media update: September

Asterisks denote something I particularly enjoyed or found especially worthy of my time; double asterisks are reserved for the creme de la creme.  As always, your mileage may vary.

FICTION

1. Jigsaw by Jonathan Kellerman:  Dr. Alex Delaware and his homicide detective buddy Milo Sturgis investigate when the dismembered body of a former cop is found in a freezer.  A quick and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC!  This book is scheduled for publication on February 3rd, 2026.

2025 TOTAL SO FAR: 17

NONFICTION

1. The Man No One Believed by Joshua Sharpe:  A deep dive into the 1985 murders of Harold and Thelma Swain at their rural Georgia church.

2025 TOTAL SO FAR: 9

MANGA/GRAPHIC NOVELS

1. Cat + Gamer* vol. 8 (final volume) by Wataru Nadatani 

2. Super-Dimensional Love Gun by Shintaro Kago:  This is one of the grossest things I've ever read, which is really saying something!  It's a collection of stories with grotesque themes (one example: a woman collects everything her crush touches, with unfortunate consequences for his new girlfriend).  I definitely don't recommend it for anyone with a weak stomach; I had a difficult time finishing it and I'm hardly a horror noob.  

2. Adabana by Non

3. Hi, It's Me Again by Asher Perlman

2025 TOTAL SO FAR: 12 volumes of manga and 6 graphic novels

MOVIES

1. Together:  A couple (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) take codependency to a whole new level when their bodies start fusing together after a night in a mysterious cave.  It's nowhere near as gross as The Substance, but stay far away if you don't like body horror because it still gets gooey.

2. A Working Man:  Levon (Jason Statham), a former soldier now working in construction, puts his former skills to good use when his boss's daughter is abducted.  Look, the thing about a lot of Jason Statham movies is that they ain't necessarily gonna have a coherent plot, but Jason will always deliver the goods.

3. Warfare:  An incredibly intense movie about an attempt to rescue severely wounded soldiers during the Iraq war.  Based on a true story.

4. The Thursday Murder Club:  A group of seniors at a retirement home solve cold cases in their spare time, but then a fresh case hits close to home.  

5. Elio:  The title character is an orphaned young boy who wants to be abducted by aliens, but when he gets his wish, he gets caught up in an intergalactic conflict.  Hardly one of Pixar's masterpieces, but better than I thought it would be.

6. Superman*:  The Man of Steel tries to stop Lex Luthor from starting a major war.  Enjoyable, and although writer-director James Gunn had to rein in his notoriously irreverent sense of humor a bit, it still has some funny lines and scenes.

7. Ballerina*:  An elite assassin (Ana de Armas) seeks revenge for her father's death in this action thriller set in the John Wick universe.  The plot is standard revenge thriller, but man, the action is top notch!  It's gory, innovative, and a lot of fun.  I'm sorry it tanked at the box office, but I hope people catch it on streaming or DVD because it deserves an audience.

8. Elvis:  This biopic about Elvis Presley spends a bit too much time focusing on his predatory manager (an oddly hammy Tom Hanks) and glosses over Elvis' grooming of Priscilla, but it's visually stylish and features an astonishingly good performance by Austin Butler, who not only nails the look and voice but the vulnerability.

9. M3GAN 2.0:  The title character, a self-aware android created as a child's companion, returns with her trademark attitude to take on a new threat.  To paraphrase G, it's as fun as it is goofy, and it is very, very goofy.

10. Kandahar:  An undercover agent and his translator have to travel through hostile territory to reach an extraction point.  A lot more serious than you'd expect considering Gerard Butler is in it (and that is NO shade to Gerard Butler, whose work I generally enjoy quite a bit, but he does tend to make, shall we say, more popcorn-y flicks).

2025 TOTAL SO FAR: 72