The subtitle to Peter Haining’s The Art of Mystery & Detective Stories is “The Best Illustrations From Over a Centry of Crime Fiction.” That pretty much sums up what you’re getting in this nifty volume. The Art of Mystery & Detective Stories was first published in Great Britain in 1977. The edition I own was published in 1986 by Treasure Press. As you might suspect, this collection has a distinctive British flavor. For fans of pulp magazine artwork, this book will be like crack. Peter Haining does his usual professional job with the Introduction and informative mini-essays.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. The Annals of Newgate
3. The Father of the Detective Story
4. Le Roman Policier
5. The Opening of the Case
7. The Sensational Sleuths
8. The Master of Detectives
9. A Rash of Detectives
10. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
11. The American Crime Fighters
12. The Arch Villians
13. The Lady Detectives
14. The Golden Era
15. The Hardboiled Dicks

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 37 years since I first played Boston and listened to “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” and “Smokin'” with Tom Scholz’s distinctive guitar riffs. Boston hasn’t brought out a new CD in 11 years, but just before Christmas Life, Love & Hope showed up just in time to be a stocking-stuffer. For hardcore Boston fans, Life, Love & Hope is a must-buy. For casual fans…not so much. There are some remastered songs on this CD like “Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love,” “Someone,” and “You Gave Up on Love” and the rest is little more than background music. I think listening to one of the Best of Boston compilations would be more satisfying for most listeners than to buy this lackluster effort. GRADE: C+

Adrian McKinty’s gritty “The Troubles Trilogy” kicks off with The Cold Cold Ground. We’re introduced to Sean Duffy, a young police detective working the chaotic streets of Belfast in 1981. Two bodies are found miles apart. But each has the other’s arm. Why the killer switched body parts leads Duffy into another investigation: the missing ex-wife of an IRA prisoner on a hunger strike. McKinty captures the desolation and urban violence of those times very well.

In Book Two of “The Troubles Trilogy,” Duffy investigates a case where an American is found dead in a suitcase. The cause of death is poisoning. The plot includes Margaret Thatcher and John DeLorean (the guy who made that great car in the Back to the Future series). As you might expect, there’s plenty of violence in these books. My minor quibble is that Sean Duffy takes a lot of punishment in these books. But, he has incredible luck when he’s in those near-death situations. If you’re in the mood for something different, you might want to give “The Troubles Trilogy” a try. The third book will be published in March 2014. I already have it on order. GRADE: B (for both books)

This version of Cat People is a remake of the 1942 Jacques Tourneur noir classic. Cat People stars Nastassia Kinski as Irena and Malcolm McDowell as her brother. Written and directed by Paul Schrader, this story of first love and its tragic consequences captures some of the darkness of the original, but this version amps up the sex and violence. If you’re looking for a shape-shifting beauty in a noirish plot, Cat People delivers.

I bought 5000 shares of Medical Marijuana, Inc (ticker symbol MJNA) last week. The stock price was 20 cents per share. I’m convinced marijuana will be legalized in the United States (it’s already legal in Colorado and Washington State, 20 other states allow for medical marijuana). In his State of the State message last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that medical marijuana would be made available at 20 NY hospitals. That is just the beginning. I’m sure more legalization of marijuana initiatives will be on state ballots in November. Even President Obama said in an recent interview with The New Yorker that he considers weed to be similar to alcohol. The tide for legalization of marijuana is growing stronger. I also bought more shares of Lorillard (LO) maker of Newport cigarettes and a leader in the electronic cigarette market. I’m betting that the tobacco companies will be heavily involved in the marketing, distribution, and tax collection of marijuana in the years ahead. I’m playing the Long Game because it will probably take 10 years for weed to be completely legalized. If I’m right, the share prices of these stocks will soar!

I’m a fan of Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. I own all their CDs and enjoy listening to them. Their latest CD, Give The People What They Want, was supposed to be released during the Summer of 2013. But Sharon Jones’ heath problems delayed the CD until now. Once again, it was great to listen to Sharon Jones sing soulful songs backed by The Dap-Kings! If you enjoy soul music, you’ll find some good listening here! Check out the video below. GRADE: B+

I love Wendy Lesser’s Why I Read. Lesser discusses books and authors who mean the most to her. She enjoys Patricia Highsmith, Trollope, Mailer, and Dostoevsky. Lesser writes about her pleasure in reading Isaac Asimov. But she really loves Henry James. Lesser also writes about why she doesn’t like James Joyce’s Ulysses. One of my favorite chapters in Why I Read is “Elsewhere” where Lesser talks about reading books in translation. She shows why she likes certain translators (and not others). And, as a bonus, Lesser lists 100 books that are her favorites. Many of them I’ve read, but now I have a list of books I want to read. If you love to read, you’ll find a kindred spirit in Wendy Lesser. She loves books and loves to write about them. It doesn’t get better than this. GRADE: A
WENDY LESSER’S 100 FAVORITE BOOKS
Ackerley, J. R. MY FATHER AND MYSELF
Ambler, Eric. A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS
Austen, Jane. PERSUASION
Baldwin, James. NOTES OF A NATIVE SON
Balzac, Honore. COUSIN BETTE
Bellow, Saul. RAVELSTEIN
Bennett, Arnold. THE OLD WIVE’S TALE
Bishop, Elizabeth. THE COMPLETE POEMS
Bolano, Roberto. DISTANT STAR
Bowen, Elizabeth. THE HEAT OF THE DAY
Carroll, Lewis. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
Cather, Willa. THE PROFESSOR’S HOUSE
Chekhov, Anton. THE LADY WITH THE DOG & OTHER STORIES
Coetzee, J. M. DISGRACE
Collins, Wilkie. THE WOMAN IN WHITE
Conrad, Joseph. UNDER WESTERN EYES
de Waal, Edmund. THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES
Der Nister, THE FAMILY MASHBER
Dickens, Charles. DAVID COPPERFIELD
Dickinson, Emily. FINAL HARVEST
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. CRIME & PUNISHMENT
Dyer, Geoff. OUT OF SHEER RAGE
Eisenberg, Deborah. TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES
Elkin, Stanley. VAN GOGH’S ROOM AT ARLES
Ellison, Ralph. INVISIBLE MAN
Farrell, J. G. THE SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR
Faulkner, William. ABSALOM, ABSALOM!
Fitzgerald, Penelope. THE BEGINNING OF SPRING
Flaubert, Gustave. SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION
Ford, Ford Madox. PARADE’S END
Ford, Richard. THE BASCOMBE NOVELS
Forester, E. M. A PASSAGE TO INDIA
Gissing, George. NEW GRUB STREET
Gluck, Louise. A VILLAGE LIFE
Goncharov, Ivan. OBLOMOV
Greene, Graham. THE QUIET AMERICAN
Grossman, Vasily. LIFE & FATE
Gunn, Thom. COLLECTED POEMS
Handke, Peter. A SORROW BEYOND DREAMS
Hardwick, Elizabeth. THE SIMPLE PLAN
Hardy, Thomas. JUDE THE OBSCURE
Hazzard, Shirley. THE TRANSIT OF VENUS
Heaney, Seamus. THE HAW LANTERN
Herzen, Alexander. MY PAST & THOUGHTS
Highsmith, Patricia. THE COMPLETER RIPLEY NOVELS
Hopkins, Gerard Manley. POEMS
Howells, William Dean. A HAZARD OF NEW FORTUNES
James, Henry. THE GOLDEN BOWL
Lahiri, Jhumpa. UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
Lampedusa, Giuseppe di. THE LEOPARD
Lawrence, D. H. SONS AND LOVERS
Li, Yiyun. GOLD BOY, EMERALD GIRL
London, Jack. MARTIN EDEN
Lowell, Robert. LIFE STUDIES
Macdonald, Ross. THE BLUE HAMMER
Mailer, Norman. THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT
Malcolm, Janet. IN THE FREUD ARCHIVES
Malouf, David. THE GREAT WORLD
Mankell, Henning. SIDETRACKED
Mann, Thomas. BUDDENBROOKS
Mantel, Hilary. BEYOND BLACK
Marias, Javier. A HEART SO WHITE
Maxwell, William. SO LONG, SEE YOU TOMORROW
McEwan, Ian. THE INNOCENT
Melville, Herman. GREAT SHORT WORKS
Michaels, Leonard. COLLECTED STORIES
Mistry, Rohinton. A FINE BALANCE
Munro, Alice. FRIEND OF MY YOUTH
Murakami, Haruki. HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND & THE END OF THE WORLD
Norris, Frank. THE PIT
O’Connor, Flannery. WISE BLOOD
Ondaatje, Michael. RUNNING IN THE FAMILY
Orwell, George. THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER
Pinsky, Robert. SELECTED POEMS
Platonov, Andrey. SOUL & OTHER STORIES
Price, Richard. CLOCKERS
Roth, Joseph. THE RADETZKY MARCH
Roth, Philip. I MARRIED A COMMUNIST
Rushdie, Salman. THE MOOR’S LAST SIGH
Queiros, Eca de. TH MAIAS
Sebald, W. G. THE RINGS OF SATURN
Serge, Victor. THE CASE OF COMRADE TULAYEV
Stafford, Jean. THE MOUNTAIN LION
Stendhal, THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA
Svevo, Italo. ZERO’S CONSCIENCE
Theroux, Paul. THE FAMILY ARSENAL
Toibin, Colm. THE MASTER
Tolstoy, Leo. WAR & PEACE
Trevor, William. THE CHILDREN OF DYNMOUTH
Trollope, Anthony. THE WAY WE LIVE NOW
Turgenev, Ivan. VIRGIN SOIL
Twain, Mark. HUCKEBERRY FINN
Verne, Jules. THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
West, Rebecca. THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS
Wharton, Edith. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
Wolff, Tobias. IN PHARAOH’S ARMY
Wright, Richard. NATIVE SON
Zola, Emile. THE LADIES’ PARADISE

Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great: Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy was just published so it obviously isn’t a Forgotten Book. But Walton’s wonderful book explores plenty of forgotten books. This collection gathers 130 of Walton’s blog posts from Tor.com (July 2008 to February 2011). Walton writes about her favorite works of science fiction and fantasy in pithy, clever short essays. Of course, the result of reading Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great is a big stack of forgotten books I want to read (or re-read). If you’re a fan of the science fiction and fantasy genres, Walton presents a great guidebook. Highly recommended!
SOME WRITERS DISCUSSED IN WMTBSG:
Daniel Abraham
Poul Anderson
Iain M. Banks
John Brunner
Steven Burst
Lois McMaster Bujold
Octavia E. Butler
C. J. Cherryh
Susanna Clarke
Pamela Dean
Samuel R. Delany
Lord Dunsany
George Alec Effinger
George Eliot
John M. Ford
John Fowles
Robert A. Heinlein
Ursula K. Le Guin
Tanith Lee
Ken MacLeod
George R. R. Martin
Maureen F. McHugh
Susan Palwick
Kim Stanley Robinson
Dorothy L. Sayers
Karl Schroeder
Francis Spufford
James Tiptree, Jr.
J.R. R. Tolkien
Vernor Vinge
Connie Willis
Robert Charles Wilson
Terri Windling
Jack Womack

Bernard Cornwell’s just published The Pagan Lord is the seventh volume of the adventures of Uhtred, a Danish warrior who fights to protect the Saxon kingdoms from the Vikings. Not too many adventure novels are set in the 9th Century so that’s some of the appeal of these books. In The Pagan Lord, Uhtred is framed for a kidnapping. His estate is burned and he’s on the run again. Uhtred finally figures out the shenanigans and once again he has to put together a fighting force to save the Saxons from being overrun by the Vikings. You don’t have to read the previous six books to enjoy The Pagan Lord but it helps. And, if you like this kind of historical fiction, you’ll want to read all of Cornwell’s Saxon Stories anyway. Cornwell gives some strong hints at the end of The Pagan Lord that the next book may conclude the series. GRADE: B+

Hellmann’s mayonnaise celebrates its 100th Birthday in 2014. I know mayonnaise has been demonized as unhealthy, but I still use it on occasion. Mayonnaise is the top-selling condiment in the U.S. and Hellmann’s owns half the market. I love Hellmann’s consistency, texture, and sweetness. Many nights I’ll just spoon some on my salad–it makes a perfect dressing. I’ve tried some gourmet mayos, but I keep coming back to Hellmann’s. I consider mayonnaise as a versatile condiment that goes well with sandwiches to burgers. And, in my opinion, Hellmann’s is the yummiest of them all!