I was born in 1949 so I thought it would be fun to see what the best Science Fiction stories in Bleiler and Dikty’s anthology revealed. I was familiar with Ray Bradbury’s “Mars is Heaven!” (part of his The Martian Chronicles. I was also familiar with “Ex Machina” by Lewis Padgett (aka, Henry Kuttner) which is one of the Gallagher stories about a genius who can solve any problem but only when he’s drunk. Henry Kuttner also wrote my favorite story in this anthology, “Happy Ending.” I also enjoyed “The Strange Case of John Kingman” by Murray Leinster about a man who has six fingers on each hand and has lived 162 years. All in all, I found Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949 a real treat. I’m tempted to review Best Science Fiction Stories: 1950 in a future FFB! GRADE: A-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Trends in Modern Science-Fiction, by Melvin Korshak
Preface, by Everett F. Bleiler & T. E. Dikty
“Mars is Heaven!”, by Ray Bradbury
“Ex Machina”, by Lewis Padgett
“The Strange Case of John Kingman”, by Murray Leinster
“Doughnut Jockey”, by Erik Fennel
“Thang”, by Martin Gardner
“Period Piece”, by J. J. Coupling
“Knock”, by Fredric Brown
“Genius”, by Poul Anderson
“And the Moon Be Still as Bright”, by Ray Bradbury
“No Connection”, by Isaac Asimov
“In Hiding”, by Wilmar H. Shiras
“Happy Ending”, by Henry Kuttner

British playwright Joe Orton, on August 10, 1967, had his brains bashed out with a hammer wielded by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell. Halliwell then swallowed 22 sleeping pills and killed himself. I bring up these facts because Orton’s plays, with their violence and sex and contempt for authority, foreshadow Orton’s grim end. I read The Complete Plays because of a review of “What the Butler Saw” by Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal. For the 1960s, Joe Orton plays were Hot Stuff. Swearing, sex, mayhem, and railing against morality and religion. But Time has not been kind to these plays. The best ones, “Loot” and “What the Butler Saw,” resemble screwball comedies with wacky characters and dizzy plots. The other plays were a slog. If you’re interested in British drama from 50 years ago, Orton shows you what was trendy back then. GRADE: C
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by John Lahr
The ruffian on the stair
Entertaining Mr. Sloane
The good and faithful servant
Loot
The Erpingham camp
Funeral games
What the butler saw.

From James Brown Prince took a taskmaster’s precision. From George Clinton, he took an interest in empire building. From Duke Ellington, he took a mix of closely guarded personal privacy and musical expansiveness. From the Beatles, he took a visionary bravery regarding the possibilities of arrangement. From Joni Mitchell, he took a flinty intelligence and a delicacy that he could deploy when it was least expected. From Todd Rundgren, he took an understanding of the adrenaline rush that came form working as a one-man-band. From Little Richard, he took falsetto shriek and flamboyant androgyny. From Sly Stone, he took pop smarts and the benefits of an integrated band. From Carlos Santana, he took more guitar pyrotechnics. From Stevie Wonder, he took mastery. From David Bowie, he took mystery. (p. 44-45)

When Prince died in 2016 from a drug overdose (similar to Tom Petty a year later) one of the great innovators of rock & roll left the stage. I was a fan of the early Prince music and his underrated movie, Purple Rain. His 1999 (1982) album was my favorite. But, once the 1990s hit Prince went into a funk. He was fighting with his recording company, Warner Brothers. He started appearing on and off the stage with the word SLAVE on his face. He dropped his name and became a symbol (aka, “The Artist formerly known as Prince). Needless to say, Prince’s music suffered. Ben Greenman does an excellent job describing Prince’s music and recording process. He includes an annotated discography that is worth the price of the book. What Greenman doesn’t do is explain why Prince became addicted to the drugs that would take his life. Are you a fan of Prince? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword: Questlove p. xi
Introduction: The End p. 1
Section 1 Man, Music
1 Life Can Be So Nice: His Life and Its Beginnings p. 11
2 Baby I’m a Star: His Music and Its Beginnings p. 27
3 Brand New Groove: His Music and Its Properties p. 44
4 Musicology: His Music and Its Imitators p. 54
Section 2 Meaning
5 Girls and Boys: Sex in His Music p. 69
6 Walk by the Mirror: Self in His Music p. 86
7 What Time is It?: Others in His Music p. 100
8 I Wish U Heaven: Virtue and Sin in His Music p. 120
9 America: Race and Politics in His Music p. 145
Section 3 Method, Madness
10 What’s My Name: Why He Changed His Name, and What That Wrought p. 167
11 MPLS: How His Hometown Made Him and How He, in Turn, Made It p. 189
12 Call the Law: How He Grew Frustrated with Fans and the Internet p. 198
13 It’s Gonna be a Beautiful Night: When He Was Onstage p. 211
14 The Work: How He Produced So Much for So Long p. 229
Section 4 Memory
15 Such a Shame our Friendship had to End p. 245
Appendix: Let’s Work: Annotated Discography and Song Index p. 263
Sources p. 281
Acknowledgments p. 285

I enjoyed Simon Pegg’s Man Up (Patti Abbott recommended it, my review is here). But Absolutely Anything is a completely different movie. A band of space aliens called the Galactic Council have to decide whether to destroy Humanity or allow it to develop (the aliens are voiced by the MONTY PYTHON team of John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, amd Michael Palin). They have a “test” that allows how their decision should be made. The aliens choose one Earthly at random and give them the power to do absolutely anything.

Simon Pegg, a struggling teacher, discovers he suddenly has amazing powers. Simon is in love with Catherine West (Kate Beckinsale) who is struggling with her job at the BBC. Simon tries to win Catherine’s love by using his new powers, but he only messes things up. Simon also gives his dog, Dennis, the power to speak. The voice of Dennis is Robin Williams. This was Robin Williams’s last film role.

There’s a lot of silliness in Absolutely Anything. Kate Beckinsale is the best thing about this occasionally comic movie. But, set the bar low. GRADE: C+

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz studies millions of GOOGLE searches to come up with his conclusions. For example, Stephens-Davidowitz challenges the prediction that Kinsey made in the 1950s that 10% of the population were homosexuals. Based on GOOGLE searches, the estimate is closer to 5%. Stephens-Davidowitz shows why polling for the 2016 Presidential Election was off by about 2% and undercounting Trump supporters. The chapter on sex is an eye-opener. If you’re interested in what GOOGLE searches tell us about what people are really concerned about, Everybody Lies answers those questions. Brilliant book! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword Steven Pinker ix
Introduction: The Outlines of a Revolution 1
Part I Data, Big and Small
1 Your Faulty Gut 25
Part II The Powers of Big Data
2 Was Freud Right? 45
3 Data Reimagined 55
Bodies as Data 62
Words as Data 74
Pictures as Data 97
4 Digital Truth Serum 105
The Truth About Sex 112
The Truth About Hate and Prejudice 128
The Truth About the Internet 140
The Truth About Child Abuse and Abortion 145
The Truth About Your Facebook Friends 150
The Truth About Your Customers 153
Can We Handle the Truth? 158
5 Zooming In 165
What’s Really Going On in Our Counties, Cities, and Towns? 172
How We Fill Our Minutes and Hours 190
Our Doppelgangers 197
Data Stories 205
6 All the World’s a Lab 207
The ABCs of A/B Testing 209
Nature’s Cruel-but Enlightening-Experiments 221
Part III Big Data: Handle with Care
7 Big Data, Big Schmata? What It Cannot Do 243
The Curse of Dimensionality 246
The Overemphasis on What Is Measurable 252
8 Mo Data, Mo Problems? What We Shouldn’t Do 257
The Danger of Empowered Corporations 257
The Danger of Empowered Governments 266
Conclusion: How Many People Finish Books? 271
Acknowledgments 285
Notes 289
Index 319

This is the New England Patriot’s eighth Super Bowl and they’re 4 1/2 point favorites. The plucky Eagles, without their elite quarterback Carson Wentz, face a tough struggle today. Most Bills fans instinctively root against the Patriots. This game might have been truly compelling if the New Orleans Saints were in it instead of the Eagles. My heart will be rooting for the Eagles, but my head says the Patriots will win. Again. What do you think will happen at the Super Bowl today?

A couple guys playing grab-ass is not a plot for a movie. Elio (Timothee Chalamet) is a horny 17-year-old who falls for the graduate student his professor father hires to help him during the summer. Oliver is seven years older and “experienced.” Both men run around with their shirts off a lot. Elio specializes in giving Oliver smoldering glances. But, in these coming of age movies you know the drill. There’s nothing novel, no surprises, no suspense, and no unpredictability in Call Me By Your Name. Like the glacial Phantom Thread the pacing of Call Me By Your Name would be envied by snails. GRADE: D (for dull, dull, dull)

When I was a kid, I loved The Mysterious Island–both the book by Jules Verne and the movie (1961) by Columbia Pictures. So, of course, I’m admitting partiality to Jonathan E. Lewis’s wonderful Strange Island Stories. Yes, H. P. Lovecraft’s iconic strange island story, “Dagon,” is here. But there are also many stories I was not familiar with like Jack London’s “Good-by Jack” and Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “The Isle of Voices.” Jonathan E. Lewis provides a variety of strange island stories so there is something here for every reader’s taste: mysteries, horror, adventure, etc. If you’re looking for an entertaining anthology of stories, Strange Island Stories fits the bill. I can also recommend Jonathan E. Lewis’s earlier anthology, Ancient Egyptian Supernatural Tales. You can read my review of that volume here. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction
GHOSTS AND SHAPE SHIFTERS
“Monos and Daimonos” by Edward Bulwer 12
“Hugenin’s Wife” by M.P. Shiel 20
“The Far Islands” by John Buchan 30
“The Ship That Saw a Ghost” by Frank Norris 47
“The Gray Wolf” by George MacDonald 60
“The Camp of the Dog” by Algernon Blackwood 66
“Island of Ghosts” by Julian Hawthorne 123
BIZARRE CREATURES AND FANTATIC REALMS
“The Fiend of the Cooperage” by Arthur Conan Doyle 152
“Spirit Island” by Henry Toke Munn 164
“The Purple Terror” by Fred M. White 186
“Friend Island” by Francis Stevens 200
“In the Land of Tomorrow” by Epes Winthrop Sargent 211
“The Isle of Voices” by Robert Louis Stevenson 248
“Dagon” by H. P. Lovecraft 265
“The People of Pan” by Henry S. Whitehead 271
HUMAN HORRORS
“The Sixth Gargoyle” by David Eynon 294
“Three Skeleton Key” by George G. Toudouze 302
“Good-by Jack” by Jack London 313
“The Isle of Doom” by James Francis Dwyer 322
An Adriatic Awakening” by Jonathan E. Lewis 332

Notes for Further Reading 347

Lee Child’s The Midnight Line is the 22nd book in his long-running Jack Reacher series. As usual, Reacher is just wandering around looking for trouble. He finds a West Point graduation ring in a pawn shop in Wisconsin. Reacher immediately wants to know how it got there and who it belonged to (Reacher is a West Point graduate, too). The search takes Reacher to a criminal called Jimmy Rat. After Reacher beats the shit out of Jimmy Rat’s seven biker friends, he’s off to South Dakota to follow the next clue. Much of The Midnight Line is set in Wyoming. The Midnight Line isn’t as good as Make Me, but it’s about as good as Night School. Are you a Jack Reacher fan? GRADE: B

Jonathan L. Howard takes us into an updated version of THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE with After the End of the World. The world has been “folded” and this new Reality features the Nazis winning World War II and now embarking on a science project to make the alternations in Reality permanent. Who can stop the Nazis? The great-granddaughter of H. P. Lovecraft and a “dreamer” named Daniel Carter. Yes, these are the two characters from Howard’s first Lovecraft pastiche, Carter & Lovecraft from 2015 (you can read my review here).

The Necronomicon plays an important role in this thrill ride. If you put Raiders of the Lost Ark and At the Mountains of Madness in a blender, the result would be something very much like After the End of the World. GRADE: B