comedies. For Your Consideration was bad enough to make me swear off further efforts, but the assurances of someone I trust led me to give this one a try. I’m glad I did. This returns to the plot structure of Best in Show, only this time focusing on a sports mascot competition. The outre subject leads to some delightfully bizarre moments, and the cast doesn’t disappoint. Worth seeing