Review by KC Carlson Holly Jolly: Celebrating Christmas Past in Pop Culture is a really fun book, especially since it’s designed very well, with lots of great (and possibly long-forgotten) graphics starring such Festive Folks as Babar the Elephant, Gumby and Pokey, Santa Claus (and his helper, Batman. Wha…?), Frank Sinatra, a whole gaggle of Scrooges, I Love Lucy, Linus and Charlie Brown (of course), and what seems like hundreds of other touchstone holiday characters. It’s written by Mark Voger, […]

In my continuing habit of rediscovering fandoms about ten years after the fact, I started reading Chicks Dig Time Lords, a 2010 collection of short essays by women in the Doctor Who fandom. It’s a pretty neat, thorough overview, and it gave me some ideas of conventions to aim for once that’s a possibility again. (I also discovered that the fan internet hangout around this time was LiveJournal.) But what really struck me was getting to the piece by Tammy […]

I have just finished reading Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, and I had to tell people how wonderful it is. Luc is the mid-20s son of two former rock stars, although he hasn’t ever known his father. His parentage means that he’s in the tabloids whenever he does anything embarrassing in public, though, and that’s made him jaded and insecure. Oliver is a gorgeous ethical vegetarian barrister who nevertheless hasn’t had relationship success, because he puts too much stress on […]

Since I’d just rewatched the Doctor Who episodes featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker, I was looking forward to reading analysis of that series, particularly around the rather significant change of making the character a woman for the first time in over fifty years. Unfortunately, The Binge Watcher’s Guide to Doctor Who: A History of Doctor Who and the First Female Doctor is unsatisfying, slapdash, and self-indulgent. There are four main sections to the book: Random bits on […]

Under the Cape: An Anthology of Superhero Romance, although a perfectly fine collection of prose stories, illustrates why so many new superhero concepts have a hard time getting off the ground. I was curious to check out this diverse group of tales. There are eleven in total, grouped as six “sweet” and five with “heat” (which mark how explicit the sex acts are). Five are male/female; four female/female; and two male/male. (You can see the breakdown at the publisher’s website.) […]

Conventionally Yours is an adorable teen gay romance that takes place during a road trip to a gaming convention. Conrad and Alden regularly face off playing a collectible card game as part of programming on a YouTube channel. They don’t get along, with different styles and personalities. Both have challenges in their lives that they’re unwilling to reveal, and both are struggling with family pressure. When they’re given the chance to compete in a national tournament, they wind up driving […]

I just discovered the Black Archive series of books about Doctor Who. There’s one per story (for the ones they’ve covered so far), ranging across the entire gamut of Doctors, with a new one coming every month. Unlike many books on that topic, these works don’t talk as much about who made the episode, instead analyzing the content of the story, the themes and associations. Based on the one I read — the one by Ian Millsted about Black Orchid, […]

In another time, Tokyo: Day by Day would be an amazing guidebook to use to prepare for a visit to one of the world’s most vibrant, exciting cities. These days, it’s more of a wish book and a reminder of what it was like to be able to travel. Either way, the book promises “356 Things to See and Do!”, and it provides. Each day is a page that highlights a restaurant, a unique store, a museum (for snowglobes! or […]