I’ve been listening to Women & Songs and Back to Back Hits: Blondie and Pat Benatar. Clearly, Women & Songs provides more variety with more artists. I haven’t heard Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird” in a while. I have heard Alan’s Morissette’s “Thank U” when we saw the musical version of Jagged Little Pill a few months ago. Our local Oldies rock radio station plays Cher’s “Believe” and “Kind & Generous” by Natalie Merchant on a regular basis.

From time to time I like to listen to Blondie and Pat Benatar’s songs from a kinder, gentler age. I can’t forget hearing Debbie Harry belt out “The Tide is High” for the first time decades ago. And Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” got heavy air play back in 1983!

Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B (for both)

TRACK LIST:

1	Christina Aguilera–	Beautiful Written By – Linda Perry
2	Faith Hill–	Cry Written By – Angie Aparo
3	Jewel–	Intuition Written By – Jewel Kilcher, Lester Mendez
4	Nelly Furtado–	I’m Like A Bird Written By – Nelly Furtado
5	Kelly Clarkson–	Low Written By – Jimmy Harry
6	Alicia Keys–	A Woman’s Worth Written By – Alicia Keys, Erica Rose
7	Dido–	Thank You Written By – Dido Armstrong, Paul Herman
8	Michelle Branch–	Are You Happy Now? Written By – John Shanks, Michelle Branch
9	Alanis Morissette–	Thank U Written By – Alanis Morissette, Glen Ballard
10	Sarah McLachlan–	Adia Written By – Pierre Marchand, Sarah McLachlan
11	LeAnn Rimes–	How Do I Live Written By – Diane Warren
12	Cher–	Believe Written By – Brian Higgins, Matthew Gray, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Stuart McLennan, Timothy Powell
13	Lisa Marie Presley–	Lights Out Written By – Clif Magness, Glen Ballard, Lisa Marie Presley
14	Bonnie Raitt–	Can’t Make You Love Me Written By – Allen Shamblin, Mike Reid
15	Cherie (2)–	I’m Ready Written By – DioGuardi/Burton/Hartman/Skarbek/Jones
16	Natalie Merchant–	Kind & Generous Written By – Natalie Merchant
17	Rachael Yamagata–	Under My Skin Written By – Rachael Yamagata
18	Heather Headley–	I Wish I Wasn’t Written By – James Harris III, James Wright, Terry Lewis
19	Toni Braxton–	Un-Break My Heart Written By – Diane Warren

TRACK LIST:

	Blondie–	Call Me
	Blondie–	Heart Of Glass
	Blondie–	The Tide Is High
	Blondie–	Rapture
	Blondie–	One Way Or Another
	Pat Benatar–	Heartbreaker
	Pat Benatar–	Hit Me With Your Best Shot
	Pat Benatar–	Love Is A Battlefield
	Pat Benatar–	We Live For Love
	Pat Benatar–	We Belong

Murder Most Postal: Homicidal Tales that Deliver a Message (2001) is part of Martin H. Greenberg’s “Murder Most…” series. I’ll be reviewing a couple more anthologies in this series in the weeks ahead. You can read my review of Murder Most Medieval here.

The most chilling story in Murder Most Postal is Lawrence Block’s “Like a Bone in the Throat” which deals with a serial killer and the brother of one of his victims. Greenberg includes the classic Poe mystery, “The Purloined Letter,” and August Derleth puts a slight spin on it with Solar Pons investigating “The Adventure of the Penny Magenta.”

I also enjoyed the Evan Hunter (aka, Ed McBain) Christmas story, “Deadlier Than the Mail,” about the thefts of mailed checks in New York City. When is the last time you’ve written a letter? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction / John Helfers — vii

Like a bone in the throat / Lawrence Block — 1

The purloined letter / Edgar Allan Poe — 27

An act of violence / William F. Nolan — 45

The Corbett correspondence / “Agent No. 5 and Agent No. 6” — 53

Agony column / Barry N. Malzberg — 67

Graduation / Richard Christian Matheson — 77

Someone who understands me / Matthew Costello — 93

Letter to the editor / Morris Hershman — 101

The coveted correspondence / Ralph McInerny — 107

A nice cup of tea / Kate Kingsbury — 131

Letter to his son / Simon Brett — 143

The poisoned pen / Arthur B. Reeve — 161

A literary death / Martin H. Greenberg — 181

The adventure of Penny Magenta / August Derleth — 185

Letter from a very worried man / Henry Slesar — 199

Pure Rotten / John Lutz — 203

Computers don’t argue / Gordon R. Dickson — 209

A letter to Amy / Joyce Harrington — 225

The adventure of the one-penny black / Ellery Queen — 243

Make yoursleves at home / Joan Hess — 263

Deadlier than the mail / Evan Hunter — 279

Contributors — 297

Copyrights and Permissions — 305

According to the latest poll, only about one-quarter of voters have a favorable opinion of Vance, while the rest are undecided. By contrast, Walz enjoys a stronger position, with around 40% of voters viewing him positively–a 15-point lead.

I’m guessing this Vice Presidential Debate will be another circus with Vance making stories up and Walz being folksy. Are you going to watch the Vice Presidential Debate? You know Trump will be watching!

“Within Republican circles at least, the message of McCarthy’s pilgrimage (to Mar-a-Lago) was loud and clear. Donald Trump’s status as the party’s leader was restored. His time in the political wilderness lasted eight days.” (p. 48) 

Jonathan Karl tracks the GOP and Trump from January 6th to the present. Karl includes all the craziness of the Trump circle of “advisors.” Steve Bannon said that Ivanka Trump was “Dumb as a brick” and referred to Donald Trump, Jr. as “a dimwit.” (p. 54) Then Bannon was fired. But he’s back in the fringes of Trumpworld.

But the scary part of Tired of Winning (2023) is Karl laying out the fashioning of the next Trump Administration: firing most of the Justice Department and replacing them with political stooges. Rounding up immigrants and sending them to interment camps. Prosecuting political enemies. Utilizing the Military to “Restore Order.” The list is extensive…and frightening. Already, Trump minions are recruiting staff for the next Trump administration where loyalty is the prime attribute for inclusion.

Make no mistake: Karl records Trump ranting about the Retribution he is going to bring to the country when he regains power. Tired of Winning shows the entire Trump playbook for plans to Make America Great Again. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction1 

Chapter 1 “Come Retribution” — 13 

Chapter 2 Dark Days at Mar-a-Lago — 37 

The Grim Reaper — 51 

Chapter 3 The Choker — 57 

Chapter 4 The Crazy Factor — 81 

Chapter 5 Team of Sycophants — 97 

“Only One” — 111 

Chapter 6 Trump’s Essential Man — 115 

Martial Law — 131 

Chapter 7 “Fix It Now!” — 135 

Lying to the Vatican — 153 

Chapter 8 Razing Arizona — 157 

The Club Champ — 175 

Chapter 9 The Biggest Loser — 181 

Chapter 10 Speaker Trump — 203 

“Now It’s the Tallest” — 221 

Chapter 11 The Beginning of the End — 225 

Chapter 12 Defendant #1,090 — 251 

Conclusion — 271 

Acknowledgments — 289 

Notes — 295 

Index — 311 

For some inexplicable reason, Vegas has the 3-0 Buffalo Bills 3-point underdogs to the 1-2 Baltimore Ravens. Yes, Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are potent runners. Yes, the game is being played in rainy Baltimore. Yes, the “experts” didn’t expect the Bills to be undefeated three games into the 2024 season.

I expect the Bills vs. Ravens game to be a close game. Weather conditions may affect the game with slipping and sliding and fumbling a wet football. How will your favorite NFL do today?

I was hoping for some cool alchemy and magic in the Infinity Alchemist. Instead, Kacen Callender delivers more of a romp into the angst of young people, difficulties with parents, gender-switching, romantic entanglements, and a lust for Power.

Ashen Woods is a poor young man working as a Groundkeeper’s assistant at the Lancaster College of Alchemic Science. Secretly, Ash has been teaching himself alchemy with varying results. When Ash is confronted by one of Lancaster College’s faculty members, Ramsay Thorne, he becomes part of a search for the legendary Book of Source. An alchemist possessing the Book of Source would commend infinite Power.

Of course, Ramsay Thorne isn’t the only alchemist searching for the Book of Source. Ash’s father, Gresham Hair, is willing to murder anyone standing in his way of finding Book of Source. While Ramsay and Ash pursue their own leads on the location of Book of Source, complications ensue. Ramsay changes gender every day. Sometimes male, sometimes female. While Ramsay knows more about alchemy than Ash does, Ash has untapped Power.

I found the romantic shenanigans tiresome and the search drawn out. Skip this one. GRADE: C

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 Introduction: Balloon — 1

Bucket — 3

Richard — 15

Neighbor kid — 36

Poop mystery — 55

The Kangaroo Pig gets drunk — 81

Daydreams — 106

Dandelions — 132

Bananas — 149

Losing — 166

The Pile Dog 1 — 220

The Pile Dog 2 — 240

The world’s greatest cup — 261

Fairness — 285

Plans — 310

The ultimate plan — 315

Loving-kindness exercise — 364

Cat — 390

Fish video — 406

The Ugly Duckling 2 — 416

Throw-and-find — 446

Sister — 449

A nonspecific story about an animal — 468

Friendship spell — 478

Friend — 481

Acknowledgments — 517

I’ve read a lot of Jack McDevitt’s books (check out the links below). I’ve enjoyed them all…until this new one. Doorway to the Stars is loosely connected to McDevitt’s SF novel, Thunderbird (2015). An alien building known as the Roundhouse, estimated at 12,000 years old, provides instantaneous travel across the Galaxy. The Roundhouse is located on Sioux land so the Federal Government can’t immediately seize the Stargate.

So far, so good. But then Doorway to the Stars gets bogged down in various trips to distant planets. Who built the Stargate? What is its purpose? Why are only Earth-type planets (and a space station) accessible? Who are the intelligent species living on the planets the Stargate’s grid links to Earth?

One of the problems with Doorway to the Stars is that it’s only 107 pages long. Not a novel, more of a novella. Many plot points are suggested, but not filled out. Jack McDevitt’s  Seeker won the 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel. Doorway to the Stars is a long way from that quality. GRADE: C

Starhawk

Time Travelers Never Die

Cryptic

Coming Home

Firebird

Octavia Gone

Village in the Sky

Infinity Beach