Over the years, I’ve enjoyed many of Otto Penzler’s crime and mystery anthologies. This theme anthology from 2017 features stories that involve books and bookstores. I really liked Loren D. Estleman’s “Book Club” where a book seller is murdered and a rare book is missing. William Link writes a pretty clever Columbo story in “Death Leaves a Bookmark.” Jeff Smith once took Jeff Meyerson, Andy Jayanovich, and me to THE BOOK THING in Baltimore (we were attending a BOUCHERCON). THE BOOK THING is a book store that gives books away. For FREE. Laura Lippman makes THE BOOK THING the star of her story of the same name. Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins send Mike Hammer on a search for a dead gangster’s “ledger” in “It’s In the Book.” Bibliomysteries ends on a high note with Nelson De Mille’s “The Book Case” where two vicious beneficiaries are involved in a murder that could make them millionaires. If you’re in the mood for stories about books and crime, Bibliomysteries will fit the bill. You can read my other reviews of Otto Penzler anthologies here, here, here, here, and here. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION By Ian Rankin i
An Acceptable Sacrifice – Jeffery Deaver p. 1
Pronghorns of the Third Reich – C. J. Box p. 43
The Book of Virtue – Ken Bruen p. 69
The Book of Ghosts – Reed Farrel Coleman p. 93
The Final Testament – Peter Blauner p. 121
What’s in a Name? – Thomas H. Cook p. 151
Book Club – Loren D. Estleman p. 179
Death Leaves a Bookmark – William Link p. 203
The Book Thing – Laura Lippman p. 231
The Scroll – Anne Perry p. 257
It’s in the Book – Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins p. 293
The Long Sonata of the Dead – Andrew Taylor p. 333
Rides a Stranger -David Bell p. 361
The Caxton Lending Library & Book Depository – John Connolly p. 413
The Book Case- Nelson De Mille p. 471

I’ve been watching James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction on AMC. The first episode deals with “Aliens.” Cameron interviews actors, directors, science fiction writers, and experts of all sorts to share their stories. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will Smith, Amy Adams, Jeff Goldblum, and Sigourney Weaver relate their experiences in their key science fiction movies. We’re getting James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction on Monday nights at 10:05 P.M. There’s also a book version of the series. GRADE: A
EPISODES:
1. ALIENS
2. SPACE
3. MONSTERS
4. DARK FUTURES
5. INTELLIGENT MACHINES
6. TIME TRAVEL

I’ve been a fan of Sloane Crosley’s humorous essays. I enjoyed I Was Told There’d Be Cake (2008) and you can read my review of How Did You Get This Number (2011) here. In Look Alive Out There (2018) Sloane Crosley writes about dealing with vertigo in “Cinema of the Confined.” Very scary, but Crosley injects humor into a very grim situation. “Relative Stranger” tells the story of Sloane Crosley reaching out to a distant relative who once “performed” in 116 porno movies decades ago. Crosley deals with Bad Neighbors in “Outside Voices.” Slaane Crosley doesn’t hide her snarky and bitchy moments in these essays. But you’ll find something to smile at or laugh at in each of these essays. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Wheels Up p. 3
Outside Voices p. 7
A Dog Named Humphrey p. 31
You Someday Lucky p. 49
If You Take the Canoe Out p. 53
The Chupacabra p. 77
Up the Down Volcano p. 81
The Grape Man p. 117
Right Aid p. 129
Relative Stranger p. 131
Brace Yourself p. 151
Immediate Family p. 155
Cinema of the Confined p. 159
Wolf p. 179
Our Hour Is Up p. 203
The Doctor Is a Woman p. 211
Acknowledgments p. 241

A few weeks ago, a wind storm knocked a tree in our front yard down. We contacted Chris, the Landscape Guy at DOWN TO EARTH LANDSCAPING. Diane’s friend, Cindy, recommended Chris and his team because they did a wonderful job landscaping their flowerbeds. Diane usually puts down about 80 bags of mulch, but her doctor told her not to do that anymore. The crew of four showed up at 9:00 A.M. with a dump truck full of mulch. The chain saws fired up and within 15 minutes the downed tree was gone. A few hours later, our flower beds looked great, our lawn was cleared of the limbs from the wind storm, and Diane was happy she didn’t have be Queen of the Mulch this year. What do you think?

Back in the 1960s, Gordon R. Dickson was one of my favorite Science Fiction writers. He knew how to tell compelling stories. Dickson would throw some humor into some of his tales (a rarity back then). Hank Davis selected a representative group of Dickson’s stories for a 2003 BAEN Books collection. Hank Davis knew Dickson’s work because there’s a little bit of everything in these 400 pages of wonderful story-telling! And Hank’s insightful “Introduction” shows he’s just not an editor, he’s a fan of Gordon R. Dickson’s work. Dickson won the HUGO AWARD for “Soldier, Ask Not” for Best Short Story, 1965; “Lost Dorsai” for Best Novella, 1981; “The Cloak and the Staff” for Best Novelette, 1981. Dickson also won a Nebula Award for “Call Him Lord” for Best Novelette, 1966. And Dickson won a August Derleth Award (Best Novel, British Fantasy Society) for The Dragon and the George, 1977. Gordon R. Dickson’s strengths as a writer ore on display in Hank Davis’s fine collection. Inexpensive copies can be found on the Internet. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: The Dickson Edge, by Hank Davis 1
“Danger—Human” (Astounding Science Fiction, December 1957) 5
“Sleight of Wit” (Analog, December 1961) 31
“In the Bone” (IF, October 1966) 53
“3-Part Puzzle” (Analog June 1962) 83
“An Ounce of Emotion” (IF, October 1965) 103
“Brother Charlie” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1958) 133
“The Game of Five” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April, 1960) 175
“Tiger Green” (IF, November 1965) 217
“The Hard Way” (Analog, January 1963) 247
“Jackal’s Meal” (Analog, June, 1969) 297
“On Messenger Mountain” (Worlds of Tomorrow, June 1964) 325
“The Catch” (Astounding Science Fiction April, 1959) 391

In a recent comment on Mike Ashley’s classic Science Fiction anthology, Lost Mars (you can read my review here), Steve Lewis wrote: “I try, but I find that I’m out of step with 95% of the SF that’s being printed in any of the last few best of the year anthologies. What’s not in the anthologies I can’t imagine. I know, I know. It’s me who’s out of sync here.” Well, I’m out of sync, too. While reading The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 Steve’s voice was ringing in my head as I slogged through story after story. I kept thinking: are these stories really “the Best”? I can only recommend two of these stories: I liked “The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight” by E. Lily Yu and “The Story of Kao Yu” by Peter S. Beagle. I can also give a nod to the most kitschy story I’ve read in a long time: “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” by Dale Bailey.

Most of the rest of these stories didn’t hold my interest. Some didn’t even seem like SF stories or fantasy stories. They were mood stories or “slice-of-Life” stories. I realize styles change and tastes change. But I know what I like to read and only E. Lily Yu and Peter S. Beagle delivered the goods. GRADE: C
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword by John Joseph Adams ix
Introduction by Charles Yu xvii

“Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail” by Leigh Bardugo (Summer Days and Summer Nights) 1
“Teenagers from Outer Space” by Dale Bailey (Clarkesworld) 27
“I’ve Come to Marry the Princess” by Helena Bell (Lightspeed) 56
“Everyone From Themis Sends Letters Home” by Genevieve Valentine (Clarkesworld) 71
“The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight” by E. Lily Yu (Uncanny) 96
“When They Came to Us” by Debbie Urbanski (The Sun) 111
“Vulcanization” by Nisi Shawl (Nightmare) 128
“Openness” by Alexander Weinstein (Beloit Fiction Journal) 141
“Not by Wardrobe, Tornado, or Looking Glass” by Jeremiah Tolbert (Lightspeed) 152
“The Future is Blue” by Catherynne M. Valente (Drowned Worlds) 167
“This is Not a Wardrobe Door” by A. Merc Rustad (Fireside) 188
“On the Fringes of the Fractal” by Greg van Eekhout (2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush) 194
“The Story of Kao Yu” by Peter S. Beagle (Tor.com) 206
“Smear” by Brian Evenson (Conjunctions: Other Aliens) 223
“The City Born Great” by N.K. Jemisin (Tor.com) 230
“Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed) 245
“Successor, Usurper, Replacement” by Alice Sola Kim (BuzzFeed READER) 251
“Caspar D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going to Do?” by Nick Wolven (F&SF) 267
“I Was a Teenage Werewolf” by Dale Bailey (Nightmare) 286
“The Venus Effect” by Joseph Allen Hill (Lightspeed) 304
Contributors’ Notes 331
Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2016 343

Caitlin Kiernan’s Black Helicopters is an expansion of her 2014 World Fantasy Award Best Novella of the same title. The story of an “event” that kills thousands of people (and might be the harbinger of something much Worse) appears in a series of chapters from different time-lines. The story shifts from the near Present to the Past to a couple of hundred years into the Future to back to the near Present. Much of what is going on is mysterious (at least to me). Agents from secret agencies duel in the back alleys of Dublin. Strange characters with telekinetic powers send the story careening toward the growing Darkness. Caitlin Kiernan has always been an atmospheric writer. Black Helicopters might be her moodiest book yet by far. GRADE: B

Charlize Theron plays a mother named Marlo on the edge of a breaking point in Tully. She’s enormously pregnant with her third child. Her other two kids, Sarah (8-years old) and Jonah (kindergartener) with “problems,” are draining her energies. Her husband, Drew (Ron Livingston), is busy working to support this growing household. Marlo’s wealthy brother suggests a “Night Nanny” to watch the new baby (Mia) while Marlo sleeps. Marlo realizes she needs help as her family spins out of control. When Tully, the Night Nanny, shows up she’s a 20-something bundle of wit and verve. While Marlo sleeps, Tully not only cares for little Mia, she cleans the house. Before long, Marlo is waking up to freshly baked cupcakes complements of Tully. So far, so good. Then Tully veers into Magical Thinking. Some may like the direction that Diablo Cody takes her movie in. I did not. GRADE: C

The motto of AshleyMadison.com is “Life is short, have an affair.” Esther Perel, a therapist in New York City, has worked with couples with marriage problems for the past 10 years. And, the Number One problem these couples deal with is affairs. The Internet acts like gasoline dumped on a fire. Sex is just a click away. Many people think an affair will “fix” what’s wrong in their relationship. Perel writes about marriages where one partner loses interest in sex. There’s also the pornography factor. The mass migration to online life is also an accelerant for infidelity. And then there are all the Presidential affairs. Ester Perel provides a thoughtful guide to a growing social problem. GRADE: A-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments p. ix
Introduction p. xiii
Part I: Setting the Stage
Chapter 1 A New Conversation About Marriage and Infidelity p. 3
Chapter 2 Defining Infidelity: Is Chatting Cheating? p. 18
Chapter 3 Affairs Are Not What They Used to Be p. 36
Part II: The Fallout
Chapter 4 Why Betrayal Hurts So Much: Death by a Thousand Cuts p. 55
Chapter 5 Little Shop of Horrors: Do Some Affairs Hurt More than Others? p. 76
Chapter 6 Jealousy: The Spark of Eros p. 92
Chapter 7 Self-Blame or Vengeance: The Dagger Cuts Both Ways p. 109
Chapter 8 To Tell or Not to Tell? The Politics of Secrecy and Revelation p. 127
Part III: Meanings and Motives
Chapter 9 Even Happy People Cheat: Mining the Meanings of Affairs p. 151
Chapter 10 An Antidote to Deadness: The Lure of the Forbidden p. 172
Chapter 11 Is Sex Ever Just Sex?: The Emotional Economics of Adultery p. 190
Chapter 12 The Mother of All Betrayals?: Affairs Among Other Marital Misdemeanors p. 214
Chapter 13 The Lover’s Dilemma: Conversations with the Other Woman p. 233
Part IV: Ever After
Chapter 14 Monogamy and Its Discontents: Rethinking Marriage p. 255
Chapter 15 After the Storm: the Legacy of an Affair p. 280
Notes p. 303
Index p. 311