Only 1 book, albeit very long. It you're even a lukewarm fan of fantasy you should read the book. It's one of the most beautifully written fantasy novels you'll read, right up there with John Crowley's work.

Interesting, I had no idea this was even in the works. Not sure how this will turn out, but I'll definitely watch. One of my favorite fantasy novels of all time.

I think the Great Escape suffers by being associated with the stupid Blur vs. Oasis feud. The Great Escape's melancholy was easy to overlook between the twat-ish bickering between Gallagher and Albarn, and the glossy production values. The video to Country House certainly didn't help matters. I didn't fully…

or 'Best Days'

Yes they are! Add in Standing There and What the World is Waiting For and you've got what I think of as Side C to the debut album.

Would it? Second Coming had a few standouts but was largely mediocre. John Squire's subsequent output with the Seahorses and solo albums were even more forgettable. Squire pretty much wrote all the Stone Roses material so I see no reason for optimism that another Stone Roses album would be any better. Still, just…

I guess I'm an outlier, but I think the new album improves on Boys and Girls. Love the spaced out 70s soul vibe, the sophisticated vocal harmonies, and more adventurous arrangements.

Surely I can't be the only person who loves "The Fake Headlines"?

Here you go! http://www.avclub.com/artic…

Last year's Electric Lady was pretty damn amazing.

The food Blais chose for his pantry was perfectly fine. He had 2 or 3 "molecular gastronomy" things that the chefs were perfectly free to ignore. Mussels, bacon, chorizo, shrimp, peppers, fish — those are hardly difficult ingredients for a chef to make a great dish with. He basically gave them a paella starter kit.

I think Gregory (and Katsuji for that matter) clearly saw that he was on the weaker team and adjusted accordingly. By this point in Top Chef's lifespan, all the chefs are well aware of the pitfalls of restaurant wars.

From the description on the flojuggler page:
"While most menstrual tracking apps out there go for the 'trying to get pregnant' crowd this application focuses more on 'I know one or more women and I want to know if they're on their periods'. These women could be family, lovers, team members, pets, coworkers, the list…

Hugh's recap/blogs on the Top Chef website are pure gold this year.

Stacy's one of those contestants that's right on the edge between annoying as hell and awesome — but she seems to have landed squarely on the awesome side for me.

The catch with modernist cooking techniques is that if you haven't mastered the fundamentals, it's not going to help and will more likely make the dish worse — i.e. Aaron's jello-shot consistency "jam." I have to admit, Aaron's unique blend of douchey bro-titude, general incompetence, and dubious haberdashery has…

Retroactively, Bandwagonesque has meant more to me over the years than Nevermind.
As an aside, '91 was such an insane year for music. I would argue that Bandwagonesque wasn't even the best power pop album from '91 — I'd call it a tie between Girlfriend and International Pop Overthrow.

I'd argue the opposite, that Door was Kiss Me without the extra filler, but understand how someone could prefer the more expansive Kiss Me. Those two albums are the best at showcasing the Cure's full range which is why I'd put them ahead of Disintegration which is great but a bit one dimensional.

What's great about Head on the Door is that it touches on all the best versions of the Cure in a concise package (as opposed to the overlong Kiss Me…)
It's got gothy/mopey Cure (Sinking, Kyoto Song), pop Cure (In Between Days, Close to Me), the underrated psychedelic Cure (Six Different Ways, The Blood) and the…

Edge of Tomorrow is terrific and was unexpectedly hilarious at times. I wouldn't say Cruise is good so much as he was perfectly cast for the role. To his credit, Cruise has shown a willingness to take roles like Edge of Tomorrow that directly play off of his overconfident smarminess (see e.g. Magnolia, Tropic…