It’s hard to believe these “hits” are 18 years old! I can barely remember 2002. But, I do remember Fat Joe and Ashanti singing “What’s Luv?” It was a staple on MTV and VH1 (remember them?). And, of course, there’s Pink’s classic “Get the Party Started.” I’m a fan of Michelle Branch’s “Everywhere.” My son Patrick played a lot of Alanis Morissette so I’m very familiar with “Hands Clean.” “A Woman’s Worth” by Alicia Keys had a lot of radio play in 2002. The same with LeAnn Rimes’ “Can’t Fight the Moonlight.” Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

1. Fat Joe featuring Ashanti – “What’s Luv?” (3:51)
2. Tweet featuring Missy Elliott – “Oops (Oh My)” (Radio Edit) (3:55)
3. Pink – “Get the Party Started” (3:10)
4. Brandy – “What About Us?” (Radio Mix) (3:57)
5. Craig David – “7 Days” (3:52)
6. Fabolous – “Young’n (Holla Back)” (3:26)
7. Outkast featuring Killer Mike – “The Whole World” (4:17)
8. Michelle Branch – “Everywhere” (3:33)
9. The Calling – “Wherever You Will Go” (3:25)
10. Default – “Wasting My Time” (4:27)
11. P.O.D. – “Youth of the Nation” (4:04)
12. Alanis Morissette – “Hands Clean” (4:27)
13. Natalie Imbruglia – “Wrong Impression” (4:14)
14. Jewel – “Standing Still” (4:29)
15. O-Town – “We Fit Together” (3:57)
16. Faith Evans – “I Love You” (4:00)
17. Alicia Keys – “A Woman’s Worth” (4:16)
18. LeAnn Rimes – “Can’t Fight the Moonlight” (Graham Stack Radio Edit) (3:36)
19. Busta Rhymes with P. Diddy & Pharrell – “Pass the Courvoisier, Part II” (4:10)
20. Jaheim featuring Next – “Anything” (4:04)

Small Favor is the 10th book in the Harry Dresden series (and one of the longer books at 541 pages). Harry Dresden is a professional Wizard and Private Investigator in Chicago. Dresden is approached by Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe, who Dresden owes a favor. That small favor balloons into the size of a dirigible as more sinister forces enter the picture.

As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, these Dresden books feature battles. Some of the battles involve Magic. Some battles involve automatic weapons. Some battles involve both Magic and advanced weaponry. Small Favor amps up the battles with a furious fight in an aquarium. But, that’s just a warmup.

The final battle in Small Favor is a titanic conflict on an eerie island in the middle of Lake Michigan that’s not on any maps. Magic, machine guns, and hand-to-hand fighting result as Dresden tries to settle some scores and discover who has been manipulating the action. Of course, some questions remain unanswered to fuel the next book in the series. Exciting reading! GRADE: A

I’ve had this DVD set on my shelf for three or four years, but I finally watched it (thank you, Coronavirus Pandemic!). I’d seen all four of these Lauren Bacall movies in the Past and enjoyed re-watching them. Key Largo, Blood Alley, Dark Passage, and Designing Woman may not be the best Lauren Bacall films of all time (I would choose The Big Sleep). But there’s plenty to like here.

Lauren Bacall lights up the screen every time she’s on it. And these four films show Bacall’s range from a femme fatale to a comic figure. Are you a Lauren Bacall fan? Do you have a favorite Lauren Bacall movie? GRADE: B+ (for all four movies)

I’ve admired James Wood’s essays for a couple of decades. Serious Noticing collects 510 pages of Wood’s “greatest hits” in one handy volume. My favorite essay in this collection is “Fun Stuff: Homage to Keith Moon.” Keith Moon was the talented drummer of The Who until he died in September of 1978 from an overdose of Heminevrin, a drug intended to treat or prevent symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. Wood loves Keith Moon’s wackiness–which earned him the monicker “Moon the Loon”–and is moved to take up the drums himself as a kid.

Wood moves on from rock drummers to serious writers like Chekhov, Bellow, Tolstoy, Roth, Auster, Orwell, Austen, Cormac McCarthy, Sebald, Dostoevsky, “Elena Ferrante,” Virginia Woolf, and Marilynne Robinson among others. My impressions of Wood after reading these essays is that Wood seemingly has read just about everything these writers have ever published. Plenty of details and sharp analysis feature into Wood’s essays. If you’re in the mood for some intelligent literary criticism, Serious Noticing is the place to find it. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION – 1

Fun stuff: homage to Keith Moon — 15

What Chekhov meant by life — 34

Serious noticing — 49

Saul Bellow’s comic style — 74

Anna Karenina and characterization — 91

Joseph Roth’s empire of signs — 109

Paul Auster’s shallowness — 129

Hysterical realism — 144

Bohumil Hrabal’s comic world — 164

George Orwell’s very English revolution — 179

Jane Austen’s heroic consciousness — 179

Cormac McCarthy’s the road — 207

Reality examined to the point of madness’: László Krasznahorkai — 240

Wounder and wounded — 254

On not going home — 270

Other side of silence: rereading W. G. Sebald — 294

Becoming them — 315

Don Quixote’s old and new testaments — 325

Dostoevsky’s god — 338

Helen Garner’s savage honesty — 358

All and the if: God and metaphor in Melville — 372

Elena Ferrante — 393

Virginia Woolf’s Mysticism — 407

Job existed: Primo Levi — 426

Marilynne Robinson — 447

Ismail Kadare — 458

Jenny Erpenbeck — 479

Packing my father-in-law’s library — 493

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS — 509

Guy Haley’s Reality 36 (2011) and Omega Point (2012) should be read as just one long book. Subtitled “A Richards & Klein Investigation,” both books feature Richards–a Class 5 Artificial Intelligence–and Otto Klein–a combat cyborg–who find themselves helping various Government agencies as the threat level zooms to disaster. Some unknown power is attempting to conquer the 36 Reality Realms–cyber worlds for the world’s game players. This entity wants to use the digital worlds as a launching point for an attack on our real world.

While Richards and Klein investigate the invasion of the Reality Realms by a hostile entity, Veronique Valdaire–a skilled computer scientist–flees our reality to find her mentor, Professor Zhang Qifang, in the Reality Realms while teams of assassins hunt for her.

In Omega Point Richards also enters the digital Reality Realms and links up with a talking Bear and a lion that can shift from cloth to stone. Meanwhile, hostile elements attack Klein and Veronique in the real world as they try to find a hacker named Waldo who can threaten k52’s plan to destroy all the humans on Earth.

Reality 36 was Guy Haley’s first novel and the convoluted plot carries over to Omega Point. Haley learned from these books because the other Haley novels I’ve read, The Emperor’s Railroad (2015) and The Ghoul King (2016), are much shorter and satisfying. You can read my reviews here and here. GRADE: B (for both books)

There are over 2000 covers to various Batman comic books and graphic novels. Batman Cover to Cover only collects a few hundred ranging from the 1930s to the 2000s. I started reading Batman comic books in the 1950s. They were cheap–a dime–and available everywhere. Down the street from my grandparent’s house was a drug store that had a large magazine section that included comic books. Every time my mother and father would take us to visit my grandparents, I managed to wrangle a trip to the drug store where I’d buy a couple of comic books, usually The Flash and Batman, my two favorites.

Basically, comic book covers marketed the product. That’s why the cover artwork on comic books look so bold and daring. Batman Cover to Cover brings back a lot of memories. Did you read comic books as a kid? What were your favorites? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION — 8

The dark knight — 10
You never forget your first time / Reflections by Neil Gaiman — 34
Fearsome foes — 46
Creating the covers in the golden age / A chat with Jerry Robinson — 72
Welcome to fun city — 74
The dynamic duo — 85
Batman by design — 102
The cover logo / An examination by Rian Hughes — 126
Death traps — 128
Guilty — 150
Creating the covers in the silver age / Recollections by Neal Adams — 156
The Batman family — 158
Bats — 177
Creating the covers today / A chat with Bob Schreck — 186
Bizarre Batman — 188
Secrets of the Batcave — 195
Batman covers around the world — 206
A death in the family — 208
Assembling the covers — 220
Milestones — 222
World’s finest — 231
The greatest cover? / Alex Ross, Chip Kidd and Mark Hamill choose — 238

Anthony Boucher wrote science fiction and was the celebrated editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Boucher also wrote mysteries like Rocket to the Morgue which blends a locked-room mystery with a Science Fiction cast of characters.

Lieutenant Terence Marshall, with the help of Sister Ursula, tackle a very quirky case. Hilary Foulkes, son of a celebrated writer, guards the literary legacy of his father by demanding premium royalties for reprint rights. This policy generated a lot of enemies for Hilary. And, Lieutenant Marshall discovers as he investigates a series of attempts on Hilary’s life, that many “persons of interest” are Science Fiction writers. Boucher creates characters based on Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and John W. Campbell.

This mash-up of detection and Science Fiction is an entertaining selection in the “Otto Penzler Presents American Mystery Classics” series. This edition includes an insightful Introduction by F. Paul Wilson. Perfect Summer Reading! GRADE: B+

Jerry House, Jeff Meyerson, and many other commentators on this blog love the music of the 1960s. When I stumbled across this CD in a Salvation Army thrift store, I realized I hadn’t heard some of these songs for decades. Yes, included on this compilation disc are very familiar songs like Leslie Gore’s “It’s My Party” and The Platter’s “Red Sails in the Sunset.” But, when’s the last time you listened to “Give Him a Great Big Kiss” by The Shangri-las? Or The Secrets’ “The Boy Next Door.” How many of these songs do you remember?

The only song I remember from one of the Proms I attended was “The Look of Love” which is a great Slow Dance song. Do you remember your Prom? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

It’s My Party  Wally Gold / John Gluck Jr. / Herb Weiner / Herbert Weiner	Lesley Gore
		2	98.6 George Fischoff / Tony Powers	Keith		Amazon
		3	When the Boy in Your Arms (Is the Boy in Your Heart) Roy Bennett / Sid Tepper	Connie Francis		Amazon
		4	What’s the Use of Breaking Up? Theresa Bell / Thom Bell / Jerry Butler / Kenny Gamble	Jerry Butler		Amazon
		5	Rhapsody in the Rain  Lou Christie / Twyla Herbert	Lou Christie		Amazon
		6	Young Lovers Ray Hildebrand / Jill “Paula” Jackson	Paul & Paula		Amazon
		7	Hey! Baby J.J. Cale / Bruce Channel / Margaret Cobb	Bruce Channel		Amazon
		8	Little Bitty Pretty One Robert Byrd / Johnny Colla / Bill Gibson / Chris Hayes / Sean Hopper / Huey Lewis / Professor Longhair	Clyde McPhatter		Amazon
		9	The Boy Next Door John Madara / David White	The Secrets		Amazon
		10	Red Sails in the Sunset Jimmy Kennedy / Hugh Williams / Tony Williams	The Platters		Amazon
		11	Give Him a Great Big Kiss  George “Shadow” Morton	The Shangri-Las		Amazon
		12	Fools Rush In Rube Bloom / Johnny Mercer	Brook Benton

As the war between the evil vampires of the Red Court and the White Council of Wizards heats up, rogue Wizard Harry Dresden is “drafted” by the White Council as a Warden and tasked with defending Chicago. Almost immediately, Dresden explores the horrific events at a film festival. Dresden discovers the daughter of one of his closest friends is involved in Black Magic.

As usual, the action of the novel increases page by page. Dresden’s talking skull, Bob, plays a key role in the plot. There are several battles in Proven Guilty but the last confrontation may be the best in the series so far. Jim Butcher knows how to ratchet up the suspense and danger. If you’re looking for a fast and furious Summer Read, I recommend Proven Guilty. GRADE: B+

Patti Abbott and I have expressed our longing for theater on this blog several times. Fortunately, Terry Teachout of the WALL STREET JOURNAL has provide some alternatives for theater lovers during the coronavirus pandemic. The first was the online availability of ACT ONE and next was THE DEEP BLUE SEA. Now, Teachout recommends the American Player Theatre (in Wisconsin) for two more online plays: Shaw’s Arms and the Man and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Sure, some people might not find the ZOOM format appealing, but beggars can’t be choosers. If you have a hankering for theater, here are two plays that might delight you. Both plays are available for free at pbswisconsin.org/out-of-the-woods until July 26.