Diane and I enjoyed the panels that Bill Crider was a part of: STILL SHE CRIES (Lousy reviews and the lost people of Amazon) and ANYTHING FOR A FRIEND (A Chat with Mystery Scene). Dick Lochte gave me some great suggestions for audio books. Megan Abbott’s panel (SHADOWS RISING: Movies for the Crime Fiction Fan) was my favorite panel. I now have a list of movies I need to find and watch. The Renaissance Grand Hotel was indeed grand. The meeting rooms were spacious. Books in abundance! Plenty of our friends were in attendance: Art Scott, the Criders, Beth Feydn, the Meyersons, the Abbotts, Ted Hertel, Maggie Mason, Steve Steinbock, Steve Stilwell, the Smiths, the Fitzgeralds, and Roger Sobin. St. Louis hosted a wonderful Bouchercon!

Clay Shirky is a very smart guy. This slim volume, just 213 pages of text, has more ideas in it than books two or three times its length. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age explores the implications that we all have time on our hands. We are beginning to use that time in collaborative ways on projects like Linux (open operating system) and Wikipedia (open encyclopedia). By working together, mostly for free, astonishing results can be attained. Shirky cites the Josh Groban charity completely run by fans all over the world through the Internet. Shirky also goes off on fascinating tangents like the “Paradox of Revolution.” When Gutenberg and other printers started to produce Bibles, instead of creating stability, it sowed the seeds of revolution: if I have the Bible in my hands, what do I need a Church for?

And, Shirky points out, it wasn’t Bibles that the printers were busy turning out, it was “Indulgences.” The Roman Catholic Church sold “Indulgences” that served as a “Get Out of Purgatory” card. Before Gutenberg, the Indulgences were hand written (so there was a perpetual shortage). When Gutenberg and other printers could produce hundreds of Indulgences per day so the priests could sell them, opposition to this corruption arose. Martin Luther kicked off the Reformation citing these bogus Indulgences as a symbol of the Church’s greed. This is just one of the fascinating stories in this clever book. I highly recommend it! GRADE: A

Colm Toibin wrote a novel about Henry James after studying his work for years. Colm Toibin on Henry James collects a dozen essays and introductions about Henry James where Toibin analyzes many of James’ classic works. My favorite essay in this volume is “Henry James’s New York.” New York played a big role in several James stories and novels. When putting together what he considered his finest work, James called it “The New York Edition.” If you’re interested in reading intelligent criticism of Henry James, you’ll find Colm Toibin on Henry James fits the bill. GRADE: B+

I’m a big fan of Barry Schwartz’s previous book, The Paradox of Choice. I’ve used it in my classes. Schwartz presents research that shows that people get confused and make the Wrong Decision when they’re given too many choices. To make Good Decisions, the set of choices should be fairly narrow. In Practical Wisdom, Schwartz and Sharpe show how balancing risk and rewards can be better accomplished with a loose set of rules rather than a recipe-type instruction set. The essence of wisdom is flexibility, something we seem to have lost in Wisconsin and now Indiana. If you’re looking to make better decisions, Schwartz and Sharpe will show you how to do it. GRADE: A

Believe it or not, 999 posts ago I started this blog with a review of E.C. Tubb’s Child of Earth, the 33rd (and last) book in the Dumarest of Terra series. So for my 1000th posting, I decided to go back where it all began: the first book in the Dumarest series, The Winds of Gath. In this book, Dumarest is introduced as an adventurer who is desperately trying to find his way back to his home planet, Earth. However, Earth appears on none of the star charts. Its existence is doubted. Only Dumarest, who remembers his bleak childhood on Earth, really believes the planet actually exists. As Dumarest finds clues to the location of Earth, he runs afoul of the cyborg cult, the Cyclan. Throughout the 33 books in the series, Dumarest becomes a hunted man. E. C. Tubb died last year, but his intrepid adventures will live on. A good place to start would be The Winds of Gath.

Ben, a yuppie, and Chon, with Navy SEALs training, run a marijuana operation in the Laguna Beach area. But their Good Times come to an end when the Mexican Baja Cartel kidnap their lover, O (for Ophelia). The Mexicans threaten to cut O’s head off with a chainsaw if Ben and Chon don’t cooperate. You can guess the rest: Ben and Chon pretend to cooperate but secretly work to undermine the Cartel. Plenty of explosions of violence and gunplay. Don Winslow knows how to write action-packed thrillers and Savages delivers. Oliver Stone is going to be the director of the movie version. GRADE: B+

By the time you read this, Diane and I will be flying to St. Louis for BOUCHERCON 2011. We hope to see many of our friends: the Criders, Abbotts, Meyersons, Art Scott, Maggie Mason, Beth Fedyn, and the irrepressible Steve Stilwell. I’ve worked ahead so there will be a posting every day we’re in St. Louis. We’re bringing the iPad so I’ll try to keep up with your comments. If you’re attending BOUCHERCON this year, hope to see you there!

This Blu-ray upgrade of the Star Wars saga includes all six films with three bonus discs, including deleted and alternate scenes, scene and costume sketches, interviews with the cast and crew and three documentaries: Star Warriors (2007), about the worldwide fan legion; A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later (2010); and Star Wars Spoofs (2011), a collection of Star Wars parodies. Although this box-set lists for $139.99, you can find it on AMAZON for $79.99 (43% off, a saving of $60!). Every home should have these classic movies.

Alice is 9-years old and precocious. She and her father (a school librarian) decide to read out loud for at least 10 minutes a day for 1000 days. While The Streak adds days, Alice’s mother moves out. Her older sister becomes a foreign exchange student. And Alice gets her first “C” in English in her life. This touching memoir of a young girl coping with a broken family, a well-meaning but sometimes clueless single father, and her own love of books captures the sense of growing up in an unsettled home environment. But the stability in Alice’s life is that nightly reading time with her father. I was moved by The Reading Promise and you will be too. GRADE: A

Although it’s been ten years, it feels like almost yesterday to me. I was in my office at the College. My computer was on and suddenly I saw images of the Twin Towers in flames. Our country was under attack. I went to my first class, told the students what had just happened (most of them hadn’t heard) and I cancelled the class. A little while later, the Administration cancelled all the classes that day. I went home and watched CNN like most people did. It seemed like the world had just changed dramatically. And it did. Now, 10 years later, we’re still in danger even though we’re fighting two wars, we’ve killed bin Laden, and damaged Al-Qaeda. I don’t feel much safer, do you?