I just finished doing our taxes with TURBOTAX DELUXE (including New York State taxes). You would think that doing taxes with just four sources of income–Diane’s pension and Social Security, my pension and Social Security–whipping through the Income and Deductions (we don’t have any that count with Trump’s new tax structure) would be a breeze. Nope. There’s still the Audit Risk Meter to contend with. Fortunately, we’re at Low Risk of an Audit based on our tax return.

The last few years we’ve had to pay both New York State and the Feds because we were estimating withholding from my pension and Social Security (I just started collecting it in the Summer of 2019) while phasing out Spousal Benefits. And our estimated withholding needed to be tweaked. Now, we’re getting pretty close to breaking even. We owe New York State ZERO! We owe the Feds a small amount. That’s about as good as it gets. With Trump’s tax strategy of forcing most people to take the Standard Deduction, our years of getting refunds are a thing of the Past. Have you done your taxes? Are you happy or sad?

Kent Morgan recommended John McPhee’s Draft No. 4 a little over a month ago. I managed to acquire a copy and finally got around to read it. I’ve always been a fan of John McPhee’s writing. Here’s McPhee on interviewing Richard Burton: “Burton was even easier to interview than Woody Allen because he interviewed himself. You just listened, and wrote down what he said.” (p. 111). McPhee writes about his work with Time magazine. I loved his stories about interviewing the mercurial Jackie Gleason for a Time cover story. Hilarious! McPhee also writes about dealing with the prissy William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker. Very funny! Will you learn to be a better writer by reading Draft No. 4? I hope so. But, if you don’t you’ll at least be entertained by McPhee’s tales of writing for great magazines. Thanks, Kent! I enjoyed every page! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Progression — 3
Structure — 17
Elicitation — 91
Frame of Reference — 115
Checkpoints — 129
Draft No. 4 — 157
Omission –177

Chinatown (1974) ended a era of great film-making as the Old Hollywood morphed into the Corporate Hollywood of today. Sam Wasson explores the changes in Hollywood and the making of one of the great movies of all time in The Big Goodbye. All the elements aligned: Jack Nicholson was at the top of his game. Robert Towne wrote one of the greatest scripts of all time. Robert “The Kid” Evans produced the film. And enigmatic Roman Polanski, reeling from the incredible death of his wife, Sharon Tate, returns to Los Angeles to direct a classic. I watched the Blu-ray version of Chinatown before I read Sam Wasson’s The Big Goodbye. Wasson’s account of the making of the movie adds much information that I didn’t know about the film. If you’re a fan of Chinatown, don’t miss The Big Goodbye! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: First Goodbyes — 1
Part One: JUSTICE — 3
Part Two: EUCALYPTUS — 47
Part Three: THE MOUNTAIN — 143
Part Four: GITTES VS. GITTES — 291
Acknowledgements — 333
Notes — 335
Index — 383

Tina Hay has an MBA from Havard and a knack of making complex and complicated financial concepts easily understood. Tina Hay uses doodles on napkins to illustrate financial topics like compound interest and how credit cards work. The doodles look like flow charts (check out the one on Bitcoin below). Napkin Finance covers all the basic financial topics and offers plenty of examples how you can improve your monetary position with a little tweaking. I especially enjoyed the “Chapter Quizzes” that help to make sure readers understand what they’ve been reading.

Most of the commentators on this blog would find much to ponder in Chapter 5: INTO THE SUNSET. Paying for retirement, dealing with Social Security, and the fundamentals of estate planning are all topics that concern us. Tina Hay lays it all out in an understandable fashion. And, for those of you who are about to do your taxes, Chapter 7: EZ Does It, provides some insights that might put more money in your pocket. Napkin Finance is one of the best personal finance books I’ve encountered. Highly recommended! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Money 101 — 1
Compound interest 2
Savings 4
Budget 7
Debt 10
Interest 14
Banks 17
Emergency Fund 20
Insurance 23
Chapter Quiz 26
2. Credit where it’s due — 30
Credit 31
Credit Cards 34
Improving Credit 37
FICO Credit Score 41
Chapter Quiz 44
3. Buy low, sell high — 48
Investing 49
Asset Classes 53
Diversification 56
Risk vs. Reward 59
Asset Allocation 63
Robo-Advisor 67
Chapter Quiz 70
4. Paying your dues — 74
Paying for College 75
Student Loans 78
FAFSA 82
529 Plan 85
Paying Off Student Loans 88
Chapter Quiz 92
5. Into the sunset — 96
Paying for Retirement 97
IRA vs. 401(k) 101
Social Security 104
Estate Planning 107
Chapter Quiz 110
6. A wild ride — 114
Stocks 115
Stock Market 118
Bull or Bear Market 122
Mutual Funds 126
ETFs 130
Bonds 134
What is an IPO? 137
Chapter Quiz 140
7. EZ does it — 144
Taxes 145
Tax Returns 148
1099 vs. W-2 Employee 152
Tax Deductions 156
Chapter Quiz 160
8. Go big — 164
Entrepreneurship 165
How to Start a Start-Up 168
Business Plan 172
Financing a Start-Up 175
Chapter Quiz 179
9. Voodoo economics — 182
GDP 183
Inflation 186
Recession 190
The Fed 193
Chapter Quiz 197
10. The bottom line — 200
Financial Statements 201
Profit & Loss 204
Balance Sheet 207
Liability 210
Chapter Quiz 213
11. The future of money — 216
Cryptocurrency 217
Bitcoin 221
Initial Coin Offering 224
Blockchain 227
Chapter Quiz 231
12. Wow your friends — 234
Rule of 72 235
Crowdfunding 238
Philanthropy 242
Hedge Funds 246
Invisible Hand 250
Game Theory 254
Chapter Quiz 257
Conclusion — 261
Acknowledgements — 263
Bibliography — 265

I confess: I’m not a big re-reader. In fact, I might reread only a couple of books per year. I do know a couple of prodigious re-readers: Art Scott and Steve Stilwell have reread the entire Nero Wolfe series over 50 times!

Vivian Gornick calls herself a chronic re-reader in this slim volume (161 pages) that mimics a memoir. I’m surprised at the books Gornick feels compelled to reread. Here’s a sample of what Gornick rereads:
Chapter One: D. H. Lawrence especially Sons and Lovers
Chapter Two: Collette especially The Vagabond and The Shackle
Chapter Three: Marguerite Duras especially The Lover
Chapter Four: Elizabeth Bowen especially The Death of the Heart, The Home in Paris and The Heat of the Day
Chapter Five: Delmore Schwartz especially The World is a Wedding and the short stories of A. B. Yehoshua
Chapter Six: Natalia Ginzburg especially Voices in the Evening and Family Sayings
Chapter Seven: J. I. Carr’s A Month in the Country and Pat Barker’s Regeneration
Chapter Eight: Doris Lessing’s Particularly Cats
Chapter Nine: Thomas Hardy especially Jude the Obscure

Interspersed with Gornick’s feelings about these books are details of Gornick’s life: her marriages, her divorces, her jobs, her travels, her cats. Gornick makes her case for re-reading, but it fell on deaf ears in this house. Are you a re-reader? What do you re-read? GRADE: B

The Great Concert of the Night blends memory and obsession into an odd novel. The narrator, after watching Le Grand Concert de la Nuit, a film in which his former lover – Imogen – plays a major role, begins to write about Imogen. For the next year, the narrator writes something every day about his lost love. The narrator’s journal becomes both a remembrence and an investigation of the character of the mysterious Imogen and her other relationships: with the narrator, with her family, with friends, and with her other lovers. Imogen emerges as a difficult and cryptic subject.

The Great Concert of the Night blends incidents from the writer’s memory and the present day, mixes scenes from Imogen’s films with aspects of Life. Sadly, Jonathan Buckley lost me when he introduced the visions of female saints, the history of medicine, and the festivals of ancient Rome into the already muddled narrative. The obsession with Imogen leads to a meditation on Life, but confusion and doubt prevail. I had to struggle to finish this book. How often do you think about the Past? GRADE: C

Academy Award winning director Brian De Palma, with the assistance of Susan Lehman, delivers a high-octane political thriller just in time for Super Tuesday. Philandering Senator Lee Rogers opens the door to seduction and political peril when he accepts the offer of a beautiful young videographer to join his campaign. The Senator’s wife suffers from Parkinson’s disease and her medical problems allow Rogers to roam from one sexual experience to another. But Fate has the Senator in its cross-hairs as a shocking incident occurs atop the Eiffel Tower. Fans of De Palma’s movies know what to expect: suspense, thrills, and a surprising conclusion! Don’t miss this Hard Case Crime original! Do you have a favorite Brian De Palma movie? GRADE: B+

This 5-CD set dates from 1994. For starters, I found many of the songs on these collections obscure. For every “She Blinded Me With Science” there’s a “Shiny Shiny.” Plenty of oddities! And even for “name” artists like Debbie Harry, the songs chosen are…strange. I found these CDs at a Salvation Army Thrift store priced at 49 cents each. Given the blend of hits vs. “obscure” songs (aka, misses) I’d say these CDs were priced about right. Do you remember some of these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B
Track Listing Volume 1
1. Too Shy – Kajagoogoo
2. Always Something There to Remind Me – Naked Eyes
3. Talk Talk – Talk Talk (Remix, remix)
4. Kids in America – Kim Wilde
5. Turning Japanese – The Vapors
6. Politics of Dancing, The – Re-Flex
7. 19 – Paul Hardcastle
8. Homicide – 999
9. Romanticide – Combo Audio
10. Guilty – Classix Nouveaux
11. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) – The Stranglers
12. 2-4-6-8 Motorway – Tom Robinson Band
13. C30, C60, C90, Go! – Bow Wow Wow
14. (She’s) Sexy + 17 – Stray Cats
15. She Blinded Me with Science – Thomas Dolby
16. Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) – Spandau Ballet
17. I Eat Cannibals, Pt. 1 – Toto Coelo
18. Shiny Shiny – Haysi Fantayzee
Track Listing Volume 2
1. Mickey – Toni Basil
2. Get It on (Bang a Gong) – The Power Station
3. Lay Your Hands on Me – Thompson Twins
4. Let Me Go – Heaven 17
5. Love Plus One – Haircut 100
6. Heart and Soul – T’Pau
7. Just Got Lucky – JoBoxers
8. It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It) – Fun Boy Three & Bananarama
9. Jam Was Moving, The – Debbie Harry
10. Love Missile F1-11 – Sigue Sigue Sputnik
11. 88 Lines About 44 Women – The Nails
12. Only the Lonely – The Motels
13. Living in a Box – Living in a Box
14. Walking on Sunshine – Katrina & the Waves
15. Running up That Hill – Kate Bush
16. Church of the Poison Mind – Culture Club
17. Destination Unknown – Missing Persons
18. Never Ending Story – Limahl
19. Mickey – Toni Basil (Spanish version)
Track Listing Volume 3
1. (Keep Feeling) Fascination – Human League
2. Perfect Way – Scritti Politti
3. Cruel Summer – Bananarama
4. Life in a Northern Town – The Dream Academy
5. Election Day – Arcadia
6. Shattered Dreams – Johnny Hates Jazz
7. Sunglasses at Night – Corey Hart
8. Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades, The – Timbuk 3
9. Make a Circuit With Me – The Polecats
10. Rock This Town – Stray Cats
11. Sidewalk Talk – Jellybean
12. It’s My Life – Talk Talk
13. (I Just) Died in Your Arms – Cutting Crew
14. Hanging on a Heart Attack – Device
15. Poison Arrow – ABC
16. Aeiou Sometimes Y – Ebn Ozn
17. Are You Sure – So
18. Way You Are, The – Tears for Fears (previously unreleased)
19. What Do All the People Know – The Monroes
Track Listing Volume 4
1. Dance Hall Days – Wang Chung
2. One Thing Leads to Another – The Fixx
3. True – Spandau Ballet
4. Come on Eileen – Dexys Midnight Runners
5. Digging Your Scene – The Blow Monkeys
6. Sister of Mercy – Thompson Twins
7. Under the Milky Way – The Church
8. Lean on Me – Red Box
9. Since Yesterday – Strawberry Switchblade
10. You Don’t Know – Scarlett & Black
11. Some People – Belouis Some
12. Shock – The Motels (Single Remix)
13. Belly of the Whale – Burning Sensations
14. Tenderness – General Public
15. Get Out of London – Intaferon
16. Go! – Tones on Tail
17. Slang Teacher – Wide Boy Awake
18. Lawnchairs – Our Daughters Wedding
19. Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo
Track Listing Volume 5
1. Major Tom (Coming Home) – Peter Schilling
2. Hyperactive – Thomas Dolby
3. Promises, Promises – Naked Eyes
4. Promise, The – When in Rome
5. Vienna – Ultravox
6. Enola Gay – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
7. King in a Catholic Style (Wake up) – China Crisis
8. Steady – Jules Shear
9. Our Lips Are Sealed – Fun Boy Three
10. Pleasure and Pain – The Divinyls
11. Birds Fly, (Whisper to Scream) – Icicle Works
12. Honeythief, The – Hipsway
13. Souvenir – Rubber Rodeo
14. I Wanna Be a Cowboy – Boys Don’t Cry
15. Captain of Her Heart, The – Double
16. When Your Heart Is Weak – Cock Robin
17. Love Changes (Everything) – Climie Fisher
18. More Than Physical – Bananarama (single remix)
19. Vanity Kills – ABC (USA single remix)
20. We Close Our Eyes – Go West .

I’ve read and enjoyed several novels by Robert Harris. I liked The Ghost about a ghost writer and some shenanigans (you can read my review here).  I’m a fan of Harris’s novels about Cicero–Imperium and CONSPIRATA– (you can read my reviews here and here).

But I was not pleased with Robert Harris’s new novel, The Second Sleep. A young English priest named Christopher Fairfax is send by his Bishop to the small village of Addicott St. George to perform burial ceremonies for the village priest, Father Lacy, who recently died. This simple mission becomes complicated as young Fairfax discovers the old priest had a collection of banned books hidden away. Burying a suspected heretic in the church cemetery becomes problematic in these medieval times. And, as Fairfax investigates the old priest’s death–termed an accident–suspicions form that foul play may have been involved. So far so good.

But The Second Sleep goes off the rails as Fairfax enters a relationship with the local Lady Dunston who is engaged to Captain Hancock. Captain Hancock’s obsession–like that of another Captain…Ahab–leads to destruction. There’s a mystery in The Second Sleep but it’s not enough to save the novel. Downbeat and depressing. GRADE: C

No, this is not the new Emma (2020) directed by Autumn de Wilde and starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma and Bill Nighy as Mr. Woodhouse. This 2009 version was broadcast on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater but somehow we missed it. In the lukewarm review of the new Emma, the Wall Street Journal raved about this wonderful version so of course I had to pick up a copy and watch it.

The BBC Emma the episodes were written by Sandy Welch, writer of previous BBC series Jane Eyre and North & South, and directed by Jim O’Hanlon. This version of Emma stars Romola Garai as the spoiled Emma Woodhouse, Jonny Lee Miller as Emma’s loyal, lifelong friend Mr. Knightley, and Michael Gambon as Emma’s father, Mr. Woodhouse. I enjoyed the talented cast and the detail from Jane Austen’s 1815 novel. Yes, Emma is a brash, pampered socialite, but she learns some hard lessons by the end of this series.

Are you a Jane Austen fan? Do you like Emma? GRADE: A