The Far Side of the Dollar follows the template of most Lew Archer novels: a family is tormented by secrets from the past. In this case, Archer is hired to find a teenage boy who escaped from a Rehab facility. A couple corpses later, Archer learns the seeds of these deaths go back decades. Family secrets are revealed at the end of the case, but Ross Macdonald saves a special twist for the conclusion. Macdonald has been criticized for writing the same book over and over again. Some readers will find the references in The Far Side of the Dollar to King Lear disconcerting (although they fit). This 1965 Lew Archer mystery isn’t as good as The Galton Case or The Chill but it still tells a compelling story.

I first listened to Van Morrison’s Moondance album (yes, the actual vinyl!) back in 1970 and I knew I was listening to a great artist. No one sounds like Van Morrison. Many of the songs on this album went on to become hits. “Moondance” is iconic. But I like “Into the Mystic” even better. “Caravan” still sounds great. And who can sit still when “Come Running to Me” comes on! This new release of Moondance has been completely remastered and sounds wonderful! I listened to DISC 2 with all the alternative versions and outtakes. But I’ll be listening to DISC 1 much, much more. GRADE: A

I’ve been a big Michael Gruber fan since I read his Jimmy Paz trilogy: Tropic of Night, Valley of Bones, and Night of the Jaguar. The Return tells the story of two men who are burdened by their past. One man has lost his Mexican wife and tries to honor her memory. The other man is a “security consultant” whose failures haunt him. The two men run afoul of the Mexican drug lords which sets up an action-packed, explosive conclusion. If you’re looking for a novel to while away an afternoon, The Return will keep the pages turning quickly. GRADE: A-

I picked this Double Feature DVD up at Wal-Mart for $9.95 which I thought was a bargain (AMAZON wants $13.42). Public Enemies has Lex Luthor turning our heroes into social and legal outcasts. Apocalypse features a mysterious space ship from Krypton carrying a beautiful girl. I enjoyed these animated adventures, but I’d give the edge to Apocalypse over Public Enemies. Both are fun! GRADE: PUBLIC ENEMIES B+ and APOCALYPSE A-

I read a couple memoirs a year. I suspect it’s an acquired taste. Beth Kephart’s nifty Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir not only presents possible approaches to write a memoir if you’re so inclined, but she also provides an annotated list of great memoirs–78 of them! The annotated list includes classics like William Styron’s Darkness Visible, Frank Conroy’s Stop-Time, and Nabokov’s Speak, Memory but also more recent memoirs like Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood, and Patti Smith’s Just Kids. If you’re interested in memoirs, Handling the Truth should be your new go-to book. GRADE: A-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Definitions, preliminaries, cautions. Prefatory ; Memoir is not ; Memoir is ; Read to write ; Great expectations ; Careful, now — Raw material. Wrestling yourself down ; Tense? ; Find your form ; Photo shop ; Do you love? ; Whether the weather ; Landscape it ; Think song ; The color of life ; I hear voices ; Tastes like ; Something smells– fishy? ; Empty your pockets ; Telling detail ; Let me check on that ; First memory ; Remain vulnerable — Get moving. What’s it all about? ; Beginnings ; Blank page — Fake not and other last words. Fake not ; Exercise empathy ; Seek beauty ; Most unlonely — Appendix. Read. Please. Childhood relived ; Mothers, fathers, children ; Grief ; The natural world ; Unwell ; Leaving and returning ; Rapacious minds ; Funny business ; Helpful texts.

The undefeated KC Chiefs roll into town as 3-point favorites over the hapless Bills. Thad Lewis, the former Practice Squad QB, has the flu and is recovering from the pummeling he took in New Orleans last week. He’s 50-50 at best to start today. If Thad Lewis can’t go, the Bills are down to their 4th-string QB, Jeff Tuel (pronounced “tool”) the undrafted rookie free-agent. Tuel was terrible in his appearance against the Cleveland Browns. And the Bills’ best player, running back C. J. Spiller, has a sore ankle and may not play today, either. I think the point spread should be about 14 points given the Bills’ offensive woes. How will your favorite NFL team do today?

With all the revelations about the NSA and Snowden Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think is a timely book. Companies like GOOGLE, AMAZON, and YAHOO! routinely collect data on their users. I came away from reading Big Data with the confirmation that privacy is a thing of the past. Smartphones, iPads, computers of all sorts, and any smart device seems to be part of the pervasive NSA data collection operation. Our movements are tracked, our purchases analyzed, and our communications are recorded. The authors point our good uses of Big Data–better science and health studies–but we all know there is a Dark Side to this data collection. GRADE: B+
Table of Contents
1 Now 1
2 More 19
3 Messy 32
4 Correlation 50
5 Datafication 73
6 Value 98
7 Implications 123
8 Risks 150
9 Control 171
10 Next 185
Notes 199
Bibliography 216
Acknowledgments 225
Index 229

Graham Greene wrote this wicked little novel in 1966. Greene creates a group of off-beat characters and sets them in corrupt South American country where murder lurks behind every door. If you’re looking for suspense and sudden death, The Comedians delivers. There was also an effective movie version of this novel that you might want to check out.

I’m a huge fan of Ray Kurzweil’s brilliant The Singularity is Near where Kurzweil really explores the implications of technology. In this new book, Kurzweil says the human-machine civilization is upon us. When I see people walking around wearing Google Glasses I’m sure Kurzweil is right. Kurzweil shows how the brain functions, how our minds emerge, and the potentials of brain-computer interfaces. If you want to read about where this renowned futurist thinks we’re going, How to Create a Mind is worth your time and attention. GRADE: A
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Thought Experiments on the World
2. Thought Experiments on Thinking
3. A Model of the Neocortex: The Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind
4. The Biological Neocortex
5. The Old Brain
6. Transcendental Abilities
7. The Biologically inspired Digital Neocortex
8. The Mind as a Computer
9. Though Experiments on the Mind
10. The Law of Accelerating Returns Applied to the Brain
11. Objections
Epilogue