Rogue One: A Star Wars Story answers that burning question: “How did Princess Leia get the plans to the Death Star?” When Disney bought the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas, they decided that to make money, they needed to bring out a Star Wars movie every year. But, in order to do that, they needed to develop alternate story lines…like Rogue One and the 2018 movie about the young Han Solo.

Rogue One begins with the Empire’s Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) forcibly “recruiting” scientific genius Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) to build the Death Star. Erso’s young daughter, Jyn (Felicity Jones) escapes. Years later, the Rebel Alliance breaks Jyn out of an Imperial prison to recruit her. Jyn is not interested in helping the Rebels at first, but later she leads a small force to attempt to steal the plans to the Death Star before the weapon of mass destruction is finished. My favorite character in Rogue One is former Imperial security droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk). If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll love this movie. GRADE: B+

This third volume of the Carpenter and Quincannon historical mystery series is set in 1890’s San Francisco. I assume Marcia Muller wrote the chapters labeled “Sabina” and Bill Pronzini wrote the chapters labeled “Quincannon.” Sabina Carpenter is a woman private detective who once worked for Pinkerton. John Quincannon was once a Secret Service agent. Together, Carpenter and Quincannon formed a partnership where their individual talents as detectives help to solve their cases. In The Body Snatchers Affair, two bodies go missing and Sabina and Quincannon are hired to find them. From the mansions of the Bay Area to the squalid opium dens of Chinatown, the parallel investigations produce surprising results. If you’re in the mood for a light-hearted historical series written by two consummate mystery writers, the Carpenter and Quincannon series delivers.

Carpenter and Quincannon Series:
1 The Bughouse Affair (2013)
2 The Spook Lights Affair (2013)
3 The Body Snatchers Affair (2014)
4 The Plague of Thieves Affair (2016)
5 The Dangerous Ladies Affair (2017)

Back in 2009, Ellen Datlow’s anthology Lovecraft Unbound: Tales Inspired By the Works of H. P. Lovecraft appeared. The growing popularity of faux-Lovecraft stories was just beginning and Datlow’s book set a new standard for quality. I finally got around to reading Lovecraft Unbound. My favorite story is “Mongoose” by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear. It’s set on a space station infested with Lovecraftian pests. But, the infestation has opened a dimensional rift so that something big and dangerous has entered the space station. I also enjoyed “The Office of Doom” by Richard Bowes. Someone is foolish enough to request The Necronomicon through Inter-library loan. What would a Lovecraftian College Graduation be like? Joyce Carol Oates will show you in “Commencement.” Ellen Datlow assembled an excellent collection that contemporary antholgies struggle to match. Don’t miss this one! GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Ellen Datlow
“The Crevasse” by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
“The Office of Doom” by Richard Bowes
“Sincerely, Petrified” by Anna Tambour
“The Din of Celestial Birds” by Brian Evenson
“The Tenderness of Jackals” by Amanda Downum
“Sight Unseen” by Joel Lane
“Cold Water Survival” by Holly Phillips
“Come Lurk with Me and Be My Love” by William Browning Spencer
“Houses Under the Sea” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
“Machines of Concrete Light and Dark” by Michael Cisco
“Leng” by Marc Laidlaw
“In the Black Mill” by Michael Chabon
“One Day, Soon” by Lavie Tidhar
“Commencement” by Joyce Carol Oates
“Vernon, Driving” by Simon Kurt Unsworth
“The Recruiter” by Michael Shea
“Marya Nox” by Gemma Files
“Mongoose” by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear
“Catch Hell” by Laird Barron
“That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable” by Nick Mamatas
“Catch Hell” by Laird Barron

Tim Wu shows how advertising is manipulating us and our spending habits. With “Fake News” and bogus web sites and FACEBOOK there’s a storm of “content” swirling around the Internet to grab our attention and our dollars. Tim Wu documents how advertising has grown more sophisticated and savvy at targeting audiences for their products and services. The use of “celebrities” and actors to “push” a product is refined by advertisers to draw the maximum interest. Smartphones offer new ways to reach consumers. If you want to learn how you’re being manipulated and marketed to, The Attention Merchants reveals all the tricks of the trade. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction Here’s the Deal 3
PART I: MASTERS OF BLAZING MODERNITIES
Chapter 1 The First Attention Merchants 11
Chapter 2 The Alchemist 24
Chapter 3 For King and Country 37
Chapter 4 Demand Engineering, Scientific Advertising, and What Women Want 51
Chapter 5 A Long Lucky Run 65
Chapter 6 Not with a Bang but with a Whimper 73
PART II: THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE
Chapter 7 The Invention of Prime Time 85
Chapter 8 The Prince 95
Chapter 9 Total Attention Control, or The Madness of Crowds 108
Chapter 10 Peak Attention, American Style 123
Chapter 11 Prelude to an Attentional Revolt 144
Chapter 12 The Great Refusal 151
Chapter 13 Coda to an Attentional Revolution 170
PART III: THE THIRD SCREEN
Chapter 14 Email and the Power of the Check-in 183
Chapter 15 Invaders 191
Chapter 16 AOL Pulls ‘Em In 198
PART IV: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FAMOUS
Chapter 17 Establishment of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex 217
Chapter 18 The Oprah Model 227
Chapter 19 The Panopticon 237
PART V: WON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN
Chapter 20 The Kingdom of Content: This Is How You Do It 255
Chapter 21 Here Comes Everyone 267
Chapter 22 The Rise of Clickbait 276
Chapter 23 The Place to Be 289
Chapter 24 The Importance of Being Microfamous 303
Chapter 25 The Fourth Screen and the Mirror of Narcissus 308
Chapter 26 The Web Hits Bottom 318
Chapter 27 A Retreat and a Revolt 328
Chapter 28 Who’s Boss Here? 335
Epilogue The Temenos 340
Acknowledgments 345
Notes 347
Index 387

In the run-up to the opening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, I decided to prepare myself by watching Star Wars: Rebels, Season Two. Darth Vader sends Inquisitors to crush the fledgling rebel alliance. Plenty of animated action and thrills make this a fun feature for Star Wars fans. There are 485 minutes of clever plotting and suspense in this package. May The Force be with you! GRADE: A

Fantagraphics Books has published a gem just in time for the holidays! Wallace Wood was a terrific artist whose work appeared in the early MAD Magazine, GALAXY, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, and DARE-DEVIL. This over-sized volume includes 256 pages of great color and black & white artwork from Wood’s thirty-year career. The informative “Introduction” by Howard Chaykin and Maria Reidelbach detail Wood’s troubled life. Additional essays by Bhob Stewart, Roger Hill, Bill Mason, and others discuss Wallace Wood’s technique and provide context to his artwork. If you’re a fan of Wallace Wood, this is a must-buy! GRADE: A

The 6-6 Buffalo Bills have a 9% chance of making the NFL Playoffs. Today, the Bills host the 7-5 Pittsburgh Steelers. Snow is in the forecast. Clearly, if the Bills lose today their ulta-slim Playoff hopes are over. Last week, the Bills had a 24-9 lead over Oakland. Then, inexplicably, both the Bills offense and defense stopped playing. Could that happen today? Stay tuned. How will your favorite NFL team fare today?

Nobel Prize winning performer Bob Dylan toured England back in 1966. The concert at Royal Albert Hall achieved legendary status. Bootleg recordings circulated for decades. But now, through the magic of greed, we have an “offical” or “real” tape of that 1966 concert at Royal Albert Hall. The acoustic portion on Disc 1 is remarkably well-recorded. Disc 2’s sound quality varies. These two CDs are #27 and #28 of the 36-CD set released a couple years ago. If you’re a Dylan completest, then this is a must-buy. But I suggest you skip it. GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
Disc 1
She Belongs to Me
4th Time Around
Visions of Johanna
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Desolation Row
Just Like a Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man
Disc 2
Tell Me, Momma
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballad of a Thin Man
Like a Rolling Stone

Shanghai Flame first appeared as a Gold Medal paperback in 1951. It’s a twisty story of China with plenty of suspense as the Communists close in. Counterspy Express was half of an ACE Double (D-57) with Treachery in Trieste by Charles L. Leonard (a pseudonym of M. V. Heberden) published in 1954. Counterspy Express takes the reader on a thrill-ride across Europe. A movie based on Counterspy Express, Spy in the Sky!, showed up in theaters in 1958,

I’ve been a fan of A. S. Fleishman’s work for decades. After writing a series of suspense novels in the 1950s, Fleishman switched to writing children’s literature. In 1987, Sid Fleischman won the Newberry Medal for The Whipping Boy. Over the years, I read plenty of Fleishman’s books to my kids.

This wonderful STARK HOUSE omnibus includes an introduction, “The Magic of A. S. Fleischman,” by some guy named George Kelley.

OTHER STARK HOUSE A. S. FLEISCHMAN OMNIBUSES:
Look Behind You Lady/The Venetian Blonde
Danger in Paradise/Malay Woman
The Sun Worshippers/Yellowleg

Just in time for the Holidays, this 3-CD collection of Kate Bush’s 2014 live concerts are a joy to listen to. If you’re a Kate Bush fan, this new release is a must-buy. Kate’s voice is strong and she has a great band backing her up. Many of her most well-known songs are here in extended versions. My personal favorite, “Hounds of Love,” scintillates. The sound is extraordinary. I highly recommended this set! GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
Disc 1
Lily
Hounds Of Love
Joanni
Top Of The City
Never Be Mine
Running Up That Hill
King Of The Mountain
Disc 2
Astronomer’s Call
And Dream Of Sheep
Under Ice
Waking The Witch
Watching Them Without Her
Watching You Without Me
Little Light
Jig Of Life
Hello Earth
The Morning Fog
Disc 3
Prelude
Prologue
An Architect’s Dream
The Painter’s Link
Sunset
Aerial Tal
Somewhere In Between
Tawny Moon
Nocturn
Aerial
Among Angels
Cloudbusting