Blog

In which I briefly comment on the books I read each month, so a few years from now when I’m trying to remember one of them, I’ll be able to find it here. Since I’m a media omnivore, it also includes games, movies, and any other media of note that I engaged with.

Do we have similar tastes, or will you be questioning how we ever got connected? Let’s find out!

Books

The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult by Sol Smith

Some books you read, others you absorb, and I fully absorbed this one. While it didn’t answer every question I had, Smith’s insightful perspective, sense of humor, and numerous examples clarified a lot of things as I think about what neurodivergence means for me.

{STAR} Lucas Wars: The True Story of George Lucas and the Creation of Star Wars by Laurent Hopman and Renaud Roche; translated by Jeremy Melloul

Star Wars was my first and fondest childhood mindblower, and thanks to the Imaginary Worlds episode that brought it to my attention, I was pretty sure I’d enjoy this exploration of its creation through the lens of Lucas’ fight to get it made — and it delivered. That said, I was not expecting the last ~30 pages to have the same emotional impact as the first time I saw the movie. I literally cheered out loud at one point despite knowing what was about to happen!

Make a Zine: Start Your Own Underground Publishing Revolution by Joe Biel with Bill Brent

I finally found a copy of the Factsheet Five issue that had a review of my old zine, zuzu’s petals, thanks to eBay, and had recently been thinking about zines a lot in general when I decided to read this. It’s an entertaining refresher on zine-making from one of my favorite publishers that made me long for the old days of photocopiers and long-arm staplers — but also helped me appreciate my blog even more. I’m still kind of tempted to make something physical again, though; I just haven’t figured out what I care enough about to focus on yet.

{STAR} Sensory: Life on the Spectrum, An Autistic Comics Anthology edited by Bex Ollerton

Arranging 40 creators into a coherent flow is a tall order for any anthology, especially a varied mix of personal vignettes and explainers, but Ollerton pulls it off in this insightful and joyful collection. Comics are a perfect medium for communicating the different sensory aspects of autism to both neurotypical readers and those exploring a self-diagnosis, and this was a perfect complement to Sol Smith’s more “traditional” approach. Recommended!

Games

Tactical Breach Wizards (Steam)

The premise seemed a little goofy at first, but I was mainly interested in the tactical aspects and the fact that it was verified for my new Steam Deck. While the gameplay is fun and challenging, and it plays very well on the Deck — it turns out that the characters, story, and presentation are what really makes it worth playing. The latter is lowkey as slick as the Persona franchise, and I haven’t laughed out loud so often while playing a game in ages! I’m halfway through Act 4 and have enjoyed the plot twists and eclectic abilities of each character, and I would love to see a comic adaptation or animated series someday. Definitely not a live action movie, though!

Cult of the Lamb (Steam)

Another Steam Deck pick, its Saturday morning cartoons style hides a more complex game than I was expecting, so I bounced off it after about six hours when my cultists started dying from old age. It plays great on the Deck, but there are so many different mechanics to manage, I’m going to come back to it in the future on desktop and approach it more like Grim Dawn. In the meantime, I’m curious about its comic adaptation.

Grim Dawn (Steam)

I finished the main campaign — plowing through the final boss so easily that I didn’t realize it was the final boss! — and am casually playing through the first DLC, Ashes of Malmouth, as the Steam Deck has quickly become my primary gaming platform and this is better on desktop. Overall, I think the campaign stands toe-to-toe with Diablo IV’s, but I’m curious to see how progression feels moving forward as I’ve been more deliberate about upgrades and crafting in Grim Dawn than I was in DIV, partly because my build has been pretty stable for the past 20 levels ever since I got two great weapons to work around.

Word Play (Steam)

This has become my “relaxing” go-to on the Steam Deck, replacing Balatro (on Xbox), and I usually end most nights with a game before going to bed. I’ve beaten every level at least once except for Ultramarathon, but Legendary remains a replayable challenge because I’ve only beaten it once.

Movies & TV

Superman (Streaming)

I’ve always preferred Batman over Superman in every medium, and while I didn’t mind Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, I wasn’t invested in the Snyderverse. On the other hand, while the first Guardians of the Galaxy was unexpectedly entertaining, I quickly grew bored of James Gunn’s schtick by the third one and was in no rush to see his take on Superman or the rest of the DCU after tolerating The Suicide Squad. I went in with pretty low expectations, and he met them: mildly entertaining at times, with a nice touch of the kind of goofiness that makes DC different from Marvel — in the right hands. I understand why some people enjoyed it, but it confirmed that while Superman can be an interesting character, I’m just not a fan of Gunn’s approach to storytelling.

Scream VI (Streaming)

I had a random evening to myself and rather than reading or playing a game, I decided to finally watch this, mainly because I thought Scream V was a solid shift for the obnoxiously self-aware franchise, and moving the action to NYC seemed like it had some potential. Unfortunately, the overly convoluted plot twists were way too contrived, and I belatedly realized I’d never watched Scream IV, so its tenuous connection was lost on me. Similar to IV, I have no interest in the next one, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the next killers end up being the twins. It would be a similar twist to what they seemed to be hinting towards with Barrera, before Hollywood shenanigans killed that angle and they’re going back to centering (and presumably paying) Neve Campbell’s character instead.

Thirst (Streaming)

My film nerd son recommended this one and it was an interesting change of pace as I haven’t seen much Korean horror, and a priest becoming a reluctant vampire is a pretty intriguing concept. I hadn’t even seen the trailer, which is apparently misleading, so I’d suggest watching it cold like I did and enjoying the wild ride.

Sports

Gotham FC

As a hometown fan, the 1986 Mets are the only sports team I’d ever experienced a real championship with before Gotham FC’s legit underdog, worst-to-first run back in 2023. I just missed the Jets in 1969 and endured 20+ years of misery and Joe Namath hagiographies before I completely gave up on American football. I was briefly a Knicks fan in the early 90s, mainly because I didn’t like Michael Jordan, and never got into hockey. Meanwhile, the sport I didn’t even start following until 2014 has given me not one, but TWO championships — and not from the Red Bulls who gave me nothing but disappointment for ten years — all thanks to Gotham FC! Now I have to buy a new jersey because they’ll have two stars above the crest next season!

NOTE: Technically, the USWNT won the World Cup twice since I started following soccer, but club vs. country has gotten a lot more complicated in recent years, so I put them in a different category. Sports is always political, and never more so at the international level.

Your Notes?

If you’ve engaged with any of these, let me know what you thought. And if you have any related recommendations, drop ’em in the comments or on the socials! Some of you prefer email, which is cool, too. You do you!