If you’re a fan of the old Gold Medal paperbacks, you should seek out ‘NADA by Daniel Boyd. “Daniel Boyd” is the alter-ego of DAPA-EM stalwart Dan Stumpf, Hamlet expert and vintage film maven. ‘NADA blends Nazis, greed, double-dealing, mayhem, and gold into a satisfying mix. To learn more, go to www.casperianbooks.com for more details. ‘NADA will be published on September 1, 2010.

Most readers know Georges Simenon’s great Maigret mysteries. And some have read Simenon’s stand-alone novels. But, I’m guessing few people have read Simenon’s fictional autobiography, Pedigree. Pedigree is Georges Simenon’s longest (560 pages!) and most compelling novel. “In the early 1940s, Simenon began work on a memoir of his Belgian childhood. He showed the initial pages to André Gide, who urged him turn them into a novel. The result was, Simenon later remarked, a book in which everything is true but nothing is accurate.” Simeon wrote Pedigree so his own son, Marc, would understand the bizarre circumstances that shaped his life. If you’re a fan of Maigret or have any interest in Georges Simenon, don’t miss this great book!

Steve Winwood’s work over the past 40+ years has been remastered and repackaged in this wonderful 4-CD collection. Winwood first made his mark with the Spencer Davis Group. Then the super group, Blind Faith. Then Traffic. Cast your eyes on the list of songs below and see all the great hits Winwood has been a part of. Later, Winwood pursued a solo career and produced more terrific music. These remastered songs never sounded so good. If you’re a fan of this music, REVOLUTIONS is a must-buy!
PLAY LIST:
Disc: 1
1. Keep On Running
2. Somebody Help Me
3. Gimme Some Lovin’
4. I’m A Man
5. Paper Sun
6. Coloured Rain
7. No Face No Name No Number
8. Heaven Is in Your Mind
9. Smiling Phases
10. Dear Mr Fantasy
11. Pearly Queen
12. Forty Thousand Headmen
13. No Time To Live
14. Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring
15. Shanghai Noodle Factory
16. Medicated Goo
17. Withering Tree
18. Well Alright
19. Can’t Find My Way Home
20. Presence Of The Lord
Disc: 2
1. Stranger To Himself
2. John Barleycorn (Must Die)
3. Glad
4. Freedom Rider
5. Empty Pages
6. The Low Spark Of The High-Heeled Boys
7. Rainmaker
8. Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory
9. Something New
10. Walking In The Wind
11. When The Eagle Flies
12. Mozambique
Disc: 3
1. Vacant Chair
2. While you See A Chance
3. Arc Of A Diver
4. Spanish Dancer
5. Night Train
6. Valerie
7. Higher Love
8. Freedom Overspill
9. Back In The High Life Again
10. Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do
11. Spy In the House Of Love
12. Different Light
13. Dirty City
Disc: 4
1. This Hammer
2. Waltz For Lumumba
3. When I Come Home
4. Love
5. In The Light Of Day
6. There’s A River
7. Hold On
8. The Morning Side
9. Far From Home
10. Holy Ground
11. State Of Grace
12. Why Can’t We Live Together
13. Domingo Morning

Winter’s Bone finally opened here in the hinterlands. But it was worth the wait. Jennifer Lawrence plays Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old girl who’s caring for a mentally ill mother, and two children. Her father, a brewer of crystal meth, has disappeared. But, before he vanished, he used the pitiful house his family lives in as bond for his bail. If he doesn’t show up for his court hearing, the family will be evicted. This sends Ree on a search for her wayward father. The people of the Ozarks, the setting for this grim film, are suspicious and vicious. Ree takes a lot of abuse before the end of this movie. The strong cast and the meticulous plotting that follows Daniel Woodrell’s book of the same name captures a world that is seldom portrayed in movies. When Winter’s Bone shows up in your neighborhood, go see it. This is a terrific movie! GRADE: A

I’m a sucker for books like Morrell & Wagner’s Thrillers: 100 Must Reads. Morrell & Wagner came up with a list of 100 thrillers and asked authors of thrillers to write essays about them. From “Theseus and the Minotaur” (1500 B. C.), essay by Lee Child, to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (2003), essay by Steve Berry, you’ll find a broad cross-section of thrillers in this collection. Of course, I have my favorites. I really liked Max Allan Collins’ essay on Mickey Spillane’s One Lonely Night 1951). Joe R. Lansdale’s essay on James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) almost motivated me to drop everything and reread Cain’s classic. One of the more surprising inclusions was R. L. Stine’s essay on P. G. Wodehouse’s Summer Lightning (1929), a book I hadn’t considered in the thriller category. Of the 100 thrillers listed, I’d read 76. Now I have to find time to read those last 24 thrillers. GRADE: A

Angelina Jolie powers this action movie from start to finish. We first see Jolie being tortured by the North Koreans . Next, we fast-forward a couple of years and Jolie, a CIA operative, is accused of being a Russian spy. Jolie flees with the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and the Salvation Army giving chase. The plot is tricky and compelling. The action is non-stop. SALT is the perfect summer movie: amazing stunts, wild chase scenes, plenty of explosions, intense violence. I’d nominate SALT as the best action movie of the summer of 2010. I can’t wait for the sequel! GRADE: A

Season 4 of MAD MEN opens tonight with the enigmatic Don Draper making a mistake that could sink his new, renegade advertising agency. I’ve been a fan of MAD MEN from the start. I can’t think of another program with a stronger cast of quirky characters. The historical setting, the Sixties, blends realism and surrealism into the plots. Actual historical events are referred to, but the characters react in bizarre fashions. For example, Don Draper’s up-tight wife engages in anonymous sex during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Later, she’ll travel to Egypt with her husband in an attempt to land the Conrad Hilton account. I’m hoping the writers focus more on the advertising business and less on the soap-opera aspects of the characters’ private lives.

Appointment with Death centers on Poirot’s investigation of the death of an old, bitter woman. Mrs. Boynton, a rich widow, brings her family on a trip to Jerusalem. Her family lives in fear of Mrs. Boynton’s capricious cruelty. Poirot just happens to be vacationing in Jerusalem, too. Poirot overhears a conversation where one of the parties says, “You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?” And, sure enough, Mrs. Boynton ends up dead. The original assumption was that Mrs. Boynton died of heart failure. But Poirot suspects murder. This is the third and last of the summer Poirots on PBS Masterpiece Mystery. The book was published in 1937 and I consider it one of Christie’s best. Tomorrow night, I’ll be watching to see if this excellent mystery is as good in the TV version.

At a certain point in the 1980s, I considered Dennis Etchinson the best horror writer in the world. Better than Stephen King. Better than Dean R. Koontz. Better than Peter Straub. I believed Etchinson was the best horror writer in the world based on his brilliant short story collection, The Dark Country, published by Scream Press (which is a name I’ve always been fond of). Classics like “It Only Comes Out at Night,” “The Machine Demands a Sacrifice,” and “Calling All Monsters” make this book one of best horror story collections ever published. It won a World Fantasy Award and the British Fantasy Award. Etchinson went on to publish more short story collections: Red Dreams, The Blood Kiss, and The Death Artist. He wrote some pseudonymous novelizations of the HALLOWEEN movies. But my admiration for Etchinson’s work all started for me with The Dark Country. If you read it, you’ll be astonished.

Ben Greenman, an editor at The New Yorker, combines the loneliness and intimacy of men and women in unusual configurations in this short story collection. Greenman tells a story of a woman who marries a jealous farmer who punches her when he believes she’s having an affair with an artist. But, of course, there’s more to the story. There’s also a story of a brother and sister who live in a lunar colony whose father abandons them and returns to Earth. And the businessman who sleeps with women while he’s on the road. He sends his wife postcards after each infidelity. Greenman’s stories are quirky and edgy. This edition includes an interview with Greenman where he discusses his work. Greenman adds a reading list of his favorite books, too. And, I love the cover! GRADE: B

(This completes the July 2010 portion of my Short Story Reading Challenge. I will read and review one short story collection per month in 2010. To find out more about the Short Story Reading Challenge, be sure to click: “http://theshortstorychallenge.blogspot.com/”>Short Story Reading Challenge.