Ethan Gage is an adventurer and one-time assistant to Benjamin Franklin. Gage wins a medallion in a card game and then finds himself framed for murder. He flees Paris amid the turmoil of the French Revolution and joins Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt. Gage finds clues that his medallion may hold the secret to the treasure of a pyramid. More fighting and adventures propel the plot of Napoleon’s Pyramids to a high-flying conclusion. This is fun summer reading! Think Indiana Jones at the end of the 18th Century. There are seven more books in the Ethan Gage series and I plan to read them all. GRADE: B+

Alien infestation is a minor genre but there have been some outstanding works chronicling the infection of Earth. I’m a big fan of Stephen King’s “The Mist.” The Brits have a knack for this sort of tale. John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids and J. G. Ballard’s The Crystal World are good examples. Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Authority are two-thirds of his “Southern Reach Trilogy.” The final book, Acceptance will be published in September.

Annihilation is told in the first person by a woman identified as “the biologist.” She and three other women–“the psychologist,” “the surveyor,” and “anthropologist”–are the 12th expedition into Area X. Physical and psychological changes abound in Area X. The first expedition returned with totally false reports of a pristine setting. The second expedition ended in a mass suicide. The third expedition ended in a gun battle where all the members died. Electronic instruments fail quickly in Area X. Annihilation is the harrowing account of a doomed expedition. Jeff VanderMeer changes gears in Authority, told in the third person, as he has the new director of the Southern Reach government agency charged with investigating Area X confront the mysteries surrounding it. I found Authority less compelling than Annihilation. I’ll be reviewing the final book as soon as it’s published. ANNIHILATION: GRADE: B+; AUTHORITY: GRADE: B

The success of the movie version of John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars rests on the casting of Shailene Woodley as 16-year-old Hazel (but she doesn’t look 16) and Ansel Elgort as her friend, Augustus. The Fault In Our Stars (2012) is John Green’s fifth novel and has sold 10 million copies. You would think that a story about two kids with cancer would be a disaster. But both The Fault In Our Stars book and movie are all about a love story. I read the book first and far from being predictable, The Fault In Our Stars manages a couple of surprises that the movie captures perfectly. With the wrong actors and the wrong script or the wrong director, the movie could have been a mawkish mess. But the vivid on-screen chemistry of Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort keep the movie grounded and focused. If you’re going to see The Fault In Our Stars bring some Kleenex. GRADE: B+

So far, 65 feels pretty good. The Physical Therapy sessions have diminished my sciatic nerve pain. The Stock Market is reaching new highs. And it’s been a good Summer Movie season.

Tonight, my sisters and my brother are joining us for some pizza and wings and Birthday Cake. Plus, an apple pie for the non-cake eaters. Life is Good.

Diane and I finally caught up with Rio 2. We enjoyed Rio and looked forward to seeing how the rare bird family was enjoying Brazil. This movie could have been title Amazon 1 because the blue bird family travels to the Amazon from Rio to find the lost flock of birds. There’s also an environmental sub-plot. I enjoyed the voices of Jesse Eisenberg as Blu (a male Spix’s macaw), Anne Hathaway as Jewel (a female Spix’s macaw and Blu’s wife, Bruno Mars as Roberto (Jewel’s childhood friend), Jemaine Clement as Nigel (the cunning Cockatoo), Kristin Chenoweth as Gabi (a tree frog who has a crush on Nigel), George Lopez as Rafael (a romantic Toco Toucan), and Jamie Foxx as Nico (Pedro’s close friend). The animation has dazzling color. The music will keep your toes tapping. Rio 2 is a fun movie! GRADE: B+

Put Groundhog Day and Starship Troopers in a blender and the result will look a lot like Edge of Tomorrow. Tom Cruise plays an American major (who specializes in advertising) loaned to the World Defense Force. Europe has been invaded by an alien army that resembles the tentacled aliens from The Matrix movies. Tom Cruise is forced to fight in the human invasion of Normandy. The aliens slaughter the humans, but Tom Cruise wakes up a day before the invasion (it’s Groundhog Day all over again). Cruise meets up with Emily Blunt, the WDF’s most decorated soldier, and tells her about his time reset. She believes him because she had that power, but lost it. Now Cruise has it. The invasion gets repeated hundreds of times, but the result is always a defeat for the humans. Cruise and Watson discover that they must kill the alien “Omega” who controls the alien army. The battle scenes are graphic and gory. The plot provides enough surprises to keep the action focused. Director Doug Liman (the Bourne movies) knows a few things about fast-paced action movies. Except for the soap operaish title (a mashup of Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow), I have no complaints. GRADE: A-

Back in 1930, Georges Simenon’s first Detective Chief Inspector Maigret was published. Over seventy more Maigrets would appear over the years. Jeff Meyerson has read them all. Art Scott has collected them all. Penguin is reprinting the entire Maigret series, releasing one title per month in order. These Penguin editions are newly translated (the translator of Pietr the Latvian, David Bellos, does a fine job). For those of you who haven’t read a Maigret novel, Maigret is a force of nature. He doggedly pursues criminals. His methods are more psychological than forensic. Atmosphere is everything (and it’s usually raining in a Maigret novel). Another big fan of Maigret, Terry Teachout, shares his enthusiasm for the new Maigret series here. If you’re looking for a classic crime series featuring a unique detective, I recommend Maigret.

I enjoyed Sharon Van Etten’s first CD, Tramp, but I enjoyed her new CD, Are We There even more. Sharon Van Etten’s music is usually classified as “indy” but the clever lyrics and catchy melodies strike me as unique in this homogenized music era. Listen to the sample below. If you like that, you’ll like the rest of the songs on Are We There. GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:
1 Afraid of Nothing (4:05)
2 Taking Chances (3:50)
3 Your Love is Killing Me (6:18)
4 Our Love (3:52)
5 Tarifa (4:50)
6 I Love You But I’m Lost (4:18)
7 You Know Me Well (4:31)
8 Break Me (4:01)
9 Nothing Will Change (3:15)
10 I Know (3:35)
11 Every Time the Sun Comes Up (4:22)

I’ve read most of Clive James’ considerable volumes of essays. My favorite collection is Cultural Amnesia where James shows how our culture has been relentlessly dumbed down. This weighty sequel, Cultural Cohesion, collects 48 essays that help explain our cultural and why that’s important. Just glance down the the Table of Contents and you’ll find a number of essays that will interest you. James is a brilliant writer and explainer. I was impressed with his knowledge of Mark Twain’s work. James doesn’t shy away from bashing writers and poets he finds mediocre. His essay on Theodore Roethke is a good example of revealing the shortcomings in Roethke’s poetry. On the other hand, James is also a champion of writers he loves: Orwell, Larkin, Auden, and Primo Levi. For many of you, the essays on “The Sherlockologists” and “Raymond Chandler” will deliver new perspectives. If you love intelligent writing, this book is for you! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
A Note on the Text
Foreward
Introduction to the Paperback Edition
PART I: POETRY
1. On Auden’s Death 3
2. On Seamus Heaney 19
3. Robert Lowell’s Marble Chips 25
4. Four Essays on Philip Larkin 38
5. Poetry’s Ideal Critic: Randall Jarrell 84
6. Two Essays on Theodore Roethke 90
7. Charles Johnston’s Catacomb Graffiti 102
8. Nabokov’s Grand Folly 117
9. Stevie Smith: Not Drowning But Waving 123
10. Galway Kinnell’s Great Poem 129
11. Les Murray and His Master Spirits 136
12. The Great Generation of Australian Poetry 149

FICTION AND LITERATURE
13. D. H. Lawrence in Tansit 165
14. The Perpetual Promise of lames Agee 179
15. The Sherlockologists 190
16. Raymond Chandler 201
17. Bitter Seeds: Solzhenitsyn 214
18. Go Back to the Cold! 227
19. A Blizzard of Tiny Kisses 237
20. A Death in Life 245
21. Primo Levi’s Last Will and Testament 259
22. Primo Levi and the Painted Veil 274
23. The All of Orwell 284
24. Mark Twain, Journalist 305
25. Casanova Comes Again 328
26. Hamlet in Perspective 340

CULTURE AND CRITICISM
27. F. R. Leavis in America 349
28. A Whole Gang of Noise: Susan Sontag 358
29. Germaine Greer: Getting Married Later 362
30. The Metropolitan Critic 370
31: It is of a Windiness: Lillian Hellman 387
32. Mailer’s Marilyn 394
33. From Log Cabin to Log Cabin 409
34. Hard-Core Gore 421
35. Evelyn Waugh’s Last Stand 429
36. As a Matter of Tact 436
37. These Staggering Questions 445
38. How Montale Earned His Living 457
39. NV Rampant Meets Martin Amis 466
40. Hitler’s Unwitting Exculpator 471
41. He That Played the Fool 497
42. Bertrand Russell Struggles after Heaven 503

PART IV: VISUAL IMAGES
43. The New Diaghilev 523
44. Pier Paolo Pain in the Neck 525
45. Mondo Fellini 539
46. Who Was That Masked Man? 561
47. The Gentle Slope to Castalia 568
48. Pictures in Silver 585

Index 605

I confess: I love to watch Storage Wars. I enjoy the quirky characters. But when the door goes up on those storage units, I’m just as eager as any of the bidders to see what’s in there! I know there have been allegations that some of the units were “salted” with collectibles to increase the “Wow Factor.” No matter. I’m still addicted to the thrill of the hunt and these new episodes that start tonight look great! Do you enjoy Storage Wars as much as I do?