I’ve been a fan of Bill Pronzini’s writing since the 1960s. I marvel that Pronzini can write westerns with all the quality of his excellent mystery novels. STARK HOUSE just published The Hanging Man & Other Western Stories which collects Bill Pronzini’s best western short stories.

My favorite story in The Hanging Man & Other Western Stories is “Burglarproof,” one of Pronzini’s Quincannon stories featuring a detective hired to solve the theft of a burglarproof safe that contains sacks of gold. Quincannon’s solution is both clever and logical.

I’m also fond of “Decision” where a drifter meets a woman whose husband has abused her. A surprising decision results.

The longest story in this collection is “Crucifixion River” (with Marcia Miller). The story is told by various characters who provide insights into their myriad problems. A man with a past fears he’s been located by a bounty hunter. A young girl yearns to leave her dull rural life and links up with Mister Wrong. A nurse wants to start a new life after disaster befalls her and her marriage. The various plot complications lead to shattering resolutions!

Bill Pronzini’s stories and novels have provided me with 50 years of reading pleasure. When I start reading a book by Pronzini, I’m mesmerized and can’t stop reading until I reach the end. And then, I want more of Bill Pronzini’s stories and fine-crafted words! If you’re looking for a writer who always delivers storytelling excellence and outstanding writing, Bill Pronzini should be your First Choice! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PREFACE — 7

The Hanging man — 11

Markers — 22

Hero — 28

McIntosh’s chute — 33

Decision — 43

All the long years — 49

Burglarproof — 57

The Gunny — 71

Fyfe and the drummers — 76

Wooden Indian — 82

The Gambler — 93

Fear — 101

The Cruel and Deadly Winter — 109

“Give-a-Damn” Jones — 113

Righteous guns — 126

Doc Christmas, Painless Dentist — 130

Not a Lick of Sense — 141

Crucifixion River (with Marcia Miller) — 147

Bibliography — 202

Hailee Steinfeld and Josh Allen Are Engaged!

Some Good Things happened in 2024. Hailee Steinfeld and Josh Allen got engaged. Taylor Swift made a couple billion dollars. The U.S. won 126 medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions might be headed for the Super Bowl.

But a lot of Bad Things happened in 2024. The Election, the persistence of Covid-19, the deaths of Dame Maggie Smith and James Earl Jones and Donald Sutherland and Quincy Jones, and  a total of 711 people killed and 2,363 people wounded in 585 shootings in the USA.

Despite the storm clouds on the horizon, It will be the wit and wisdom of  Patti, Jeff, Deb, Rich, Beth, Todd, Art, Willam, Maggie, Bob, Tracy, Carl, Lauren, Steve, Jerry, Wolf, Stan, Dan, Neeru, Michael, Byron, Elgin, Angela, Scott, Jim, John, Kevin, Randy, James, Kent, Fred, and Matthew as well as all of you who make this blog a part of your day that will help us all get through this mess.

Thank you, thank you very much.

“A book to me is like a friend, a shelter, advice, an argument with someone who cares enough to argue with me for a better answer than the one we both already have. Books aren’t just door to another world–each book is part of a door to the whole world, a door that always has more behind it. Which is why I still can’t think of anything I’d rather do more than read.” — Alexander Chee

I decided to start the New Year by reading Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz. I made this selection amid the dozens of books in stacks clamoring for my attention. I had DVRed the PBS series of Moonflower Murders and decided I wanted to read the book before I watched the series. Diane and I had watched the PBS version of Magpie Murders (you can read my review here), based on the first novel in the Susan Ryeland series.  Lesley Manville played Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel…a key factor in a murder. We enjoyed the six-part series so when Moonflower Murders showed up on PBS, I decided to read the novel before watching the TV series.

What are you reading to start 2025?

The 13-3 Buffalo Bills travel to New England to take on the 3-13 Patriots. The Bills are 3-point favorites since the Bills are “resting” Josh Allen and other starters who will only make a brief appearance in this game before the Second String players take over in what is essentially a Pre-Season Game for the Bills. The Bills own the Number 2 seed in the AFC Playoffs, win or lose.

As of now, the Patriots hold the Number One slot in the NFL Draft. Should the Patriots win this game, they might lose that position. How hard will the Patriots play? And, who will they play in this game? Will they risk injury to QB Drake Maye in a meaningless game?

How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

The Biggest Wallace and Gromit fan I knew was Bill Crider. He loved these quirky films! And Bill would have loved watching Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, the new feature on Netflix.

This is the first new Wallace and Gromit in 16 years.  With a 79-minute running time, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl brings back one of the most sinister villains: Feathers McGraw, the penguin who hijacked Wallace’s automatic slacks in The Wrong Trousers to commit a jewel heist.

 Once the swivel-headed Norbot is powered up, the plot perks up and the Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl earns its title. If you want to start the New Year out with some laughs, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will make it happen. Are you a Wallace and Gromit fan? GRADE: B+

“Baldwin’s reputation as a novelist and essayist rests mainly on the work he did the decade before 1963, a decade in which he was passionately industrious.” (p. 97). Baldwin’s last original work was published in 1985. Baldwin died in 1987. Since then, Baldwin’s standing has risen and fallen. Novelist Colm Toibin analyzes James Baldwin’s work and its influences in On James Baldwin.

Although I’ve only read two of Baldwin’s books, I didn’t realize that Baldwin was profoundly influenced by Henry James. The book that most impacted Baldwin was James’s The Ambassadors. Baldwin spent time in Paris and James’s novel of love and deception in the City of Light coincides with many of Baldwin’s themes.

James Baldwin wrote about race and homosexuality which attracted controversy. “I don’t mean to compare myself to a couple of artists I unreservedly admire, Miles Davis and Ray Charles–but I would like to think that some of the people who liked my book responded to it in a way similar to the way they respond when Miles and Ray are blowing. These artists, in their very different ways, sing a kind of universal blues…they are telling us something of what it is like to be alive. I think I really helplessly model myself on jazz musicians and try to write the way they sound…I am aiming at what Henry James called ‘perception at the pitch of passion.'” (p. 4-5)

I enjoyed this survey of James Baldwin where Colm Toibin provides a guided tour of a writer who deserves a wider audience. Have you read James Baldwin? GRADE: B+

“One Way Ticket” by Langston Hughes (p. 29)

I pick up my life

And take it on the train

To Los Angeles, Bakersfield,

Seattle, Oakland, Salt Lake,

Any place that is

North and West —

And not South.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

The Pitch of Passion — 1
Crying Holy — 37
Paris, Harlem — 55
The Private Life — 95
The Terror and the Surrender — 119
Acknowledgments — 141
Selected Bibliography — 143

OCTOBER 1, 1992 MARKED THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WORLDWIDE INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPACT DISC. THIS STUNNING INNOVATION COMBINED DIGITAL AUDIO AND LASER OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MOST ASTONISHING ADVANCE IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN SOUND, RESULTING IN MUSICAL REPRODUCTION OF UNPRECEDENTED DEPTH AND CLARITY. THE ADVENT OF THE CD IS BEING COMMEMORATED BY SONY AND BILLBOARD WITH THIS ‘DECADE OF MUSIC’ COLLECTION. THIS LIMITED EDITION THREE CD SET SALUTES SOME OF THE BIGGEST HITS AND FINEST RECORDINGS FROM THIS EPOCH MAKING DIGITAL DECADE, AS COMPILED FROM THE CHARTS OF BILLBOARD MAGAZINE THE WORLD’S LEADING MUSIC PUBLICATION.

This 3-CD set from 1992 celebrates a decade of music CDs. Sadly, 30 years later, CDs are being outsold by vinyl and streaming services are the preferred mode for accessing music. These three discs do provide a window into what was considered the “Best” digital recordings of the decade with a mix of classical and pop. Having listened to these three CDs, I can safely say they sound great although the choice of music is…questionable. Do you remember this music? Any favorites here? Are you a fan of music CDs? GRADE: Sound: A; Musical choices…B

DECADE OF MUSIC VOLUME 1 TRACK LIST:

DECADE OF MUSIC VOLUME 2 TRACK LIST:

DECADE OF MUSIC VOLUME 3 TRACK LIST:

Diane loves romantic comedies and her favorite is When Harry Met Sally. When Harry Met Sally is 1989 film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron, starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, and Bruno Kirby. The movie follows Harry and Sally from the time they meet in Chicago and share a drive to New York City through twelve years of chance encounters in New York City.

When Harry Met Sally features a number of iconic scenes. The most famous is the outrageous restaurant scene where Sally enlightens Harry. The film contains several interspersed segments of older couples discussing how they met. The true stories, gathered by screenwriter Nora Ephron, are reenacted by actors. The final couple interviewed, before the closing credits, is Harry and Sally.

The key scene is a New Year’s Eve meeting between Harry and Sally that makes this movie a perfect choice for this time of year. Are you a fan of When Harry Met Sally? GRADE: A

Rob Sheffield, a writer for Rolling Stone, captures a lot of Taylor Swift in his short but pithy book. “Her Eras Tour is such a blockbuster it’s hard to place it into industry perspective–the revenue in 2023 was $1 billion, more than the next two biggest tours (Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen) put together. The Tortured Poets Department was not just the biggest-selling, most-streamed album, it outsold the rest of the year’s top ten combined. And five of the top ten were her albums.” (p. 3)

Take Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour for an example: Swift played 149 shows across five continents and 51 cities worldwide. The tour sold 10,168,008 tickets with an average of 68,241 tickets per show. The proceeds from those tickets were more than the 2024 GDPs of 18 small countries!

Taylor Swift economic effects can be staggering. Attendees to a Swift Concert spent over $10 million in the city that hosted the concert. “In 2017, the Washington Post ran a high-profile article with at the headline ‘The Death of the Electric Guitar.’ Gibson and Fender were both in debt, so was Guitar Center, to the tune of $1.6 billion…. ‘Starting in 2010,’ the Post reported, the industry witnessed a milestone that would have been unthinkable during the hair-metal era: Acoustic models began to outsell electric.'” (p. 64-65)

And who fueled this radical change? Taylor Swift. Suddenly millions of young girls started taking guitar lessons. “Andy Mooney, the CEO of Fender, called Swift ‘the most influential guitarist of recent years.’ ” (p. 65). While sales of acoustic guitars remained strong, electric guitar sales rebounded during the Pandemic.

As a former Business professor, I’m amazed that Taylor Swift–after being cheated by her first recording company–decided to take control of her music and her songs by RE-RECORDING them! Everyone in the recording industry thought Swift was crazy and the re-recorded albums would bomb. Instead, the albums–identified with Taylor’s Version in the title–sold millions of copies and outsold the original recordings. Taylor Swift is The Beatles of this generation! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Once upon a time, a few mistakes ago : a very fast timeline — x
• Prelude: Our song is a slamming screen door — xv
• Planet Taylor : nice to meet you, where you been — 1
• I love you, it’s ruining my life — 13
• A portrait of the artist as a young, loud, and not-especially-great-at-calming-down woman — 20
• Early days : please picture me in the trees — 25
• Track five : the ballad of “all too well” — 31
• The fangirl — 42
• Fearless — 47
• Everybody loves petty; everybody loves cool –50
• The songs on her arms — 56
• “Enchanted” — 60
• Every guitar-string scar on her hand — 63
• “The Archer” — 67
• The bridge : thirteen songs from Taylor’s dreams — 72
• Red — 87
• There once was a girl known by everyone and no one : Taylor’s codes –90
• 1989 — 99
• The word “nice” — 105
• “New romantics” — 109
• The Villain Era — 116
• Reputation — 128
• Taylor’s Version (Taylor’s version) — 136
• “Cruel summer” — 144
• The lead single — 147
• I’m not asleep, my mind is a alive : Lover — 150
• Folklore — 154
• “Mirrorball” — 160
• “Marjorie” — 163
• “Right where you left me” — 167
• Midnights
• Finale: Forevermore — 174
• Acknowledgments — 181