A movie about Mattel toys might struggle to attract an adult audience although John Cena and Jessica Biel try their best. Director Sam Hargrave attempts to give Matchbox: The Movie a Fast and Furious vibe but it’s a stretch when the movie is basically a commercial for toy cars.

Matchbox: The Movie is John Cena’s 19th film in the last five years. Busy actor! On the other hand Jessica Biel appears in her first film role in almost a decade, I did NOT find Biel convincing as a hot-rod nut or as a daredevil driver,

Maybe I’m just not in the Target Market for a hybrid film like this. GRADE: C

“Amanda Cross” is the pen name of Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (1926–2003), an American feminist author and Columbia University English professor who wrote a popular series of academic mystery novels. You can’t get more academic than James Joyce so this mystery mixes murder with the structure of one of Joyce’s best books. “Each chapter is cleverly named after a story from James Joyce’s Dubliners, and the plot weaves in literary puzzles, academic wit, and subtle nods to Joyce’s work.” 

Kate Falser, an English professor like her writer, goes to the Berkshires for the summer to sort through the literary correspondence of an American publisher and James Joyce.  But literary work is put on hold when Mary Bradford, an obnoxious and gossipy local farmer’s wife, is shot dead. The weapon belongs to the household, turning Kate’s guests and circle into prime suspects. 

If you’re in the mood for a clever mystery blended with literary clues, The James Joyce Murder (1967) provides an academic puzzle that will challenge you. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Prologue
• Chapter 1: The Sisters
• Chapter 2: An Encounter
• Chapter 3: Araby
• Chapter 4: Eveline
• Chapter 5: After the Race
• Chapter 6: Two Gallants
• Chapter 7: The Boarding House
• Chapter 8: A Little Cloud
• Chapter 9: Counterparts
• Chapter 10: Clay
• Chapter 11: A Painful Case
• Chapter 12: Ivy Day in the Committee Room
• Chapter 13: A Mother
• Chapter 14: Grace
• Chapter 15: The Dead
• Epilogue 

I was living in the Past last week when I listened to Devil With a Blue Dress On and Blood, Sweat & Tears: Greatest Hits.

“Ryder was the last person to perform with Otis Redding; they performed the song “Knock On Wood“, on December 9, 1967, in Cleveland, Ohio, on a local TV show called Upbeat. Redding and four members of his touring band, The Bar-Kays, died in a plane crash near Madison, Wisconsin the following day, December 10, 1967.” (Wikipedia). Ryder withdrew from music in 1973 after experiencing throat trouble,

“Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as “BS&T“) was an American jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for combining a brass section with rock band instrumentation. BS&T has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a wide range of musical styles. Their sound has merged rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band jazz. The Canadian lead singer David Clayton-Thomas was added to the group in 1968 and stayed until 1972, marking their most successful period.” (Wikipedia).

I enjoy the Blood, Sweat & Tears sound with David Clayton-Thomas’s distinctive voice. Clayton-Thomas died at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, on 24 June 2026, at the age of 84. If you like music with a lot of brass–like Chicago’s music–BS&T delivers that style of music. Back in 1970, “And When I Die“, “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy“, and “Spinning Wheel” hit the Hot 100 and all three songs peaked at number 2 for a total of thirteen weeks.

Needless to say, our local Oldies radio station rarely plays Mitch Ryder or Blood, Sweat & Tears music anymore. But I still have these CD collections and they sound wonderful to me! Are you a fan of Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels and/ Blood, Sweat & Tears? Any favorite songs? GRADE: B+ (for both)

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

A few weeks ago Jerry House mentioned he was read an anthology called Birds of Prey. I immediately ordered the book and finally got around to reading it over the weekend. As you know, editors love “themed” anthologies. In his Introduction, Halen Coben writes: “I challenged eleven of my favorite writers to write a short story containing a bird of prey.” (p. 8)

The results are mixed. I liked Tess Gerritsen’s “The Coffin Bearer” where a woman discovers a dead body. The twist to the story is the woman has fashioned a new identity and is afraid this murder could be a threat her.

The oddest story in Birds of Prey is Kathy Reichs’ “Owl.” The Government recruits a specialist known as Owl to investigate what might be an extraterrestrial. Plenty of surprises in this story!

I also enjoyed “The Falcon” by Robert Dugoni. Three Stanford students decide to buy a car at a police auction. But the students find out the car–a 1965 Ford Falcon–was owned by a gang member…who wants it back or else.

If you’re in the mood for an off-beat crime anthology, Birds of Prey will entertain you. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction / Harlan Coben

The coffin bearer / Tess Gerritsen

Precious change / C. J. Box

Owl / Kathy Reichs

Kudzu / Ace Atkins

Silent as a shadow / S. A. Cosby

Jailbirds / Hank Phillippi Ryan

The falcon / by Robert Dugoni

Watchers / Allison Brennan

Red of beak and claw / Gregg Hurwitz

Hawkshaw hunting / Kelley Armstrong.

I’ve been a fan of Michael Lewis for years. The latest Michael Lewis book, Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State, tells the stories of six civil servants who risked or ended their careers to protect critical government functions, ranging from IRS data protection to wildfire prevention, and scientific research.

DOGE and Trump have purged the Government of thousands of career federal civil servants. Lewis shows how federal workers targeted by President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were dealt with. They labeled resistant public servants as “blockers”.

“I, _, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”– Civil Service Oath of Office, U.S. Code § 3331.

That’s the oath Federal employees take when hired. They are NOT bound to a political party or a particular President. But Trump feels the Government works only for him. Lewis writes about heroic actions of Federal employees who took their oath seriously and tried to serve American citizens.

The resistance to Trump and Musk is an inspiring story that should give us hope we can dig out of the hole those fools have put us in. GRADE: A

Despite being acknowledged as the most gifted stylist writing in the English Language, Evelyn Waugh ran out of money in the late 1950s. The royalties of his previous novels dwindled and Waugh was forced to find another source of income. That source was essays, articles, and reviews.

The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh (1983) edited by Donat Gallagher runs 662 pages. About two-thirds of this collection deal with topics most contemporary readers would not be interested in. For example, how much do you want to read about Abyssinia, Marshal Tito, Waugh’s conservative Roman Catholic opinions? Too much of the articles, essays, and reviews in this volume wear plenty of dust.

I read The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh because Michael Dirda recommended it. Dirda used to be the Book Editor for The Washington Post who I considered one of the top reviewers in the land. Reading The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh wasn’t a complete loss. I came away with these gems:

“It may well be that in future generations Mr. Wodehouse’s public may shrink; the vast and grateful masses who now devour him…will turn onto other more topical entertaining, leaving him to survive as an epicures’ delight.” (p. 255)

“Messrs Graves’s and Hodge’s Handbook for Writers of English Prose has attracted more attention than is healthy, for there is little in it that we did not know at the age of 18. But we live in an unhealthy age. What Mr. Graves and Mr. Hodge and I learned at school is on longer considered the rudimentary equipment of an educated man.” (p. 275)

“There is no tradition of Titus Andronicus; only the established faith that it is unactable. …Its notorious horror repellent to gentler gyrations, seem drab today, conceding as they do plain butchery devoid of evil or pity. There is no plausible character, still less a liable one. There is no line of poetry, hardly a dozen lines of memorable rhetoric.” (p. 475)

…Consider the case of James Joyce. There was a writer possessed by style. His later work lost almost all faculty of communication, so intimate, allusive and idiosyncratic did it become, so obsessed by euphony and nuance. But because he was obscure and can only be read with intense intellectual effort–and therefore without easy pleasure–he is admitted in the academic canon.” (p. 478)

This should give you a sample of Evelyn Waugh’s writing and approach to reviews–the strongest and most relevant pieces in The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh .

It you’re looking for a master stylist, this is the place to meet him. GRADE: A

After the 24-16 ugly win over the 0-3 LA Chargers, the lucky Buffalo Bills face the 1-2 New England Patriots who are still recovering from their 35-3 ugly loss at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Bills are 6 point favorites but they’re confronted by a desperate team yearning for a Big Win.

How will your favorite NFL team do today?

Our Future?????

I recently stumbled across this book at a used bookstore and bought it. I started reading Ellery Queen in the 1960s and loved the gimmick of the “Reader’s Challenge.” By the late 1970s I pretty much stopped reading Ellery Queen and found out most of the later mystery novels were ghosted. But the first dozen Ellery Queen mysteries are classics!

In these 50 short essays, Ellery Queen writes about:

• mystery writers, classic detectives, pseudonyms, book collecting, and genre history. 
• Notable Essays: Includes “Who Shall Ever Forget?” (recalling Dannay and Lee’s first encounter with Sherlock Holmes) and “High Sherloctane; or, Having Fun With Words” (discussing Rex Stout’s theory that Dr. Watson was a woman)
• recommended books and authors

In the Queen’s Parlor is a browser’s delight! Are you an Ellery Queen fan? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Sell the $500 Watch for $1 — 1
2. The Great O-E Theory — 4
3. The Gooseberry Lay — 6
4. With the Author’s Compliments: Evolution of a Bibliomaniac, It Reveals Much about the Man, The Crown Jewels of Detectivedom — 9
5. Badge of Merit — 20
6. Something Rich and Strange — 23
7. And So in Literature — 25
8. In the Queens’ Parlor: Wonders Never Cease, Taking the Im out of Impossible — 29
9. Eco and Comics –32
10. All the Rice in Craigland — 35
11. Spinning Wheel of the Mind — 38
12. Qinquennium — 40
13. She is Not Entirely a Sphinx: The First Female Detective, The First Detective Family — 45
14. The Sex Life of a Gentleman Detective — 47
15. New Wrinkle on the old Walnut –50
16. On the Threshold of Perception — 51
17. Swatting an Imaginary Fly — 56
18. How to Pick a Pseudonym: From Names and Words to Sounds, The. Alphabetical Method, The Geographical Method, The Origin of Ellery Queen — 57
19. Thud and Blunder — 68
20. Blessed With a Passionate Curiosity — 70
21. Thinker to Levers to Trance — 72
22. The Essence of the Detective Story — 75
23. A Ghost Haunting America — 78
24. A Plea for Editors — 81
25. Desert Island Reading: Impromptu Anthology, The Golden Dozen, Large Economy Size, Seed of Democracy — 84
26. A Far Cry From Julius Africanus — 99
27. Service to Humanity — 101
28. All the Characters Have Shrunken Heads — 104
29. Joy in the Night — 106
30. Cat Out of the Bag — 107
31. Vistiting Ferretman — 109
32. Floria and Fauna: Horticultural Note, Zoological Note — 113
33. Creme du Crime — 118
34. Under Your Skin — 121
35. Report from the Bottom of the World — 122
36. Wo Shall Ever Forget? — 125
37. Never Grow Stale — 130
38. Two Box Scores, English and American — 132
39. Le Nom Juste — 135
40. Anatomy of Titles: Shock of Recognition, One Man’s Poison, Not Always the Best — 136
41. Over the Borderline — 146
42. Poe-tic License — 149
43. The. Quality of Greatness — 152
44. For Auld Lang Syne — 154
45. Detectives Are the Doctors — 158
46. More Compliments of the Author: Evolution of a Compleat Book Collector, Their Wonders to Perform, In the Realm of Conjecture — 160
47. High Serloctane; or, Having Fun With Words — 169
48. On Their Mental Toes — 171
49. How Detective Stories are Born — 174
50. Penguin Rampant — 176

L’Envoi –180

INDEX — 181

I’ve been a fan of Joe Cocker’s music since the 1960. Sure, Joe has a gravelly voice, but he can sure belt out a song! Have a Little Faith came out in 1994 and presents a nice mix of songs. I like the covers of “Summer in the City” and “The Great Divide” a lot!

Legends of English Rock from 1992 feature not The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, nor The Who. Instead, Marianne Faithful, The Nice, The Yardbirds, and Small Faces show up. The biggest Name singer on this compilation CD is Rod Stewart! Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here?

GRADES:

Have a Little Faith: A

Legends of English Rock: B-

TRACK LIST :

TRACK LIST: