Please Give is one of those “slice-of-life” movies. Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt play a couple who own a lucrative used furniture business in New York City. They have a cranky teenage daughter (Sarah Steele). In the apartment next door, a 90-year-old woman (Ann Morgan Guilbert) has sold Keener and Platt her apartment. They can take possession when she dies. The senior citizen is cared for by her granddaughters, Amanda Peet and Rebbecca Hall, who have their own complicated relationship. Keener deals with a compulsion to give money away to poor people and to volunteer. This movie doesn’t quite jell, but the fine performances make it worth watching. GRADE: B

When I read Rick Riordan’s first Percy Jackson novel, The Lightning Thief, I was unimpressed and stopped reading the series. Of course, the Percy Jackson stories garnered a strong following of teenage readers who thought the idea of a kid having the powers of the Greek gods appealing. Rick Riordan’s newest series novel, The Red Pyramid: The Kane Chronicles #1, features a brother and sister team who seek to rescue their archeologist/magician father from the clutches of the Egyptian god, Set. [SPOILER ALERT!] In fact, Carter Kane is possessed by Horus and Sadie Katie is possessed by Isis. [END OF SPOILER ALERT!] Plenty of magic, a globe-trotting journey, and sibling rivalry result. I found this 516-page book too long and too discursive. I’m sure The Red Pyramid will make a great movie with tons of CGI effects. You might want to wait for the movie version. GRADE: C+
(Thanks to the North Tonawanda Public Library for providing this book.)

Sebastian Junger, best known for The Perfect Storm, was embedded with a single platoon through their 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Junger’s story of the dangers these soldiers faced every day should balance the bland reporting on our “progress” in Afghanistan. You get to know the soldiers on a personal level as Junger captures their hopes, dreams, fears, and nightmares. The soldiers cope with their stresses in various, dysfunctional ways. WAR should be required reading for everyone at the Pentagon and the State Department.

PBS must be running out of Miss Marple novels to film so they’ve turned to Miss Marple short stories. “The Blue Geranium” was published in The Tuesday Club Murders (aka, The Thirteen Problems) in 1932. A cranky hypochondriac, Mrs. Pritchard, is told by a fortune-teller that “a blue geranium means death.” And, sure enough, Mr. Pritchard then dies from a gas leak with a blue geranium nearby. Miss Marple investigates and solves the murder. Masterpiece Theater Mystery will be broadcasting “The Blue Geranium” tonight. I’ll be curious to see how a 12-page short story is puffed up to fill 90-minutes of television drama.

It’s been seven years since Sarah McLachlan’s last new CD. Too long! Laws of Illusion shows Sarah in fine voice. I love all the songs, especially “Don’t Give Up On Us.” I have all of Sarah McLachlan’s CDs, I’ve seen her in concert three times, and if she’s touring within driving distance of my home, I’ll go listen to her again. This isn’t so much a review as a product announcement. GRADE: A
PLAY LIST
1 Awakenings 4:08
2 Illusions Of Bliss 3:53
3 Loving You Is Easy 3:03
4 Changes 3:44
5 Forgiveness 3:49
6 Rivers Of Love 3:54
7 Love Come 3:33
8 Out Of Tune 3:51
9 Heartbreak 4:07
10 Don’t Give Up On Us 3:37
11 U Want Me 2 4:07
12 Bring On The Wonder 2:56
13 Loving You Is Easy Acustic / Version 3:36
14 Love Come Piano Version / Version 4:04

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Published in 1878, Anna Katharine Green’s puzzler was admired by plenty of contemporary writers, including A. Conan Doyle. Penguin Books recently reprinted a new edition that brings this classic to a new audience of mystery readers. Horatio Leavenworth, a wealthy retired merchant, is murdered. He was shot in the head in his library and the evidence at the inquest shows that no one could have left the victim’s locked Manhattan mansion before the discovery of the body the next morning. Suspicion falls on the dead man’s nieces, Mary and Eleanore, only one of whom stands to benefit from their uncle’s violent death. Everett Raymond, a junior partner in a New York law firm that had Leavenworth as a client, teams up with the official investigator, Ebenezer Gryce, to discover the truth. More than just a locked room mystery, The Leavenworth Case was ahead of its time in the use of investigative techniques and indirection in the use of circumstantial evidence in the delightfully clever circuitous plot. Michael Sims’ informative Introduction puts this mystery novel in its social and historical context. This classic is well worth reading.

Elvis was at the height of his powers in 1970. On Stage February 1970 captures Elvis in a Las Vegas performance. This 2-CD Legacy Edition is completely remastered and sounds great. Some obscure songs show up here. Have you heard Elvis sing “Mystery Train” before? I hadn’t. How about “Proud Mary” or “Funny How Time Slips Away”? This collection features Elvis at his best. Don’t miss this one!
PLAY LIST:
DISC ONE:
1. See See Rider 3:06
2. Release Me 3:11
3. Sweet Caroline 2:43
4. Runaway 2:46
5. The Wonder Of You 2:34
6. Polk Salad Annie 5:33
7. Yesterday 2:27
8. Proud Mary 2:47
9. Walk A Mile In My Shoes 2:59
10. Let It Be Me 3:39
11. Don’t Cry Daddy (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Dinner Show) 2:38
12. Kentucky Rain (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 16, 1970, Dinner Show) 3:20
13. Long Tall Sally (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Midnight Show) 1:32
14. The Wonder Of You (Rehearsal – Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Afternoon Rehearsal) 6:57
DISC TWO:
1. Blue Suede Shoes 2:05
2. Johnny B. Goode 2:20
3. All Shook Up 2:07
4. Are You Lonesome Tonight? 3:15
5. Hound Dog 1:53
6. I Can’t Stop Loving You 3:19
7. My Babe 2:10
8. Medley: Mystery Train / Tiger Man 3:45
9. Words 2:45
10. In The Ghetto 2:56
11. Suspicious Minds 7:45
12. Can’t Help Falling In Love 2:12
13. I Got A Woman (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 2:39
14. Medley: Jailhouse Rock / Don’t Be Cruel (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 3:22
15. Heartbreak Hotel (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 2:19
16. Baby, What You Want Me To Do (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 3:32
17. Reconsider Baby (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Midnight Show) 3:17
18. Funny How Time Slips Away (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 25, 1969, Dinner Show)

There’s a cottage industry now in publishing books that “explain” the U.S. and global economic meltdown. The best book about this phenomenon that I’ve read so far is Michael Lewis’ The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Norton, 2010). Lewis, who worked on Wall Street, is the perfect guide to the Byzantine world of bond traders. That’s where the economic meltdown started. Yes, Lewis is able to tell you what a credit default swap is, unlike the Wall Street types Michael Moore interviewed in Capitalism: A Love Story who couldn’t. Lewis’ innovative approach to telling his story is to concentrate on the people who figured out sub-prime mortgages were toxic and made millions of dollars betting against them! If you want to understand the financial collapse we’ve just been through, and will be living with for years, The Big Short is the perfect place to start. GRADE: A.
(Thanks to the North Tonawanda Public Library for providing this book.)