I read my first Peter Tremayne (aka, Peter Berresford Ellis) mystery in 2014. It was Absolution by Murder (you can read my review here). I enjoy medieval mysteries like the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters (aka, Edith Pargeter). But Sister Fidelma is very different.

Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma series is set seven hundred years before the Brother Cadfael series. It’s been my intention to get ALL the Sister Fidelma books on my shelves and read the entire series in order. There are 36 books in the Sister Fidelma series so far. I own most of them so it’s just a matter of tracking down the handful of books I lack.

As you might expect of such a long-running series, Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma has a lot of fans. David Robert Wooten asked Peter Tremayne if he could put up a Sister Fidelma web site and Tremayne agreed. In addition, there’s The International Sister Fidelma Society (https://sisterfidelma.com/fidelma-related-books/) where fans can interact and buy merchandise!

If you haven’t read any of Peter Tremayne’s wonderful Sister Fidelma mysteries, you’re missing out on one of the most entertaining series in the medieval mystery genre. This compendium supplies plenty of information and answers a lot of questions. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Foreword by Peter Tremayne
• Introduction by David Robert Wooten
• The Sister Fidelma Phenomenon
• Fidelmania! – Livres Hebdo
• Was Sister Fidelma a Real Historical Person?
• The History We Weren’t Told
• Why Fidelma is Not a Nun: A Review of Fidelma’s Character
• Whence Cometh Brother Eadulf?
• Brehon Law: The Background to The Sister Fidelma Mysteries
• About Peter Tremayne
• The Novels – Synopses (including Principal Character listings for each title)
• Sister Fidelma Short Stories
• Peter Tremayne: Master of the Short Story
• Chronology of The Sister Fidelma Mysteries
• Fidelma – A Life in Dedications
• Sister Fidelma in “Alternate” Editions – (International/Non-English Language, Large Print, Graphic Novels, AudioBooks)
• Fidelma Goes Graphic
• Why Cashel?
• Historic Cashel
• Fidelma’s Rock? Wait an Ostint. Not Quite…
• Tremayne is NOT a Druid!
• The Fascination for Sister Fidelma
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Peter Tremayne: Murderer–Detective–Defendant–Judge–Jury–Executioner
• Is There an Historical Model for Fidelma?
• Fidelma and Flann Fína
• A Reflection on Princes, Chiefs, and Chieftains
• Reading Fidelma (including an interview with “The Voice of Fidelma,” actress Caroline Lennon)
• A Succinct Review of the Series
• Pronunciation Guide
• An Interview with Peter Tremayne
• The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: What’s the Agenda?
• Successful Time Travel – Peter Berresford Ellis and Writing Historical Detective Stories
• Fidelma: A Model Lawyer
• Smoke in the Wind and the Kingdom of Dyfed
• What the Press Has to Say About Peter Tremayne and the Sister Fidelma Mysteries
• Fidelma: The Critics Chime In
• Sister Fidelma: A Study of a Clerical Detective including Reviews of Each Fidelma Novel
• A Checklist of the Works of Peter Berresford Ellis
• The International Sister Fidelma Society
• Addenda
• Fidelma’s World (Map of the novels’ locales – Ireland & abroad)
• Towards A Bibliography of Books Relating to Cashel and by Cashel People
• The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne, Edward J. Rielly and David Robert Wooten, Eds. – Review – Elizabeth Blakesley
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments

Back in August 1976, I was strolling down the main aisle of my favorite record store in Madison, Wisconsin when I saw this really cool Science Fiction cover on a new album. I had never heard of the band Boston, hadn’t read any reviews of their first album, Boston, but I bought the album, took it home, and listened to it. It was a bit uneven, but the album had some hit songs on it like “More Than a Feeling.”

“Boston” reached No. 3 on the Billboard album chart, and by October 1976 the record had sold a half million copies, with another half million added by November. It remained in the Top 10 for 30 weeks, powered by the hit single “More Than a Feeling,” which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a hard-rock anthem. (Mike Meyers, Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2026)

Over the years, I bought. all the Boston albums with their signature SF cover artwork. In 1997, Boston brought out their Greatest Hits album. Some people like Boston, some people can’t stand the band and their songs. Are you a Boston fan? GRADE: B+ (for both)

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

World famous Robert E. Howard expert, Fred Blosser, sent me Swords of Havoc. It’s a homage to Solomon Kane and  Robert E. Howard‘s character Red Sonya of Rogatino. A warrior from the Hyborian Age of Earth-616, she was often partnered with Conan the Barbarian. But in Swords of Havoc “Szolia” pairs up with another swordsman, Karl Von Ganz. The Solomon Kane character, Macaiah Iron, plays an essential role in Swords of Havoc in a battle over a payment in silver complete with demons.

Macaiah Iron and Szolia show up again in “Whispers in the Skull” where a haunted castle holds Lovecraftian horrors.

If you’re in the mood for a Robert E. Howard pastiche with a bit of Lovecraft mixed in, give Swords of Havoc a try. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

AUTHOR’S NOTE — 1

Swords of Havoc — 2

Whispers in the Skull — 46

Two Faces of Solomon Kane — 63

Essay on Robert E. Howard’s Immortal Hero:

Solomon on the Spanish Main — 64

Solomon and the Devils of the Black Forest — 67

Scourge of the Iron Vulture: A Glossary of Who’s Who in “Shadow of the Vulture” — 73

About the Author — 77

“The Madame Blanc Mysteries is a British cosy crime comedy drama television series, produced by Saffron Cherry Productions, which is broadcast on Channel 5 and Acorn TV. The series, written by and starring Sally Lindsay and Sue Vincent, concerns an antiques dealer, Jean White, originally from Cheshire, who helps solve an array of mysteries in the fictional village of Sainte Victoire in the south of France,” (Wikipedia)

Our local PBS station runs plenty of mystery series in the evening and well into the night. Diane and I sample them and either accept or reject them. We had never heard of The Madame Blanc Mysteries but after watching a couple episodes, we were hooked.

The Madame Blanc Mysteries is definitely a “cozy” series. Everyone seems to be a senior citizen. And the fictional village of Sainte Victoire seems to have a murder every week! I like Sally Lindsay who plays Jean White (aka, BLANC) whose vast knowledge of antiques, history, literature, and the world in general come into play as she solves all sorts of crimes–but mostly murders.

If you’re in the mood for a low-key mystery series with beautiful views of France, give The Madame Blanc Mysteries a try. GRADE: B

“My most vivid memory of growing up was my mom and dad telling me I was different and unique and special and that I could do whatever I wanted with my life.” — Taylor Swift (2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards Speech) (p. 55)

Misty L. Heggeness was a former Principal Economist and Advisor to the U. S. Census Bureau. She is now a professor at the University of Kansas. Swiftynomics both presents economic findings about women in our Economy and Heggeness uses the career of Taylor Swift to illustrate how a woman can become a billionaire in the treacherous U.S. recording industry.

“On May 30, 3035, after rerecording four of her early albums, and backed by the financial success of the Eras Tour [which made $4 billion] Taylor announced that she had bought back the rights to her originals and now, finally, owned her entire music catalogue.” (p. 13)

Heggeness shows how the rise of women in the Economy is determined by the amount of freedom and control they can use. She gives examples of the falling number of children women are choosing to have as their careers play a larger role in their lives.

More women graduate from College today than men. Women are starting Small Businesses and hiring more women to help them run their enterprises. The trend towards women’s positive impact and personal growth is clear. Efforts to curtail women in the U.S. will ultimately fail. But it will be a tough fight… GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Preface: Dear Reader — ix

Introduction: Our Economic Power Era — 1

Ch 1: Reinvention (Taylor’s Version) — 15
Ch 2: Survival: Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince –24
Ch 3: Misogyny: You Have the Right to Prove Them Wrong — 41
Ch 4: Care Work: Invisible — 55
Ch 5: Generations: marjorie / The Best Day — 86
Ch 6: Motherhood: Bigger Than the Whole Sky — 110
Ch 7: Self-Investment: You Don’t Own Me — 128
Ch 8: Negotiation and Planning: Mastermind — 143

Conclusion: Is It Over Now? — 164

Afterword: Timeless — 176

Acknowledgements — 181

Notes –– 181

Selected Bibliography – 225

Index — 233

I love chocolate ice cream. And I subscribe to Consumer Reports. In a recent issue of CR, there were recommendations for chocolate ice cream. One of the recommendations was for Wellsley Farms Premium Chocolate Ice Cream sold at BJ’s Warehouse.

I bought the 64 ounce bucket for $5.59. From the first spoonful, I found Wellsley Farms Premium Chocolate Ice Cream smooth, creamy, and tasty. If you want some delicious chocolate ice cream at a reasonable price, Wellsley Farms Premium Chocolate Ice Cream delivers. What ‘s your favorite ice cream? GRADE: A

Snoopy Presents: There’s No Place Like Home, Snoopy or simply There’s No Place Like Home, Snoopy is the 53rd Peanuts animated special. It is the eighth Peanuts special released on Apple TV on July 31, 2026. The plot follows Snoopy after his doghouse is accidentally sold during Charlie Brown and Sally’s yard sale. 

Apple TV+ is the exclusive streaming home for the Peanuts franchise through 2030. They control the rights to Camp Snoopy, The Snoopy Show, and Snoopy Presents.

If you’e a fan of Peanuts and/or Snoopy, you can find them on Apple TV+, GRADE: B+

I love spy novels. I got off to a shaky start in the 1960s by reading Matt Helm and James Bond paperbacks. But, eventually, I read “grown up” spy novels by John le Carre (David Cornwell), Frederick Forsyth, Eric Ambler, Martin Cruz Smith, Robert Ludlum, and others. Today my favorites are Mick Heron’s Slow Horses, Mark Greaney’s Gray Man series, and Daniel Silva’s series.

Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carre (2025) takes the reader on a deep dive into the works of John le Carre. Several of le Carre’s spy novels are dissected to reveal plenty of facts of the novel and the author that you didn’t know.

My favorite chapter in Tradecraft is written by David Cornwell’s son, Nicholas Cornwell. Nicholas reveals personal facts about his father, his writing methods, and how working with “John le Carre” made him a better writer.

If you’re a John le Carre fan, Tradecraft is a must-read. If you enjoy spy fiction, you’ll learn a lot about the craft of writing spy novels from this book. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

FOREWORD Simon Cornwall — vii
PREFACE Le Carré and the Bodleian Richard Ovenden — x
INTRODUCTION Federico Varese — 1

TIMELINE OF DAVID CORNWELL’S LIFE — 26

1. Errol Morris: David Cornwell and the hopeless uncertainties of history — 29
2. Elleke Boehmer & Steven Matthews: John le Carré as world writer — 40
3. Lawrence Osborne: The Honourable Schoolboy: Hong Kong nights and Phnom Penh days — 57
4. Andrea Ruggeri: The world has gone mad: International Relations in the work of John le Carré –72
5. Andrei Soldatov: John le Carré and spying as seen from the KGB — 86
6. Michela Wrong: One week in Bukavu — 103
7. Hossein Amini: Adapting John le Carré: My first screenwriting manual — 122
8. Nicholas Cornwell: Writing with my father: Karla’s Choice by way of Silverview –138

Notes — 152

Further Reading –– 162

Acknowledgements — 164

About the Authors — 166

Picture Credits — 168

Index — 169

I’m back to listening to Greatest Hits collections. Pat Benatar Greatest Hits (2006) includes 20 songs from Pat Benatar’s career, mostly from the 1980s. I remember Pat Benatar music videos in heavy rotation on MTV for that decade. “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” might have a different interpretation today. But “Shadows of the Night” and “Love Is a Battlefield” hold up.

My parents loved Henry Mancini’s music. They had his albums–Peter Gunn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and The Pink Panther–and played them on our stereo system on a regular basis. Later, I read some books about Mancini and Blake Edwards and discovered how they both worked to make their movies legendary.

Do you remember Pat Benatar and Henry Mancini? Any favorites here? GRADE: A for both

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

I’ve read James Patrick Kelly’s (no relation) stories since the mid-1970s. I consider Kelly an underrated writer even though he’s won Hugo, Nebula, and LOCUS awards. His new collection, The Book of Bots, collects a dozen of his short stories about robots.

But the two essays Kelly includes in this collection are worth the price of admission alone: “The Comedy of Science” and “Robots on Parade 2026.” “The Comedy of Science” is an engaging history of robots in Science Fiction writing. “Robots on Parade 2026” centers on the state of the art of robotics today. I learned a lot from these two finely crafted, detailed essays.

James Patrick Kelly organizes the dozen short stories in The Book of Bots in chronological order by publishing date. The early stories show robots as helpers. The later stories–mixed with Artificial Intelligence–present a more complicated picture of humans interacting with robots with superior intelligence.

If you’re interested in possible futures of robots and humans, The Book of Bots supplies some possible answers. GRADE: B (for bots)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Forward — 11

Itsy Bitsy Spider — 15

10 to 1 — 28

Undone — 52

Bernardo’s House — 82

The Comedy of Science — 106

The Best Christmas Ever — 121

Uncanny — 136

Grace’s Family — 140

Yukui! — 174

Robot s on Parade 2026 — 184

Your Boyfriend Experience — 193

What It. Means to Be a a Car — 224

Embot’s Lament — 237

Je Ne Regrette Rien — 253