J. C. Carleson’s slim book contains plenty of provocative insights. Treat information as an asset–and protect it! Competitors may try to place a mole in your work teams. Carleson outlines steps to take to prevent that from happening. In the process of delineating steps to secure a workplace difficult to penetrate, Carleson also shows indirectly how the CIA operates. If you’re a fan of spy fiction, you’ll find J. C. Carleson’s observations enlightening and surprising. GRADE: B+

Maureen McLane is a poet with two published volumes of poetry: Same Life and World Enough. My Poets explores the poets who most affected Maureen McLane: Chaucer, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, H.D., Louise Gluck, Fanny Howe, Emily Dickinson, and Shelly. Each chapter sparkles with insights on the poets McLane finds so inspirational. If you love poetry, you’ll love Maureen McLane’s guided tour of her favorite poets. GRADE: B+

We finally got around to seeing Beasts of the Southern Wild and a wild adventure it is. Little Quvenzhané Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a 5-year-old girl living in what seems like a post-apocalyptic world. Later, we learn Hushpuppy, her mentally ill father Wink, and the other scavengers who live in ruined buildings are actually residents of the fringe of New Orleans called “The Bathtub.” Beasts of the Southern Wild, believe it or not, is Benh Zeitlin’s first feature film. It’s based on a screenplay and stage play by his collaborator, Lucy Alibar. Filmed in post-Katrina locations among the ravaged bayous of Louisiana, this movie will jar you with its energy and its unique vision. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a terrific movie! GRADE: A

I’ve been reading faux-Jack Vance novels lately. Matthew Hughes comes closest to emulating The Master. Last week, I recommended Ray Aldridge’s “The Emancipator” series that contained echoes of Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series. Today, I’m recommending L. Warren Douglas’ Stepwater: An Arbiter Tale which will remind some of you of Jack Vance’s Alastor Cluster series. Stepwater is the first book in a trilogy (The Wells of Phyre and Glaice are the other books in the series) which revolves around The Arbiter, John Minder, who needs to keep the peace on a thousand planets with minimum resources. Many of those planets are inhabited by genetically engineered humans who can adapt to less than Earth-like conditions. Douglas channels Jack Vance’s whimsy and diplomatic cunning in these tales. Well worth reading!

Dwayne Johnson (aka, The Rock) plays the owner of a trucking company. Johnson’s teenage son is entrapped by a “friend” into accepting a UPS delivery of drugs. The son is arrested and faces many years in prison. Johnson tries to persuade Federal Prosecutor Susan Sarandon of his son’s naivete, but gets nowhere. Sarandon plays a politically ambitious prosecutor who’s willing to reduce Johnson’s son sentence if Johnson brings her a bigger drug dealer to enhance her position with the media. Johnson meets with a drug dealer and offers to use his long-haul trucks to transport drugs. Snitch shows how untrustworthy the drug dealers and the Feds are in keeping promises. Most of you know Dwayne Johnson as an action hero, but in Snitch his role as a caring father who’s willing to take Big Risks to help his son is convincing and moving. The soundtrack is pretty good, too. GRADE: B+

Rick Robinson alerted me to Roscoes in the Night here. Those of you familiar with Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner, Hollywood detective stories know what to expect: fast-paced action and scrambled jargon. These stories were first published in Spicy Detective and Hollywood Detective back in the pulp era. John Wooley provides an informative introduction with background on the author and stories included in this collection. If you’re looking for fun reading, you’ll find it here. Thanks for the recommendation, Rick!

Season Three for Body of Proof (with the dazzling Dana Delaney) and Nikita (with the marvelous Maggie Q) bombed for me. Body of Proof shook up the cast and the two episodes I watched were much darker than the fluffy stuff in Seasons One and Two. I love watching Dana Delaney prance around it four inch heels and her mni-skirts, but her talent is wasted in this formulaic medical CSI clone. Nikita, on the other hand, has completely lost its way. Maggie Q plays an agent for a secret organization. The dim-witted writers wrote themselves into a corner at the end of Season Two when they had the President of the U.S. (a woman!) move to dismantle the secret organization. The lack of purpose and the meandering plots in Season Three made watching Nikita painful despite the talented cast. What TV programs have you given up on recently?

Last week I reviewed Mark Binelli’s Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis. Despite the horrific descriptions of life in Detroit, I admired Binelli’s historical perspective and optimism. Charlie DeLuff’s Detroit: An American Autopsy presents a darker portrait of the embattled city. You know the stories are going to be dark and twisted from the first quote in the book by Marvin Gaye: “Detroit turned out to be heaven, but it also turned out to be hell.” Charlie LeDuff finds a body frozen in ice while exploring one of Detroit’s many abandoned buildings. He travels to daily fires with Detroit’s beleaguered firefighters. Arson is rampant. At the core of Detroit’s plight is the issue of whether the current dystopia belongs solely to the city or is it the future fate of other Rust Belt cities like Buffalo and Cleveland. You can hear an interview with Charlie LeDuff here. GRADE: A

Side Effects initially lulls you into thinking that the movie is about abuses in the pharmaceutical industry (which it is indirectly), but director Steven Soderbergh has bigger fish to fry. With the help of Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum, and Jude Law Soderbergh creates a twisty-turny psychological thrill-ride where nothing is what it seems. Side Effects reminds me of another Steven Soderbergh film, Out of Sight (which started George Cooney and Jennifer Lopez). Side Effects surprised me several times. Just when I thought I had things figured out, the movie plot morphed again. If you’re up for a complex movie with solid performances, try Side Effects. GRADE: A-

Quartet (based on the play of the same title by Ronald Harwood) is set in a British retirement home for aging musicians. But the retirement home is running out of money so the musicians decide to put on a show to make enough money to keep the home open for another year. As the rehearsals take place, Maggie Smith shows up. She’s a diva with an international reputation. And, just by chance, three of the performers who joined Maggie Smith in a historic performance of the quartet in Verdi’s Rigoletto just happen to be residents of this retirement home. There are no surprises here, but Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, and Pauline Collins deliver entertaining performances. Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with this film. GRADE: B+