If the violent fight scenes in Atomic Blonde look a bit familiar, the director of Atomic Blonde, David Leitch, was the stunt coorderinator of the John Wick movies. Charlize Theron plays a beautiful (but deadly) MI6 operative. The McGuffin in this movie is a “list” of agents hidden in a wrist watch which the KGB, MI6, and the CIA all lust after. James McAvoy is the hyper MI6 section chief in 1989 Berlin. Sofia Boutelia–who starred in the ill-fated The Mummy–is a French agent. Toby Jones and John Goodman mostly glower. The plot is murky. The positive aspect of this movie is that Charlize Theron is on the screen a lot. But she takes a lot of punishment. This is another comic adaptation, based on The Coldest City, a 180-page graphic novel written by Antony Johnston, drawn by Sam Hart, and published in 2012 by Oni Press; a prequel, Dead of Winter, came out last year with art by Steven Perkins. GRADE: B

TRACK LIST:
1. Cat People (Putting Out the Fire) – David Bowie
2. Major Tom (Völlig Losgelöst) – Peter Schilling
3. Blue Monday – Health
4. C*Cks*Cker – Tyler Bates
5. 99 Luftballons – Nena
6. Father Figure – George Michael
7. Der Commissar – After the Fire
8. Cities in Dust – Siouxsie and the Banshees
9. The Politics of Dancing – Re-Flex
10. Stigmata – Marilyn Manson & Tyler Bates
11. Demonstration – Tyler Bates
12. I Ran (So Far Away) – A Flock of Seagulls
13. 99 Luftballons – Kaleida
14. Voices Carry – Til Tuesday
15. London Calling – The Clash
16. Finding the Uhf Device – Tyler Bates
ADDITIONAL MUSIC IN THE MOVIE NOT INCLUDED ON THE SOUNDTRACK:
1. Blue Monday ’88 – New Order
2. Fight The Power – Public Enemy
3. Kack Zukunft – Ausschlag
4. Der Kommissar – After The Fire
5. As Time Goes By – Michael Parnell
6. Behind the Wheel – Depeche Mode
7. Tetris Theme
8. Drinking Song – Alfred Gluten
9. MTV News Theme – Thomas A.C. Weiser and Perry Geyer
10. Fastidious Horses – Vladimir Vysotsky
11. Under Pressure – Queen and David Bowie

Faith Sullivan’s wonderful Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse (you can read my review here) motivated me to drop everything and read a book I’ve had on my shelf for years: Wodehouse on Crime: A Dozen Tales of Fiendish Cunning edited by D. R. Bensen with a Foreword by Isaac Asimov. I’ve read a few of these stories in other collections, but several of these stories were new to me. If you’re in the mood for clever writing, brilliant characterizations, and zany plotting P. G. Wodehouse is a master of all three. Do you have a favorite P. G. Wodehouse work? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
“Strychnine in the Soup”
“The Crime Wave at Blandings”
“Ukridge Starts a Bank Account”
“The Purity of the Turf”
“The Smile that Wins”
“The Purification of Rodney Spelvin”
“Without the Option”
“The Romance of a Bulb Squeezer”
“Aunt Agatha takes the Count”
“The Fiery Wooing of Mordred”
“Ukridge’s Accident Syndicate”
“Indiscretions of Archie”

National Public Radio had a story on the Best 150 Music Albums By Women. You can see the entire list here. Here’s the list’s Top 10 Albums:

1. Joni Mitchell. BLUE, 1971.
2. Lauryn Hill. THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL, 1998.
3. Nina Simon. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU, 1965.
4. Aretha Franklin. I NEVER LOVED A MAN THE WAY THE LOVE YOU, 1967.
5. Missy Elliot. SUPA DUPA FLY, 1997.
6. Beyonce. LEMONADE, 2016.
7. Patti Smith. HORSES, 1975.
8. Janis Joplin. PEARL, 1971.
9. Amy Winehouse. BACK TO BLACK, 2006.
10. Carole King. TAPESTRY, 1971.

What do you think of this list? Do you have a favorite music album by a woman?

If you had to create a sneaker to represent your state, what would it look like? That’s the question Adidas and fashion web site Refinery29 posed to several artists earlier this month. The artists used local flags, flora and fauna, and food for inspiration for their creations. The sneakers were auctioned off to reason money for Women Win, a charity that promotes female empowerment through sports. This pizza sneaker–representing New Jersey–was crafted by Jen Mussari.

Luc Bresson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a mess. But, it’s really really stunningly good looking mess. Based on a French SF graphic-novel series, Valerain (Dane DeHaan) and his partner Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are federal agents assigned to protecting Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) from an alien band of kidnappers. The movie drags in spots, but when Rihanna shows up with her pimp, Ethan Hawke, things really blow up (literally). Silly, but fun to watch. GRADE: C+

Nell Stillman is a woman with a lot of problems. She lives in a small Midwestern town at the beginning of the 20th Century. As problems occur, Nell finds solace in the writings of P. G. Wodehouse. Later, Nell becomes a 3rd Grade Teacher in the local elementary school, but she has enemies who threaten her. Faith Sullivan writes convincingly about small town life and the issues women faced before they were granted the right to vote. I enjoyed the selections from Wodehouse’s work that kept Nell sane despite all the turmoil swirling around her. GRADE: B+

Over 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety. Andrea Petersen, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has fought anxiety for 25 years. She chronicles her life-long experience with anxiety. As she points out, “Depression is the mental illness associated with suicidal thoughts, but it doesn’t often lead to suicidal acts.” (p. 7) Anxiety does. Andrea Petersen takes readers on a tour of anti-anxiety medications like Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, etc. She discusses the positives and the side-effects. If you, or someone you love, suffer from anxiety, On Edge could provide with information and help to make things better. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue 1 (4)
1 The Anticipation Of Pain Defining Anxiety 5 (31)
2 Scary Clowns and the End Of Days Anxiety In Childhood 36 (22)
3 My Grandmother’s Madness the Genetics Of Anxiety 58 (35)
4 From Cbt To Karaoke Nondrug Therapies For Anxiety 93 (33)
5 May Cause Dizziness Medications For Anxiety 126 (33)
6 Cold Calls, Airplanes, and Indecision Anxiety At Work and On the Road 159 (29)
7 The Isolation Chamber Anxiety In Love and Friendship 188 (29)
8 Worries About My Daughter the Education Of An Anxious Parent 217 (27)
9 Staying Grounded Learning To Live With Anxiety 244 (17)
Notes 261 (30)
Acknowledgments 291 (4)
Index 295

I was underwhelmed by Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. It feels more like a documentary than a war movie like Saving Private Ryan. Diane wanted to see Dunkirk because of the various stories about the movie on NPR. Several aspects of the movie annoyed me. First, almost 400,000 British troops were stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. About 338,000 of them were saved by the brave flotilla of private British boats that Winston Churchill called for.

But, in Nolan’s movie, the beaches are nearly empty. Here and there lines of soldiers stand around–maybe a few hundred. There’s not much dialogue but what little there is was incomprehensible to me with the sounds of war drowning a lot of it out. Much is made of Nolan’s use of real planes–Spitfires, Messerschmidts, etc.–but the dogfights are surprisingly tame. All in all, Dunkirk is nothing special. What’s your favorite war movie? GRADE: B-

Lionel White wrote over a dozen caper novels. STARK HOUSE collected two of Lionel White’s tales–one a bank heist and the other a “girl on the run” adventure–in a wonderful package from 2015. The House Next Door (1956) was first published in Cosmopolitan as “The Picture Window Murder.” A crooked ex-cop plans a perfect bank heist. Everything seems perfect, except for a couple random elements that cause the entire scheme to unravel.

In Marilyn K (1960) a beautiful young girl stands on the side of the road with a suitcase with $350,000 in it. Narrator Sam Russell falls for Marilyn Kelley (no relation!) hard and ends up in deep trouble as the gangsters who own the money send a team of thugs to find it. The story reads like a Travis McGee novel. Brian Greene’s “Lionel White and the Movies” puts this underrated writer into context. If you’re a fan of caper novels, you’ll enjoy this excellent STARK HOUSE volume.

I’m not a big fan of themed anthologies and What the #@&% is That?: The Saga Anthology of the Mounstrous and the Macadbre is a good example why. As Douglas Cohen explains in his “introduction,” he got the idea of a collection of stories where somewhere in each story a character would say, “What the #@&% is that?” Or words to that effect. Sadly, most of the stories in What the #@&% is That? concentrate too much on trying to build to that moment when someone actually says “What the #@&% is that” instead of telling an interesting story. Most of the stories in this anthology are gory. Gory is NOT macabre or monstrous. The only story in this book I can recommend is “The Sound of Her Laughter” by Simon R. Green. It’s about the quest for immortality. But the rest of the stories weren’t very good. GRADE: C-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Douglas Cohen
MOBILITY by Laird Barron
FOSSIL HEART by Amanda Downum
THOSE GADDAM COOKIES by Scott Sigler
THE SOUND OF HER LAUGHTER by Simon R. Green
DOWN IN THE DEEP AND THE DARK by Desirina Boskovich
ONLY UNCLENCH YOUR HAND by Isabel Yap
LITTLE WIDOW by Maria Dahvana Headley
THE BAD HOUR by Christopher Golden
WHAT IS LOST, WHAT IS GIVEN AWAY by John Langan
NOW AND FOREVER by D. Thomas Minton
#CONNOLLYHOUSE #WESHOULDNTBEHERE by Seanan McGuire
THE HOUSE THAT LOVE BUILT by Grady Hendrix
WE ALL MAKE SACRIFICES by Jonathan Maberry
GHOST PRESSURE by Gemma Files
THE DAUGHTER OUT OF DARKNESS by Nancy Holder
FRAMING MORTENSEN by Adam-Troy Castro
THE CATCH by Terence Taylor
HUNTERS IN THE WOOD by Tim Pratt
WHOSE DROWNED FACE SLEEPS by An Owomoyela & Rachel Swirsky
CASTLEWEEP by Alan Dean Foster