PBS must be running out of Miss Marple novels to film so they’ve turned to Miss Marple short stories. “The Blue Geranium” was published in The Tuesday Club Murders (aka, The Thirteen Problems) in 1932. A cranky hypochondriac, Mrs. Pritchard, is told by a fortune-teller that “a blue geranium means death.” And, sure enough, Mr. Pritchard then dies from a gas leak with a blue geranium nearby. Miss Marple investigates and solves the murder. Masterpiece Theater Mystery will be broadcasting “The Blue Geranium” tonight. I’ll be curious to see how a 12-page short story is puffed up to fill 90-minutes of television drama.
It’s been seven years since Sarah McLachlan’s last new CD. Too long! Laws of Illusion shows Sarah in fine voice. I love all the songs, especially “Don’t Give Up On Us.” I have all of Sarah McLachlan’s CDs, I’ve seen her in concert three times, and if she’s touring within driving distance of my home, I’ll go listen to her again. This isn’t so much a review as a product announcement. GRADE: A PLAY LIST
1 Awakenings 4:08
2 Illusions Of Bliss 3:53
3 Loving You Is Easy 3:03
4 Changes 3:44
5 Forgiveness 3:49
6 Rivers Of Love 3:54
7 Love Come 3:33
8 Out Of Tune 3:51
9 Heartbreak 4:07
10 Don’t Give Up On Us 3:37
11 U Want Me 2 4:07
12 Bring On The Wonder 2:56
13 Loving You Is Easy Acustic / Version 3:36
14 Love Come Piano Version / Version 4:04
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Published in 1878, Anna Katharine Green’s puzzler was admired by plenty of contemporary writers, including A. Conan Doyle. Penguin Books recently reprinted a new edition that brings this classic to a new audience of mystery readers. Horatio Leavenworth, a wealthy retired merchant, is murdered. He was shot in the head in his library and the evidence at the inquest shows that no one could have left the victim’s locked Manhattan mansion before the discovery of the body the next morning. Suspicion falls on the dead man’s nieces, Mary and Eleanore, only one of whom stands to benefit from their uncle’s violent death. Everett Raymond, a junior partner in a New York law firm that had Leavenworth as a client, teams up with the official investigator, Ebenezer Gryce, to discover the truth. More than just a locked room mystery, The Leavenworth Case was ahead of its time in the use of investigative techniques and indirection in the use of circumstantial evidence in the delightfully clever circuitous plot. Michael Sims’ informative Introduction puts this mystery novel in its social and historical context. This classic is well worth reading.
Elvis was at the height of his powers in 1970. On Stage February 1970 captures Elvis in a Las Vegas performance. This 2-CD Legacy Edition is completely remastered and sounds great. Some obscure songs show up here. Have you heard Elvis sing “Mystery Train” before? I hadn’t. How about “Proud Mary” or “Funny How Time Slips Away”? This collection features Elvis at his best. Don’t miss this one! PLAY LIST: DISC ONE:
1. See See Rider 3:06
2. Release Me 3:11
3. Sweet Caroline 2:43
4. Runaway 2:46
5. The Wonder Of You 2:34
6. Polk Salad Annie 5:33
7. Yesterday 2:27
8. Proud Mary 2:47
9. Walk A Mile In My Shoes 2:59
10. Let It Be Me 3:39
11. Don’t Cry Daddy (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Dinner Show) 2:38
12. Kentucky Rain (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 16, 1970, Dinner Show) 3:20
13. Long Tall Sally (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Midnight Show) 1:32
14. The Wonder Of You (Rehearsal – Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Afternoon Rehearsal) 6:57 DISC TWO:
1. Blue Suede Shoes 2:05
2. Johnny B. Goode 2:20
3. All Shook Up 2:07
4. Are You Lonesome Tonight? 3:15
5. Hound Dog 1:53
6. I Can’t Stop Loving You 3:19
7. My Babe 2:10
8. Medley: Mystery Train / Tiger Man 3:45
9. Words 2:45
10. In The Ghetto 2:56
11. Suspicious Minds 7:45
12. Can’t Help Falling In Love 2:12
13. I Got A Woman (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 2:39
14. Medley: Jailhouse Rock / Don’t Be Cruel (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 3:22
15. Heartbreak Hotel (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 2:19
16. Baby, What You Want Me To Do (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 3:32
17. Reconsider Baby (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Midnight Show) 3:17
18. Funny How Time Slips Away (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 25, 1969, Dinner Show)
There’s a cottage industry now in publishing books that “explain” the U.S. and global economic meltdown. The best book about this phenomenon that I’ve read so far is Michael Lewis’ The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Norton, 2010). Lewis, who worked on Wall Street, is the perfect guide to the Byzantine world of bond traders. That’s where the economic meltdown started. Yes, Lewis is able to tell you what a credit default swap is, unlike the Wall Street types Michael Moore interviewed in Capitalism: A Love Story who couldn’t. Lewis’ innovative approach to telling his story is to concentrate on the people who figured out sub-prime mortgages were toxic and made millions of dollars betting against them! If you want to understand the financial collapse we’ve just been through, and will be living with for years, The Big Short is the perfect place to start. GRADE: A. (Thanks to the North Tonawanda Public Library for providing this book.)
What do you give the Dad who has everything (including 30,000 books!)? Obviously, a new computer chair! Patrick and Katie assembled the Realspace PRO™ Quantum Mesh Mid-Back Task Chair in minutes and gave it to me for Father’s Day. The Realspace PRO chair is wonderful! Very comfortable. Great lumbar support. The mesh design keeps you cool. This chair sells for $299 at Office Depot, but they caught a sale so it only cost $249. Well worth it! If you’re looking for a new computer chair, give the Realspace PRO a sit. GRADE: A
It’s been a decade since TOY STORY 2 delighted us. Now, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) are back with new adventures and new toys, notably Ken (Michael Keaton). Andy, the boy who played with the toys, is now going to college. The toys find themselves donated to Sunnyside, a day care center. But, not everything is as it should be at Sunnyside. In this summer of cinematic drivel and clunky recycled remakes, Toy Story 3 stands out as being as good as the classic first movie in the series. That’s really saying something. GRADE: A+
PBS Masterpiece Theater Mysteries is broadcasting another Miss Marple mystery tonight. Check your local listings for times in your area. Purists will be upset that Masterpiece Theater Mysteries is “converting” non-series Christie mysteries into Miss Marple mysteries. The Secret of the Chimneys was published in 1925. Miss Marple didn’t show up until 1927 in “The Tuesday Night Club” and didn’t appear in her own novel until The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930.
If you’re looking for some entertaining sword & sorcery action, Simon R. Green’s Hawk and Fisher series merits a look. Green wrote these six fantasy novels back in the early 1990s and ACE BOOKS published them. The audience for these books would be Young Adults, but I enjoyed them anyway. Hawk and Fisher are a husband and wife team on the City Guard, an order which polices Green’s fantasy world. They operate in the port city of Haven, a corrupt city-state. Each of Hawk and Fisher’s adventures deals with magic and mystery. There’s no complex plotting or characterizations here, just light entertainment. Penguin has collected all the Hawk and Fisher novels in two omnibus collections. Buy them before they go out-of-print! GRADE: B (for all the novels)
This completes the June part of Carl V.’s fantasy challenge and that completes the challenge. To learn more about the fantasy challenge, click here.
The only positive that resulted from AMC’s disastrous remake of The Prisoner was the reprinting of Thomas M. Disch’s novelization. The original was published by ACE BOOKS in 1969 and quickly went out-of-print. I was saddened by Disch’s death in 2008. His work struck me as original and clever. Disch published mostly science fiction. Ironically, his most successful book was The Brave Little Toaster, a book for children (and readers who are children at heart) which morphed into a couple of Disney animated movies. Disch captures the claustrophobia of The Village in his novel and explores the theme of identity. If you’re a fan of the original series, The Prisoner world of menace and mystery Disch explores will intrigue you.
PBS must be running out of Miss Marple novels to film so they’ve turned to Miss Marple short stories. “The Blue Geranium” was published in The Tuesday Club Murders (aka, The Thirteen Problems) in 1932. A cranky hypochondriac, Mrs. Pritchard, is told by a fortune-teller that “a blue geranium means death.” And, sure enough, Mr. Pritchard then dies from a gas leak with a blue geranium nearby. Miss Marple investigates and solves the murder. Masterpiece Theater Mystery will be broadcasting “The Blue Geranium” tonight. I’ll be curious to see how a 12-page short story is puffed up to fill 90-minutes of television drama. 
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