Final Stage presents another example of a book I’ve had on my shelves–in this case since 1974 when it was first published–and have only gotten around to reading it recently. Ferman and Malzberg try to touch all the bases: First Contact, Immortality, Robots and Androids, Strange Children, Future Sex, Space Opera, Alternate Universes, Time Travel, etc. Dean R. Koontz is best known for his horror fiction, but he shows up in this anthology with a chilling SF story of Kids with Powers. You won’t soon forget Koontz’s “We Three.” Frederik Pohl’s dark tale of the interaction of humans and aliens, “We Purchased People,” reveals a different side to slavery. Robert Silverberg’s “Trips” shows what can happen if you can visit other dimensions and time-lines.

Ferman and Malzberg provide informative introductions to each story and the authors’s Afterwords reveal more about how the story came to be written. If you’re looking at a top-flight SF anthology, I highly recommend Final Stage. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• ix • Introduction (Final Stage) • (1974) • essay by Edward L. Ferman and Barry N. Malzberg
• 1 • We Purchased People • (1974) • short story by Frederik Pohl
• 18 • Afterword (We Purchased People) • (1974) • essay by Frederik Pohl
• 20 • The Voortrekkers • (1974) • novelette by Poul Anderson
• 44 • Afterword (The Voortrekkers) • (1974) • essay by Poul Anderson
• 47 • Great Escape Tours, Inc. • (1974) • short story by Kit Reed
• 60 • Afterword (Great Escape Tours, Inc.) • (1974) • essay by Kit Reed
• 62 • The Girl in the Tau-Dream • [Diagrams For Three (Enigmatic) Stories • 1] • (1974) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• 70 • The Immobility Crew • [Diagrams For Three (Enigmatic) Stories • 2] • (1974) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• 78 • A Cultural Side-Effect • [Diagrams For Three (Enigmatic) Stories • 3] • (1974) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• 87 • Afterword (Diagrams for Three Enigmatic Stories) • (1974) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss
• 89 • That Thou Art Mindful of Him! • (1974) • novelette by Isaac Asimov (variant of —That Thou Art Mindful of Him!)
• 117 • Afterword (That Thou Art Mindful of Him!) • (1974) • essay by Isaac Asimov
• 120 • We Three • (1974) • short story by Dean R. Koontz
• 128 • Afterword (We Three) • (1974) • essay by Dean R. Koontz
• 130 • An Old-Fashioned Girl • (1974) • short story by Joanna Russ
• 136 • Afterword (An Old-Fashioned Girl) • (1974) • essay by Joanna Russ
• 140 • Catman • (1974) • novelette by Harlan Ellison
• 179 • Afterword (Catman) • (1974) • essay by Harlan Ellison
• 186 • Space Rats of the CCC • (1974) • short story by Harry Harrison
• 201 • Afterword (Space Rats of the CCC) • (1974) • essay by Harry Harrison
• 204 • Trips • (1974) • novelette by Robert Silverberg
• 239 • Afterword (Trips) • (1974) • essay by Robert Silverberg
• 241 • The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier • (1974) • short story by Barry N. Malzberg
• 251 • Afterword (The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier) • (1974) • essay by Barry N. Malzberg
• 253 • Her Smoke Rose Up Forever • (1974) • short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
• 275 • Afterword (Her Smoke Rose Up Forever) • (1974) • essay by James Tiptree, Jr.
• 279 • A Little Something for Us Tempunauts • (1974) • novelette by Philip K. Dick
• 306 • Afterword (A Little Something for Us Tempunauts) • (1974) • essay by Philip K. Dick

Loki, God of Mischief, finds himself captured by the Time Variance Authority and made a prisoner. The Time Variance Authority protects the Time Line by policing “Variants” that might disrupt the Time Line producing war and chaos. Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, initially resists the offer of TVA detective Mobius (Owen Wilson) to help them capture a murderous Variant, but changes his mind when he gets a glimpse of his Fate.

I also liked Wunmi Mosaku as a SWAT Time cop and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a Judge in the Time Court. Yes, the first episode (of six) was a little silly, but I’m getting the feeling the action is going to amp up soon. Are you a fan of Loki? GRADE: Incomplete…but trending up!

“Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg”

You might come here Sunday on a whim.

Say your life broke down. The last good kiss

you had was years ago. You walk those streets

laid out by the insane, past hotels

that didn’t last, bars that did, the tortured try

of local drivers to accelerate their lives.

Only churches are kept up. The jail

turned 70 this year. The only prisoner

is always in, not knowing what he’s done.

This is the first stanza of Richard Hugo’s 1973 poem that inspired James Crumley to write his classic noirish detective novel, The Last Good Kiss. Edward Hirsch provides the text of the poems he’s chosen and then provides an essay for each selection providing information on the poet and how the poem came to be written. I was familiar with 31 of these poems. After reading all 100 poems, I want to read more by many of these poets. How many of these 100 poems are you familiar with? Any favorites? GRADE: A

Table of Contents

Introduction xv

“Surprised by joy-impatient as the Wind” (1815, 1820) William Wordsworth 1

“This living hand” (1819) John Keats 5

“I am” (c. 1847) John Clare 8

In Memoriam, VII (c. 1848) Alfred Lord Tennyson 12

“Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend” (1889) Gerard Manley Hopkins 16

“The God Abandons Antony” (1910) Constantine Cavafy 21

“The Voice” (1912) Thomas Hardy 25

“The Owl” (1915) Edward Thomas 29

“The Pretty Redhead” (1918) Guillaume Apollinaire 33

“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” (1920) Edna St. Vincent Millay 39

“Song for a Dark Girl” (1927) Langston Hughes 44

“Rooms” (c. 1929) Charlotte Mew 49

“Black Stone Lying on a White Stone” (1930) César Vallejo 53

“I’m Going to Sleep” (1938) Alfonsina Storni 58

“To Julia de Burgos” (1938) Julia de Burgos 62

“In Memory of M. B.” (1940) Anna Akhmatova 67

“The Fifth Eclogue” (1943) Miklós Radnóti 71

“Café” (1944) Czeslaw Milosz 76

“Merciful God” (1945) Kadya Molodowsky 81

“Shemà” (1946) Primo Levi 86

“On Living” (1948) Nâzim Hikmet 91

“Aspects of Robinson” (1948) Weldon Kees 97

“The rites for Cousin Vit” (1949) Gwendolyn Brooks 102

“Not Waving but Drowning” (1953, 1957) Stevie Smith 105

“In the Midst of Life” (1955) Tadeusz Rózewicz 109

“On the road at night there stands the man” (1959) Dahlia Ravikovitch 115

“Poem of the Gifts” (1960) Jorge Luis Borges 119

“In the Park” (1961) Gwen Harwood 124

“The Whipping” (1962) Robert Hayden 128

“Night Sweat” (1963) Robert Lowell 133

“Wanting to Die” (1964) Anne Sexton 137

“My Nightingale” (1965) Rose Ausländer 142

“Next Day” (1965) Randall Jarrell 146

“Montana Fifty Years Ago” (1967) J. V. Cunningham 151

“For the Anniversary of My Death” (1967) W. S. Merwin 155

“Poem” (1968) Muriel Rukeyser 158

“The Idea of Ancestry” (1968) Etheridge Knight 163

“Henry’s Understanding” (1969) John Berryman 169

“A Deathplace” (1969) L. E. Sissman 173

“They Feed They Lion” (1969) Philip Levine 178

“The Small Square” (1972) Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen 185

“Under One Small Star” (1972) Wislawa Szymborska 189

“Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” (1973) Richard Hugo 193

“On This Side of the River” (1975) Stephen Berg 199

“Aubade” (1977) Philip Larkin 204

“Parents” (1978) William Meredith 210

“Essay” (1978) Hayden Carruth 214

“Arches” (1978) James Schuyler 218

“Kindness” (1978, 1994) Naomi Shihab Nye 222

“The Woman on the Bridge over the Chicago River” (1979) Allen Grossman 228

“The Book of Yolek”(1981) Anthony Hecht 234

“Mr Cogito and the Imagination” (1983) Zbigniew Herbert 240

“From My Window” (1983) C. K. Williams 247

“Night Song” (1983) Louise Glück 253

“The Race” (1983) Sharon Olds 259

“In Memory of the Unknown Poet, Robert Boardman Vaughn” (1984) Donald Justice 264

“The Dancing” (1984) Gerald Stern 269

“For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Whose Spirit Is Present Here and in the Dappled Stars (for we remember the story and must tell it again so we may all live)” (1985) Joy Harjo 272

“Mendocino Rose” (1987) Garrett Hongo 279

“(Dedications)” (1990-91) Adrienne Rich 284

“The Gas-poker” (1991) Thom Gunn 289

“What He Thought” (1991) Heather McHugh 295

“It Allows a Portrait in Line-Scan at Fifteen” (1993) Les Murray 301

“The People of the Other Village” (1993) Thomas Lux 306

“For the Taking” (1993) Linda Gregerson 310

“Terminus” (1993) Nicholas Christopher 316

“What the Living Do” (1994) Marie Howe 322

“The War Works Hard” (1994) Dunya Mikhail 327

“Halley’s Comet” (1995) Stanley Kunitz 332

“Song” (1995) Brigit Pegeen Kelly 336

“Simile” (1996) Rosanna Warren 341

“In Memory of Joe Brainard” (1997) Frank Bidart 345

“jasper texas 1998” (1998) Lucille Clifton 350

“The Rapture” (2000) Cynthia Huntington 354

“Elementary Principles at Seventy-Two” (2001) Richard Howard 359

“Quarantine” (2001) Eavan Boland 363

“Woman Martyr” (2002) Agi Mishol 369

“We Are Not Responsible” (2002) Harryette Mullen 373

“Shelley” (2004) Galway Kinnell 377

“Aphasia” (2004) Vijay Seshadri 381

“On Wanting to Tell [ ] About a Girl Eating Fish Eyes” (2004) Mary Szybist 385

“Lead” (2005) Mary Oliver 389

“Persimmon” (2005) Anya Krugovoy Silver 393

“Ethel’s Sestina” (2006) Patricia Smith 398

“Woman, Mined” (2006) Carolyn Creedon 403

“Graveyard Blues” (2006) Natasha Trethewey 407

“Requiem” (2006) Camille Dungy 412

“Aubade in Autumn” (2007) Peter Everwine 417

“Barton Springs” (2007) Tony Hoagland 421

“Failure” (2007) Philip Schultz 425

“An Individual History” (2007) Michael Collier 429

“The Second Slaughter” (2008) Lucia Perillo 434

“Old School” (2010) Michael Waters 439

“Infinite Riches in the Smallest Room” (2015) Lucie Brock-Broido 442

“The African Burial Ground” (2014) Yusef Komunyakaa 448

“The Addict’s Mother: Birth Story” (2014-15) Kate Daniels 454

“Spirit Boxing” (2015) Afaa Michael Weaver 458

“Obit [The Blue Dress]” (2016) Victoria Chang 463

“Pantoum for the Broken” (2017) Toi Derricotte 466

“Krishna, 3:29 a.m.” (2018) Toi Derricotte 471

Acknowledgments 479

Credits 483

With all the controversy about immigration going on, I thought reading Roya Hakakian’s A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the immigrant and the Curious (2021) might help me understand the contemporary immigrant experience.

Roya Hakakian is an immigrant from Iran. She came to America in 1984 and is now a naturalized citizen. In Part I of her book, Hakakian stresses the importance of learning the language. She stresses the importance of speaking English with native speakers to learn the current slang and word usage.

I shouldn’t have been surprised–but I was–that Hakakian writes about falling in love in America. How sexual experiences will be different from what was “normal” in an immigrant’s former country. She gives some sound advice on being cautious and careful while learning a new set of American behaviors.

Hakakian had me laughing when she wrote about baseball. She claims it’s common for immigrants to be baffled by the sport. On the more serious side, Hakakian says anti-immigrant sentiment (and violence) is growing and precautions must be taken to protect an immigrant’s safety.

It’s clear that Roya Hakakian loves America despite its flaws. She delivers sound advice to newcomers and hopes they will come to love America as much as she does. A Beginner’s Guide to America is an inspiring, heart-felt, and hopeful book. GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

Prologue xiii

Part I

1 Upon Arrival in America the Beautiful 3

First Inspections 4

Stepping Onto the American Street 8

The Road to Your Destination 10

An Exhausted Finale 13

2 Genesis Redux 15

Your First Unplanned Encounter 16

A Mosey in the New Neighborhood 21

Welcome to the Free World’s Wide Web 23

Grocery Shopping 2.0 25

The ABCs of American Peculiarities 28

The Immigrant’s TV Guide 31

3 On Résumé Writing, ESL School, and Other Post-Arrival Drudgeries 34

Your Life on a Page 36

Back to School Again 43

Your American Baptism 44

Two Ways to Conjugate 46

You, Second Edition 51

4 On Public Transportation, Getting Lost, and Other Post-Arrival Tribulations 54

First Transportation Woes 56

Arrival: A Tragedy In Five Acts 61

Viva La Life! Down With Death! 67

Of Heaven and Hell in the American Park 72

Part II

5 Welcome to Selfistan 79

The Birds, The Fish, The Trees, and The Founding Fathers 80

The American: A Tribe of One 84

Where “I” is King 87

The Exception of the American Farewell Now is the American Future 91

The Vices and the Virtues of an American Lover 96

Love’s New Language 101

Your First Romance: A Few Warnings 107

6 The Diaspora: Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live Without Them 111

The Abridged Catalogue of Belonging 112

The Good in Diaspora 116

To Be or Not To Be: In The Ethnic Enclave 129

The Bad in Diaspora 132

The Immigrant’s Affliction 137

The Ugly in Diaspora 143

The End of Cake 145

And Yet, It Can Be Worse 147

7 The loveable, the Inexplicable, and the Infuriating About America 156

A Strange Brand of Generous 158

On Squirrels and Americans 163

The Thanks You Owe 169

What Not to Learn from Americans 171

The Undoing of America 174

E as in Émigré, as in Excellence 183

8 On Refusing to Move to the Back of the American Bus 186

Anti-Immigrant Vitriol as the Other Apple Pie 189

All Men are Created Equal Except Some Men 192

Give Me Your Poor Vs. Your Fat Cats 195

America’s Dark Future 198

The Most Reliable Gods 201

The Nine Circles of the Vetting Process 204

Your Story, Your Prayer 207

A Covenant in Red, White, and Blue 209

Acknowledgments 215

Sources 217

As a diabetic, I’m always looking for good tasting snacks with lower carbs. Our local Sam’s Club sent us a coupon book and I noticed the ad for The Better Nut Bar. I’m a lover of nuts so this was very appealing to me. Diane found The Better Nut Bar box–not in the snack aisle where you would expect it to be–but in the COOKING aisle. Weird.

There are 24 nut bars in the box which sells for $11 at Sam’s Club. I tried a bar and loved it. Nuts, dark chocolate, and sea salt. Yum! And given the Dietary Fiber of 7 grams, the net carbs are only 9 grams! If you’re a nut fan, you’ll love The Better Nut Bar. And, the price is right! Do you have a favorite granola or nutrition bar? GRADE: A

NUTRITION INFORMATION:

NUTRITION

• Serving Size: 1 bar (40g)
• Amount per Serving My Daily Value
• Calories190Kcal 11%
• Total Fat14g 22%
• Saturated Fat3g 18%
• Trans Fat 0g0%
• Cholesterol0mg 0%
• Sodium120mg5 %
• Potassium170mg 4%
• Total Carbohydrate16g 7%
• Dietary Fiber7g 28%
• Sugars5g 7%
• Added Sugars4g 17%
• Protein6g 12%
• Calcium52mg 5%
• Iron1.44mg 8%
• Vitamin D 0mcg 0%

INGREDIENTS

dry roasted almonds, inulin, dry roasted cashews, dark chocolate flavored coating (organic sugar, palm kernel oil, cocoa powder, cocoa powder [processed with alkali], unsweetened chocolate, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, honey, soy protein isolate, brown rice syrup, walnuts, sea salt, natural flavor, soy lecithin, tapioca starch, caramelized sugar syrup.

 I remember buying Fit to Kill in the early 1960s because I liked the Robert McGinnis cover. The glitter on the cover hints at the McGuffin in the story.

Fit to Kill is the 31st book in the Mike Shayne series. After 1958, beginning with Fit to Kill, Brett Halliday became a house name used by several authors. Most were written by Robert Terrall (who ghosted Fit to Kill), with some written by Ryerson Johnson and Dennis Lynds.

Timothy Rourke, a Miami crime reporter and long-time friend of private eye Mike Shayne, visits an unnamed country in the Caribbean to investigate a story. In this corrupt country, a student group begs Rourke to report the truth about the dictatorship’s beatings and murders. Rourke meets a beautiful blonde, Carla Adams, who convinces him to help her escape the government thugs who are hunting for her.

When Rourke’s investigations result in his kidnapping, Mike Shayne races to save his friend’s life. Shayne deals with smugglers, kidnappers, revolutionaries, thugs, and gamblers in this noirish novel. If you’re a fan of Mike Shayne, you’ll notice that Robert Terrall’s writing style is very different from the style of “Brett Halliday” (aka, Davis Dresser). All in all, Fit to Kill is a quick, fun read. GRADE: A

I was one of those folks who was blown away by Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” back in 1990. I rushed to buy her music CD, I do not want what I haven’t got, and listened to it constantly.

Then, while I watching Sinead O’Connor on Saturday Night Live in 1992, Sinead tore a photograph of Pope John Paul II into pieces (in the book we find out that the photo once hung in her mother’s living room). After all the gasps from the audience, Sinead announced: “Fight the real enemy!”

Of course, this incident had consequences: Sinead O’Connor was banned, boycotted, had her CDs destroyed publicly, and was attacked in the Press as a communist whacko.

Sinead O’Connor continued to tour, continued to write songs, continued to record. I bought her CDs and marveled at her wonderful voice and her songwriter talent for years. Now, in Rememberings, we learn of her abuse as a child. Sinead was always in trouble, always shaking things up. We learn about why she shaved her head (Star Trek!) and why she converted to Islam. We find out the details of her suicide attempt and her strategies for survival. Love her or hate her, Sinead O’Connor is a force to be reckoned with. GRADE: A (both book and CD)

TRACKLIST:

1.	“Feel So Different”		6:47
2.	“I Am Stretched on Your Grave“	Anonymous Philip King	5:33
3.	“Three Babies“		4:47
4.	“The Emperor’s New Clothes“		5:16
5.	“Black Boys on Mopeds“		3:53
6.	“Nothing Compares 2 U“	Prince	5:10
7.	“Jump in the River”	O’Connor Marco Pirroni	4:12
8.	“You Cause as Much Sorrow”		5:04
9.	“The Last Day of Our Acquaintance”		4:40
10.	“I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got”		5:47

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I picked up this DVD of Macbeth at a local thrift store for a pittance. Unfortunately, I didn’t do any “due diligence” in checking the reviews before I bought it. When I watched this mess, even Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, two talented actors, couldn’t save this disaster. Yes, the on-site views of Scotland are great eye-candy. But Justin Kurzel, the director, makes some bizarre choices. And, sadly, many of the actors just mumble their lines.

In High School, the three plays by Shakespeare that we studied were Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, and Macbeth. Of the three, I liked Macbeth the best. I’ve seen the play performed live twice. I’ve seen the Orson Wells’ movie, the Polanski movie, and the Patrick Stewart/Masterpiece Theater version. All are much better than this dismal failure!!! Do you like Macbeth? GRADE: F

Sebastian Junger, best known for The Perfect Storm and the documentary Restrepo, presents the reader with an odd little book in Freedom. For much of a year, Junger and three friends—a conflict photographer and two Afghanistan War veterans—walked the railroad lines of the east coast. It was a strange experiment in personal freedom. Dealing with railroad cops, sleeping under bridges, cooking over camp fires, and drinking from creeks and rivers, the four men forged a unique reliance on one another over time.

While doing all that walking for a year, Junger also pondered what freedom consisted of. How did the Apaches defeat the much stronger and numerous Spanish? How did small groups in history keep their freedom when confronted by more powerful forces?

Just glance down at the Table of Contents and you’ll see Junger’s answers. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

BOOK ONE: RUN — 1

BOOK TWO: FIGHT — 53

BOOK THREE: THINK — 95

SOURCES AND REFERENCES — 135