My favorite essays in Sometimes An Art are “History and the Creative Imagination” and “The Search for Perfection.” In “History and the Creative Imagination” Bernard Bailyn writes about his favorite contemporary historians: Perry Miller, Charles McLean Andrews, Lewis Namier, and Ronald Syme. After reading this essay, I wanted to drop everything and read the books that Bailyn discusses. “The Search for Perfection” starts with a discussion of one of my favorite writers: Isaiah Berlin. Berlin shows how the imposition of “Utopias” leads to disaster: “the repressive power of the Soviet state, the annihilatory power of the Nazi regime, the mind-blinding power of Maoist gangs, the suffocating power of Islamic fundamentalism”. If you’re in the mood for some brilliant history written by multiple Pulitzer Prize winner Bernard Bailyn, Sometimes An Art will delight you. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface

PART ONE
On History and the Struggle to Get It Right

1. Considering the Slave Trade: History and Memory
2. Context in History
3. Three Trends in Modern History
4. History and the Creative Imagination
5. The Losers

PART TWO
Peripheries of the Early British Empire

6. Thomas Hutchinson in Context: The Ordeal Revisited
7. England’s Cultural Provinces: Scotland and America
(co-authored with John Clive)
8. Peopling the Peripheries
9. The Search for Perfection: Atlantic Dimensions

Appendix
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

I’ve enjoyed the various Batman animated series. This new movie features The Penguin and another diabolical plot involving robotic animals. Batman gets help from The Flash, Green Arrow, Nightwing, and Red Robin to solve this case. Unlike the previous Son of Batman, Animal Instincts is aimed at a younger audience. It didn’t bother me, but it might bother you. Special features include Penguin: High Society Criminal, a collection of DC Nations Shorts, and two bonus DC cartoons from the DC Vault. Check out the trailer below. GRADE: B

I just applied for Social Security “spousal benefits” from Social Security Administration. Diane is going to start collecting Social Security checks in July when she turns 66. I’m going to wait until I’m 70 to collect my Social Security. But, as Get What’s Yours explains, there’s a loop-hole in the Social Security code that allows spouses to collect HALF of their spouse’s Social Security from age 66 to age 70. So Diane will collect her full amount and I will collect half of her Social Security benefit until I turn 70 and collect my full amount. That’s $48,000 (a $1,000 extra dollars each month for four years). There are plenty of other clever ways to maximize your Social Security benefits…legally. Get What’s Yours walks you through all 400 different ways you can collect Social Security. This is a handy little book! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Getting Nearly $50,000 in Extra Benefits over Tennis
2. Life’s Biggest Danger Isn’t Dying, It’s Living
2. Social Security–from A to Zzzzzzzz
4. Three General Rules to Maximize Your Lifetime Benefits
5. Strategies to Follow the Three Rules
6. Be Careful Taking Social Security’s Advice
7. The Benefits of Not Retiring
8. Playing Social Security’s Marital Status Game
9. Married with Benefits
10. Gay Couples Get to Claim What’s Theirs
11. Divorced? Dark Clouds and Silver Linings
12. Widowed? Why Social Security Is A Major Women’s Issue
13. Never Married or Divorced Too Soon
14. Hidden Benefits for the Disabled
15. Government Pensions and Windfall Penalties
16. 50 Good-News Secrets to Higher Lifetime Benefits
17. 25 Bad-News Gotchas That Can Reduce Your Benefits Forever
18. Whither Social Security?
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Appendix: Actually Filing to Get What’s Yours
Notes
Index

You would think that with a cast of Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, and Alec Baldwin you’d be able to make a pretty good movie. But, if you’re Cameron Crowe directing Aloha things are not going to turn out well. The romantic comedy isn’t comedic or romantic. The story about a billionaire launching a suspicious satellite is lame. Only the delightful Rachel McAdams and Emma Stone lighting up the movie screen saves this movie. GRADE: C

Matthew B. Crawford thinks our culture has become distracted (and in some cases, brain-dead). Smartphones aren’t making us smarter, Crawford argues. They’re reducing out attention span and preventing us from thinking clearly. I found Crawford’s analysis persuasive. My students are constantly texting. When Diane and I go out to a restaurant, almost all the diners have their smartphones on their tables (and check them frequently). A recent survey found students check their smartphones 700 times per day. All of this has consequences in the Real World and Crawford shows where this is leading. World Beyond Your Head is a disturbing book. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface p. ix
Introduction: Attention as a Cultural Problem p. 3
Part I Encountering Things
1 The Jig, the Nudge, and Local Ecology p. 31
2 Embodied Perception p. 45
3 Virtual Reality as Moral Ideal p. 69
4 Attention and Design p. 79
5 Autism as a Design Principle: Gambling p. 89
Interlude: A Brief History of Freedom p. 113
Part II Other People
6 On Being Led Out p. 127
7 Encountering Things with Other People p. 141
8 Achieving Individuality p. 151
9 The Culture of Performance p. 161
10 The Erotics of Attention p. 169
11 The Flattening p. 181
12 The Statistical Self p. 195
Part III Inheritance
13 The Organ Makers’ Shop p. 209
Epilogue: Reclaiming the Real p. 247
Notes p. 259
Acknowledgments p. 285
Index p. 289

Back in the glory days of ACE Doubles, I always preferred the ACE Doubles that featured a single author. Many of these single-author ACE Doubles would have a novel on one side and a collection of short stories on the other. That was my favorite format. The Man With Nine Lives/A Touch of Infinity by Harlan Ellison (#D-413, 1960, $0.35) may have been the best (and most famous) of this type of ACE Double. In 1971, Ron Goulart’s ACE Double Clockwork’s Pirates and Ghost Breaker caught my attention. I’d read several of Goulart’s quirky SF novels and was delighted by this package, especially the nine short stories in Ghost Breaker. They have mystery elements that I enjoyed. I was reminded of Ron Goulart’s ACE Double by a fine review on Black Gate and was inspired to find my copy and reread it. Just click here to check it out.

GHOST BREAKER
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• “Please Stand By” (January 1962, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “Uncle Arly” (July 1962, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “McNamara’s Fish” (July 1963, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “Kearny’s Last Case” (September 1965, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “Breakaway House” (May 1966, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “Fill in the Blank” (May 1967, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “The Ghost Patrol” (October 1968, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “The Strawhouse Pavillion” (January 1970, Coven 13)
• “Help Stamp Out Chesney” (1971, Ghost Breaker)

• OTHER MAX KEARNY STORIES:
• “The Return of Max Kearny” (December 1981, Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “Hello from Hollywood” (December 1983, Fantasy & Science Fiction)

Who has the most Number One hits? No, not the Beatles. Not the Rolling Stones. Not Michel Jackson. It’s Mariah Carey. And all of her Number One songs are on this new CD. I feel sorry of Mariah Carey. She tried to transition from pop music diva to a movie star. But her movie, Glitter, opened the weekend after 9/11 and bombed. Mariah Carey’s career never recovered. Today, Mariah Carey is a marginalized artist who shows up on other rappers’ songs. But in the late 1980s and 1990s Carey was a hit machine. What’s your favorite Mariah Carey song?
TRACK LIST:
1 Vision Of Love (3:30)
2 Love Takes Time (3:49)
3 Someday (4:03)
4 I Don’t Wanna Cry (4:50)
5 Emotions (4:09)
6 I’ll Be There (4:25)
7 Dreamlover (3:54)
8 Hero (4:20)
9 Fantasy (Bad Boy Fantasy) – Ol’ Dirty Bastard (4:51)
10 One Sweet Day (4:42)
11 Always Be My Baby (4:19)
12 Honey (5:01)
13 My All (3:52)
14 Heartbreaker – Jay-Z (4:46)
15 Thank God I Found You – 98 Degrees (4:18)
16 We Belong Together (3:21)
17 Don’t Forget About Us (3:54)
18 Touch My Body (3:26)
19 Infinity (3:59)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Preface
Part I: Lessons from Investors
Chapter 1: The Day I Became and Adult: How Low Risk became High Risk
Chapter 2: Diagnoses for My Doctor: Diversifying can be tricky
Chapter 3: Dieting and Investing: A Broad Range of Ingredients will Keep Your Portfolio Healthy Chapter
4: Single Points of Failure (SPOF): How to Guard Against Financial Catastrophes
Chapter 5: My Randy Old Grandfather: What if you Live?
Chapter 6: It’s About Time: Understanding Financial Cycles So You Invest for the Long Haul
Chapter 7: How Am I Doing: How to Evaluate Fund and Portfolio Data?
Chapter 8: Balancing Greed versus Fear: Understanding the Emotions of Investing
Chapter 9: The Reversal of Nations: How Global Diversification is the New Safe
Part II: Investing Solutions
Chapter 10: Your Three Pockets: A Tool for Managing Money and Emotions
Chapter 11: The Risk Prism
Chapter 12: What’s Inside Your Pockets?
Chapter 13: Beyond Borders: Understanding How to Invest in International Markets
Chapter 14: What about your personal portfolio? – How to build and monitor your portfolio
Part III: FINDING THE ADVISOR YOU CAN TRUST
Chapter15: Who is Most Dangerous? It’s Who You Least Suspect
Chapter16: Where Do I Go For Advice? Brokers, Banks, Independent Investment Advisors, Financial Planners -Which one is right for me?
Chapter 17: The Naked Advisor: How Do I Select the Person?
Part IV: Final Words of Advice
Chapter 18: Final words of Advice – The Seven Critical Lessons
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Index

Diane and I finally caught up with Kenneth Branagh’s version of the classic Cinderella at our $3 movie theater. This Disney movie came out months ago and did very well by earning $521 million worldwide. Lilly James plays a fetching Cinderella while Cate Blanchett revels in the role of the Evil Stepmother. Helena Bonham Carter narrates the story and shows up as The Fairy Godmother. If you haven’t seen this movie, you’re missing out on a well-crafted film with a first-rate cast. GRADE: B+