The first book in Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger and the Coin series introduces a series of characters that will propel the various plots. I particularly like Captain Marcus Wester, a military man whose failure to save his wife and daughter from death haunts him. Another favorite character is the orphan Cithrin Bel Sarcour, a ward of the Medean Bank. She learns banking at an early age. That knowledge becomes essential later in this 576-page novel. Sir Geder Palliako, a scholar with a passion to study ancient books, finds himself drawn into court intrigue. Finally, there’s Master Kit, manager of a travelling troupe of actors, who hides his real identity.

Abraham launches a series of plots and subplots that will develop over the next four books in The Dagger and the Coin series. War and peace, deception, valor, and love all intertwine in this first book. I flew through this tome as the story spiraled into mystery and wonder. I can’t wait to read the next book! GRADE: A-
THE DAGGER AND THE COIN SERIES:
1 The Dragon’s Path 576 April 7, 2011
2 The King’s Blood 501 May 22, 2012
3 The Tyrant’s Law 497 May 14, 2013
4 The Widow’s House 495 August 5, 2014
5 The Spider’s War 492 March 8, 2016

I found another box set while organizing the collection in the basement. Like before, I have no recollection of when I bought this box set of Grace Kelly’s movies. This 7-DVD set includes:
Mogambo (1953)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
The Country Girl (1954)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
To Catch A Thief (1955)
High Society (1956)

In addition, this set includes Princess Grace de Monaco: A Moment in Time, a documentary featuring Grace Kelly’s final interview. Which is your favorite Grace Kelly movie? GRADE: B+

Since 1988, Pamela Paul has been keeping a reading diary of all the books she reads. She nicknamed it BOB (Book of Books). In My Life With Bob, Pamela Paul writes about what books meant the most to her over 30 years of reading. Pamela Paul has a lot ups and downs in her Life, but books are always there to help get her through her crises and victories. I’m a sucker for a book like My Life With Bob with its focus on reading and books. Pamela Paul writes about crying while reading Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady (I did, too!). When Pamela Paul becomes CHILDREN’S BOOKS EDITOR for the New York Times Book Review, her children became readers as she brings home a bag of new books each day! You’ll find fun and sadness and wisdom in the pages of My Life With Bob. Highly recommended! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Why Keep Track?
Chapter 1: Brave New World: You Shouldn’t Be Reading That
Chapter 2: Slaves of New York: The Literary Life
Chapter 3: The Trial: A Book with No Ending
Chapter 4: Catch-22: Never Enough
Chapter 5: The Norton Anthology of English: Required Reading
Chapter 6: Into that Darkness: Voyeurism
Chapter 7: The Grapes of Wrath: Among Readers
Chapter 8: A Journey of One’s Own: Books That Change Your Life
Chapter 9: Anna Karenina: Heroines
Chapter 10: Swimming to Cambodia: The Company of Narrators
Chapter 11: Wild Swans: Inspirational Reading
Chapter 12: The Secret History: Solitary Reading
Chapter 13: The Wisdom of the Body: In Love with a Book
Chapter 14: The Magic Mountain: Different Interpretations
Chapter 15: Autobiography of a Face: On Self-Help
Chapter 16: Flashman: I Don’t Like Your Books
Chapter 17: The Master and Margarita: Recommendations
Chapter 18: The Hunger Games: No Time to Read
Chapter 19: A Wrinkle in Time: Reading with Children
Chapter 20: Bad News: Tearjerkers
Chapter 21: Les Misérables: Why Read?
Chapter 22: A Spy Among Friends: Other Writers
Epilogue: The Lives We Read
Acknowledgments
Also by Pamela Paul
About the Author

While organizing my books, CDs, and DVDs, I stumbled over The Woody Allen Collection. It was in a box of other stuff, unopened. I obviously bought it years ago and forgot all about it. Immediately I was seized by the impulse to binge on these movies. Here’s what I watched:
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982)
Zelig (1983)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Radio Days (1987)

I hadn’t seen these films since I first saw them back in the 1980s. These were Woody’s Mia Farrow years. He gave Mia a wide range of roles from the tough-as-nails Tina in Broadway Danny Rose to the sweet and innocent Cecilia in The Purple Rose of Cairo to ditzy Sally White in Radio Days where she gets to sing (so does Diane Keaton). Do you have a favorite among these films? GRADE: B+

In 1972, I read Mack Reynold’s Black Man’s Burden/Border, Breed Nor Birth, a cool looking ACE Double. I discovered the stories were reprinted from ANALOG and written a decade earlier. Yes, there are some politically incorrect aspects to these stories of a group of African-Americans who decide to unite North African countries by creating a mythical leader, El Hassan, to bring progress to suffering people. In the Introduction to “Black Sheep Astray” Mack Reynolds writes that John Campbell, editor of ANALOG , suggested elements of the series.

Later, I learned there was another book in the North Africa Series, The Best Ye Breed, where the Soviets, Japanese and Americans decide El Hassan must be assassinated because he and his group controls too many vital natural resources. Mack Reynolds may have come up with this idea because of the OPEC oil crisis at the time. Nation-building isn’t a common Science Fiction theme, but Mack Reynolds–a SF writer who wrote about politics and economics–delivers a thought-provoking series. GRADE: B+

North Africa Series:
1. Blackman’s Burden (1972) also appeared as:
Variant Title: Black Man’s Burden (2010)
Serializations:
Black Man’s Burden (Part 1 of 2) ANALOG (1961)
Black Man’s Burden (Part 2 of 2) ANALOG (1962)
2. Border, Breed Nor Birth (1972) also appeared as:
Serializations:
Border, Breed Nor Birth (Part 1 of 2) ANALOG (1962)
Border, Breed Nor Birth (Part 2 of 2) ANALOG (1962)
3 The Best Ye Breed (1978)
Blackman’s Burden / Border, Breed nor Birth ACE DOUBLE (1972)
“The Cold War … Continued” NOVA 3 (1973)
“Black Sheep Astray” Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology (1973)

Henry James was 38 when he published Portrait of a Lady in 1881. Although James would continue to write and publish for decades, Portrait of a Lady was his most lucrative book and his most popular novel. Michael Gorra’s insightful Portrait of a Novel takes the reader step-by-step through the process of Henry James writing his great novel. Along the way, Gorra shows how George Eliot influenced Portrait of a Lady. Gorra also compares the original 1881 version of Portrait of a Lady with James’s revised New York Edition version published in 1906. I found myself delighted by Gorra’s analysis of Henry James’s death scene of Mr. Touchett: no prayers, no clergy, no crying–so unlike typical sentimental Victorian literature death scenes. The Spectator book review scathingly reported Portrait of a Lady was marked by the “cloven foot” of agnosticism.

Gorra also makes connections between other Henry James works: “Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl all turned on the question of sex outside of marriage.” (p. 157) If you’re in the mood for a well-written story of how a classic novel came to be written, I highly recommend Portrait of a Novel. If you’re a fan of Henry James, this is a must-read!
GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue: An Old Man in Rye, p. xiii
Part One : A PREPARATION FOR CULTURE
1.: The Girl in the Doorway, p. 3
2.: A Native of No Country, p. 12
3.: A Superstitious Valuation, p. 31
4.: Along the Thames, p. 45
Part Two : THE MARRIAGE PLOT
5.: Her Empty Chair, p. 57
6.: Proposals, p. 68
7.: An Unmarried Man, p. 77
8.: A London Life, p. 95
9.: The Envelope of Circumstances, p. 105
Part Three : ITALIAN JOURNEYS
10.: Bellosguardo Hours, p. 121
11.: Mr. Osmond, p. 133
12.: Stranieri, p. 141
13.: An Uncertain Terrain, p. 155
14.: A Venetian Interlude, p. 165
15.: Fenimore, p. 174
Part Four : SEX AND SERIALS, THE CONTINENT AND THE CRITICS
16.: Maupassant and the Monkey, p. 191
17.: The Magazines, p. 208
18.: The Roccanera, p. 222
19.: The Art of Fiction, p. 239
pt. Five : PUTTING OUT THE LIGHTS
20.: The Altar of the Dead, p. 257
21.: “I Was Perfectly Free”, p. 268
22.: Working in the Dark, p. 280
23.: The Second Chance, p. 293
24.: Endgame, p. 309
Acknowledgments, p. 335
Sources and Notes, p. 337
Index, p. 365

Martha Wells’s new TOR novel, All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries, features the narration of a “security” cyborg (aka, “murderbot”). The nameless cyborg was hired to protect a small group of scientists and researchers who are surveying a planet. From the beginning, things go wrong. Equipment fails. Disaster strikes. Confusion reigns. I was on the edge of my seat as the tension in All Systems Red built. Martha Wells, who has written the outstanding Raksura series, displays her plotting and characterization skills in this slim book. Hopefully, this is the start of a new series. GRADE: A-

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Groundhog Day is now a hit Broadway musical. But, it all started with this quirky 1993 movie about a selfish, narcissistic Pittsburgh weatherman who finds himself in a time-warp where he has to repeat living Groundhog Day over and over and over again. Along the way, lessons are learned. Bill Murray is ideal as the tortured weatherman. Andie MacDowell scintillates as Murray’s producer and love-interest. Special features include an audio commentary and interview with Director Harold Ramis (who has a cameo as a doctor in the film), a “Weight of Time” documentary, and Deleted Scenes. What’s your favorite Bill Murray movie? GRADE: A

Susan Sontag burst on the American literary scene with her controversial collection of essays, Against Interpretation (966). Since then, Sontag has been a bit of a cult figure. Her pronouncements about literature and culture carried enormous weight. This new Library of America volume (865 pages!) collects Sontag’s essays from 1980 to the 21st Century. Along the way, Sontag comments on artists, books, movies, novelists, philosophers, and social movements. AIDS and Its Metaphors (1989) might be her best known book from this phase of her writing career. Sontag’s opinions and analysis still have the power to generate conversations and arguments. I don’t always agree with Susan Sontag, but I’m almost always moved by her insights. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Under the Sign of Saturn (1980)
On Paul Goodman
Approaching Artaud
Fascinating Fascism
Under the Sign of Saturn
Syberberg’s Hitler
Remembering Barthes
Mind as Passion
AIDS and Its Metaphors (1989)
Where the Stress Falls (2001)
Reading
A Poet’s Prose
Where the Stress Falls
Afterlives: The Case of Machado de Assis
A Mind in Mourning
The Wisdom Project
Writing Itself: On Roland Barthes
Walser’s Voice
Danilo Kiš
Gombrowicz’s Ferdydurke
Pedro Páramo
DQ
A Letter to Borges
Seeing
A Century of Cinema
Novel into Film: Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz
A Note on Bunraku
A Place for Fantasy
The Pleasure of the Image
About Hodgkin
A Lexicon for Available Light
In Memory of Their Feelings
Dancer and the Dance
Lincoln Kirstein
Wagner’s Fluids
An Ecstasy of Lament
One Hundred Years of Italian Photography
On Bellocq
Borland’s Babies
Certain Mapplethorpes
A Photograph Is Not an Opinion. Or Is It?
There and Here
Homage to Halliburton
Singleness
Writing As Reading
Thirty Years Later
Questions of Travel
The Idea of Europe (One More Elegy)
The Very Comical Lament of Pyramus and Thisbe (An Interlude)
Answers to a Questionnaire
Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo
“There” and “Here”
Joseph Brodsky
On Being Translated
Regarding the Pain of Others (2003)
At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches (2007)
Preface by Paolo Dilonardo and Anne Jump
Foreword by David Rieff
An Argument About Beauty
1926 . . . Pasternak, Tsvetayeva, Rilke
Loving Dostoyevsky
A Double Destiny: On Anna Banti’s Artemisia
Unextinguished: The Case for Victor Serge
Outlandish: On Halldór Laxness’s Under the Glacier
9.11.01
A Few Weeks After
One Year After
Photography: A Little Summa
Regarding the Torture of Other
The Conscience of Words
The World as India
On Courage and Resistance
Literature Is Freedom
At the Same Time: The Novelist and Moral Reasoning