I have been reading books over the last several weeks, but I haven't been posting reviews. In my defense, the world is a madhouse of suffering and injustice (but also resistance) and the semester started last month. This all makes me kinda tired.
Nonetheless, out of my desire to serve you, dear readers, and to close some browser tabs I've had open way too long, I'm going to post a review of reviews in a few (two? three?) parts. We'll see where the month takes me.
Who knows? Maybe reading books and posting reviews and generally continuing to be a person is still important in these times?
This time I'm covering Deaths' End by Cixin Liu, Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien, and On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Graphic edition with Nora Krug).
If you're into that sort of thing, you can follow me and/or find all these reviews on Goodreads.
Death's End by Cixin Liu
Dec. 25: I need to think about this, but while I continue to love the wild SF ideas, this may be my least favorite of the series. But it may also be the book I understand the least, so let me think about it.
Feb. 26: Coming back to this several weeks later... I lost the thread. I had some thoughts, but now I don't feel like I have a full review in me.
Instead of a review, I can recommend some excellent discussions on the podcast Philosophers in Space. The hosts get into most of what I liked and didn't like about the book, often more deeply than I would have in this review. Check out both of their episodes!
Death's End and Who Did Nothing Wrong?
Death's End and Daoist Ethics, Part 2
See also my full reviews of the first two books: I really loved the first one, the second less so.
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
My quest to read all of Stephen King's books continues with Dolores Claiborne! This has to be one of King's more tightly focused novels (much like Misery and The Dead Zone). It's also a 300 page narration in the main character's Mainer colloquialisms that is as engrossing as anything King has written. Did Dolores Claiborne murder her husband during an eclipse? Did she murder her boss decades later? Does it matter? See also the excellent movie starring Kathy Bates, which takes a slightly different turn.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Several years ago, I listened to a podcast about A Christmas Carol as science fiction ("A Visit by Three Ghosts" from Imaginary Worlds), and since Scrooged is one of my favorite Christmas movies, I figured I should read this some holiday. The public library had it on the shelves last week, and here I am. Having read this, now I can comment on how close various adaptations are. Scrooged is actually pretty close to the beats of the story, but A Muppet Christmas Carol is even more faithful to the story. Now, if only billionaires in the 21st century would be visited by three ghosts!
The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Dec. 2025: It has been a long time since I read this, so I figured it was time to reprise my former tradition of reading the Lord of the Rings during winter break. It's weird to review an absolute classic like this. Still, I watch the Peter Jackson movies a fair amount (more often than I read the books, anyway), so it's always interesting to see the differences and similarities. The movies use a lot of Tolkien's language, but not always exactly where he put it. I love Tom Bombadil and how leisurely the first part of the book is, but I also think they made the right choice to speed things up for the movie. Reading Tolkien and watching the movies are just different experiences, and that's okay. (The animated versions from the 70's and 80's are yet again different experiences!)
One thing that stuck out upon this reading is that most of the characters are xenophobic to some extent. Obviously there's the long feud between Dwarves and Elves, but most Hobbits barely even trust Hobbits from another Farthing in the Shire! Maybe a deeper theme is that character growth comes from challenging their xenophobia and expanding their fellowships. At least up to a point--nobody should trust the pure evil of Sauron. Maybe there are limits to fellowship, even if both our world and Middle-Earth could use a lot more of it.
PS: I was thrilled to be able to watch the movies in theaters again in January!
PPS: The photo above is the edition I read, the same books I got for Christmas in the 80's. These well-worn paperbacks are some of my oldest friends.
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Graphic edition with Nora Krug)
I've been meaning to read this for a few years, having read Jason Stanley's How Fascism Works last year. Unfortunately this is still a timely read for 2026. I don't do a lot of graphic novels, but I saw this on the shelf at my public library, and figured, why not? The graphic novel probably helps to slow down and digest the ideas a bit.
The focus is very much on 20th century Europe and contemporary USA (another longer book might have branched out more), but there are some valuable insights here. There are the ideas a lot of people talk about (like "don't obey in advance"), but I also appreciated the conclusion's focus on two bad uses of history (inevitability and eternality, or the idea that a certain future is inevitable or that a certain false vision of the past is worth returning to).
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