February 2026 Review of Reviews, Part One

 

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.

Connecting the Dots in South Minneapolis: Floyd, Good, Pretti, and More

 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/chescaleigh

If you're not familiar with Minneapolis, you may not realize how close these three events are geographically, namely, the murders of George Floyd in 2020, Renee Good on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti just yesterday (Jan. 24).

My Grandma lived at 31st and Chicago when I was a kid (seven blocks from the corner where Floyd took his last breath). My Grandma's church is around the corner from where Good was murdered in her car, and I have family members who regularly buy donuts at the store Pretti was gunned down in front of. I visit Minneapolis at least once or twice a year.

MLK Day 2026: Hierarchical Chaos or Equitable Community?

 

MLK Day Parade and March, Chattanooga, TN (Jan. 19, 2026)

Since last year’s MLK Day post was called “Where Do We Go From Here?” I thought I’d continue alluding to King’s 1967 book by calling this one “Chaos or Community?” 

New Year's 2026: Stuff I Saw On My Walk That a Normal Person Probably Wouldn’t Take a Picture Of

I had to postpone my traditional New Year’s Day walk for the best possible reason: New Year’s D&D with friends! So I took my New Year's Day walk today, Jan. 2. 

On this walk I like to go down some streets I’ve never walked down before, thinking of this quote from Ursula Le Guin's introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness:

In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we’re done with it, we may find—if it’s a good novel—that we’re a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we never crossed before. But it’s very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.

While I was on the walk I hatched the idea for a photo essay called “Stuff I Saw On My Walk That a Normal Person Probably Wouldn’t Take a Picture Of.” Here it is without further elaboration!

A Quasi-Scrooge Enjoys Holiday Horror 2025

 

I donʻt hate Christmas. I really donʻt. But I wouldnʻt say I love it, either.

For several years, Iʻve been watching holiday horror movies. Does this make me a "quasi-Scrooge" as I referred to myself a few years ago?

Iʻm all for peace on Earth and goodwill toward humanity (at least more than the people who run the world these days). But I find myself ambivalent this time of year. And since horror is a genre that allows me to deal with the fact that life isnʻt all puppy dogs and rainbows, it makes sense to me that one way to face my ambivalence about the holidays is to watch movies about homicidal Santas and eldritch elves. 

Holiday Review of Reviews 2025

 

Dear reader, I haven't been posting book reviews here on the blog as much as I would like the last few months. I've still been writing some reviews over on Goodreads, but I haven't even been keeping up over there. It has been a busy few months, and the energy for blogging has often been elusive.

I could keep castigating myself, or I could just post the reviews! 

After I post this, I have two more reviews to finish of Death's End by Cixin Liu and Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King. I may also return to a holiday tradition from my past: reading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings! I may even read A Christmas Carol, which I've been thinking about the last few years in line with my tradition of watching holiday horror movies.

Anyway, here are my reviews of The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, Books of Blood, Vol. 3 by Clive Barker, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, Speculative Whiteness by Jordan S. Carroll, The Witching Hour by Anne Rice, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, The Fall of Gilead (graphic novel inspired by Stephen King's Dark Tower), and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.

Happy Holidays to you and all sentient beings! May all beings be jolly!

Random Thoughts, Part 28: Super Sized and Super Random

 

Dear reader, I have been remiss. I have not posted in my Random Thoughts series in almost seven months. I have been doing a lot of random thinking since then. And I have collected even more random funny images. So without further ado, enjoy this Super Sized and Super Random collection of my Random Thoughts!