In lieu of the recent arrest in Sacramento, California of the East Area Rapist/Original Nightstalker/Golden State Killer and the hopes that the genealogical studies that led to his arrest could be used to discover the identity of the Zodiac Killer, I felt compelled to read about another serial killer who seemingly retired from terrorizing his community so that he could live a normal life. Both EAR/ONS and BTK because it’s utterly mind-boggling that this happens, and runs counter to the narrative usually put out there […]
A man grows what he can, and tends it.
I’ve always read King with a bit of detached bemusement. I love his writing for the languid ease with which he captures the chronic normalcy of everyday life in a small town. When people tell me they don’t read King because he’s too scary, I’m always a little surprised that that’s the takeaway people have. I’ve never been scared by his books. But his characters….. His characterization is amazing, and the world he populates with those characters leaves me in awe. To that point, I […]
Apply directly to the forehead
John Scalzi is the Brandon Sanderson of science fiction. He’s prolific, can keep multiple series going simultaneously, and everything he writes is interesting and distinct. This is the second book in his Lock In series (I read the first one two years ago, and liked it a lot). I didn’t really do anything to refresh my memory of the series, but I never felt lost or in need of any reminders. I jumped right back into this world without issue. One percent of the world’s […]
Going in, I expected truth. Coming out the other side, I think I just found a conspiracy theory.
I came into this book, after having read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow and a few other things that I can’t immediately recall, thinking that the basic premise of this book was an historical fact agreed upon by all knowledgeable people. The CIA helped funnel cocaine into American cities as a way of helping to fund the Contra’s in the 1980s. Whether this was all a concerted effort on the part of the white establishment to intentionally suppress African American agency is an issue […]