Category: Micro-Reviews

Confession: When I saw that one of my top-five favorite writers in the whole wide world had written a memoir about fatherhood, I felt underwhelmed. O’Brien writes famously deep novels about war and morality and human frailty, not journals addressed to his kids. I should …

This isn’t the best hockey novel ever written (that title of course goes to BODYCHECK, by Steven Owad, ha), but it’s a close second. A crime in a small, hockey-mad town in Sweden sets the locals on edge and pits the residents against one another. …

People keep gifting me Stephen King books, and I keep feeling obligated to read them. In this case, I’m glad I did, even if the cover is cheese of the moldiest variety. This collection of short stories disposes of King’s slow-build storytelling style and gets …

This is my least-favorite novel by one of my most-favorite authors. It’s a near-future tale about a woman striving to bring down an all-powerful Google/Meta/Nvidia company that controls just about everything that everyone everywhere does. Our main character’s quest is simple: get a job at …

Nominated for a whopping 13 Oscars, this Spanish-language musical about a transitioning Mexican narco-boss has as many haters as it has supporters. Is it a good movie? Sort of. It’s watchable and engaging, but it fails on an essential level. The film’s compelling premise—a struggle …

Eight Oscar nominations suggest this film is a juggernaut. It kind of is—but only if you’re a fan of Bob Dylan’s music and of the village folk scene in the 1960s. The story follows a young Bobby Zimmerman’s rise from Midwestern Woodie Guthrie fanboy to …

Early in this novel, the narrator promises us the book will be a love story. In truth, it’s more of an attempted love story—a tale about a newly famous Black author who searches for meaning and understanding in an America that’s still wrestling with the …

The story of how America gained air superiority in World War II is of limited appeal to most readers. Gladwell, however, infuses the subject with energy, tension and personality. What could be a dry rehashing of tech developments and military strategy is in fact a …

While Calgary’s Bow River rises with a coming flood, local homeless man Shermeto takes a bad beating and ends up in the hospital. This brings his estranged daughter, Kendra, back into his world. What follows is part murder mystery and part literary meditation on life …

Here’s a novel about a group of people trying to navigate a Massachusetts suddenly populated with rabies-infected hordes. The premise isn’t new, but the difference here—what makes this story better than most zombie novels—is that the focus is on the characters, without shambling automatons and …