I’m open to trying new flavors of coffee so this Starbucks Signature Collection intrigued me. My favorite is the Cinnamon Dolce which is mild with a hint of cinnamon flavor. I also liked the Hazelnut coffee with its rich flavor.
I was not too keen on the Carmel or Toffeenut brews. The Vanilla and Toasted Graham coffees were just okay. But, I’ll continue to buy Cinnamon Dolce and Hazelnut. Do you like flavored coffees? Do you have any favorites?
Jerry House mentioned that he loved Other Inquisitions in his comment on Jay Parini’s BORGES AND ME. I read Other Inquisitions in the late 1960s and didn’t fully appreciate it because I hadn’t read many of the books Borges wrote about.
Now, decades later, I reread Other Inquisitions and many of Borges’s essays make a lot more sense because of my years of reading the books he refers to. I took a doctoral seminar on Nathaniel Hawthorne, but Borges’s “Nathaniel Hawthorne” introduces more facts and analysis in just a few pages. That is the genius of Borges: he can distill mountains of books into a pithy essay. Highly recommended! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — ix
The Wall and the Books — 3
Pascal’s Sphere — 6
The Flower of Coleridge — 10
The Dream of Coleridge — 14
Time and J. W. Dunne — 18
The Creation and P. H. Gosse — 22
Dr. Americo Castro is Alarmed — 26
A Note on Carriego — 31
Our Poor Individualism — 33
Quevedo — 36
Partial Enchantments of the Quixote — 43
Nathaniel Hawthorne — 47
Note on Walt Whitman — 66
Valery as a Symbol — 73
The Enigma of Edward FitzGerald — 75
About Oscar Wilde — 79
On Chesterton — 82
The First Wells — 86
The Biathanatos — 89
Pascal — 93
The Meeting in a Dream — 97
The Analytical Language of John Wilkins — 101
Kafka and his Precursors — 106
Avatars of the Tortoise — 109
On the Cult of Books — 116
The Nightingale of Keats — 121
The Mirror of the Enigmas — 125
Two Books — 129
A Comment on August 23, 1944 — 134
About William Beckford’s Vathek — 137
About The Purple Land — 141
From Someone to Nobody — 146
Forms of a Legend — 149
From Allegories to Novels — 154
The Innocence of Layamon — 158
For Bernard Shaw — 163
The Modesty of History — 167
New Refutation of Time — 171
Epilogue — 189
Index — 191
Last week I reviewed Lionel White’s marvelous Steal Big/The Big Caper. You can read my review here. Reading Lionel White was so much fun, I decided to read and review Coffin for a Hood/Operation–Murder for this week’s FFB.
Lionel White is best known for his caper novels, but he had the capacity to write suspenseful crime novels, too. Coffin for a Hood (1958) features two hired killers who arrive at a tiny coastal town called Arroyos in the Florida Keys by plane. Who are they going to kill? Is alcoholic Dr. Martins–a man with a dark past–their target? Or is it Socks Schroeder, the basketball player who refused to throw a game and later turned state’s evidence? Corrupt Deputy Flack had mob membership before he killed a rival and now he’s hiding behind a badge in a small Florida town fearing retribution. Wealthy Richard Fullbright, who swindled his partners to gain his money, fears that the professional killers are after him. Meanwhile, Hurricane Bettina has Arroyos and the Florida Key’s in its sights for a direct hit. White ratchets up the suspense as the storm gets closer and closer! GRADE: B+
White returns to a caper in Operation–Murder (1956). An embittered Korean War veteran named Frank Scudder, who is suffering from acute tuberculosis, plans for one big score so he can retire with his disability. While Frank was convalescing in a hospital, he met a lovely nurse named Tina. Tina falls in love with Frank and the couple get married. But Tina doesn’t know about Frank’s plan to rob a train.
Set in Colorado, Operation–Murder shows how a determined team of thieves can execute a plan to rob an armored caboose carrying a million dollars as its train winds its way through the Colorado mountains. A complicating factor: the heist is scheduled during a vicious blizzard. If you’re a fan of caper novels, Operation–Murder provides thrills and chills and surprises galore! GRADE: A
This Sony 3-CD collection (40 songs!) from 2002 includes plenty of songs I like starting with Mtume’s sexy “Juicy Fruit” and continuing with one of my favorite Luther Vandross songs, “Stop to Love.” Isley Jasper Isley’s classic “Caravan of Love” and Teena Marie’s “Lovergirl” (produced by the infamous Rick James) rub up against the too infrequently played “Shake You Down” by Gregory Abbott. Disc One concludes with the Philip Bailey/Phil Collins duet, “Easy Lover.”
The surprise (to me) on Disc Two is Stanley Clarke’s haunting “Heaven Sent You.” I associated Clarke more with the Jazz world, but here is a bona fide pop song well worth listening to. Shalamar’s “Dancing in the Sheets” is another song that seems to have disappeared from the radio airwaves.
Disc Three features one of my favorite Regina Bell songs, “Show Me the Way.” This disc is jazzy with Herbie Handcock and Grover Washington, Jr. represented. All in all, Soul Hits of the 80s contains enough good songs to make it very listenable. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACKLIST:
| 1-01 | Mtume– | Juicy Fruit | 5:56 |
| 1-02 | Marvin Gaye– | Sanctified Lady | 5:25 |
| 1-03 | Regina Belle– | Baby Come To Me | 5:42 |
| 1-04 | Luther Vandross– | Stop To Love | 5:10 |
| 1-05 | Deniece Williams– | Let’s Hear It For The Boy | 4:20 |
| 1-06 | Isley Jasper Isley– | Caravan Of Love | 5:44 |
| 1-07 | Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam– | All Cried Out | 4:45 |
| 1-08 | Teena Marie– | Lovergirl | 4:50 |
| 1-09 | Manhattans– | Shining Star | 4:44 |
| 1-10 | Earth, Wind & Fire– | Fall In Love With Me | 5:53 |
| 1-11 | Gregory Abbott– | Shake You Down | 4:08 |
| 1-12 | Tony Terry– | Lovey Dovey | 3:32 |
| 1-13 | Philip Bailey & Phil Collins– | Easy Lover | 5:04 |
| 2-01 | Cheryl Lynn– | Encore | 4:33 |
| 2-02 | Teena Marie– | Ooo La La La | 5:16 |
| 2-03 | Surface– | Shower Me With Your Love | 4:54 |
| 2-04 | Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam– | Lost In Emotion | 5:07 |
| 2-05 | Earth, Wind & Fire– | Magnetic | 4:21 |
| 2-06 | Full Force– | All In My Mind | 4:42 |
| 2-07 | Champaign– | How ‘Bout Us | 4:34 |
| 2-08 | Stanley Clarke– | Heaven Sent You | 5:59 |
| 2-09 | Luther Vandross– | Here And Now | 5:25 |
| 2-10 | Mtume– | You, Me And He | 4:29 |
| 2-11 | Shalamar– | Dancing In The Sheets | 4:05 |
| 2-12 | Tawatha– | Thigh Ride | 4:56 |
I’m a fan of Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya Universe stories, but one look at the dust jacket illustration on Seven of Infinities by Maurizio Manzieri was enough for me to order this book from Subterranean Press.
Aliette de Bodard follows up her award-winning Xuya universe novella, The Tea Master and the Detective (you can read my review here), with Seven of Infinities set in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt.
The story centers around Vân, a scholar from a poor background who is eking out a living as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student. Vân teams up with Sunless Woods, a cunning mindship who is a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Scattered Pearls Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s stolid personality and integrity.
When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship–and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other. If you’re in the mood for a mystery with intriguing aspects and marvelous surprises, I recommend Seven of Infinities. GRADE: A
CODA is the best movie I’ve seen in 2021 so far. The title has a double meaning. Usually, a “coda” is a musical term referring to a certain type of ending to a piece of music, but it also stands for “Child of Deaf Adults.” This movie centers around a family of three deaf adults and their teenage daughter who can both hear and communicate with American Sign Language. In essence, she’s their interpreter.
Sian Heder wrote and directed this film based on the 2014 French movie, “La Famille Belier.” The teenager named Ruby, played brilliantly by Emilia Jones, wakes up each morning to go on her father’s fishing boat with her brother. But Ruby’s love is singing, something her deaf family can’t related to.
Ruby signs up for Chorus as a High School Elective to get close to a boy she likes named Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and encounters a gifted teacher, Bernardo (Eugenio Derbez). The choirmaster recognizes Ruby’s singing talent and encourages her to prepare for an audition for the Berklee College of Music scholarship.
CODA swings between the problems Ruby’s father, Frank (Troy Kotsur) and brother, Leo (Daniel Durant), encounter in their fishing business in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and the difficulty of Ruby’s mother, Jackie, (played by Marlee Matlin–the only deaf person to win an Oscar), in accepting that her daughter might leave home.
I was moved by the portrayal of a family that clearly loves one another confronting problems and dealing with disabilities. My advice is to watch CODA with some Kleenex nearby. GRADE: A
Why was the response to the Coronavirus Pandemic so ineffective? Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta of the Washington Post covered the Pandemic from the beginning and their analysis of the failure begins with the Trump White House: “Many of the senior staff and cabinet members who had joined Trump in January 2017 had already left. More than twenty had been pushed out or fired. Others had resigned in disgust. At least one appeared to be headed to jail.
“Who was left? A mix of family members, twenty somethings, hangers-on, fourth-stringers, former lobbyists, sycophants, and scattering of competent, well-meaning aides…who mostly kept their heads down.” (p. 29-30)
Trump’s team completely misread the signs of the growing Pandemic. Even with the FDA and CDC and the Coronavirus Task Force, Trump and the people around him were in denial about the disaster. Mostly, they were focused on Trump’s ReElection campaign and regarded the Coronavirus as an annoyance.
Two of the best chapters in Nightmare Scenario are Chapter 7, Dr. Birx (read p. 145 where Birx overplays her hand on the Christian Broadcasting Network) and Chapter 8, Dr. Fauci. Abutaleb and Paletta carefully provide the background of these two key figures in the battle against Covid-19. Both doctors are specialists and came to understand the enormity of the Pandemic…but as the virus spread, Trump and his team ignored them.
As the news of the Pandemic grew worse, Trump dismissed Dr. Birx as “pathetic.” When Dr. Fauci threw out the first pitch at a National’s game, Trump was enraged. Trump claimed he was going to throw out the first pitch at a Yankees game, but the Yankees refused. Trump seriously considered firing Dr. Fauci because Fauci’s ratings were higher than his own. And Trump was apoplectic about the Fauci doughnuts, T-shirts, socks, and the Fauci bobblehead doll! (p. 155).
There were many chances to get the Pandemic under control, but Trump’s distaste for masks–“It makes you look weak”–and his belief that the virus would “just go away like a miracle” resulted in a weak, ineffective Government response. Trump surrounded himself with anti-science types and minions who blocked actions that could have saved lives.
The numbers in Western NY for Delta Variant infections and hospitalizations are going up. The Nightmare Scenario continues here. What’s happening in your neighborhood? GRADE: A
Authors’ Note ix
Prologue: Covered in Death 1
Part I
Chapter 1 The Invisible Enemy 11
Chapter 2 Like Water Through a Net 23
Chapter 3 Trapped at Sea 45
Chapter 4 Testing, Testing 63
Chapter 5 The Panic 85
Chapter 6 The Shutdown 109
Chapter 7 Dr. Birx 131
Chapter 8 Dr. Fauci 153
Chapter 9 Of Masks and Men 175
Chapter 10 “Liberate” 197
Part II
Chapter 11 Pharmacist in Chief 217
Chapter 12 Remdesivir 243
Chapter 13 Jared’s Shadow Task Force 251
Chapter 14 The Downfall of the Health Agencies 277
Chapter 15 From Bad to Worse 305
Chapter 16 The Second Wave 319
Chapter 17 Opening Day 339
Chapter 18 Atlas, Shrug 349
Chapter 19 A Shot in the Dark 369
Chapter 20 Long Live the King 391
Chapter 21 Judgment Day 411
Epilogue 425
Acknowledgments 431
Notes 437
Index 461
Let’s start with the most ridiculous bar fight scene of any movie I’ve seen. Nick Bannister, played by Hugh Jackman, is a future private eye who uses a memory machine to discover clues to his cases. When Nick falls for a mysterious singer called Mae (Rebecca Ferguson), he falls hard. When Mae disappears, Nick is obsessed with finding her. Yes, all the elements of a typical film noir show up including Nick’s annoying voice-over narration.
So, back to the ridiculous bar fight. Nick strolls into a New Orleans bar where a criminal kingpin (Daniel Wu) conducts his crime empire. The kingpin is surrounded by body guards. Nick asks about Mae and suddenly finds himself thrust into the kingpin’s fish tank filled with menacing creatures. Then, all hell breaks loose while Nick continues to drown. Since this scene is about mid-way through Reminiscence you can guess what happens. Very predictable..and silly.
Reminiscence opens with a shot of Miami drowning in water. No taxis…just motor boats get people around the sinking city. The future is grim, but Director Lisa Joy (who also wrote the screenplay) makes the submerged world look fabulous–which is the best part of this disappointing movie. GRADE: C
Philip Ball believes we have modern myths that we live by. And, in this new book, Ball sets out to argue we pattern our lives around the wisdom of Robinson Crusoe, the mistakes of Frankenstein, the bi-polar Dr. Jekyll, the hungers of Dracula, the terror of Martians (and other invaders), the analytical Sherlock Holmes, the vigilantism of Batman, and the prospect of more modern myths to come.
Ball makes his case for each modern myth chapter by chapter. He provides in-depth histories of the source of the myth, then extends the influence of the myth on the wider culture. For example, after giving a grand account of how H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds came about, Ball goes into the Orson Welles radio extravaganza of Orson Wells that terrified the country. He even provides a photo of Orson Wells with H. G. Wells in 1940. In addition, Ball includes other books, movies, radio programs, etc. that spun off of The War of the Worlds including reimagining like Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!
If you’re interested in popular culture and modern myths, this is the book for you! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. How can a Myth be Modern? — 1
2. John Bull on a Beach: Robinson Crusoe (1719) — 36
3. The Reanimator: Frankenstein (1818) — 69
4. Unchaining the Beast: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). — 130
5. The Body and the Blood: Dracula (1897) — 165
6. Who Shall Dwell in these Worlds: The War of the Worlds (1897) — 223
7. Reason Wears a Deerstalker: The Sherlock Homes stories (1887-1927) — 275
8. I Am the Law: Batman (1939-) — 311
9. Myths in the Making, Myths to Come — 351
10. The Mythic Mode — 370
Acknowledgments — 383
Notes — 385
Bibliography — 407
Index — 415
Adam Grant, a organizational psychologist, believes we can make better decisions to improve our lives if we take the time to reconsider our choices. Remember the advice when you’re taking at multiple choice test: don’t change your answers! Grant researched that strategy and found that students who did change their answers went from Wrong Answer to Right Answer 70% of the time.
As a consultant, Grant worked for several companies that took his advice and changed their direction…and improved their work atmosphere and profits. Grant points out that smart people can become convinced they’re right about their opinions and choices when a thoughtful reconsideration can produce more accurate results.
Have you reconsidered a recent decision? We’re reconsidering out travel plans for the Fall with the Delta Variant raging. GRADE: B+
Prologue 1
Part I Individual Rethinking Updating Our Own Views
1 A Preacher, a Prosecutor, a Politician, and a Scientist Walk into Your Mind 15
2 The Armchair Quarterback and the Impostor: Finding the Sweet Spot of Confidence 33
3 The Joy of Being Wrong: The Thrill of Not Believing Everything You Think 55
4 The Good Fight Club: The Psychology of Constructive Conflict 77
Part II Interpersonal Rethinking Opening Other People’s Minds
5 Dances with Foes: How to Win Debates and Influence People 97
6 Bad Blood on the Diamond: Diminishing Prejudice by Destabilizing Stereotypes 121
7 Vaccine Whisperers and Mild-Mannered Interrogators: How the Right Kind of Listening Motivates People to Change 143
Part III Collective Rethinking Creating Communities of Lifelong Learners
8 Charged Conversations: Depolarizing Our Divided Discussions 163
9 Rewriting the Textbook: Teaching Students to Question Knowledge 185
10 That’s Not the Way We’ve Always Done It: Building Cultures of Learning at Work 205
Part IV Conclusion
11 Escaping Tunnel Vision: Reconsidering Our Best-Laid Career and Life Plans 225
Epilogue 245
Actions for Impact 251
Acknowledgments 259
Notes 265
Illustration Credits 295
Index 297