We’re down to the NFL’s Final Four teams. Buffalo Bills fans, still in Recovery mode after the Bills lost 42-36 last week, find the generous Kansas City Chief fans have donated over $400,000 to Bills QB Josh Allen’s fund at Oishei Children’s Hospital, just a few blocks away from where I worked. Very nice…and very needed.

Joe Burrow’s impressive performance defeating the Number One ranked team, the Tennessee Titans, makes one wonder: Can Burrow beat Mahomes? Actually, Burrow did beat Mahomes in Week 17, 34-31. The Chiefs are favored by 7 points. I would take the Bengals and the points.

The Niners and the Ram meet for the third time. The Rams are favored by 3 1/2 points. Art Scott, life-long 49ers fan, will be on edge of his seat for this one. Go Niners!

Who do you think will win these games and go to the Super Bowl?

Plenty of people experienced “downward mobility” during the Pandemic. Annabelle Gurwitch encounters a divorce after 22 years of marriage, the loss of her health insurance, the death of her parents, and dealing with her trans college child who’s in rehab for a drug problem.

Anyone coping with financial insecurity, renting to dubious tenants, and trying to get back into the dating scene will relate to Gurwitch’s situation.

My favorite chapter in You’re Leaving When? is “Lubepocalypse Now!” Gurwitch is pressured by her friends and her sister to get back into the dating game. But first, she has to overcome a number of issues.

The first issue is Gurwitch’s sleep “requirements”: “I must have a firm wedge between my knees, a smoosh cushion to lean into, a sturdy bolster supporting my spine, and a sloped Temper-Pedic travel pillow angled under my neck. Also, I prefer to be cocooned in a heavy down comforter or two. I am partial to sleeping in socks, a knitted hat, a scarf (if the room is drafty), and a night guard to prevent TMJ clenching.” (p. 132). I hesitate to speak for men in general, but I’m guessing most guys would not find this sexy. And, most guys would probably categorize Gurwitch as “high maintenance.”

Despite all the problems confronting her, I admire Annabelle Gurwitch’s resilience and tenacity. Her dreams of “coasting” into retirement blow up and her life is turned upside down. Yet, time after time, Gurwitch finds ways to overcome disasters with grit and adaptability. Her story is inspiring. GRADE: B+

Table of Contents:

Introduction: I Thought There’d Be Coasting 3

Homeward Bound 13

Stuffed 21

Silver Nesting 33

Red Flags 41

The _____ That Changes Everything 57

If You Lived with Me You’d Be Home by Now 73

Spirited Away 95

They Got the Alias That We’ve Been Living Under 111

Lubepocalypse Now! 129

Dear Girlfriends 149

You’re Doing All the Right Things, Everything Is Going to Work Out 157

Free to Be … They and Them 173

You’re Leaving When? 183

In a Muted Zoom No One Can Hear You Scream 199

Acknowledgments 211

I think it was Byron who mentioned T. J. Binyon’s Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction. This Oxford University Press volume from 1989 is basically a catalogue of fictional detectives. Binyon categorizes them, gives some historical context, and recommends further reading.

If you’re looking for a compact history of detectives in fiction, this book covers all the major characters…and then some. I discovered Murder Will Out was published as a paperback in 2009. I’ve ordered that edition and I’ll see if Binyon updated his original book.

Do you have a favorite fictional detective? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. In the Beginning : Dupin and Lecoq — 1
2. The Professional Amateur — 9

Sherlock Holmes and the Magazine Short story –9

Holme’s First Successors –12

Dr. Thorndyke –15

Law — 21

Medicine– 25

Journalism –28

Insurance — 29

Accountancy — 31

The Schism of the 1920s — 31

The Private Detective: 1920 to the Present — 33

The Provide Eye from Williams to Warshawski — 38

Misfits — 46

3. The Amateur Amateur — 47

The Amateur Predicament — 47

Academics — 50

Philip Trent — 56

Prisests, Missionaries, and Rabbis — 64

The Theatre — 66

Husbands and Wives — 68

Finance — 68

Miscellaneous Female Amateurs — 70

Miscellaneous Male Amateurs — 72

4. The Police — 79

Inspector French — 79

Younger Policemen — 82

More Cultured Policemen — 85

Peripheral Policeman — 88

The Amateur Professional — 89

Foreign Policemen — 91

The Police Procedural — 99

Other American Policemen — 108

Other British Policemen — 116

Provincial Policemen — 120

5. A Few Oddities — 122

Comedy — 122

History — 125

Crooks and Villains — 127

Gentlemen Burglars and Robin Hoods — 129

6. Conclusion — 132

Further Reading — 135

Bibliography — 146

Index — 148

Once again, just by luck, I discovered The Rolling Stone Women in Rock Collection. I was browsing the Internet and it just popped up in one of my searches. The box set was released in 1998. I’ve never seen it or heard of it until just a few weeks ago.

As you can see, this collection takes a chronological approach to women in rock. And, as you’ll notice as you examine the track list, some of these women singers are represented by some strange songs. I’m not sure Madonna’s signature song is “Express Yourself.” But, aside from that quibble, I think this 3-CD set provides plenty of listening pleasure.

Are your favorite women in rock represented here? GRADE: A-

Tracklist:

		Disc 1: 1953-1971
1-01	Big Mama Thornton–	Hound Dog
1-02	Etta James–	Tell Mama
1-03	Patsy Cline–	Crazy
1-04	The Shangri-Las–	Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand)
1-05	Martha & The Vandellas*–	Dancing In The Street
1-06	Diana Ross & The Supremes*–	Stop! In The Name Of Love
1-07	Dionne Warwick–	Walk On By
1-08	The Velvet Underground & Nico (3)–	I’ll Be Your Mirror
1-09	Jefferson Airplane–	Somebody To Love
1-10	Janis Joplin–	Me And Bobby McGee
1-11	Aretha Franklin–	Chain Of Fools
1-12	Dusty Springfield–	Son Of A Preacher Man
1-13	Joan Baez–	I Shall Be Released
1-14	Laura Nyro–	Eli’s Coming
1-15	Carole King–	It’s Too Late
		Disc 2: 1972-1986
2-01	Carly Simon–	You’re So Vain
2-02	Gladys Knight & The Pips*–	Midnight Train To Georgia
2-03	Linda Ronstadt–	You’re No Good
2-04	Labelle–	Lady Marmalade
2-05	Janis Ian–	At Seventeen
2-06	Emmylou Harris–	Luxury Liner
2-07	X-Ray Spex–	Oh Bondage, Up Yours!
2-08	Donna Summer–	Hot Stuff
2-09	Pretenders*–	Brass In Pocket
2-10	Pat Benatar–	Hit Me With Your Best Shot
2-11	Joan Jett–	Bad Reputation
2-12	Go-Go’s–	We Got The Beat
2-13	Tina Turner–	What’s Love Got To Do With It?
2-14	Chaka Khan–	I Feel For You
2-15	Eurythmics–	Would I Lie To You?
2-16	Kate Bush–	Running Up That Hill
2-17	Bangles–	Manic Monday
		Disc 3: 1987-1997
3-01	Suzanne Vega–	Luka
3-02	Lucinda Williams–	Side Of The Road
3-03	Madonna–	Express Yourself
3-04	Queen Latifah / Monie Love–	Ladies First
3-05	Sonic Youth–	Tunic (Song For Karen)
3-06	Tori Amos–	Silent All These Years
3-07	En Vogue–	Free Your Mind
3-08	Belly–	Feed The Tree
3-09	Salt-N-Pepa*–	Shoop
3-10	Sarah McLachlan–	Possession
3-11	PJ Harvey–	Down By The Water
3-12	Joan Osborne–	One Of Us
3-13	Melissa Etheridge–	Your Little Secret
3-14	Jewel–	Who Will Save Your Soul
3-15	Sheryl Crow–	If It Makes You Happy
3-16	Shawn Colvin–	Sunny Came Home

In Michael Dirda’s Introduction to The Age of Decayed Futurity: The Best of Mark Samuels, Dirda points out that a Mark Samuels story usually presents the reader with a narrator who may or may not be insane. In “Sentinels,” Inspector Gray of the London police, investigates strange doings in the London Underground. As you might suspect, Inspector Gray finds more than he bargained for.

My two favorite stories in The Age of Decayed Futurity are “A Gentleman from Mexico” and “The Crimson Fog,” both with Cthulhu Mythos elements. In “A Gentleman from Mexico” A writer visiting Mexico meets a man who seems to be H. P. Lovecraft reborn. A group of soldiers attempt to rescue Major Qersh who seems to be trapped in a strange crimson fog in the jungles of Chang-Yi province. Once in the fog, the soldiers find death and a transformed Major Qersh and…more.

If you’re in the mood for some creepy stories full of terror, The Age of Decayed Futurity delivers 18 stories to horrify you. Are you a fan of scary stories? GRADE: B

Table of Contents:

Introduction, by Michael Dirda — 9
Mannequins in Aspects of Terror — 13
The White Hands — 29
Apartment 205 — 45
Vrolyck — 59
Ghorla — 73
Cesare Thodol: Some Lines Written on a Wall — 93
Sentinels — 105
A Gentleman from Mexico — 121
The Black Mould — 145
Thyxxolqu — 149
Regina vs. Zoskia — 161
The Age of Decayed Futurity — 175
My World Has No Memories — 189
Outside Interference — 197
The Crimson Fog — 215
Court of Midnight — 245
In the Complex — 255

Acknowledgements — 267

I’ll watch anything with Christine Baranski in it. Baranski plays the “Maggie Smith” character–who gets the best lines– in Julian Fellowes’s (Gosford Park, Downton Abbey) HBO series, The Gilded Age.

Set in New York City in 1882, the 9-episode series focuses on the glamour and gaudiness of the rise of industrialism and “New Money.” Baranski’s character represents “Old Money” and the changes sweeping through the social system causes a lot of friction. Baranski and her fellow Old Money tribe resist the growing power of robber barons and wealthy industrialists.

The Gilded Age takes on equality, racism, homosexuality, and social mobility. Are you a fan of costume dramas like Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age? GRADE: Incomplete (but Episode One was a B+)

Forty years ago, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar rocked the academic world with their Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Ninteeth-Century Literary Imagination. Gilbert and Gubar ignited a conversation on why women writers were mostly ignored in English Departments.

In their latest disruptive book, Gilbert & Gubar bring their analysis to women writers of the 1950s to 2020. There’s plenty here about Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Adrienne Rich, Nina Simone, Margret Atwood, Susan Sontag, Toni Morrison, and Gloria Steinem.

My favorite chapter is Chapter 6: Speculative Poetry, Speculative Fiction with excellent profiles of Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree, Jr, Joanna Russ, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Gilbert & Gubar cover a lot of ground in Still Mad. But for a one-volume history of major women writers in America from mid-20th Century until now, this would be my pick. Do you have a favorite woman writer from this era? GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Possible and the Impossible 1

Glass Ceilings and Broken Glass 3

How the Seventies Changed Our Lives 7

The Schooling of Hillary Rodham and Her Generation 12

The Cultural Chaos We Face 19

Keeping Things Going 23

Section 1 Stirrings in the Fifties

1 Midcentury Separate Spheres 29

Sylvia Plath’s Paper Dolls 31

HIS AND HER Time 36

Anatomy and Destiny 41

2 Race, Rebellion, and Reaction 48

Diane di Prima as a Feminist Beatnik 49

Gwendolyn Brooks’s Bronzeville 51

The Stages of Lorraine Hansberry’s Militancy 54

Audre Lorde’s Lesbian Biomythography 62

Joan Didion’s Vogue versus Betty Friedan’s Problem That Has No Name 66

Section II Eruptions in the Sixties

3 Three Angry Voices 73

Plath Despairs While Ariel Takes Wing 76

Adrienne Rich as a Cultural Daughter-in-Law 85

Nina Simone, Diva 92

4 The Sexual Revolution and the Vietnam War 102

Sex in New York City: Gloria Steinem versus Helen Gurley Brown 103

Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, and San Francisco 110

Women Strike for Peace 119

Valerie Solanas and the Rise of the Second Wave 125

Section III Awakenings in the Seventies

5 Protesting Patriarchy 135

Kate Millett’s Touchstone Book 139

Susan Sontag as Feminist Philosopher 146

Best Sellers in the Womanhouse: From Toni Morrison to Marilyn French 152

Plath’s Electric Take on the Fifties 164

6 Speculative Poetry, Speculative Fiction 173

The Metamorphoses of Adrienne Rich 175

Dystopias and Utopias 187

Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree, Jr. 188

Joanna Russ’s Misandry 197

Ursula Le Guin’s Androgyny 199

7 Bonded and Bruised Sisters 204

Gloria Steinem and Alice Walker at Ms. 205

Audre Lorde Dismantles the Master’s House 215

Maxine Hong Kingston’s Ghosts and Warriors 220

The Dinner Party 227

Section IV Revisions in the Eighties and Nineties

8 Identity Politics 235

Andrea Dworkin and the Sex Wars 238

Gloria Anzaldúa’s Mestiza Consciousness 244

Adrienne Rich’s Judaism 249

The Intersectionality of Toni Morrison 256

9 Inside and Outside the Ivory Closet 265

The Culture Wars 267

The Queer Theories of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler 269

Anne Carson’s Poetics of Love and Loss 276

Postmodernism/Transsexualism 281

Who Owns Feminism? 285

Section V Recessions/Revivals in the Twenty-First Century

10 Older and Younger Generations 293

The New Millennium 293

Alison Bechdel’s Literary Genealogy 298

Are You My Mother? 304

Eve Ensler’s V-Days 308

Transgender Visibility: From Susan Stryker to Maggie Nelson 311

11 Resurgence 318

Claudia Rankine Makes Black Lives Matter 320

The Broken Earth of N. K. Jemisin 326

Patricia Lockwood Sends Up the Church and the Family Romance 329

Headlining Feminism: From Rebecca Solnit to Beyoncé 332

Keeping Things Stirring 335

Epilogue: White Suits, Shattered Glass 345

Acknowledgments 355

Notes 359

Credits 413

Index 417

Yes, I know there’s an NFL Playoff game at 3:00 P.M. today between the LA Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the game all Buffalo Bills fans are waiting for is the Bills vs. Chiefs game with a 6:30 P.M. kickoff. The Chiefs are 3-point favorites. But the weather forecast for 36 degrees with mild winds beats last Saturday’s arctic conditions when the Bills put a beat-down on the Patriots. Of course, I’m rooting for the Bills, but I’m under no illusion that the Chiefs will make this a Tough Game. Go Bills!

Can Tom Brady do it again? The LA Rams destroyed the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football Playoff Edition 34-11. But the Buccaneers are tough to beat at home. The Bucs are favored by 2 1/2 points. This could be an Overtime game! I’m going with the Rams.

Who do you think will win these games?

“If you wear a short enough skirt, the party will come to you.” — Dorothy Parker

“If any two people could ever really get inside each other’s head, it would scare the pee out of both of them.” — John D. MacDonald, Dress Her in Indigo

“The best things in life are free. The second best are very, very expensive.” — Coco Chanel

I’m a sucker for books like Garner’s Quotations. As Dwight Garner points out in his Preface, people used to keep “commonplace” books where they would record bits of conversation, clever sayings from books, and snatches of dialogue from plays, TV, and movies. I found Garner’s Quotations a browser’s delight.

Garner’s Quotations includes a handy Index where you’ll find that there are six quotes from Henry James in this book…and 18 quotes of Clive James. If you’re looking for diversion and entertainment, Garner’s Quotations delivers both! GRADE: A

Mercedes Lackey has written dozens of fantasy novels. But, with A Study in Sable (2016) Lackey starts a sequence in her Elemental Masters series that border on Sherlock Holmes pastiches. I say “border” because Sherlock appears at key points in the novel, but so does Watson (who has Water Elemental powers) and his wife, Mary (with Air Elemental powers).

Continuing characters Nana Killian (a Psychic) and Sarah Lyon-White (a Medium) along with their clever birds–raven Neville and parrot Grey–investigate a series of strange events that lead them to a deadly entity. If you’re in the mood for a Sherlock Holmes pastiche with magical elements, A Study in Sable will entertain you. GRADE: B

Other Sherlock Holmes Pastiches in the Elemental Masters Series:

1. A Study in Sable (June 2016, ISBN 978-0756408725) featuring Sherlock Holmes and based on The Twa Sisters
2. A Scandal in Battersea (October 2017, ISBN 978-0756408732) featuring Sherlock Holmes and based on the Pied Piper of Hamelin
3. The Bartered Brides (October 2018, ISBN 978-0756408749) featuring Sherlock Holmes
4. The Case of the Spellbound Child (December 2019 ISBN 978-0756412111) featuring Sherlock Holmes