Johnny's Blog
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1 (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)
I’m a big fan of all things ASOIAF. I am an especially big fan of the Dunk and Egg novellas. When the show was announced, I was a little skeptical of starting another series based on uncompleted works. Problems could still arise in the future, but so far the show is a hit. Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell bring chemistry and charisma to their roles as Dunk and Egg. The show is full of heart and humor that’s sorely lacking in the other Game of Thrones spinoff. The second novella is a bit slower than the first, so I won’t be surprised to see a few tweaks in the story for season 2.
The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell
America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin
Some Thoughts, 2026-02-19
Some thoughts I have about recent events and news stories:
- South Korea sentenced their former leader to life imprisonment for attempting an insurrection. The United Kingdom arrested a former prince for his involvement with Epstein. Meanwhile, there is zero accountability for the rich and powerful in America.
- Trump will try to rig the midterms. Plans are already forming.
- Trump signed an executive order to ramp up the production of a cancer-causing agent found in the popular weed killer Roundup. Every action he takes makes America a worse place to live.
- Tesla’s robotaxis crash at a rate four times higher than humans. I think autonomous vehicles are part of our future, but it’s no surprise Tesla is cutting corners at the risk of everyone’s safety.
- Some Republicans are considering joining Democrats on a constitutional amendment to give Congress the power to reject Trump’s pardons. The power to pardon is too much for one individual to control. Andrew Johnson abused the power, and so is Trump. Nothing will change on that front any time soon.
- Ring is building a surveillance dragnet across America. You don’t have to own one yourself to be vulnerable. The United States is increasingly becoming a police state.
- In 2021, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a tax exemption for data centers. The deal is expected to cost the commonwealth $2 billion in revenue by 2031. There is something wrong with a country that so readily embraces such a resource-depleting, cancer-causing industry.
- Max Muncy signed another extension with the Dodgers. Max must really love LA. He has repeatedly left money on the table by signing team-friendly contract extensions.
- The Dodgers traded LHP Anthony Banda to the Twins for international bonus space. A deal of this sort was expected after the Dodgers DFA’d Banda last week.
- Utility player Kiké Hernández signed a one-year deal to return to LA. No surprise. Kiké is injured, so it’s likely he starts the season on the 60-day IL to open up roster space.
Some Thoughts, 2026-02-10
Some thoughts I have about recent events and news stories:
- Donald Trump is racist. Always has been.
- Less than 14% of those arrested by ICE in Trump’s 1st year back in office had violent criminal records. ICE’s actions have never been about stemming violence. It has always been about terrorizing blue-voting communities.
- J.D. Vance took 14 planes to Italy. His motorcade is so large, athletes are having difficulties reaching events on-time. Vance is no stranger to excess. In his first seven months in the VP office, he took eight vacations.
- Europe is thriving. Europeans experience more vacations, shorter work weeks, better health outcomes, greater equality, and lower carbon emissions than Americans.
- Speed limiters are now mandatory in all new EU cars. This system will save lives.
- Speed cameras work exceptionally well. They generate fines and drastically reduce speeding.
- The Dodgers lost Andy Ibáñez via waiver claim. His signing perplexed me at the time.
- The Dodgers claimed Ben Rortvedt off waivers after losing him earlier this offseason. The vet catcher is without minor league options, so I expect LA to try and clear him through waivers again before the season begins.
- Lefty Anthony Banda was DFA’d. Considering the depth the Dodgers have in the left-handed reliever department, this move doesn’t surprise me. I will be surprised, however, if another team doesn’t offer at least cash considerations to acquire him.
- The Pirates have added Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, and now Marcell Ozuna to their lineup this offseason. Pittsburgh still needs a third baseman, but overall that offense is going to be much improved from last season. The defense is a whole other story.
Andor, Season 2 (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2)
Sci-fi/fantasy at its best. It’s scary how well it echoes real life. I love how suspenseful the show can be despite knowing (roughly) how it’s going to end. When Andor was first announced, I don’t think anyone thought it was a good idea. Turns out it’s the best thing Star Wars has done since the original trilogy.
My biggest gripe with a show like this is that to get the full experience you have to be caught up on so many other Star Wars movies and shows that came before it.
Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty
The Catch (⭐⭐⭐⭐)
This is a 128-page Slough House novella. Milkman-to-spies John Bachelor is tasked with hunting down an AWOL client who possesses incriminating photos of a member of the royal family. Herron avoids mentioning him by name, but this story is clearly inspired by Prince Andrew’s illicit deeds. It’s a good novella. The story never goes where you’re expecting.
Death by Lightning (⭐⭐⭐⭐)
Title: Death by Lightning (2025)
Show runner: Mike Makowsky
Starring: Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Shannon, Nick Offerman
IMDB rating: 7.7
My rating: 4 out of 5
My thoughts: It’s a charming miniseries based on the Candace Millard book Destiny of the Republic. Much like his roles in Succession and Stonehouse, Macfadyen stars as an ambitious idiot, however the actor is a touch too charming and makes the assassin Guiteau appear far too sympathetic. The series took a little too much artistic license in my opinion. Arthur was neither a thug nor a drunk. Likewise, Guiteau didn’t have all of those encounters with the major players.
📚 Best Books of 2025
After reading several best-of-2025 book lists, I decided to make a list of titles that caught my eye. So now I am sharing that list here. I’m not including descriptions because there are too many books, all of which are nonfiction. These titles mostly come from four lists: New York Public Library, Kings County Public Library, NPR, and Five Books. Here are the books:
- Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple
- We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore
- A History of the World in Six Plagues by Edna Bonhomme
- Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchinson
- King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson
- An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Civilization to Independence by Zeinab Badawi
- The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda by Nathalia Holt
- The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland by Michelle Young
- One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
- Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing by Lili Taylor
- The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 by Rick Atkinson
- The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery by Siddharth Kara
- The Killing Fields of East New York: The First Subprime Mortgage Scandal, a White-Collar Crime Spree, and the Collapse of an American Neighborhood by Stacy Horn
- The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple
- Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America by Bridget Read
- Recipes from the American South by Michael W. Twitty
- Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service edited by Michael Lewis
- American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation by Jarvis R. Givens
- The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
- Strata: Stories from Deep Time by Laura Poppick
- Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman
- Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith
- Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
- Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden
- Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World by Justin Marozzi
- Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown
- Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing
- The Burning Earth: A History by Sunil Amrith
- Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance by Bronwen Everill
- Your Life Is Manufactured: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better by Tim Minshall
For more suggestions, Book Riot has compiled a comprehensive list of best-of-2025 book lists. I hope you found something to add to your book pile! Happy reading!
Donald Trump is a horrible human being. I know this isn’t a new development, but it can’t be said enough.
