I was busy organizing my music CDs last week when I found a handful of Christmas albums that had been misshelved (my bad!) and essentially “lost” for over a decade! Diane has over 100 Christmas CDs and they’re shelved separately but somehow these Christmas CDs ended up in the Smooth Jazz section!

Come Rejoice! from 1994 is a conventional Christmas album with plenty of familiar songs. The only unusual song is “Song for Sarajevo” which highlights the conflict that was occurring at that time. Judy Collins’ clear and bright voice delivers plenty of delight with this mix of Christmas songs. GRADE: B+

Renee Fleming’s Christmas in New York is more unconventional with a mix of songs, some familiar, some not. I love Fleming’s version of “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” not a traditional Christmas song. “Central Park Serenade” is fun as is “The Man With the Bag.”

Traditionalists will love “Winter Wonderland,” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” and “Silver Bells.” GRADE: B+

If you want to get into the Christmas Spirit, Judy Collins and Renee Fleming will take you there with these wonderful albums! Are you listening to Christmas music?

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

It’s sad that Mystery Scene magazine, founded in 1985 by Ed Gorman, just ended its run in October 2024 with issue #174. But when The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: Third Annual Edition was published in 1994, the magazine world was a very different place.

Jon L. Breen’s “The Mystery in 1993” presents an optimistic picture of the market for mystery novels and short stories. Breen cites publishing statistics and pronounces the field “still healthy.” (p. 9). Breen goes on to list his 15 favorite mystery novels of 1993. In his assessment of the short stories of 1993, Breen singles out Jennifer Bowe’s Death in Store as the best short story collect he read that year (I’m tracking it down!). In the Reference Books category, Breen loved Burl Barer’s “fascinating and thorough account of Simon Templar and his creator Leslie Charteris , The Saint: A Complete History (McFarland). I’m tracking that down, too.

Breen also praised Marc Lachman’s A Reader’s Guide to the American Novel of Detection and Gary Warren Niebuhr’s A Reader’s Guide to the Private Eye Novel–two books I do own.

The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: Third Annual Edition presents a wide variety of stories, something for every reader’s taste. I really liked Lawrence Block’s “Keller’s Therapy” and Doug Allen’s “The Ghost Show.” If you’re looking for a short story collection that captures the mystery short story essence of 1993, this is the book for you. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: The Mystery in 1993 by Jon L. Green –9

Slasher / F. Paul Wilson — 23

Keller’s therapy / Lawrence Block — 37

The mouse in the corner / Ruth Rendell — 59

That bells may ring and whistles safely blow / Margaret Maron — 80

That damn cat / Barb Collins — 89

Parris Green / Carole Nelson Douglas — 103

The man in the red flannel suit / Jan Grape — 127

Checkout / Susan Dunlap — 141

Goodbye, Sue Ellen / Gillian Roberts — 149

The ghost show / Doug Allyn — 162

McIntyre’s Donald / Joseph Hansen — 183

Some sunny day / Julian Rathbone — 203

The wall / Marcia Muller — 231

History repeats itself, and it doesn’t even say pardon / Mat Coward — 276

Strays / Kristine Kathryn Rusch — 283

The lesson / Billie Sue Mosiman — 301

Spin-a-rama / Jeremiah Healy — 308

The mood cuckoo / Jonathan Gash — 322

The ugly earthling murder case / George Alec Effinger — 336

Sweetheart of the rodeo / Mark Timlin — 352

A vacance en campagne / Tim Heald — 376

It takes one to know one / Robert Bloch — 391

Shade work / Bill Pronzini — 412

First lead gasser / Tony Hillerman — 418

Enduring as dust / Bruce Holland Rogers — 427

Stereophonic is a play with music. A group–rumored to be based on Fleetwood Mac–is in California recording an album. But the progress is slowed by the daily disagreements and friction among the five band members.

The play is set in 1976 and the set is basically a recording studio. “The drummer, Simon (Chris Stack), does not want to use a click track, but it’s been 36 takes and he’s still dragging. Diana (Sarah Pidgeon) sings beautifully and has songwriting chops that get stronger by the day, but she’s fragile and defensive and feels constantly under attack from her lead-guitarist boyfriend, Peter (Tom Pecinka), who’s brilliant, creatively domineering … and also fragile and defensive and convinced that he’s constantly under attack from, well, everyone. The wry, aloof vocalist-keyboardist, Holly (Juliana Canfield), has, for the moment, reached a détente with her philosophizing, self-pitying, cocaine-and–Jack Daniels–fueled husband, the bassist, Reg (Will Brill), but hostilities could resume at any moment. The engineers, Grover (Eli Gelb) and Charlie (Andrew R. Butler), just want Simon to use the fucking click track so that they can get the fucking take and everyone can go the fuck to sleep.” Vulture

I thought Stereophonic was a bit too long. How many spats between this group of dysfunctional people can an audience endure? But, if you’re interested in how an album got made in the Seventies, this is the play for you. GRADE: C+

I listen to music every day and according to Daniel J. Levitin, a neuroscientist, that just might be keeping me sane and healthy. Levitin takes the reader on a guided tour of the current research into the effects music has on our health. Along the way, Levitin explains how our brains work and what we can do to keep our brains in tip-top condition.

In reading I Heard There Was a Secret Chord I learned how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.

Listening to music activates certain areas of the brain, and the aim is to use that increased stimulation to help areas that have been damaged by illness or are malfunctioning to produce depression or other mental problems. 

I found I Heard There Was a Secret Chord fascinating! If you want to learn more about how music can improve your health and your Life, this is the book to read. What kinds of music do you like to listen to? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

A musical species — 1

If I only had a brain : the neuroanatomy of music — 15

Oh, the shark bites : musical memory — 36

Look at me now : attention — 60

Daydream believer : the brain’s “default mode,” introspection, and meditation — 77

Interlude — 95

Music, movement, and movement disorders — 102

Parkinson’s disease — 126

Trauma — 139

Mental health — 156

Memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and stroke — 168

Pain — 187

Neurodevelopmental disorders — 200

Learning how to fly — 227

Music in everyday life — 250

Fate knocking on your door : précis to a theory of musical meaning — 276

Music medicine, mystery, and possibility — 317

Acknowledgements — 325

Appendix: Types of Music Therapy — 331

Glossary — 335

Notes — 344

Index — 384

After the Buffalo Bills defeated the San Francisco 49ers in a wonderful snow game 35-10, the 10-2 Bills travel to sunny California to take on the 6-6 LA Rams. The Bills are 4½ point favorites. The Bills have clinched the AFC East title and are now playing for a better seating in the Playoffs. The Rams are desperate to make the Playoffs. Different motivations…

How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

Mia Farrow plays Sharon, a recently divorced woman in rural Iowa. Sharon’s never had a roommate before. Patti LuPone plays Robyn, the roommate from New York City, who upends Sharon’s placid Life.

I enjoyed Jen Silverman’s quirky one-act play, The Roommate, with its wit and surprises in a situation of developing rapport between two troubled women from exceedingly different backgrounds. Patti LuPone doesn’t sing in this play, but she’s convincing as a conniving woman with a dark Past. Mia Farrow morphs from a stereotypical housewife…to something much more liberated and dangerous. The ending did not satisfy me, but what came before it did. GRADE: B

I was late to discover the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. When Tom Cruise brought out Jack Reacher in 2012–based on Child’s 2005 novel One Shot–I read the novel before I saw the movie and was immediately hooked. Jack Reacher is a wandering adventurer with a military past. He’s 6’5″ and 250 pounds of muscle. Cruise took a lot of criticism for “pretending” to have the stature of Reacher.

Usually I read a series in chronological order, but with the Jack Reacher series I skipped around. I found a Jack Reacher novel was perfect for trips: reading in the Airport, reading on the plane. So I saved the Reacher books for travel. On my latest trip to New York City for Thanksgiving, I decided to read Persuader (2003), the seventh Reacher novel. AMAZON Prime Video will be releasing Reacher, Season Three in 2025 which is based on Persuader.

As usual, Reacher finds himself involved in a twisted plot where a figure from his military past looms large in criminal activities in New England. Reacher manages to insert himself into the crime ring by “rescuing” the leader’s son during an attempted kidnaping at the boy’s college.

Persuader shifts from Past to Present as the backstory of Reacher’s current quest is revealed. If you’re looking for a page-turner with compelling action and thrills, pick up a copy of Persuader. I can’t wait to see the AMAZON Prime Video version of the fight between Reacher and a 400 lb. giant! Are you a Jack Reacher fan? GRADE: B+

This new live album presents a performance by the band at the legendary Fillmore East from September of 1969. All four members of the band – David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young – were involved in this release but it was Stills and Young who actually mixed, edited, and put the album together. While the actual performance had 24 songs, they cut it down to these 17 songs so they would fit onto the double vinyl album. All 17 songs fit on the CD version which I bought and listened to.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s first live LP–1971’s 4 Way Street–was a great album. In 2014 the band released the three-disc 1974 box which was consisted of performances from CSNY’s reunion tour in 1974 that Crosby called “The Doom Tour.”

I’m a big fan of  1974, but this “new” live album from 1969 has a lot of energy with CSNY at the height of their talents. The “Acoustic Set” is good but I prefer the “Electric Set” especially “Wooden Ships.” Are you a CSNY fan? Any favorite song here? GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

ACOUSTIC SET:

1.    “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”
2.    “Blackbird”
3.    “Helplessly Hoping”
4.    “Guinnevere”
5.    “Lady Of The Island”
6.    “Go Back Home”
7.    “On The Way Home”
8.    “4 + 20”
9.    “Our House”
10.    “I’ve Loved Her So Long”
11.    “You Don’t Have To Cry”

Electric Set:

1.    “Long Time Gone”
2.    “Wooden Ships”
3.    “Bluebird Revisited”
4.    “Sea Of Madness”
5.    “Down By The River”
6.    “Find The Cost Of Freedom”

Back in the 1960s when I started reading Science Fiction constantly, my “Favorite SF Author” changed by the week…depending on what I was reading. One week it was Asimov, the next week it was Heinlein, the next Simak, the next Laumer, etc. But the author I would drop everything to read was Murray Leinster (aka, William Fitzgerald Jenkins). Leinster wrote consistently excellent SF stories and novels.

One of Leinster’s series, the Med Series, captured my interest early on. The Med Series consisted of four books: 1 The Mutant Weapon (1959)
2 This World Is Taboo (1961)
3 Doctor to the Stars (1964)
4 S.O.S. from Three Worlds (1966)

I could have picked any of these wonderful books, but Doctor to the Stars made a big impression on me back in 1964 as a 15-year-old reading addict. For a while, I thought about becoming a doctor. These stories revolve around Calhoun, a stellar adventurer, troubleshooter, and physician.

If you’re in the mood for galactic problem solving with a medical twist, you’ll enjoy these interstellar exploits. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

The Grandfather’s War — 7

Med Ship Man — 75

Tallien Three — 120

Maybe Happy Ending is based on  an original South Korean one-act musical with music composed by Will Aronson and lyrics written by Hue Park, and book written by both Aronson and Park.

The Broadway musical version Diane, Katie, and I saw follows two android helper-bots, Oliver and Claire, who discover each other in a Seoul warehouse for “retired” robots.

Oliver is a Model 3 who misses his owner, James, desperately. Claire is a Model 5 who knows more about the situation than Oliver does. The two helper-bots develop a connection when Claire’s charger and battery run low. Oliver, resistant at first, decides to help Claire. But Oliver’s Wi-Fi chip fails and no replacement parts are being produced to extend “retired” robots’ lives.

Oliver and Claire then have to deal with challenges that test what they believe is possible for themselves, their relationship…and love. Maybe Happy Ending has humor and profundity along with two brilliant actors: Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll think differently about Artificial Intelligence. GRADE: A