If you’re a fan of noir movies, you’ll love this 9-film–3 disc–collection of noir classics in high definition with their original aspect ratios.

The Crimson Kimono (1959) Directed by Samuel Fuller
Starring: Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta
The Lineup (1958) Directed by Don Siegel
Starring: Eli Wallach, Robert Keith, Warner Anderson
Man on a String (1960) Directed by Andre DeToth
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Kerwins Mathews, Colleen Dewhurst, Alexander Scourby
The Shadow in the Window (1956) Directed by William Asher
Starring: Phil Carey, Betty Garrett, John Barrymore, Jr.
The Long Haul (1957) Directed by Ken Hughes
Starring: Victor Mature, Diana Dors, Patrick Allen
Pickup Alley (1957) Directed by John Gilling
Starring: Victor Mature, Anita Ekberg, Trevor Howard
The Case Against Brooklyn (1958) Directed by Paul Wendkos
Starring: Darren McGavin, Maggie Hayes, Bobby Helms
She Played with Fire (1957) Directed by Sidney Gilliat
Starring: Jack Hawkins, Arlene Dahl, Dennis Price, Bernard Miles, Ian Hunter
The Tijuana Story (1957) Directed by Leslie Kardos
Starring: Rodolfo Acosta, James Darren, Robert McQueeney

How many of these noir movies have you seen? GRADE: B+

Lisa Taddeo spent eight years researching these profiles of three women and sexuality from women’s perspectives. Taddeo visited their towns, met their friends and families, studied their jobs and the patterns of their lives…and their sexual desires.

I confess, I’ve been baffled by women and their behaviors throughout my life. And, I grew up with three sisters so I had plenty of behavior to experience. That’s why Lisa Taddeo’s book fascinated me. In North Dakota, Taddeo chronicles the predicament of Maggie, a high school student who has a relationship with her handsome, married English teacher. This is NOT To Sir, With Love. Taddeo travels to suburban Indiana and introduces the reader to Lina, a frustrated mother of two, whose husband isn’t interested in affection or love or sex. Lina connects with an ex-boyfriend on Facebook (where else?) and Taddeo reports on the passionate affair that results. The third woman, Sloane, is a wealthy restaurant owner in the Northeast. She is happily married to a man who likes to watch Sloane have sex with other men and women.

Lisa Taddeo writes with a novelist’s eye for detail and immediacy. This is not dry, academic writing. All the events are told through the women’s viewpoints. I understand the guys in Three Women, even when they’re behaving badly (maybe especially when they’re behaving badly). The emotionality of the women in Three Women leaves me pondering about the complexity and fragility of the female psyche. GRADE: A

The AFC and NFC Championship games feature four excellent teams. The Titans are the Cinderella team (although they are 7 1/2 point underdogs). KC Head Coach Andy Reid experienced more than his share of Playoff heartbreak, but 2020 could be his year. It helps to have Patrick Mahomes as your quarterback.

The Smart Money says the San Francisco 49ers should win this game going way. Aaron Rodgers is 36 years old and prone to mistakes now (and the Parkers are 7 1/2 underdogs, too). But the Packers can be gritty at times. Will this be one of them? I’m going with the Chiefs and Art Scott’s 49ers. Who do you think will win today?

Mary Norris has worked for The New Yorker since 1978, mostly as a copywriter. Norris edited the work of John McPhee, George Saunders, Ian Frazier, Mark Singer, Emily Nussbaum, Jon Lee, Calvin Trillin, Karen Russell, Ben McGrath, and dozens more. In Between You and Me, Norris writes about her love of grammar and how she managed to score her dream job. In later chapters, Norris explores burning questions like who put the hyphen in Moby-Dick and why are there so many commas in so much of our writing.

The comma was invented by Aldo Manuzio, a Venice printer, in 1490. Maruzio was working on printing Greek classics and found that using a comma (in Greek, komma means “something cut off”–a segment) made the passages less confusing. Over time, Norris is convinced that people insert too many commas in much of their writing.

My favorite chapter is Chapter 7: A Dash, a Semicolon, and a Colon Walk into a Bar. Norris analyzes how Emily Dickinson used dashes in her poetry and how Henry James used colons and semi-colons so effectively. GRADE: A

In It’s Greek to Me, Mary Norris writes about her love affair with Greece and the Greek language. I found It’s Greek to Me less interesting and less compelling than Between You and Me.. Are you a fan of grammar? GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS TO BETWEEN YOU AND ME:
Introduction: Confession of a Comma Queen 1
Chapter 1 Spelling Is for Weirdos 15
Chapter 2 That Witch! 35
Chapter 3 The Problem of Heesh 57
Chapter 4 Between You and Me 77
Chapter 5 Comma Comma Comma Comma, Chameleon 92
Chapter 6 Who Put the Hyphen in Moby-Dick? 111
Chapter 7 A Dash, a Semicolon, and a Colon Walk into a Bar 131
Chapter 8 What’s Up with the Apostrophe? 147
Chapter 9 F∗ck This Sh∗t 157
Chapter 10 Ballad of a Pencil Junkie 169
Epilogue: The Million-Dollar Copy Editor 193
Acknowledgments 201
Notes 205
Appendix: Some Books I Have Found Particularly Helpful 213
Index 217
TABLE OF CONTENTS TO IT’S GREEK TO ME:
Invocation 1
Chapter 1 Alpha to Omega 19
Chapter 2 A Is for Athena 42
Chapter 3 Dead or Alive 66
Chapter 4 Demeter Dearest 97
Chapter 5 A Taste for Tragedy 122
Chapter 6 Swimming with Aphrodite 149
Chapter 7 Acropolis Now 176
Chapter 8 The Sea! The Sea! 201
Acknowledgments 223
Appendix The Greek Alphabet 227

As a kid, I was a big fan of Alan E. Nourse. I loved Nourse’s Scavengers in Space (1958) and read it several times in my teens. “Brightside Crossing” shows Nourse’s approach to his craft: presenting convincing characters and scientific applications (for the time) blending in action and adventure. My favorite story in The Great SF Stories #18 is Murray Leinster’s “Exploration Team” that also won a Hugo Award. Leinster had been writing for 40 years and being recognized near the end of his writing career moved me at the time. Damon Knight’s “The Country of the Kind” and “Stranger Station” displays Knight’s versatility. Mack Reynolds specialized in writing SF about economics and business. “Compounded Interest” gives readers a glimpse of the Universe Mack Reynolds would develop over the next 25 years in his unique work. Greenberg’s and Asimov’s introductions to the stories in this volume are particularly informative and entertaining. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRDUCTION 9
“Brightside Crossing” by Alan E. Nourse (GALAXY, January 1956) 13
“Clerical Error” by Mark Clifton (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, February 1956) 35
“Silent Brother” by Algis Budrys (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, February 1956) 75
“The Country of the Kind” by Damon Knight (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, February 1956) 96
“Exploration Team” by Murray Leinster (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, March 1956) 111
“Rite of Passage” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, May, 1956) 161
“The Man Who Came Early” by Poul Anderson (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION), June 1956) 203
“A Work of Art” by James Blish (SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, July 1956) 230
“Horrer Howce” by Margaret St. Clair (GALAXY, July 1956) 248
“Compounded Interest” by Mack Reynolds (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, August 1956) 261
“The Doorstop” by Reginald Bretnor (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, November 1956) 276
“The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov (SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY, November 1956) 286
“Stranger Station” by Damon Knight (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, December 1956) 300
“2066: Election Day” by Michael Shaara (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, December 1956) 327
“And Now the News…” by Theodore Sturgeon (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION) 344

Science journalist Linda Geddes writes about the power of the Sun over our lives. Citing scientific studies and research, Geddes shows how sunlight affects circadian control, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, coronary artery disease, schizophrenia, obesity, and sleep.

My mother was diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and a sunlamp helped her mood immensely during the dark Western New York winters. When I was a college student, I worked the Midnight Shift at a local Goodyear Chemical plant. Staying up all night and sleeping all day made me feel awful. I was so glad when that job came to an end! Geddes documents how low Vitamin-D affects health when people don’t get enough sunlight. Of course, too much sunshine can trigger melanoma so you have to be careful. I found Chasing the Sun an informative and useful book. Are you getting enough sun? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction 1
1 The Body Clocks 16
2 The Body Electric 40
3 Shift Work 67
4 Doctor Sunshine 89
5 Protection Factor 111
6 A Dark Place 127
7 Midnight Sun 145
8 Light Cure 156
9 Fine-tuning the Clock 177
10 Clocks for Society 189
Epilogue 206
Acknowledgements 211
Notes 215
Index 227

Jonathan Bates explores the Classics that may have affected Shakespeare and his writings. Bates traces the influence of Horace, Juvenal, Cicero, Virgil, and Seneca on several of Shakespeare’s plays. But Bates stresses that the author that many have had the greatest influence on Shakespeare’s writings is Ovid. With dozens of examples, Bates builds a case that Ovid and his sensibility permeate Shakespeare’s plays.

Through careful quotes and citations, Bates shows the effects of Shakespeare’s reading on his writing. If you’re a fan of Shakespeare, you’ll learn a lot about the sources of the Bard’s plots, wit, and humor. Bates also deals with the women characters in Shakespeare and the Puritan influence: “And the relationship between church and the theatre became increasingly strained as ‘Puritan’ polemicists voiced their disapproval of players, especially when adult male actors stared kissing boys dressed as girls.” (p.3)

I particularly enjoyed the analysis of Plutarch and Montaigne as Bates traces their effect on various plays and sonnets. I found How the Classics Made Shakespeare informative and entertaining. What’s your favorite Shakespeare play? GRADE: A
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Illustrations xiii
1 The Intelligence of Antiquity 1
2 O’er-Picturing Venus 21
3 Resemblance by Example 36
4 Republica Anglorum 48
5 Tragical-Comical-Historical-Pastoral 64
6 S.P.Q.L. 90
7 But What of Cicero? 106
8 Pyrrhus’s Pause 126
9 The Good Life 146
10 The Defence of Phantasms 160
11 An Infirmity Named Hereos 185
12 The Labours of Hercules 210
13 Walking Shadows 232
14 In the House of Fame 252
Appendix: The Elizabethan Virgil 277
Notes 285
Index 349

Spies in Disguise, marketed as an animated comedy, satirizes spy movies. Will Smith is the voice of arrogant and narcissistic super spy, Lance Sterling, the Agency’s top operative. Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) invents cool spy stuff for the Agency (think Q from the Bond movies) but many times Walter’s gadgets and chemicals don’t exactly work right.

Lance Sterling gets framed by super villain Killian (Ben Mendelsohn) who sports a robotic arm and a plot to destroy the Agency with battle drones. Head of the Agency, Joyless (Reba McEntire), finds her top agent on the run. Internal Affairs agent, Wendy (Rashida Jones), and her amusing minions–Eyes (Karen Gillian) and Ears (DJ Khaled)–chase Lance Sterling to a resort in Mexico…with icky results!

Sure, Spies in Disguise is a silly movie, but if you’re in the mood for fun, weirdness, and action, this movie delivers! GRADE: B

Deb’s LSU team is favored by 5 1/2 points. I’d take LSU and give the points. Clemson can be a dangerous team so they can’t be underestimated, but LSU looks like a Championship team. Who do you think will win this game?

The No. 4 Houston Texans face the No. 2 Kansas City Chiefs with the Chiefs favored by 9 1/2 points. I’m going with the well rested Chiefs. In the second game, the No. 5 Seattle Seahawks take on the No. 2 Green Bay Packers. The Seahawks are 4-point underdogs. As I mentioned to Cap’n Bob, Aaron Rodgers is NOT the Aaron Rodgers of old. I’m taking the points and the Seahawks. Who do you think will win today?