A Blog of Books and Musicals

If you’ve visited this blog before, you definitely know how much I love the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo. It is an endlessly delightful series with some of the most complicated, compelling characters you’re like to come across. Set in a world with a complex magical and political system, Six of Crows follows a group of young thieves and criminal...

Every once in a while you read a book that is so deeply emblematic of its genre that it reinforces your opinion of the genre so emphatically that it feels less like an individual book and more like a collection of the tropes most associated with books like it. Lake Effect by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney started off okay but eventually hit basically every typical plot...

I didn’t read nearly enough fantasy in 2025, so in 2026 I decided to finally push some magical books to the top of my TBR. One such book was the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud, which my sister-in-law had recommended to me. While I’m a strict no-DNFer when it comes to individual books, I have no such qualms with a series. If book one doesn’t catch me, I’ll set...

July was a pretty mixed month for reading. I read two books that I despised, one that I expected to love but which disappointed me, and discovered one great new one. I also read two very fun additions to series I already counted amongst my favorites. I also also listened to music obsessively this month, so I’ve added some shoutouts to a few cast recordings and albums for the ...

A few weeks ago I took a rare trip to the movie theatre and saw The Sheep Detectives on the strength of all the rave reviews from both critics online and people I knew in real life. It was one of those stories that could have gone either of two ways. Either it was going to be absolutely amazing or incredibly stupid. Such wild swings as sheep solve a murder a...