I’m a sucker for books like The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives. Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager interview 22 writers about their favorite books. Of all the writers in The Writer’s Library, Jonathan Lethem comes closest to my reading tastes. Lethem grew up reading Philip K. Dick and A. E. Van Vogt and Clifford Simak just like me. He moved on to detective fiction–Hammett, Chandler, Macdonald, Parker–and started writing his own unique books that blend many of these influences.

I’m a big fan of Madeline Miller’s Circe so I was interested to discover her love of classical mythology began when her mother would take her to the library on a regular basis. Miller learned Latin and her teacher offered to teach her Greek, too!

You’ll really get a sense of each of these writers as they talk about the books that influenced them most. Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager provide a handy list of the books referred to at the end of each interview. Highly recommended! GRADE: A

Foreword by Susan Orlean — ix

Introduction — 1

Jonathan Lethem — 5

Laila Lalami — 22

Luis Alberto Urrea — 38

Jennifer Egan — 54

T.C. Boyle — 72

Susan Choi — 87

Andrew Sean Greer — 104

Madeline Miller — 122

Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman — 133

Maaza Mengiste — 154

Amor Towles — 170

Louise Erdrich — 187

Dave Eggers — 200

Laurie Frankel — 215

Viet Thanh Nguyen — 227

Jane Hirshfield — 243

Richard Ford — 261

Siri Hustvedt — 279

Charles Johnson — 295

Vendela Vida — 310

Donna Tartt — 325

Russell Banks –335

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 349

The Buffalo Bills (2-0) and the LA Rams (2-0) will play in 80 degree temperatures today–not your normal late September weather in Western New York! The Bills are 2 1/2 point favorites despite injuries to their two starting linebackers. Of course, all NFL teams are experiencing higher rates of injuries because of the lack of Preseason games and OTAs. How will your favorite NFL team do today?

I’m a big fan of Andrew Cartmel’s The Vinyl Detective series which features a record collector who finds rare and valuable vinyl records and manages to eke out a living doing something that he loves. But, each book in the series generally includes crimes and murders as part of the plots.

In The Vinyl Detective: Flip Back, the fourth book in the series, the Vinyl Detective and his girl friend Nevada are hired by their friend Tinkler to find a rare copy of the first album by an English group called Black Dog. The group gained notoriety by setting a million dollars on fire!

I’ve enjoyed Andrew Cartmel’s clever story-telling. You’ll learn a lot about collecting vinyl records as a by-product of follow the search for rare albums. You can read my reviews of the first three Vinyl Detective novels here, here, and here. GRADE: B+

I’ve been reading Robert Silverberg’s science fiction stories for 50 years. Alien Archives collects stories from all decades of Silverberg’s long writing career. “Sunrise on Mercury” was a very early Silverberg SF story from the 1950s but it holds up with its suspense. I also enjoyed one of Silverberg’s Majipoor tales: “The Soul-Painter and the Shapeshifter.” “Gorgon Planet” was one of first Silverberg stories I ever read as a kid.

Another feature of Alien Archives that I enjoyed was Robert Silverberg’s detailed introductions to all of these stories. Silverberg discusses the editors he worked with at the time, the state of the publishing industry, and the tastes of SF readers. Very enlightening!

If you’re looking for a first-rate Science Fiction collection from one of the best writers in the genre, Alien Archives delivers. Are you a Robert Silverberg fan? Do you recognize any of these stories? GRADE: A

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Plurality of Worlds by Robert Sliverberg — i

The Silent Colony — 1

En Route to Earth — 7

The Way to Spook City — 17

Amanda and the Alien — 74

One-Way Journey — 94

Gorgon Planet — 117

The Shadow of Wings — 128

Flies — 141

Sundance — 154

Bride 91 — 172

Something Wild Is Loose — 187

Schwartz Between the Galaxies — 222

Diana of the Hundred Breasts — 246

Sunrise on Mercury — 275

Alaree — 292

The Soul-Painter and the Shapeshifter — 307

To the Dark Star — 330

Beauty in the Night — 343

When I heard that Tommy DeVito, co-founder of The Four Seasons and inspiration for the 2005 musical Jersey Boys, had died of complications from COVID-19 I found this CD on my shelf. I was an early fan of The Four Seasons and bought their albums.  With Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio (formerly of the Royal Teens) on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals, and Nick Massi on electric bass and bass vocals the band created a unique sound. That lead to a string of hits in the Sixties.

I also enjoyed the musical Jersey Boys (you can read my review here) with the story of how The Four Seasons came together. And I loved hearing the songs that I grew up listening to. Are you a fan of The Four Seasons? Do you have a favorite song? GRADE: A (for both the CD and the musical)

Track List:

01	Big Girls Don’t Cry (enhanced original version)	The Four Seasons
02	Sherry	The Four Seasons
03	Why Do Fools Fall In Love	The Four Seasons
04	Stay	The Four Seasons
05	Marlena	The Four Seasons
06	Big Girls Don’t Cry / Dirty Dancing Rap	The Four Seasons
07	Gypsy Woman	The Four Seasons
08	Book Of Love	The Four Seasons
09	December 1963 (Oh What A Night)	The Four Seasons
10	Who Loves You	The Four Seasons

I’ve read Daphne Merkin’s essays over the years especially her book on dealing with her depression (you can read my review here). Merkin’s new novel, 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love, chronicles the sexual relationship of a woman named Judith Stone who falls for a lawyer, Howard Ross, who manipulates Judith’s erotic obsessions. As the relationship develops, Howard becomes more domineering and controlling.

The result is “Escaping Howard’s grasp–and her own perverse enjoyment of being under his control–will test the limits of Judith’s capacity to resist the siren call of submission.”

22 Minutes of Unconditional Love is not The Story of O but sexual dominance and submission obsess this couple. Fortunately, this book is only 238 pages. GRADE: C

This new version of Nicholas Freeling’s Van Der Valk takes more of a crime team approach than the novels did. Marc Warren plays his Commisaris Piet Van Der Falk as as an aloof, clever, and chilly detective in charge of a group of useful minions. His chief assistant is lesbian Lucienne Hassell (Maimie McCoy) who manages to stand up to her boss while contributing a human touch to the investigations. Always hungry officer Brad de Vries (Luke Allen-Gale) does a lot of the investigative scut work while a new member of the team–a brilliant, bemused and black–Job Cloovers (Elliot Barnes-Worrell) is the resident genius. Their go-to pathologist, Hendrik Davie (Darrell D’Silva), handles forensics like he handles his liquor and his chess games.

“Love in Amsterdam” has almost nothing to do with Freeling’s first novel other than it’s set in Amsterdam. A botched kidnapping leads to two murders with political implications. Van Der Valk and his team follows the evidence and untangles a web of menace. My favorite scene in “Love in Amsterdam” is Van Der Valk’s blind date where the woman asks him what he does for a living. Van Der Valk lies and claims he’s a “quantum physicist.” Of course, the woman turns out to be a devotee of String Theory.

The second episode, “Only in Amsterdam,” involves religious erotica and identical twins. Not as humorous as “Love in Amsterdam, the story revolves around a dysfunctional family and a sexual predator. GRADE: B (for both)

In a recent poll, 70% of Americans said the country was going in the Wrong Direction. And why are we going in the Wrong Direction? According to Kurt Andersen, it’s because of Evil Geniuses like Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, the Koch brothers, and more recently, Moscow Mitch and Trump.

Kurt Andersen isn’t afraid to go into the political weeds to identify significant but low-profile Evil Geniuses. Take Grover Norquist as an example. Norquist invented “The Pledge” which forces almost all Republicans who take it NEVER to vote for tax increases. So, when the Economy was humming along and small tax increases could have paid for much needed infrastructure projects, more medical research, and preparing for a pandemic, Norquist’s iron hold over Republicans prevented that from happening. Now, we have to live with more trillions in National Debt as a result.

Kurt Andersen also provides revealing looks at some of the minions of the Evil Geniuses: “[David] Stockman’s chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget–who left in 1983 to earn a fortune on Wall Street, then became a cocaine addict and TV pundit… That was thirty-six-year-old Larry Kudlow, defining political economist to mean not an expert on political economics, but an economist willing and eager to disassemble and lie to suit his political masters… (p. 109)

Evil Geniuses is filled with nuggets like this. Very informative and insightful. Highly recommended! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction xiii

Part 1 A Brief History of America

1 Land of the New: America from 1600 to 1865 3

2 Land of the New: An Economic History from the 1770s to the 1970s 11

3 Approaching Peak New: The 1960s 21

Part 2 Turning Point

4 The 1970s: An Equal and Opposite Reaction 33

5 The 1970s: Liberalism Peaks and the Counterrevolution Begins 48

6 The 1970s: Building the Counter-Establishment 61

7 The 1970s: From a Bicentennial Pageant to a Presidency 73

8 The 1970s: Neoliberal Useful Idiots 86

Part 3 Wrong Turn

9 The Reagan Revolution 103

10 Raw Deal What Happened in the 1980s Didn’t Stay in the 1980s 115

11 The Rule of Law 123

12 The Deregulation Generation 136

13 The Culture of Greed Is Good 145

14 How Wall Street Ate America 154

15 Workers of the New World, You Lose 186

16 Insecurity Is a Feature, Not a Bug 203

17 Socially Liberal, Fiscally Conservative, Generally Complacent 214

18 The Permanent Reagan Revolution 220

19 The 1990s: Restrained and Reckless 231

Part 4 Same Old Same Old

20 Rewind, Pause, Stop: The End of the New 245

21 The Politics of Nostalgia and Stagnation Since the 1990s 259

22 Ruthless Beats Reasonable 271

23 Winners and Losers in the Class War 286

24 American Exceptionalism 303

Part 5 Make America New Again

25 Winners and Losers (So Far) in the Digital Revolution 313

26 How the Future Will Work 323

27 This Strategic Inflection Point 340

28 What Is to Be Done? 347

29 The Plague Year and Beyond 367

Acknowledgments 389

Bibliography 391

Index 407

After dispatching a poor New York Jets team, the Buffalo Bills face a tougher divisional opponent in the Miami Dolphins. The Bills are favored by 3 points. Both teams have significant injuries. How will your favorite NFL team preform today?