Lily Albrecht, book dealer and one-time novelist, finds herself in a search for a mysterious book: The Book of the Most Precious Substance. The book is from 1620, not printed but hand written, and only five copies were made. Over the years, two of the five volumes of The Book of the Most Precious Substance were destroyed.

Lily teams up with Lucas Markson, an acquisitions librarian specializing in rare books. As Lily and Lucas investigate The Book of the Most Precious Substance, they learn it has been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars and may be worth more than a million dollars to the right buyer. They also learn The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a book of sex magic.

The book describes five spells. After each spell, the participants who follow the directions to activate the spell, will get something they desire. Both Lily and Lucas want money…but for different reasons. Lucas has burned through his trust fund and needs money to sustain his lavish lifestyle. Lily’s husband, Abel, suffers from dementia and Lily needs money to take care of him.

As Lily and Lucas follow clues to the locations of The Book of the Most Precious Substance, murders occur. They discover a copy of The Book of the Most Precious Substance, but the pages about the fifth and most powerful spell have been ripped out.

The Book of the Most Precious Substance reminded me of The Ninth Gate, the 1999 neo-noir horror thriller film directed, produced, and co-written by Roman Polanski starring Johnny Depp. If you’re in the mood for an international search for a rare and dangerous occult book, Sara Gran’s erotic thriller, The Book of the Most Precious Substance, takes you on a fascinating and deadly journey. GRADE: B+

I first read H. P. Lovecraft in the early 1960s. Lancer Books published The Dunwich Horror and Others in 1963 and when I read it, I was hooked! Here’s the Table of Contents for that Lancer Books edition:

Introduction: H.P. Lovecraft and his work / August Derleth
	In the vault
	Pickman’s model
	The rats in the walls
	The music of Erich Zann
	The haunter of the dark
	The Dunwich horror
	The thing on the doorstep

After that, I scoured used bookstores more more Lovecraft books. Lancer Books published THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE and Others in 1967. Then, in the early 1970s, Ballantine Books started reprinting volumes of Lovecraft’s works.

Over the years, H. P. Lovecraft–who died in obscurity and poverty–steadily attracted new readers. Lovecraft pastiches proliferated. How did an unknown writer end up with a volume in the Library of America series? T. S. Joshi tracks the growth of Lovecraft’s recognition and status over the decades. If you’re interested in how a writer can go from zero to world renown, give The Recognition of H. P. Lovecraft a try. Are you an H. P. Lovecraft fan? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PREFACE –7

I. Beginnings (1905-1922) — 9

II. The Pulp Era (1923-1937) — 35

III. Arkham House: The Early Years (1937-1945) — 79

IV. The Beginnings of Worldwide Disseminaton (1946-1959) — 115

V. Paperbacks and Movies (1960-1971) — 139

VI. The revival of Scholarship (1971-1979) — 163

VII. Looking Toward the Centennial (1980-1990) — 199

VIII. The Road to Canonization (1991-2005) — 231

IX. Dissemination and Controversy (2006-2020) — 263

Epilogue — 311

Bibliography — 315

Index — 319

I became a fan of Laura Nyro from the moment I heard her songs in the late 1960s. Between 1968 and 1970, a number of artists and groups had hits with Laura Nyro songs: The 5th Dimension with “Blowing Away“, “Wedding Bell Blues“, “Stoned Soul Picnic“, “Sweet Blindness“, and “Save the Country“; Blood, Sweat & Tears and Peter, Paul and Mary with “And When I Die“; Three Dog Night and Maynard Ferguson with “Eli’s Comin’“; and Barbra Streisand with “Stoney End“, “Time and Love”, and “Hands off the Man (Flim Flam Man)”. Laura Nyro’s best-selling single was her version of Carole King‘s and Gerry Goffin‘s “Up on the Roof“.

Laura Nyro died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8, 1997. She was 49,  the same age that her mother died from the same disease. In 2004, SONY released Spread Your Wings and Fly: Live at the Fillmore East May 30, 1971. The concert performance shows Nyro’s love of classic songs like “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, “Spanish Harlem,” “Walk On By,” “Dancing in the Street,” “O-o-h Child,” and “Up on the Roof.”

Laura Nyro was 24 at the time of this concert. She had a relationship with singer/songwriter Jackson Browne in late 1970 to early 1971. Jackson Browne was Nyro’s opening act at the time. Are you a fan of Laura Nyro? GRADE: A-

TRACKLIST:

1		American Dove	5:03
2		Medley: Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing / (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman Written-By – N. Ashford-V. Simpson*, C. King-G. Goffin*, J. Wexler	4:10
3		Spanish Harlem Written-By – J. Leiber*, P. Spector	3:19
4		I Am The Blues	5:04
5		Medley: Walk On By / Dancing In The Street Written-By – B. Bacharach-H. David*, I. Hunter*, M. Gaye*, W. Stevenson	4:59
6		Emmie	4:55
7		Map To The Treasure	6:52
8		Christmas In My Soul	5:38
9		Save The Country	4:59
10		Medley: Timer / O-o-h Child / Up On The Roof Written-By – G. Goffin-C. King*, L. Nyro*, S. Vincent*	8:41
11		Medley: Lu / Flim Flam Man	3:42
12		Mother Earth	7:58

All songs written by Laura Niro except where noted.

Last week I reviewed Erle Stanley Gardner’s Sheriff Bill Eldon stories (you can read my review here). The third and last Sheriff Bill Eldon story was reprinted after 30 years in Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery which was published in 1979.

After reading Erle Stanley Gardner’s “The Clue of the Screaming Woman,” I read the rest of the stories in Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery. I’m a Hugh Pentecost fan and “Jerico and the Studio Murders” delivers a compelling story with a twist at the end.

James M. Ullman is a writer new to me. I found his “Operation Bonaparte” a clever puzzle where two investigators chase a criminal on the run and try to recover his “treasure chest” of wealth. The last line of the story is classic!

My favorite stories in Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery are the three Edward D. Hoch stories. Captain Leopold and his team chases a kidnapper and thief. Nick Velvet gets kidnapped but still figures out a way to steal a worthless object. In “The Spy at the End of the Rainbow” Hoch’s British spy Rand has to solve the murder at a conference in Egypt. All three stories show Hoch at the top of his game.

I found Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery entertaining and so will you. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Erle Stanley Gardner: “The Clue of the Screaming Woman” — 9

Victor Canning: “A Stroke of Genius” — 80

Florance V. Mayberry: “Out of the Dream Stumbling” — 88

Lawrence Treat: “A As in Alibi” — 99

Robert Edward Eckel: The Last One to Know” — 110

Hugh Pentecost: “Jerico and the Studio Murders” — 121

Robert Bloch: ” The Man Who Never Did Anything Right” — 134

Lawrence G. Blochman: “The Killer With No Fingerprints” — 137

Phyllis Ann Karr: “Blood Money” — 160

Lloyd Biggie, Jr. “Have You a Fortune in Your Attic?” — 166

Brian W. Aldiss: “The Lonely Habit” — 182

Vincent McConnor: “Just Like Inspector Maigret” — 190

James M. Ullman: “Operation Bonaparte” — 201

Barry Perowne: “The Raffles Bombshell” — 217

Ellery Queen: “Uncle From Australia” — 234

Edward D. Hoch Tripleheader:

“Captain Leopold Gets Angry” — 239

“The Theft of Nick Velvet” — 253

“The Spy at the End of the Rainbow” — 267

Adam McKay’s dark comedy, Don’t Look Up, with its cast of stars should attract more of an audience in the run up to the Oscars. Check out who’s in this movie:

	Leonardo DiCaprio	Dr. Randall Mindy
	Jennifer Lawrence	…	Kate Dibiasky
	Meryl Streep	…	President Orlean
	Cate Blanchett	…	Brie Evantee
	Rob Morgan	…	Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe
	Jonah Hill	…	Jason Orlean
	Mark Rylance	…	Peter Isherwell
	Tyler Perry	…	Jack Bremmer
	Timothée Chalamet	…	Yule
	Ron Perlman	…	Benedict Drask
	Ariana Grande	…	Riley Bina
	Kid Cudi	…	DJ Chello (as Scott Mescudi)
	Himesh Patel	…	Phillip
	Melanie Lynskey	…	June Mindy
	Michael Chiklis	…	Dan Pawketty
	Tomer Sisley	…	Adul Grelio
	Paul Guilfoyle	…	General Themes
	Robert Joy	…	Congressman Tenant
	Jack Alberts	…	Oliver
	Ting	…	Win (as Ting Lik)

Jennifer Lawrence, a doctoral student, discovers a comet is heading for Earth. It will hit our planet in six months. Her Professor, Leonard DiCaprio, alerts the scientific community, but his news is met with some skepticism. Lawrence and DiCaprio go to Washington, D.C. to warn the President (Meryl Streep) of in impending collision which would be an extinction event.

Like the Pandemic, the prospect of a comet hitting the Earth becomes a political football. Some people believe it, many others doubt it. Adam McKay, who directs this movie and wrote the screenplay, shows how dysfunctional Government can be during a crisis. He shows how Government is influenced by money and power. And, not many people in this movie believe in Science.

If you’re in the mood for a dark comedy, Don’t Look Up will make you smile and frown at the same time! GRADE: B

David Damrosch is the Earnest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature and chair of comparative literature at Harvard University, and director of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature. That should explain why many of the 80 titles in Around the World in 80 Books aren’t familiar to you or to me. In his Introduction, Damrosch cites Harold Bloom’s influential The Western Canon. In this book, Domrosch presents a literary canon for the world by using the device of Around the World in 80 Books to carry his arguments forward.

How many of these 80 books do you know? Do you see any of your favorites here? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION: The Voyage Out — xi

Chapter one. London : Inventing a City

• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway — 1
• Charles Dickens, Great Expectations — 7
• Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes — 12
• P. G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh — 16
• Arnold Bennet, Riceyman Steps — 19

Chapter two. Paris : Writers’ Paradise

• Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time — 25
• Djuna Barnes, Nightwood — 29
• Marguerite Duras, The Lover — 36
• Julio Cortazar, The End of the Game — 36
• Georges Perec, W, or the Memory of Childhood — 40

Chapter three. Krakow : After Auschwitz

• Primo Levi, The Periodic Table — 45
• Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories — 50
• Paul Celan, Poems — 53
• Czeslaw Milos, Selected and Last Poems, 1931-2004 — 57
• Olga Tokarczuk, Flights — 61

Chapter four. Venice-Florence : Invisible cities

• Marco Polo, The Travels — 65
• Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy — 68
• Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron — 71
• Donna Leon, By Its Cover — 75
• Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities — 79

Chapter five. Cairo-Istanbul-Muscat : Stories within stories

• Love Songs of Ancient Egypt — 85
• The Thousand and One Nights — 89
• Naguib Mahfouz, Arabian Nights and Days — 93
• Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red — 97
• Jokha Alharthi, Celestial Bodies — 102

Chapter six. The Congo-Nigeria : (Post)Colonial encounters

• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness — 107
• Chinua Achelbe, Things Fall Apart — 112
• Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman — 117
• Georges Ngal, Giambarista Viko, or The Rape of African Discourse — 122
• Chimamanda Negozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck — 125

Chapter seven. Israel/Palestine : Strangers in a strange land

• The Hebrew Bible — 131
• The New Testament — 136
• D. A. Mishani, The Missing File — 142
• Emile Habibi, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist — 146
• Mahmoud Darwish, The Butterfly’s Burden — 150

Chapter eight. Tehran-Shiraz : A desertful of roses

• Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis — 157
• Farid ud-Din Attar, The Confessions of the Birds — 162
• Faces of Love: Haze and the Poets of Shiraz — 166
• Ghalib, A Deceitful of Roses — 172
• Agha Shahid Ali, Call Me Ishmael Tonight — 176

Chapter nine. Calcutta/Kolkata : Rewriting empire

• Rudyard Kipling, Kim — 183
• Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World — 188
• Salman Rushdie, East, West — 192
• Jamyan Norbu, The Mandela of Sherlock Holmes — 196
• Jhampa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies — 201

Chapter ten. Shanghai-Beijing : Journeys to the west

• Wu Cheng’en, Journey to the West — 207
• Lu Xun, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Stories — 211
• Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City — 215
• Mo Yan, Life and Earth Are Wearing Me Out — 219
• Bei Dao, The Rose of Time — 224

Chapter eleven. Tokyo-Kyoto : The west of the east

• Higuchi Ichiyo, In the Shade of Spring Leaves — 231
• Muraski Shikibu, The Tale of Genji — 235
• Matsuo Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North — 240
• Yukio Mishima, The Sea of Fertility — 245
• James Merrill, “Prose of Departure” — 250

Chapter tweleve. Brazil-Columbia : Utopias, dystopias, heterotopias

• Thomas More, Utopia — 257
• Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism — 262
• Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Posthumours Memoirs of Brds Cubas — 267
• Clarice Lispector, Family Ties — 273
• Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude — 277

Chapter thirteen. Mexico-Guatemala : The Pope’s blowgun

• Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs — 283
• Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life — 289
• Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Selected Works — 293
• Miguel Ángel Asturias, The President — 299
• Rosario Casstellanos, The Book of Lamentations — 303

Chapter fourteen. The Antilles and beyond : Fragments of epic memory

• Derek Walcott, Omeros — 309
• James Joyce, Ulysses — 315
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea — 319
• Margaret Atwood, The Penelopida — 324
• Judith Schalansky, Atlas of Remote Islands — 329

Chapter fifteen. Bar Harbor : the world on a desert island

• Robert McCloskey, One Morning in Maine — 335
• Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs — 340
• Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian — 345
• Hugh Lofting, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle — 350
• E. B. White, Stuart Little — 356

Chapter sixteen. New York : Migrant metropolis

• Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time — 361
• Saul Steinberg, The Labyrinth — 366
• James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son — 371
• Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King — 376
• J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings — 381

Epilogue: the Eighty-first Book — 387

Acknowledgements — 391

Credits — 395

Notes — 401

It’s that time of year again to fire up Turbotax Deluxe and go through the tax filing routine. I like the e-filing feature. I like the New York State Tax download. And, I like the Audit Risk Meter that assesses your risk of drawing IRS attention.

I’ve been using Turbotax since the 1990s. Some years the software was better than others. But now, Intuit–the company that bought Turbotax–has this program refined and made it easy to use.

Have you done your taxes yet?

Matthew Stewart believes the .01%–the billionaires–run the Economy for their own benefit. However, the top 9.9% also influences American culture. In the Past, the 9.9% might have been considered “Middle Class”. With income inequality in America now forcing more people to live near the poverty line, the 9.9% should be considered Upper Class.

So, why should we care about income inequality? According to Stewart: ” In 2016, 46% of Trump supporters knew or suspected that Hillary Clinton was involved in a child sex right that operated in the back of a pizza restaurant; 43% maintained that human beings did not evolve from any other species; 39% said the Stock Market went down under Obama; 27% accepted as fact that vaccines cause autism; and 25% thought Ted Cruz just might be the Zodiac Killer.” (p. 250).

Our broken educational system–especially during the Pandemic–deprives students from gaining the skills and knowledge that would give them access to well-paying jobs. It would also provide them with reasoning skills to arm them against Fake News and Alternative Facts so they’re harder to infect with dangerous, deadly beliefs. “This is a country where people actually debated whether the Covid-19 virus could be traced back to women having sex with demons or if it was all due to the use of ground-up alien DNA in medicines.” (p. 251)

Matthew Stewart shows how symbolic conflicts over identity –mask or no mask–deflects the needed analysis into income inequality. It’s no accident that most Trump supporters lacked college educations, worked low-pay service jobs, and got most of their “information” from FOX NEWS and conservative Facebook accounts. Unless we fix this problem, Stewart says we’ll see the same dynamic in 2024.

Do you see increasing inequality where you live? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Who We Are — 1

Why We Have Such Amazing Children — 25

Why We Get Along So Well with the Other Sexes — 47

Why We Are So Highly Educated — 67

Why Our Neighborhoods Are the Best — 97

Why We Believe in Merit — 119

Why We Make So Much Money — 151

Why We Are So Fit — 181

Why Other People Are So Racist — 207

Why Everyone Is So Unreasonable — 237

How We Might Get a Clue — 269

Acknowledgements — 291

Notes — 293

Index — 329

Erles Stanley Gardner is best known for his courtroom dramas featuring lawyer Perry Mason (82 novels in the series).. Gardner’s also known for his Donald Lam/Bertha Cool series (30 books) of unconventional private eye novels.

The Clue of the Runaway Blonde (1947) introduces Sheriff Bill Edon, a lawman pushing 70 with politicians poised to attack him if he doesn’t solve a murder and untangle the mystery of a wealthy businessman’s estate. GRADE: B

The Clue of the Hungry Horse (1947) begins with a death of a young woman in a stable, seemingly killed by a kick from a horse. But Sheriff Bill Edon, still dogged by politicians who think he is “out of touch” with contemporary investigative procedures, finds the evidence to prove the woman was murdered. But why? GRADE: B+

The Clue of the Screaming Woman (1949) was “lost” for 30 years. The story was originally serialized in Country Gentleman magazine, issues January through April 1949, and never reprinted until Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery volume published it in 1979. A man is shot during a hunting excursion by a group of wealth people. Sheriff Bill Eldon doubts that Frank Ames, a World War II veteran, is the culprit even though the dead man was shot with Ames’s gun.

Once again, Sheriff Bill Eldon finds himself mocked and underestimated as he investigates the murder. Erle Stanley Gardner includes a love story along with a fascinating mystery.

If you’re looking for solid detection and puzzle solving, I recommend the Sheriff Bill Eldon series to you. While not as popular as Perry Mason and Lam/Cool, the Eldon series delivers plenty of entertaining fun! I rate The Clue of the Screaming Woman a B+. Some small press should collect all three of these stories in one volume. Are you an Erle Stanley Gardner fan?

I’ve had a long relationship with Jackson Browne and his music. It started back in the Sixties when my favorite song on Nico’s Chelsea Girl album was “These Days” by teenager, Jackson Browne (you can read my review of Chelsea Girl here). Later, I bought Jackson Browne’s albums, read about his breakup with Joni Mitchell, and enjoyed his collaborations with The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.

In the 1980s, musical tastes changed and Jackson Browne pretty much fell off the grid. Just by serendipity, I found this 4-CD box set of Jackson Browne’s performances from 1972 (Disc One), 1986 (Disc Two), and 1994 (Disc Three and Disc Four). The quality of the live FM broadcasts vary, but I found them listenable. Are you a Jackson Browne fan? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

TRACKLIST:

1-1		Take It Easy Written-By – Frey*, Browne*	3:34
1-2		Jamaica Say You Will	4:16
1-3		Jesus In 3/4 Time Written-By – Souther	4:08
1-4		Song For Adam	5:58
1-5		These Days	3:17
1-6		Colors Of The Sun	4:48
1-7		Redneck Friend/Sweet Little Sixteen Written-By – Berry*, Browne	5:49
1-8		Corrina Corrina Arranged By – Browne*Written-By – Trad	4:24
1-9		My Opening Farewell	9:21
1-10		For Everyman	7:43
1-11		Rock Me On The Water	5:47
1-12		Looking Into You	6:43
1-13		Talk	2:35
1-14		Something Fine	4:04
2-1		Boulevard	4:16
2-2		Tender Is The Night Written-By – Kortchmar*, Browne*, Kunkel	4:40
2-3		In The Shape Of A Heart	6:20
2-4		Candy Written By – Copeland*Written-By – Stocker	4:49
2-5		Downtown	4:39
2-6		For Everyman	7:15
2-7		Lawyers In Love	4:59
2-8		Soldiers Of Plenty	5:01
2-9		Black And White	5:31
2-10		Late For The Sky	5:34
2-11		Lives In The Balance	4:50
2-12		Lawless Avenue Written By – Browne*Written-By – Calderón	6:50
2-13		For America	5:12
2-14		Running On Empty	5:22
2-15		Doctor My Eyes	3:50
2-16		For A Rocker	3:59
3-1		Two Of Me, Two Of You	3:06
3-2		Doctor My Eyes	4:50
3-3		I’m Alive	5:16
3-4		World In Motion Written-By – Doerge*, Browne	5:02
3-5		Everywhere I Go	6:39
3-6		My Problem Is You	5:06
3-7		In The Shape Of A Heart	6:24
3-8		Late For The Sky	5:59
3-9		Your Bright Baby Blues	6:29
3-10		Miles Away	4:27
4-1		Too Many Angels	7:57
4-2		For Everyman	7:14
4-3		Boulevard	3:51
4-4		That Girl Could Sing	5:50
4-5		Sky Blue And Black	6:21
4-6		Band Intro	1:34
4-7		The Pretender	7:00
4-8		Running On Empty	5:01
4-9		The Load Out/Stay Written-By – Garofalo*, Browne*	9:47
4-10		Linda Paloma	4:59
4-11		1994 Interview	4:36

Notes

Disc 1 – From A Live FM Broadcast Recorded at the State University Of New York, Stony Brook, NY, 24th January 1972.
Disc 2 – From A Live FM Broadcast Recorded at the Rockaplast Festival Grugahalle, Essen, Germany 15th March 1986.
Discs 3 and 4 – From A Live FM Broadcast Recorded at the Hult Centre For The Performing Arts, Eugene, OR, 1st March 1994.

All Songs Written By Jackson Browne Except Where Noted.