I’ve used TURBOTAX for years. We have a fairly straight-forward tax return since our kids are on their own and our house is paid for. Not many deductions (except for charitable giving). TURBOTAX for tax year 2014 installed in minutes. It did a quick update and then I was ready to input my tax data. TURBOTAX has two modes: the “hand-holding” mode that takes you step-by-step through the tax return and the more independent approach. Since I’ve been using TURBOTAX all these years and my return is simple, I choose the independent approach. After I inputed my numbers, I had the results: I owed the Feds about $200 and NY State about $800. TURBOTAX eFiled both the Federal and State returns. The whole process took about a half hour. Have you done your taxes?

While going through the DVDs at BIG LOTS, I found a copy of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? For a couple of bucks, I couldn’t resist buying it. I hadn’t watched WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? since the 1980s when I had a VHS tape of it. Rewatching the movie made me realize how great Elizabeth Taylor’s performance was. Richard Burton’s performance as an associate professor in a marriage filled with secrets and games is sensational, too. George Segal plays an ambitious biology professor whose wife, Sandy Dennis, has plenty of secrets of her own. Mike Nichols shot the movie in black & white, resisting pressures to shoot the movie in color. The starkness of b&w makes the film even more powerful. If you haven’t seen WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? in a while, it’s a film with scintillating performances.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
1. Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh: Commentary
2. Cinematographer Haskell Wexler: Commentary

A friend of mine recommended Rage Against the Dying to me. I picked up a copy from the library and read it. Brigid Quinn tracked down sexual predators for the FBI. But one case–the Route 66 murders–frustrated Brigid and eventually led to her retirement from the FBI. Brigid tries to move on. She marries a nice guy, Carlo. She acquires some dogs. She works out. But the events of the Route 66 murders haunt Brigid and she just can’t let the case go. So she gets involved in the investigation. As you might suspect, the Real Killer targets Brigid. There’s some suspense in Rage Against the Dying but not enough of it for me. I figured things out early on and then read on to see things work out pretty much as I imagined. This is Becky Masterman’s first novel. I’m sure the next one will be better. GRADE: C+

I’m a big fan of Time Travel stories so this new BAEN BOOKS collection moved to the top of my reading list. Hank Davis makes some nice selections and provides interesting introductions to the stories. I liked “Gibraltar Falls” by Poul Anderson, one of his Time Patrol stories. And Robert F. Young’s “The Girl Who Made Time Stop.” There’s a nice blend of classic writers like Murray Leinster and more contemporary writers like Sarah A. Hoyt. If you enjoy Time Travel stories as much as I do, you’ll enjoy As Time Goes By.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Time Machine Built for Two by Hank Davis
Gibraltar Falls by Poul Anderson
Triceratops Summer by Michael Swanwick
The Chronoclasm by John Wyndham
The Girl Who Made Time Stop by Robert F. Young
The Other Now by Murray Leinster
A Dry, Quiet War by Tony Daniel
Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
The Day of the Green Velvet Cloak by Mildred Clingerman
A Wow Finish by James Van Pelt
Backtracked by Burt Filer
So Little and So Light by Sarah A. Hoyt
The Price of Oranges by Nancy Kress
The Secret Place by Richard M. McKenna
Palely Loitering by Christopher Priest

Michael Hofmann is a translator and a reader. This new book of essays shows Hofman’s focus on classic American poets like Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, and Robert Frost. I learned a lot about Weldon Kees, an obscure American poet, from Hofmann’s essay. But the strength of Where Have You Been? is Hofmann’s essays on European writers. Sure, I’ve read some Gunter Grass and Stefan Zweig , but Karen Solie and Max Beckmann are new to me. If you’re interested in the European literary scene and the problems of translation, Where Have You Been? reveals a lot about both subjects. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface
PART ONE
Bishop/Lowell Correspondence
Robert Frost and Edward Thomas
Weldon Kees
Ian Hamilton
James Schuyler
Elizabeth Bishop
Robert Lowell
Frederick Seidel
Ted Hughes
“Remembering Teheran”
Heaney’s Haiku
Basil Bunting
W. S. Graham
Zbigniew Herbert
Adam Iagajewski
Les Murray
Australian Poets
Karen Solie
PART TWO
“Sharp Biscuit”” Some Thoughts on Translating
Gottfried Benn
Hans Magnus Enzenberger
Max Beckmann
The Passenger
Kurt Schwitters
Arthur Schnitzler
Thomas Bernhard
Gunter Grass
Stefan Zweig
Robert Walser
Acknowledgments

I’ve been fond of Yolanda Kondonassis’ harp albums and Jason Vieaux’s wonderful guitar albums. So this joint project was a “must-buy” for me. This is very atmospheric music. I really liked “Fantasía for guitar & harp“ by Xavier Montsalvatge & Yolanda Kondonassis. “Hypnotized” lives up to its name with its quiet rhythms. If you’re looking for some delightful mood music, you might want to give Together a try. GRADE: B+

Stella Rimington used to be the former Director General of MI5, the British intelligence organization. I wondered what kind of spy novel a retired spy would write so I read Rimington’s first novel, At Risk (2004). Rimington’s 34-year-old spy is Liz Carlyle, an MI5 intelligence officer. Carlyle learns that a terrorist threat is imminent. The terrorist is assisted by an “invisible” young British woman who can easily blend into the background to aid his activities. I found At Risk a little tedious. Unless someone convinces me the later Liz Carlyle books are worth reading, this will be my last one. GRADE: C

I’ve been watching these new Justice League movies for a couple of years now. They seem to have fallen into a pattern of featuring one of the superheroes in each movie. This time it’s Aquaman. I always liked Aquaman adventures when I was a kid reading DC Comics. His adventures were different and like Tarzan, Aquaman had the power to communicate with animals (like dolphins and whales). I set the bar pretty low for this kind of entertainment so your enjoyment level might not be as high as mine. GRADE: B
EXTRAS:
Sneak peak at Batman vs. Robin
Villains of the Deep: Black Manta and Ocean Master
Scoring Atlantis: The Sound of the Deep: an informative feature about the music of these DC movies. Loved it!