Things look dire for the Buffalo Bills in Foxboro. They have five starters on the Covid-19 List so their offensive line and wide receiver corps are depleted. The Patriots are 3-point favorites. How will your favorite NFL team do today?

Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985 presents a smorgasbord of articles–and over a hundred very cool paperback covers!–on Science Fiction in the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, and a bit of the Eighties.

I enjoyed essays on Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, R. A. Lafferty, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, J. G. Ballard, Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree, Jr. and a dozen other key SF writers from this period. Just take a quick look at the Table of Contents and you’ll see something that will draw to a subject or writer you’re interested in.

Andrew Nettle and Iain McIntyre assembled a set of essays full of variety and varying perspectives. If you’re a fan of SF, and if you lived through the years this volume focuses on, you’ll want to take a look at this book! I’m hoping for a sequel! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: An Introduction / Iain McIntyre and Andrew Nette — 1
Imagining New Worlds: Sci-Fi and the Vietnam War / Rjurik Davidson — 5
Sextrapolation in New Wave Science Fiction / Rob Latham — 11
Radioactive Nightmares: Nuclear War in Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 23
On Earth the Air Is Free: The Feminist Science Fiction of Judith Merril / Kat Clay — 26
Women and Children First! John Wyndham and Second-Wave Feminism / David Curcio — 32
Bursting through the Boundaries: New Worlds Magazine / Iain McIntyre — 37
Vast Active Living (Possibly) Insane System: Paranoia and Anti authoritarianism in the Work of Philip K. Dick / Erica L. Satifka — 39
Flying Saucers and Black Power: Joseph Denis Jackson’s 1967 Insurrectionist Novel The Black Commandos / Iain McIntyre — 45
Doomwatchers: Calamity and Catastrophe in UK Television Novelizations / Iain McIntyre — 52
The Energy Exhibition: Radical Science Fiction in the 1960s / Hicolas Tredell — 56
“We change-and the whole world changes”: Samuel R. Delany’s Heavenly Breakfast in Context / Daniel Shank Cruz — 64
Flawed Ancients, New Gods, and Interstellar Missionaries: Religion in Postwar SF / Iain McIntyre — 70
Speculative Fuckbooks: The Brief Life of Essex House, 1968-1969 / Rebecca Baumann — 73
God Does, Perhaps? The Unlikely New Wave SF of R.A. Lafferty / Nick Mamatas — 81
The Tasty Worlds of Jerry Cornelius / Andrew Nette — 85
Hank Lopez’s Afro-6 / Brian Greene — 88
“The Hell with Heroes”: Rebellion and Responsibility in Roger Zelazny’s Damnation Alley / Kelly Roberts — 92
Eco-Death: Catastrophe and Survival in 1960s and 1970s Science Fiction/ Iain McIntyre — 99
Stepford Wives and Supercomputers Th e Science Fiction of Ira Levin / Andrew Nette — 102
“Houston, we’ve had a problem”: Technology, Mental Breakdown and the Science Fiction of Barry Malzberg / Andrew Nette — 107
The Stars My Destination: The Future According to Gay Adult Science Fiction Novels of the 1970s / Maitland McDonagh — 111
Higher than a Rocket Ship: Drugs in SF / Iain McIntyre — 121
Freedom in the Mind: Louise Lawrence’s Andra / Andrew Nette — 123
Mick Farren: Fomenting the Rock Apocalypse / Mike Stax — 128
Green Deaths and Time Warriors: Doctor Who Serials and Novelizations in the 1970s / Iain McIntyre — 135
A New Wave in the East: The Strugatsky Brothers and Radical Sci-fi in Soviet Russia / Scott Adlerberg — 139
The Future Is Going to Be Boring: The SF Present of J.G. Ballard / Cameron Ashley — 146
By Any Means Necessary: Revolution and Rebellion in 1960s and 1970s Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 153
Performative Gender and SF: The Strange but True Case of Alice Sheldon and James Tiptree Jr. / Lucy Sussex — 156
Coming of Age between Apocalypses: Young Adult Fiction and the End of the World / Molly Grattan — 161
Crowded Worlds and False Dawns: 1970s Dystopian Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 166
Cosmic Bond, Super Lover: William Bloom’s Qhe! Series / Iain McIntyre — 170
Feminist Future: Time Travel in Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time / Kirsten Bussiere — 177
Who Are the Beasts? Animals in Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 185
The Moons of Le Guin and Heinlein / Donna Glee Williams — 188
Black Star: The Life and Work of Octavia Butler / Michael A. Gonzales — 195
Herland: The Women’s Press and Science Fiction / Iain McIntyre — 203

Acknowledgements — 206

Contributors — 207

Index — 211

Sounds of the Season: The NBC Holiday Collection is the best sounding Christmas album I own. Sounds of the Season came out in 2003 and I had it sitting on my shelves for over a decade. One day, a couple years ago, I played it and was stunned by how good it sounded! Plus, the mix of songs appears to me to be…unusual. Lisa Marie Presley sings “Silent Night” which is followed by a bluesy rendition to “Merry Christmas, Baby” by Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown.

NBC included some current (for 2003) Christmas hits: Michael Buble’s “Let It Snow,” Josh Groban’s “O Holy Night,” and Sarah Brightman’s “Ave Maria.”

My favorite song on this CD is Kylie Minogue’s pouty “Santa Baby,” a song about what a Material Girl would want for Christmas…with some provocative innuendo. If you’re looking for something different Christmas music to listen to, try Sounds of the Season. GRADE: B+

Tracklist

I decided to reread Great Detectives: A Century of the Best Mysteries From England and America. Editor David Willis McCullough assembled a great anthology of stories including TWO complete novels: Ross Macdonald’s The Chill and Ruth Rendell’s Death Notes. I can’t think of many mystery anthologies that include a complete novel in addition to the short stories.

Several classic mystery writers are represented: Sayers, Chesterton, Christie, Crispin, Queen, and Stout. Private eyes of the Hammett and Chandler variety are here. I was surprised by mysteries by William Faulkner and Ray Bradbury and Israel Zangwill. Robert van Gulik’s “The Murder on the Lotus Pond” is one of my favorites as is “Never Shake a Family Tree” by Donald E. Westlake. If you’re a fan of police procedurals, you’ll enjoy Ed McBain’s “Sadie When She Died.”

In timely fashion, P.D. James’ “The Murder of Santa Claus” shows up. Great Detectives is a great anthology. If you have a mystery enthusiast on your Gift List, this book would be received with excitement and joy! Do you have a favorite mystery anthology? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Foreword / David Willis McCullough — ix
The big bow mystery / Israel Zangwill — 1
The queen’s square / Dorothy L. Sayers — 85
The invisible man / G.K. Chesterton — 101
The girl in the train / Agatha Christie — 115
The murder on the lotus pond / Robert van Gulik — 131
Hand upon the waters / William Faulkner — 147
The Sam Spade stories: A man called Spade ; They can only hang you once ; Too many have lived / Dashiell Hammett — 161
The hunchback cat / Edmund Crispin — 215
Trouble is my business / Raymond Chandler — 221
The adventure of Abraham Lincoln’s clue / Ellery Queen — 265
See no evil / Rex Stout — 281
Yesterday I lived! / Ray Bradbury — 339
The chill / Ross Macdonald — 343
The murder of Santa Claus / P.D. James — 533
Never shake a family tree / Donald E. Westlake — 555
Death notes / Ruth Rendell — 568
Sadie when she died / Ed McBain — 697

Director John Watts, who has directed all three of the Tom Holland Spider-Man films, brings audiences a dazzling movie for the Holidays. Script writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers deliver a roller coaster effect in this movie: at one point, Peter Parker (Tom Holland), his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), and his best friend Ned (Jacob Battalon) worry about their chances of being accepted to MIT. The next moment, all hell breaks lose as Peter meddles with a spell by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) that opens the doors to the Multiverse.

The result is supervillains from other dimensions start to appear on our world: Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), and Electro (Jamie Foxx). Peter Parker realizes he has really screwed up the Universe and tries to fix it with the help of MJ and Ned but things spiral out of control!

Mid-way through Spider-Man: No Way Home, during one of the quiet moments in this 148 minute movie, I started to think: what am I doing in this sold-out theater with Covid-19 surging in Western New York? Is my N95 mask enough to protect me?

But then the roller coaster action zoomed upward and I was lost in the action again. Spider-Man: No Way Home is a cinematic thrill ride! If this is the last movie I see in a theater until deep into 2022, I’m all right with it. GRADE: A-

I’m a big fan of Ann Patchett’s work. Diane’s Book Club read Patchett’s Bel Canto and some of the members consider it the best book they ever read! I’ve reviewed The Dutch House (you can read my review here) and This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage (you can read that review here).

Ann Patchett’s latest work is a collection of her essays. Diane and I decided to listen to the audiobook version (9 CDs, 11 hours and 15 minutes). Ann Patchett proves to be a wonderful narrator!

The diversity of subjects Ann Patchett writes about impressed me. From “Three Fathers” to Patchett hosting “The First Thanksgiving” as an adult, to her experiences in Paris as a student, Patchett presents her own view of Life with the decisions she makes. And in some cases, like “To the Doghouse,” Patchett admits reading Peanuts comics and learning from Snoopy affected her writing and her Life.

My favorite essays in These Precious Days are “Eudora Welty, an Introduction.” Welty became such an important writer to Ann Patchett that she drove from Nashville to Jackson, Mississippi to attend Welty’s funeral. I also loved “Reading Kate DiCamillo,” where Patchett discovers a writer and ends up with a great friend.

If you’re looking for intelligent, interesting, and moving essays, I highly recommend These Precious Days. This would make a great Holiday Gift for that book lover on your Gift List! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: Essays don’t die — 1
Three fathers — 9
First Thanksgiving — 37
The Paris tattoo — 43
My year of no shopping — 51
The worthless servant — 59
How to practice — 77
To the doghouse — 103
Eudora Welty, an introduction — 113
Flight plan — 121
How knitting saved my life. Twice. — 149
Tavia — 159
There are no children here — 169
A paper ticket is good for one year — 206
The moment nothing changed — 213
The nightstand — 220
A talk to the Association of Graduate School Deans in the Humanities — 252
Cover stories — 272
Reading Kate DiCamillo — 287
Sisters — 297
These precious days — 304
Two more things I want to say about my father — 302
What the American Academy of Arts and Letters taught me about death — 404
Epilogue: a day at the beach — 414

Acknowledgements — 423