WOLFS [AppleTV+]

Director and screenwriter Jon Watts–who also directed three Tom Holland Spider-Man movies–brings George Clooney and Brad Pitt together in a twisty caper film. Amy Ryan (aka, Steve Martin’s psycho girlfriend in Only Murders in the Building), a District Attorney with an embarrassing problem, calls George Clooney–a fixer–for help. But Brad Pitt–also a fixer–shows up, too. Circumstances force Clooney and Pitt to work together…a lot a fun friction results.

Wolfs definitely has a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid vibe. Clooney and Pitt have the same rare chemistry that Paul Newman and Robert Redford put on the screen. I liked Wolfs and I was delighted to learn that a sequel has already been Green Lighted. If you’re looking for a solid buddy movie, Wolfs delivers action and laughs. GRADE: B

THAT LIBRARIAN: THE FIGHT AGAINST BOOK BANNING IN AMERICA By Amanda Jones

“We should ALL want the freedom to read what we want and have access to reading materials from a variety of viewpoints. Protecting our libraries is exactly how we do that. The attack on librarians and libraries is shameful and something everyone should fear.” (p. 11)

Amanda Jones, who wrote that belief in That Librarian, tells the story of how her life was upended when she ran afoul of a local group called Citizens for a New Louisiana–part of a far-right, nationwide movement that targets authors, books, librarians and institutions considered too liberal, too permissive, and too inclusive.

Thousands of books have been banned in the United States as schools and libraries are under attack by conservative groups. Amanda Jones found herself the target of a brutal and vicious social media campaign that accused her of grooming perverts and pedophilia, of encouraging children to engage in anal sex, and encouraging gender changes. Amanda Jones was attacked by neighbors she had known for years and had once considered friends. Parents of children Amanda had taught brought accusations that she was threatening their children with dangerous books.

The allegations were false, but that didn’t matter to the hostile groups. Amanda’s long record of dedicated public service, deep community ties, and Christian affiliation provided no protection, either as the attacks against her and the books she defended increased. Jones experienced such anxiety, depression, and fear that she needed a leave of absence from the job she loved. Her family suffered from the angry phone calls. Amanda Jones received death threats. Jones considered retreating from public view, but she chose to defend her reputation and stand for the principles she believed in by confronting the forces trying to drive her into hiding.

Along with filing a defamation lawsuit, Amanda Jones organized other librarians across the country by networking and defending books these malicious groups seek to ban. We all should protect the value of information, free inquiry, and the libraries that provide them. That Librarian is a moving story of a woman standing up for freedom. Very moving! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Liars and buzzards and trolls, oh my — 1

How we got here — 20

Here, there, everywhere — 39

WWJ: What would Judy do? — 61

(Wo)man in the mirror — 78

Hell hath no fury like a librarian scorned — 91

The battle begins : initial court proceedings — 103

Are you there Michelle? It’s me, Amanda : it’s hard to go high when the haters go so low — 123

The mob song — 135

Some people are ride or die, some people aren’t — 147

The longevity of hate — 167

Think of the children — 184

It’s raining sin, Hallelujah — 202

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — 215

What you can do in your own community — 234

Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle — 248

My July 19, 2022, speech to the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control — 255

Acknowledgments — 259

Bibliography — 263

CABARET MACABRE By Tom Mead

This has been no ordinary mystery. There have been more bodies, more clues, more deceptions, than even Joseph Spector is accustomed to. And yet there remains only one solution. A single answer to this concatenation of puzzles and impossibilities. Spector has found it. Have you?” (p. 239)

When I was reading Ellery Queen’s early mysteries back in the 1960s, I was always thrilled by Challenge To the Reader, Here’s the one from one of my favorite Queen mysteries:

Challenge To the Reader

And so once more I come to what might be termed the “seventh-inning stretch” of my novels. Time out, ladies and gentlemen.

I ask in a variation of a theme I have harped on now for four years: Who killed the two horsemen in the arena of the Colosseum?

You don’t know? Ah, but really you should. The whole story is now before you: clues galore, I give you my word; and when put together in the proper order and the inevitable deductions drawn, they point resolutely to the one and only possible criminal.

It is a point of honor with me to adhere to the Code. The Code of playfair- with-the-reader-give-him-all-the-clues-and-withhold-no thing. I say all the clues are now in your possession. 1 repeat that they make an inescapable pattern of guilt.

Can you put the pieces of the pattern together and interpret what you see?

A word to the small army of well-intentioned hecklers who worry the life out of the author each time he blithely lays down a challenge. The contents of the telegram which in the story I send to Hollywood, and the contents of the reply thereto, are not necessary to your logical solution. As you shall see, a solution is possible without knowledge of either; they are merely confirmation of logical conclusions arrived at from analysis. So that actually you should be able to tell me what my telegram said! —Ellery Queen, The American Gun Mystery (1933) p.176

I’ve read Tom Mead’s Death and the Conjurer (you can read my review here) and Cabaret Macabre ups the locked room/impossible crime ante. Mead loves the classic locked room mystery and models his approach after John Dickson Carr.

A complex series of murders in this impossible-crime mystery are set in the run-up to Christmas 1938. Lady Elspeth Drury hires professional illusionist, Joseph Spector, to save her husband from the death threats he’s received from Victor Silvius, a man who stabbed her husband years ago. Five more murders, plenty of red herrings, and some mind-twisting plotting makes Cabaret Macabre (2024) must reading for locked room/impossible crime fans! GRADE: B+

FARNSWORTH’S CLASSICAL ENGLISH METAPHOR By Ward Farnsworth

AA

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Preface — vii

Sources and Uses of Comparisons — 3

The use of animals to describe humans — 22

The use of nature to describe abstractions — 46

The Use of Nature to describe Inner States — 65

The use of nature to describe language — 84

Human biology — 101

Extreme people and states — 116

Occupations and institutions — 126

Circumstances — 143

The classical world & other sources of story — 155

Architecture & other man-made things — 175

Personification — 195

The construction of similes — 204

The construction of metaphor — 227

A Study in Scarlet Women By Sherry Thomas

What if Sherlock Holmes was a woman?

That’s the premise of Sherry Thomas’s A Study in Scarlet Women (2016). Charlotte Holmes lives with a dysfunctional family and yearns to use her exceptional talents despite a society that relegates most women to the kitchen.

Sherry Thomas, best known for her romantic novels, pulls off a careful balancing act in having Charlotte (aka, Sherlock) investigate a trio of unexpected deaths that might be murders. Given the strictures of the times, Charlotte relies on a kindhearted widow, an intelligent police inspector, and a powerful man from her past who still loves her to provide her with the means to probe into the three suspicious deaths.

Here’s part of a conversation Charlotte has with her sister, Livia, about Love and marriage: “Love is by and large a perishable good and it is lamentable that young people are asked to make irrevocable, till-death-do-we-part decisions in the midst of a short-lived euphoria.” Despite Charlotte’s turning down several proposals, Charlotte does love one man…who is unavailable.

I found it both difficult and intriguing to read about Charlotte trying to survive in London during such trying times. Charlotte is not yet the genius A. Conan Doyle invented. She is brilliant but inexperienced after spending her first 25 years in a sheltered, hostile household. Sherry Thomas convincingly creates opportunities for Charlotte to learn, grow, and develop what will be her true calling.

It won’t surprise you when I write that I’m presently in the process of accumulating all seven mysteries in the Lady Sherlock series. I enjoyed A Study in Scarlet Women and you might, too! GRADE: B

THE LADY SHERLOCK SERIES:

SOME LIKE IT HOT: THE MUSICAL

I’m sure most of your have seen the classic film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn MonroeTony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, with George RaftPat O’BrienJoe E. BrownJoan Shawlee and Nehemiah Persoff. This musical version “modifies” the original screenplay and does some gender bending.

The main plot remains the same: two Chicago musicians disguise themselves by dressing as women to escape from gangsters when they witness them committing multiple murders. The two musicians join an all-woman jazz band that is touring the U.S. and will finally end up in San Diego. But, the gangsters–who plan to eliminate the witnesses–aren’t far behind.

While I found the music just okay–jazz from the 1930s–the choreography is just great! If you like tap dancing, this is the musical for you! Terrific energy and agility! I also enjoyed the many comedy moments in this production. GRADE: B

FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #813: The Graveyard Book, Volumes 1 & 2, A Graphic Novel By Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell 

“Neil Gaiman won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Newbery Medal recognizing the year’s best children’s books, the first time both named the same work. The Graveyard Book also won the annual Hugo Award for Best Novel from the World Science Fiction Convention and Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book selected by Locus subscribers.” —Wikipedia

This 2014 graphic novel version of The Graveyard Book traces the story of the boy named Nobody “Bod” Owens, who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered. Bod grows up learning about the dead and their lives after death. He makes attempts to learn about the world outside the graveyard and those efforts have mixed results.

While Bod is “protected” in the graveyard, the killer of his mother, father, and older sister still lurks nearby waiting to kill Bod to complete his murderous assignment. When The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal for Best Children’s Book in 2008, I was a bit surprised. No previous Newbery Medal winner had this degree of noir. If you haven’t read The Graveyard Book you’re in for a fascinating experience. GRADE: A (for both graphic volumes)

WOMEN & SONGS and BACK TO BACK HITS: BLONDIE/PAT BENATAR

I’ve been listening to Women & Songs and Back to Back Hits: Blondie and Pat Benatar. Clearly, Women & Songs provides more variety with more artists. I haven’t heard Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird” in a while. I have heard Alan’s Morissette’s “Thank U” when we saw the musical version of Jagged Little Pill a few months ago. Our local Oldies rock radio station plays Cher’s “Believe” and “Kind & Generous” by Natalie Merchant on a regular basis.

From time to time I like to listen to Blondie and Pat Benatar’s songs from a kinder, gentler age. I can’t forget hearing Debbie Harry belt out “The Tide is High” for the first time decades ago. And Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” got heavy air play back in 1983!

Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B (for both)

TRACK LIST:

1Christina AguileraBeautiful Written By – Linda Perry
2Faith HillCry Written By – Angie Aparo
3JewelIntuition Written By – Jewel Kilcher, Lester Mendez
4Nelly FurtadoI’m Like A Bird Written By – Nelly Furtado
5Kelly ClarksonLow Written By – Jimmy Harry
6Alicia KeysA Woman’s Worth Written By – Alicia Keys, Erica Rose
7DidoThank You Written By – Dido Armstrong, Paul Herman
8Michelle BranchAre You Happy Now? Written By – John Shanks, Michelle Branch
9Alanis MorissetteThank U Written By – Alanis Morissette, Glen Ballard
10Sarah McLachlanAdia Written By – Pierre Marchand, Sarah McLachlan
11LeAnn RimesHow Do I Live Written By – Diane Warren
12CherBelieve Written By – Brian Higgins, Matthew Gray, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Stuart McLennan, Timothy Powell
13Lisa Marie PresleyLights Out Written By – Clif Magness, Glen Ballard, Lisa Marie Presley
14Bonnie RaittCan’t Make You Love Me Written By – Allen Shamblin, Mike Reid
15Cherie (2)I’m Ready Written By – DioGuardi/Burton/Hartman/Skarbek/Jones
16Natalie MerchantKind & Generous Written By – Natalie Merchant
17Rachael YamagataUnder My Skin Written By – Rachael Yamagata
18Heather HeadleyI Wish I Wasn’t Written By – James Harris III, James Wright, Terry Lewis
19Toni BraxtonUn-Break My Heart Written By – Diane Warren

TRACK LIST:

BlondieCall Me
BlondieHeart Of Glass
BlondieThe Tide Is High
BlondieRapture
BlondieOne Way Or Another
Pat BenatarHeartbreaker
Pat BenatarHit Me With Your Best Shot
Pat BenatarLove Is A Battlefield
Pat BenatarWe Live For Love
Pat BenatarWe Belong