Both Mark Vieira and Charles Adams agree 1939 was Hollywood’s greatest year. Their books explore this theme in different ways. Vieira’s Majestic Hollywood delves into Gunga Din, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Only Angels Have Wings, Destry Rides Again, Beau Geste, Son of Frankenstein, The Women, Drums Along the Mohawk, Union Pacific, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, and Gone With the Wind. Obviously, Viera’s book which chronicles the movie releases of 1939 from Son of Frankenstein in January all the way to Gone With the Wind at Christmas, deals with many more movies (about 50). Adams’ book concentrates on six movies from 1939: Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Wizard of Oz. Adams focuses on the Hollywood culture and how the movies were made. Both books are instructive and entertaining. Both are recommended to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Hollywood’s greatest year.

Oscar Martinez, a reporter for EIFaro.net, writes about the horrors of the migrants who try to enter the U.S. illegally. I was shocked to learn that 80% of the women migrants are raped by their coyote “guides,” their fellow migrants, and the narcos who use the same routes to smuggled drugs into the U.S. Martinez rides the rails and watches migrants fall off the train to their deaths. The narcos are a constant threat because they shoot first and ask questions later if at all. If there was ever a book to provide evidence of why we should reform our immigration policies, The Beast is it. This senseless system that allows violence, extortion, bribery, rapes, murders, and drug cartels to increase needs to be addressed. GRADE: A

Diane read a favorable review of a local production of David Rambo’s The Lady With All the Answers and wanted to see it. So last night Diane and I with our friends Cindy and Tom went to see the local production of The Lady With All the Answers. It was a one-woman show about Ann Landers. I read Ann Landers’ columns for decades. She provided sensible, practical advice (as did her twin sister “Dear Abby”). The play centers around Ann Landers writing a column about her 36-year marriage ending in divorce. I was amused by the letters Ann Landers reads in this play. I learned a lot about Ann Landers that I didn’t know. And the enthusiastic theater audience saw a great performance by Mary Kate O’Connell. If The Lady With All the Answers shows up in your neighborhood, I recommend you go see it. GRADE: A

I was watching an interview of Anna Quindlen on MSNBC when the interviewer asked Anna what she’s reading. “I love p. g. sturges,” Anna said. I had heard of p.g. sturges–in fact I had one of his books. So I sat down and read it. Then I ordered the other two books p. j. sturges had written. If you put Elmore Leonard and Hunter Thompson in a blender, you’d get p. g. sturges. Sturges writes about a former Los Angeles cop named Dick Henry, but everyone calls him the Shortcut Man. Have a deadbeat tenant who owes you money, the Shortcut Man will collect it for you. Need someone to track down a missing person? Call the Shortcut Man. In the debut novel, Shortcut Man, Dick Henry accepts an assignment from Artie Benjamin, a porn producer. In Tribulations of the Shortcut Man, Dick Henry takes on the case of his former girl friend, Pussy Grace (a pole dancer). One thing leads to another thing and suddenly there’s a body on ice to be reckoned with. In Angel’s Gate the crimes committed decades ago resurface and the Shortcut Man has to dispense his own special brand of justice in Hollywood. I flew through these books. The style is smooth, the action is quirky, and the plots are cunning. If you’re looking for entertaining reading, you’ll find it in the Shortcut Man books. GRADE: B+ (for all three books)

The original Lady on the Case was published in 1988. I have the Barnes & Noble edition that was published in 2000. Lady on the Case: 22 Female Detective Stories shows the evolution of the female detective from the gifted amateur to the professional detective. Of course, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple is here, so are Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone and Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski. I enjoyed the compete Miss Hildegarde Withers novel (she’s a Miss Marple clone but a good one). Inexpensive copies of this excellent anthology can be found online for a pittance. You’ll find over 500 pages of entertaining writing in Lady on the Case.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
“The Murder at Troyte’s Hill” by C. L. Pirkis
“The Man in the Inverness Cape” by Baroness Orczy
“Death in the Sun” by G.D. H. and Margaret Cole
“The Second Bullet” by Anna Katharine Green
“The Stripper” by Anthony Boucher
“The Claret Stick” Mignon Eberhart
“The Four Suspects” by Agatha Christie
“The Broken Men” by Marcia Muller
“The Invisible Intruder” by Edward D. Hoch
“A Date in Helsinki” Patricia McGerr
“The Dancing Detective” by Cornell Woolrich
“Lucky Penny” by Linda Barnes
“The Fuzzy Things” by D. B. Olsen
“Coyote and Quarter-Moon” by Bill Pronzini & Jeffrey Wallmann
“At the Old Swimming Hole” by Sara Paretsky
“Mom Sheds a Tear” James Yaffe
“Dairy Bell” by Gladys Mitchell
“Solo Job” by Paul Gallico
“Not Before My Morning Coffee” by Susan Dunlap
“Mrs. Norris Observes” by Dorothy Salisbury Davis
“The Parker Shotgun” by Sue Grafton
“Murder on Wheels: A Novel” by Stuart Palmer

Kate DiCamillow just won the Newberry Medal for Flora & Ulysses (DiCamillo won the Newberry 10 years ago for The Tale of Despereaux which is also a great book.) Flora is a 10-year-old who loves comic books. When she sees a neighbor vacuum up a squirrel, Flora rushes to help out. The squirrel recovers from his near-death experience with the vacuum cleaner with superpowers. DiCamillo has plenty of fun with this plot. Illustrator K. G. Campell has plenty of fun illustrating this unusual book. With a book like Flora & Ulysses it’s easy to see that children’s literature is in good hands. GRADE: A

I’ve been using TURBOTAX for years. Some years the software is better than other years. I installed TURBOTAX yesterday–it was a breeze–and entered my tax data. In about a half hour I was done. Sadly, I have to pay about $200 to the Feds and about $800 to New York State (it costs a lot to live here!). I could have spent more time looking for more deductions, but I decided it wasn’t worth it if it resulted in an audit. Fortunately, my stocks were up yesterday so that more than covered my tax bills. I e-filed both my Federal and State tax returns. I have to send my tax checks in by April 15. How are you doing on your taxes?

I’ve been putting off seeing 12 Year’s A Slave for months. But I finally decided this was the time to see it and so I went into a surprisingly crowded local movie theater (the movie came out in October!). What followed was two hours and 13 minutes of unrelenting cruelty, beatings, whippings, and torture. Director Steve McQueen doesn’t sugar-coat slavery. All the brutality is shown. The sadistic overseers, the detached plantation owners, and the slave dealers display their contempt for the slaves. Solomon Northup (played brilliantly by Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a free African-American living in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1841, he’s tricked by two visitors and sold into slavery. For the next 12 years every manner of cruelty befalls Solomon. The story is remarkable because Solomon manages to keep his sanity and survive. I find it hard to recommend this movie. My wife cannot bear watching extreme violence so she declined to see 12 Years A Slave. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would find these graphic depictions of slavery upsetting. But, of course, that’s the point of this movie. 12 Years A Slave will probably win the Oscar for BEST MOVIE. GRADE: A

“The Death of College (As We Know It)” was the original title for this column that I submitted to the Buffalo News, our local newspaper. The Editors changed the title to something more mundane, but the contents of the column was published intact. The current business model for colleges and universities is breaking down. Students graduate with $100,000 of student debt…and can’t find a job. Student Loan debt exceeds Credit Card debt in the U.S. Something needs to be done, so I wrote this column to generate some discussion. Click here to read what was published in the Buffalo News months ago.  My insights haven’t changed.