I’ve owned Laclos’ wicked novel for a couple of decades. Finally, I got around to reading Dangerous Liaisons and found its cynical, Machiavellian characters of Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil unique. In a series of letters, the two wealthy and conniving aristocrats launch a number of sinister schemes. Valmont wants to seduce a married, religious lady. The Marquise embarks on arranging a young girl’s ruination before she can be married. Dangerous Liaisons shows that love is just a game to these two intriguers. Patterned after Samuel Richardson’s massive (1000+ page) epistolary novel, Clarissa, Dangerous Liaisons takes seduction and sexual machinations to a new level. This is a novel you will not soon forget. The movie version starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz, and Keanu Reeves is worth watching, too.

Louis Menand thinks colleges and universities are in trouble. I agree with him. In The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University Menand presents an insightful history of American higher education. Then he identifies areas where colleges and universities face a crisis: the problem of a general education curriculum (no one can agree on one) and the super-specialization of many departments. I would add to Menard’s list one more problem: the lack of preparation by most high school students to do college-level work. As the states are forced to cut school budgets and state college budgets, tough choices are going to have to be made. Costs will go up as well as tuition. The “open admissions” policies of the past need to be debated. Federal funding of student aid needs to be questioned. College education will go through a revolution in the next decade as more and more students opt for on-line classes. But what will they be learning? Menand’s book is a good place to start the conversation. GRADE: B+

I’ve been a fan of Loreena McKennitt for over 20 years so this isn’t going to be an objective review. I own all her CDs and I’ve seen her in concert twice (wonderful performances!). This new CD, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, explores folk songs and traditional music. One of the songs, “Down By the Sally Gardens,” uses a W. B. Yeats poem for its lyrics. I love Loreena McKennitt’s voice and the backup musicians are very strong on this CD. If you like folk and traditional music, you’re going to like The Wind That Shakes the Barley. This CD would make a great stocking stuffer! GRADE: A
SET LIST:
1. As I Roved Out
2. On a Bright May Morning
3. Brian Boru’s March
4. Down By the Sally Gardens
5. The Star of the County Down
6. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
7. The Death of Queen Jane
8. The Emigration Tunes
9. The Parting Glass

In December 1933, in the depths of the Depression, an ad appeared in the Canton Respository offering $10 to 75 needy families. The pseudonymous benefactor, “Mr. B. Virdot,” read the letters the people of Canton, Ohio sent him answering the ad and he sent them the checks ($10 in those days is nearly equivalent to $70 today). Fast forward 80 years and Ted Gup, a reporter, discovers a suitcase full of letters. Gup finds these are the letters sent to “B. Virdot” who in reality was his grandfather. After reading the letters and contacting relatives of the people who wrote the letters, Ted Gup has written a perfect book for the Season of Giving: A Secret Gift: How One Man’s Kindness–and a Trove of Letters–Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression. The letters will touch your heart. GRADE: A

Love And Other Drugs skates very close to the rim of mawkishness. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a talented drug representative. While pretending to be an intern, Gyllenhaal witnesses a breast exam of a patient with Stage One Parkinson’s disease (played by Anne Hathaway). Of course, he falls in love. But Love And Other Drugs has pretensions to be more than just another predictable romantic comedy. Gyllenhaal has to make a Decision. The much more talented Oliver Platt is on hand to mentor Gyllenhaal on the sales techniques of moving prescription drugs. Josh Gad is funny as Gyllenhaal’s geeky younger brother. George Segal and Jill Clayburgh (in probably her last movie role) are Gyllenhaal’s parents. Love And Other Drugs has a fine cast and aspirations of Higher Things. The group we went with found the serious side of the movie troubling. They wanted to laugh, but they had to contend with a movie that made them think. GRADE: B

I’ve received plenty of email from out-of-town friends who were worried that Diane and I might be buried by the recent snowstorm that descended on Western New York. Yes, some communities found themselves under three feet of snow in a couple of hours. We were the stars of THE WEATHER CHANNEL for a few days as waist-deep snow clogged streets and sidewalks. Schools closed (but not mine). The NY State Thruway turned into a 10-mile parking lot because the Thruway Authority workers continued to allow motorists on to the Thruway even though traffic was stalled and there was NO WHERE TO EXIT! The Thruway became gridlocked with hundreds of cars and trucks running out of gas and stalling out. Some folks were stranded in their cars for 20 hours. Fortunately, the snow bands that dumped all that snow kept south of Buffalo. We live in a northern suburb and received ZERO snow. Yes, I can see my green lawn when I look out my window. Next week, we’re supposed to be hit by a general snowfall in the two to four inch range. Thank you for your concern, but this is just winter in Buffalo. We’re used to it.

We have about a 100 CDs of Christmas music (Diane is a big fan) so why do we need any more? Well, Annie Lennox, half of the Eurythmics, is one of our favorite singers. Her unique voice and flare for the unusual produces some very enjoyable music. A Christmas Cornucopia mixes standards like “Silent Night” with some songs that were new to us like “Angels From the Realms of Glory” and “In the Bleak Midwinter.” If you’re looking for a blend of familiar and not so familiar Christmas songs, listen to A Christmas Cornucopia. It might just be what you’re looking for during the Holiday Season. GRADE: B
SET LIST:
1. Angels From The Realms Of Glory 4:00
2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 3:32
3. See Amid The Winter’s Snow 3:30
4. Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant 3:37
5. The First Noel 4:40
6. Lullay Lullay (Coventry Carol) 3:12
7. The Holly And The Ivy 3:37
8. In The Bleak Midwinter 3:31
9. As Joseph Was A Walking 3:59
10. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem 3:33
11. Silent Night 3:48
12. Universal Child 4:14

Haffner Press has done it again! A couple months ago, they published Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s fabulous Detour to Otherness. Now, the Haffner Press has brought out the first installment of Henry Kuttner’s out-of-print pulp stories. This massive 712 page tome collects his work from pulp magazines that specialized in the weird, supernatural, horror, and science fiction genres. TERROR IN THE HOUSE is the first volume in a set collecting Kuttner’s earliest stories, most of which have never been reprinted. If you’re a Henry Kuttner fan, this is a must-buy! If you haven’t read any of Henry Kuttner’s wonderful stories, TERROR IN THE HOUSE is the perfect place to start. I can’t wait for Haffner Press to bring out the rest of these Kuttner volumes!
Table of Contents
Preface by Richard Matheson
Introduction by Garyn G. Roberts, Ph.D.
The Graveyard Rats, Weird Tales Mar ’36
Bamboo Death, Thrilling Mystery Jun ’36
The Devil Rides, Thrilling Mystery Sep ’36
The Secret of Kralitz, Weird Tales Oct ’36
Power of the Snake, Thrilling Mystery Nov ’36
Coffins for Six, Thrilling Mystery Dec ’36
It Walks by Night, Weird Tales Dec ’36
Laughter of the Dead, Thrilling Mystery Dec ’36
The Eater of Souls, Weird Tales Jan ’37
Terror in the House, Thrilling Mystery Jan ’37
The Faceless Fiend, Thrilling Mystery Jan ’37
The Dweller in the Tomb, Thrilling Mystery Feb ’37
I, the Vampire, Weird Tales Feb ’37
Nightmare Woman, Thrilling Mystery Mar ’37
The Salem Horror, Weird Tales May ’37
My Brother, The Ghoul, Thrilling Mystery Jun ’37
I Am the Wolf, Thrilling Mystery Jul ’37
The Jest of Droom-Avista, Weird Tales Aug ’37
Four Frightful Men, Thrilling Mystery Sep ’37
When the Earth Lived, Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’37
Terror on the Stage, Thrilling Mystery Sep ’37
Lord of the Lions, Thrilling Mystery Nov ’37
The Bloodless Peril, Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec ’37
Invasion from the Fourth Dimension, Thrilling Mystery Jan ’38
Messer Orsini’s Hands, Spicy Mystery Jan ’38
Worlds’ End, Weird Tales Feb ’38
The Graveyard Curse, Spicy Mystery Mar ’38
The Unresting Dead, Thrilling Mystery Mar ’38
The Shadow on the Screen, Weird Tales Mar ’38
Hell’s Archangel, Spicy Mystery Apr ’38
My Name Is Death, Spicy Mystery May ’38
Devil’s Masquerade, Mystery Tales Jun ’38
The Dark Heritage, Marvel Science Stories Aug ’38
Dictator of the Americas, Marvel Science Stories Aug ’38
The Disinherited, Astounding Science Fiction Aug ’38
Hands Across the Void, Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec ’38
The Frog, Strange Stories Feb ’39
The Invaders, Strange Stories Feb ’39
The Bells of Horror, Strange Stories Apr ’39
Beyond Annihilation, Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’39

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the third movie (and novel) of Stieg Larsson’s MILLENNIUM series. I thought the novel was the weakest book in the trilogy. The first book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, although deeply flawed, was the best book. The Girl Who Played With Fire was a so-so middle book in the series. Part of the problem with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is that goth hacker Lisbeth Salander spends half the movie in a hospital bed and most of the second half sitting in a court room. That makes for a very static movie (and novel). But I loved Noomi Rapace’s performance in all three movies playing Salander. Although she looks like one of Drongo’s Bad Girls, Salander captures a spirit of independence and strength that seldom shows itself in Hollywood movies or conventional novels. She’s a character I wish Stieg Larsson had lived to write his planned 10 book series about. Unfortunately, we only have these three books and three movies. Let’s enjoy them. GRADE: B