Who the Hell is Pansy O’Hara? The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World’s Best-Loved Books by Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy is the kind of book I find irresistible. It answers questions like: “What manuscript when stacked up was taller than its author?” Answer: Gone With the Wind AND 4 foot 9 inch Margaret Mitchell. Bond and Sheedy supply plenty of cool, quirky facts about their 50 books. You’ll find this book addicting.

I really need to stay out of Sam’s Club. I found this set for $49.88. AMAZON wants $107.99 for the same thing. Now I just have to find time to watch all 117 episodes!

It’s hard to believe there hasn’t been a definitive history of American Women Writers written until this volume by Elaine Showalter. A Jury of Her Peers is a mixed bag. The strongest chapter for me was “Against Women’s Writing: Wharton and Cather.” The weakest chapters are the last few on women writers of the 1970s to the 1990s. It seemed to me that Showalter just ran out of gas in her 600 page tome.

These three adventures are basically low-rent Indiana Jones movies. Noah Wyle plays Flynn Carsen, an obsessive/compulsive nerdy student with 22 college degrees. Carsen is hired by the Library to retrieve the powerful mystical artifact, The Spear of Destiny. Of course, Carsen has to battle the Serpent Brotherhood, the Bad Guys who want to rule the world with the power of the Spear. In his second adventure, Carsen searches for King Solomon’s mines and clues to his father’s past. In the latest adventure, The Judas Chalice Carsen takes on vampires and former KGB operatives who want to form an army of the undead. These made-for-TNT movies are escapist fluff. GRADE: C+ (for all three)

Watchmen takes place on an alternate Earth where it’s 1985, Richard Nixon is President, and caped crime fighters are “retired” by legislation. But suddenly, one of the former crime fighters, The Comedian, is murdered. The murder is somehow connected to the growing prospect of nuclear war. Three of the crime fighters, Rorschach, Night Owl II, and Silk Spectre II, attempt to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, the only super hero, Dr. Manhattan, leaves Earth for Mars which triggers a global crisis. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, the movie is too long. Director Zach Snyder gets credit for making a movie based on a book that was thought unfilmable. But Snyder also gets demerits for being a little too slavish to the book. This is not so much a movie as a documentary. GRADE: B-.

Back in the 1980s, Donald E. Westlake signed a four-book contract with a publisher with the condition that his true identity not be revealed. In his Introduction, Westlake relates what went wrong and why there are only four books in this series. The books were supposed to be written by “Samuel Holt,” an actor who plays the TV-detective, Packard. When a Sam Hold look-alike is murdered, the real Sam Holt is the prime suspect. To convince the police of his innocence, Sam Holt needs to find the real killer. I’ve read almost everything Donald E. Westlake ever wrote. He never wrote a bad book. The folks at Felony & Mayhem should be praised for returning these obscure Westlake titles back to print. The first three Sam Holt books are One of Us is Wrong, I Know a Trick Worth Two of That, and What I Tell You Three Times is False. If you’re a Westlake fan, don’t miss these blends of mystery and humor mixed with sly critiques of the television industry.

This is another bargain: three movies for $13.99. I’m a fan of Scarlett Johansson. After you watch The Girl With the Pearl Earring, A Good Woman, and An American Rhapsody you’ll be a fan, too.

I’m a fan of R&B so when I read positive reviews of Pot of Gold (“Alice Russell is the new Amy Winehouse!” blah, blah) I picked up a cheap copy at Best Buy. However, it took me to Song 10 (of 11) on this CD to find a song I liked. There’s no doubt that Alice Russell has the pipes, but the choice of material is very weak. The most annoying song is a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s exuberant “Crazy.” Alice Russell sings it as if it were a funeral dirge. I’ll be looking for Alice Russell’s next CD. Hopefully, the material will be as strong as her voice. This Pot of Gold is mere dross. GRADE: C.

WATCHMEN: THE COMPLETE MOTION COMIC is one of the odder DVDs you’ll ever see. This is like watching a PowerPoint presentation of every frame of all 12 chapters of Watchmen complete with narration and music. And all this takes about 30 minutes per chapter. You can read Watchmen in far less time than watching six hours of this slide show. Included in this package is a voucher for $7.50 for the real Watchmen movie which opens Friday, March 6. This is for hardcore fans only. However, if you must have it, Best Buy has it on sale for $19.99 this week.

I think Thomas E. Ricks is the only one who knows what’s really going on in Iraq. His brilliant analysis, The Gamble, shows how the military finally abandoned their bankrupt “kill and capture” strategy and converted to a counterinsurgency approach with the Surge. Ricks believes we’re only halfway through our involvement in Iraq. We have at least six more years of counterinsurgency warfare ahead of us. Ricks shows us how the Army works and how a change in leadership to General David Petraeus avoided complete failure in Iraq. However, as a result of the Surge, we are now committed to fighting a “Long War” in Iraq that might last for decades. If you doubt that, just look at our military involvement in Korea: 50 years and counting. If you want to understand the Iraq War, Ricks will enlighten you.