Carlos Lozada of the Washington Post, read 150 books about Donald J. Trump. Lozada chronicles the shock and disbelief of America’s intellectual class when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton despite the polls that said Clinton was ahead of Trump (and of course the same thing happened in 2020).

Then we had the four years of Trump’s savaging of environmental regulations, his dismantling of the Pandemic Response unit, Trump’s corruption of the Justice Department, his withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, and Trump’s ineffectual trade wars.

Early in 2020 it looked like Trump was headed for a Second Term as President. And then the coronavirus hit. Trump’s massive mis-management of the Covid-19 response is surely one of the reasons he lost the Presidential Election. Lozada adds analysis from dozens of books that explain how Trump was able to fool so many people so much of the time. What Were We Thinking is one of the Best Books of 2020! GRADE: A

How do you feel about the 2020 Presidential Election now? My response is below:

Table of Contents:

Introduction 1

1 Heartlandia 9

2 Resistible 34

3 The Conservative Pivot 54

4 Beyond the Wall 79

5 True Enough 99

6 See Some I.D. 124

7 Him, Too 146

8 The Chaos Chronicles 170

9 Russian Lit 199

10 In Plain View 217

Epilogue 243

Acknowledgments 249

Index 253

“Wade Miller” like “Ellery Queen” is a combination of two writers. Bob Wade and Bill Miller’s Badge of Evil (written under their “Whit Masterson” pseudonym) became the classic noir movie, Touch of Evil, directed by Orson Wells. Wade Miller is also known for the Max Thursday Private Eye novel series.

Stark House collects two standalone crime novels, Devil May Care (1950) and Sinner Take All (1960)–both books originally published in paperback by Gold Medal. Devil May Care features a soldier-of-fortune in decline. Biggo Venn arrives in Mexico looking to make a score that will set him up for the rest of his life. Instead, Biggo gets involved with a troubled bargirl, Jinny Wagner, and events get complicated fast.

Sinner Take All ups the stakes as ex-military figure James Cox, now working as a horse trainer, is recruited as an assassin. Mexican General Gayoso, wants former senator and now powerful newspaper-owner, Bruno Lazar, killed. James Cox agrees to eliminate Lazar at a friend’s funeral in Tijuana. As in most Wade Miller novels, the hero gets involved in a love triangle and is forced to make Life and Death decisions.

This Stark House omnibus presents two suspenseful noir novels from the golden days of Gold Medal paperbacks. If you’re looking for suspense, excitement, and action Devil May Care/Sinner Takes All will take you on a thrill ride. GRADE: B+

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Diane and I saw Luther Vandross in concert twice. Both performances were sold-out with enthusiastic fans. I like Vandross’s smooth voice and his musical style. And, of course, I own plenty of Luther Vandross CDs.

One of my favorite Luther Vandross CDs is Songs, a collection of cover versions of popular hits. Some are classic songs like “What the World Needs Now.” Others are Motown hits like “Reflections” which the Supremes made popular and “Hello,” a Lionel Richie song that hit Number One on the Billboard chart.

Do you recognize any of these songs? Are you a Luther Vandross fan? GRADE: A

“The Undesired Princess” was first published in the fantasy magazine Unknown Worlds in the February 1942. Rollin Hobart, an engineer, is magically transported to another plane whose natural laws are based on Aristotelian logic. In this world everything is either one thing or another with nothing in between and no gray areas or subtly.

In addition, everything in this world appears limited in color and–with the exception of the characters–in shape. Rollin Hobart must learn to use and manipulate the inflexible laws of this universe in order to survive and attempt to return back to Earth.  A lot of silliness results.

For fans of comic fantasy and adventure, The Undesired Princess provides smiles and fun. GRADE: B+

Charlie Sykes, long-time conservative talk-radio host in Wisconsin, documents the slide of the Republican Party into a haven for conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, QAnon nuts, and lovers of “Alternative Facts.” Sure FOX News had a lot to do with fueling the Republican transformation into Crazytown. So did Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart News, and Social Media.

On the eve of the Election, How the Right Lost Its Mind reminds us how Democracy can be damaged by cult figures, Fake News, and corruption. Hopefully, we can change this tomorrow. GRADE: A

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION — xii

I. HOW THE RIGHT LOST ITS MIND — 1

1. Did We Create this Monster? — 3

2. Confessions of a Recovering Liberal — 19

3. The Attack on the Conservative Mind — 25

4. The Conservative Idea — 33

5. Storm Warnings — 51

6. The Perpetual Outrage Machine — 65

II. THE POST-TRUTH POLITICS OF THE RIGHT — 79

7. The Alt Reality Media — 81

8. The Post-Truth Politics of the Right — 89

9. Drudge and the Politics of Paranoia — 107

III. THE TRUMPIAN TAKEOVER — 125

10. The Fox News Primary — 127

11. Limbaugh’s Flop — 133

12. The Bigots Among Us — 151

13. The Rise of the Alt Right — 159

14. The Binary Choice — 179

15. What Happened to the Christians? — 191

IV. RESTORING THE CONSERVATIVE MIND — 205

16. Trolls and Flying Monkeys: The Right’s New Culture of Intimidation — 207

17. The Contrarian Conservative — 221

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 233

NOTES — 235

Index — 257

The New England Patriots have beaten the Buffalo Bills 34 out of the past 38 games. Of course, Tom Brady had a lot to do with that domination. But, Brady is in Tampa and many of the key Patriot players are hurt so this game could be completely different from the usual annual beat-down. The Bills are actually favored (it’s been 20 years since that happened!) by 3 points.

In a radio interview on our local Sports Talk station this week, a Boston sports writer claimed Cam Newton is suffering from Covid-19 “brain-fog.” Cam Newton looked confused last week in the Patriots 33-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The forecast for the game is rain, wind, and actual fog. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

Gary Westfahl traces the history of American Science Fiction from the beginning (Westfahl argues that Hugo Gernsback started it all) to the genre’s decline in the late 1960s. I enjoyed Westfahl’s insights, but a couple of his chapters stand out for me: “Five Ways to Conquer the Universe: The Forms of Space Opera” and “Artists in Wonderland: Towards a True History of Science Fiction Art.” One of my quibbles with Westfahl’s history of SF Art is that no art was included in this book. It would have been useful to see the artwork Westfahl refers to.

I also have to warn you about one of Westfahl’s Bad Habits: without warning he’ll drop a “spoiler” into the discussion of a book or story. Fortunately, I’ve read most of the stories Westfahl analyzes, but it was still jarring. Other than those quibbles, I recommend The Rise and Fall of American Science Fiction, from the 1920s to the 1960s. GRADE: A-

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Part I. The 1920s and Thereafter

 1. The Emergence of American Science Fiction and Its Impact on the World 7

 2. August 1928: Science Fiction’s Second Birthday 21

 3. Artists in Wonderland: Towards a True History of Science Fiction Art 39

Part II. The 1930s and Thereafter

 4. Pulp Science Fiction: A Student’s Guide 61

 5. Beyond Logic and Literacy: The Strange Case of Space Opera 77

 6. Five Ways to Conquer the Universe: The Forms of Space Opera 85

Part III. The 1940s and Thereafter

 7. The Tall Dark Stranger and the Boy Next Door: A. E. van Vogt and Robert A. Heinlein 99

 8. The Three Golden Ages of Science Fiction 111

 9. Assemblers of Infinity: The Early History of Science Fiction Anthologies 124

Part IV. The 1950s and Thereafter

10. Invasion of the Saucer Men: How the Universe of Science Fiction Expanded in the 1950s 153

11. Hard Science Fiction: An Overview 180

12. The “Big Three” Approaches to Juvenile Science Fiction and Why One Worked and the Others Did Not 196

Epilog: The 1960s and Thereafter

13. After Things Fell Apart: The Fragmentation of Science Fiction in the 1960s and 1970s 211

14. Science Fiction Today: The Triumph of the Marketplace 233

Conclusion 247

Chapter Notes 251

Bibliography 268

Index 277

I’ve had Joan Baez’s No Woman No Cry on my shelf for nearly 30 years, waiting for me to listen to it. This 1992 CD is a mishmash of songs and styles. Joan Baez sings a couple songs in Spanish. A couple Traditional songs–“Sing Low Sweet Chariot” and “Rambler Gambler/Whispering Bells”–stand out. And then there’s the pop songs: “No Woman No Cry,” “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,” and “Hand to Mouth.” “Famous Blue Raincoat” is my favorite song on this CD. There’s not a lot of flow on this CD. But, Joan Baez has an incredible voice no matter what she sings. Are you a Joan Baez fan? GRADE: B

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