Cascor, Matthew Hughes new collection of short stories, weighs in at over 500 pages. Stories like “Stones and Glass” and “Prisoner of Pandarius” feature Raffalon, a thief whose brilliant heists both succeed and fail because of magical elements. Cascor (he’s the spooky looking dude on the cover), a former policeman turned detective with a flare for magic, partners up with Raffalon.
My favorite story in Cascor is “The Vindicator” where Raffalon discovers someone is trying to kill him. He turns to Cascor to find out who and why. Cascor’s investigation discovers tampering with the past.
Hughes also includes two stories about sorceress Margolyam one of which highlights an “origin tale” of Margolyam’s years as an orphan and her discovery of her magical powers.
Suspense, mystery, mayhem, and magic animate the stories in Cascor. Matthew Hughes is at the top of his game in these thrilling adventures! GRADE: A
Gal Gadot (aka, Wonder Woman) stars in Heart of Stone, a spy thriller where Gadot’s character infiltrates MI6 in order to gain access to an evil arms dealer. Gadot really works for a shadowy organization called The Charter which has a quantum computer (aka, Artificial Intelligence) that gives accurate projections of the future.
Of course, other evil people want to gain control of the quantum computer so a series of fights, skirmishes, ambushes, and treachery result.
Heart of Stone was released by Netflix on August 11, 2023. Within its first two days, the film was number one on the Netflix English-language list with 33.1 million views. If you’re in the mood for a thriller with plenty of action (and a thin plot) you might want to give Heart of Stone a try. GRADE: B+
Weighing in at 1304 pages, THE WORLD: A FAMILY HISTORY OF HUMANITY by Simon Sebag Montefiore certainly qualifies as a Big Fat Book. Montefiore takes on an impossible mission to tell the history of humanity through mostly tales of families. If you glance at the Table of Contents you’ll get an idea of the chronological and geographical approach Montefiore takes in tackling thousands of years of History. Here are some samples of the types of stories and facts Montefiore presents:
“Fatso (Physcon)–as Ptolemy VIII by the Alexandrians–was effete, obsessed and sadistic, thriving in a period of mob violence and factional intrigue. Marrying his sister Cleopatra II and fathering a son Memphites, Fatso then fell in love with her daughter, child of his sister-wife and late brother–his niece and stepdaughter Cleopatra III–and married her too… Fatso and his younger wife fled to Cyprus, while Cleopatra II ruled Egypt as sole queen. But Fatso had not given up. Realizing that their son Memphis might replace him, he kidnapped the fourteen-year-old, who trusted his father. Then Fatso had him strangled in from of him before cutting off his head, legs and hands, which he then sent to the boy’s mother the night before her birthday.” (p. 117)
“An American invertor Richard Gatling created this first machine gun to save lives during the Civil War: ‘If I could invent a machine–a gun–which could, by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, it would supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease.’ It did not work like that.” (p. 903)
“LBJ, whose style of leadership was ‘If you can’t fuck a man in the ass, then just peckerslap him–better to let him know who’s in charge than to let him get the keys to the car…” (p. 1127)
I was impressed with the vast knowledge of History Montefiore displays in this book. Although The World is over 1000 pages long, I never found it dragging. Montefiore is a master tale-teller who keeps the reader’s attention by presenting historical stories that are new and different (and often cruel). If you love History, you’ll love The World despite its length. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface and Acknowledgments — xxvii
Note — xxxi
Introduction — xxxiii
Act one. Houses of Sargon and Ahmose: ziggurats and pyramids ; Houses of Hattusa and Rameses ; The Nubian pharaohs and great kings of Ashur: House Alara versus House Tiglath-Pileser — 1-40
Act two. Haxamanis and Alcmaeon: Houses of Persia and Athens ; The Alexandrians and the Haxamanishiya: Eurasian duel ; The Mauryans and the Qin ; The Barcas and the Scipios: the Houses of Carthage and Rome — 53-114
Act three. The Han and the Caesars ; Trajans and first step sharks: Romans and the Maya ; Severans and Zenobians: Arab dynasties — 117-175
Act four. Houses of Constantine, Sasan and Spearthrower Owl — 177-197
Act five. The Muhammad Dynasty ; Tang and Sasan — 199-220
Act six. Houses of Muhammad and Charlemagne ; Rurikovichi and the House of Basil ; The Ghanas and the Fatimiyya — 223-280
Act seven. Song, Fujiwara and Chola ; Seljuks, Komnenoi and Hautevilles — 283-313
Act eight. Genghis: a conquering family ; Khmers, Hohenstaufen and Polos ; The Keitas of Mali and the Habsburgs of Austria — 315-370
Act nine. The Tamerlanians, the Ming and the Obas of Benin — 373-397
Act ten. Medici and Mexica, Ottomans and Aviz ; Incas, Trastamaras and Rurikovichi ; Manikongos, Borgias and Columbuses ; Habsburgs and Ottomans — 399-453
Act eleven. Tamerlanians and Mexica, Ottomans and Safavis ; Incas, Pizarros, Habsburgs and Medici ; Tamerlanians and Rurikovichi, Ottomans and the House of Mendes ; Valois and Saadis, Habsburgs and Rurikovichi — 455-540
Act twelve. Dahomeans, Stuarts and Villiers, Tamerlanians and Ottomans ; Zumbas and Oranges, Cromwells and Villiers ; Manchus and Shivajis, Bourbons, Stuarts and Villiers ; Afsharis and Manchus, Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs ; Durranis and Saids, Hemingses and Toussaints ; Romanovs and Durranis, Pitts, Comanche and Kamehamehas — 541-698
Act thirteen. Arkwrights and Krupps, Habsburgs, Bourbons and Sansons — 699-725
Act fourteen. Bonapartes and Albanians, Wellesleys and Rothschilds ; Zulus and Saudis, Christophes, Kamehamehas and Astors — 727-784
Act fifteen. Braganzas and Zulus, Albanians, Dahomeans and Vanderbilts — 785-825
Act sixteen. Bonapartes and Manchus, Habsburgs and Comanche — 829-870
Act seventeen. Hohenzollerns and Krupps, Albanians and Lakotas — 873-894
Act eighteen. The Houses of Solomon and Asante, Habsburg and Saxe-Coburg ; The Houses of Hohenzollern and Roosevelt, Solomon and Manchu — 895-923
Act nineteen. Hohenzollerns, Krupps, Ottomans, Tennos and Songs ; Hohenzollerns, Habsburgs and Hashemites ; Pahlavis and Songs, Roosevelts, Mafiosi and Kennedys — 957-1023
Act twenty. Roosevelts, Suns, Krupps, Pahlavis and Saudis — 1025-1067
Act twenty-one. Nehrus, Maos and Suns, Mafiosi, Hashemites and Albanians ; Norodoms and Kennedys, Castros, Kenyattas and Obamas ; Hashemites and Kennedys, Maos, Nehruvians and Assads ; Houses of Solomon and Bush, Bourbon, Pahlavi and Castro — 1069=1148
Act twenty-two. Yeltsins and Xis, Nehruvians and Assads, Bin Ladens, Kims and Obamas — 1150-1195
Act twenty-three. Trumps and Xis, Sauds, Assads and Kims — 1243-1255
I’ve read two novels recently–Charles Stross’s Season of Skulls and Martha Wells’s Witch King–which the authors admit were affected by the Pandemic. Now, here’s a third: Mary Robinette Kowal’s SF mystery, The Spare Man (2023).
The Spare Man–just check out the cover artwork above–is basically The Thin Man in space. Here’s the book’s marketing hype:
Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.
The Spare Man is basically a locked room mystery because the murders occur on a spaceship in mid-flight. Complicating factors are Tesla’s chronic pain (from a workplace accident) and PTSD. Tesla travels with her service dog, Gimlet, who plays a role in the murder investigation. Kowal presents a recipe for a different classic cocktail at the start of every chapter in the book.
I really wanted to like The Spare Man but some of the cutesy dialogue and plotting put me off. GRADE: C
David G. Myers is a social psychologist and professor at (ironically!) Hope College in Michigan. Myers discusses the latest research findings on Life and Death, depression, fear, anxiety, and happiness.
The last part of How Do We Know Ourselves? focuses on cultural issues and how Change (good and bad) takes place. There’s plenty of information in these brief chapters. This is a browser’s delight: you can read many of these chapters in any order…and they’ll only take you a few minutes to finish them.
If you’re in the mood for an intelligent discussion of many of our personal and social problems–and what we might do to make them better–you might consider giving How Do We Know Ourselves? a try. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface xi
Part I Who Am I?
1 Implicit Egotism 3
2 The Amazing Power of Attention 8
3 There Is More to Hearing Than Meets the Ears 12
4 How Do We Know Ourselves? 17
5 Dual Processing: One Brain, Two Minds? 21
6 Making New Year’s Resolutions That Last 27
7 The Powers and Perils of Intuition 32
8 Fearing the Right Things 37
9 We Knew It All Along 42
10 Judging Others and Judging Ourselves 47
11 Behavioral Confirmation: Getting What We Expect 51
12 How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways 54
Part II Who Are We?
13 The Science of Humility 65
14 When Birth Order Matters 70
15 Cardiac Arrest and the Conscious Experience of Death 75
16 Do People Repress-or Vividly Remember-Traumatic Events? 81
17 When Fear of Losing Steals Our Chances of Winning 85
18 How We Polarize, and What We Can Do About It 90
19 Our Differences Seize Our Attention, Define Our Identity, and Sometimes Deceive Us 96
20 The Psychology of Division 102
21 The Social Psychology of Dissent 106
22 The Overconfidence Phenomenon 111
23 Why Is Everyone Else Having More Fun? 117
24 Social Facilitation: The Energizing Presence of Others 124
25 The Happy Science of Micro-friendships 129
26 How to Make and Sustain Friendships 136
27 Narcissism: The Grandiose Self 142
Part III What in the World?
28 How Nature and Nurture Form Us 149
29 The Wonder of Walking (and Singing): Synchronized Spirits 154
30 Wise Interventions Can Change Lives 158
31 Failure and Flourishing 163
32 Death Is Terrifying to Contemplate, Except for Those Who Are Dying 168
33 Do Places with More Immigrants Exhibit Greater Acceptance or Greater Fear of Immigrants? 173
34 Implicit Bias Is Real. Can Training Programs Decrease It? 178
35 How Politics Changes Politicians 183
36 The Power of Confirmation Bias and the Credibility of Belief 188
37 Friends Versus Phones 194
38 Wealth, Well-Being, and Generosity 198
39 The Mere Exposure Effect: Familiarity Breeds Content 203
40 Do Replication Failures Discredit Psychological Science? 208
A couple days ago I reviewed Otto Penzler’s Golden Age Bibliomysteries (you can read my review here) so I figured I’d read Martin Edwards’ Murder By the Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles. As you might suspect, Edwards’s choices feature more British mystery writers–there’s no overlapping stories between these two books. As always, Martin Edwards’ introductions to the stories provide wonderful detail about the writers.
My favorite story in Murder By the Book is Victor Canning’s “A Question of Character.” Canning presents a marriage where a successful writer marries a young woman who then starts writing books that out-sell her husband’s books. The bitter husband decides to murder her and devises a cunning method. But, things don’t always work out the way they’re planned. I also enjoyed Julian Symons’ brief but entertaining “The Clue in the Book.” And, you can’t go wrong with a John Creasey story like “The Book of Honour.”
With Golden Age Bibliomysteries and Murder By the Book you have plenty of tricky stories about books to enjoy! GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Martin Edwards — vii
A lesson in crime / G. D. H. and M. Cole — 1
Trent and the ministering angel / E. C. Bentley — 19
A slice of bad luck / Nicholas Blake — 40
The strange case of the Megatherium thefts / S. C. Roberts — 53
Malice domestic / Philip MacDonald — 69
A savage game / A. A. Milne — 95
A clue in the book / Julian Symons — 106
The manuscript / Gladys Mitchell — 114
A man and his mother-in-law / Roy Vickers — 119
Grey’s ghost / Michael Innes — 156
Dear Mr. Editor … / Christianna Brand — 174
Murder in advance / Marjorie Bremner — 186
A question of character / Victor Canning — 209
The book of honour / John Creasey — 221
We know you’re busy writing… / Edmund Crispin — 238
Just like there are busted sets in books, there are busted sets in albums and CD series. I recently found Atlantic Rhythm and Blues, 1947-1974, Volume 5: 1962-1966. I haven’t seen any of the other volumes in this series, but if you glance at the Track List, you’ll see why I think this CD is the pick of the litter.
You might remember when MTV showcased singers and groups in their “Unplugged” series. The gimmick was that the songs were performed acoustically. Some people liked this approach, others hated it. But MTV and Warner Brothers brought out a series of soundtrack CDs of these studio concerts. Some sold better than others. This CD, The Unplugged Collection, Volume One features many “Name” performers. Michael’s favorite group, R.E.M., concludes the CD. Whoever put this collection together decided not to include the “Big Hits” from the Unplugged series. Eric Clapton’s unplugged version of “Layla” is missing: “Unplugged is a 1992 live album by Eric Clapton, recorded at Bray Studios, England in front of an audience for the MTV Unplugged television series. It includes a version of the successful 1992 single “Tears in Heaven” and an acoustic version of “Layla“. The album itself won three Grammy awards at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in 1993 and became the bestselling live album of all time, and Clapton’s bestselling album, selling 26 million copies worldwide.” Instead, “Before You Accuse Me” is the Clapton selection here.
Are you a fan of these CDs? Do you have any favorite songs/artists presented here? GRADE: ATLANTIC RHYTHM AND BLUES, Volume 5: A; The Unplugged Collection, Volume One: B
Mysteries that involve books. That’s the theme of this anthology. I really liked Anthony Boucher’s “QL 696. C9.” The murder of a librarian baffles the police, but the cryptic clue (and the stories’ title) expose the murderer. Frank Gruber’s “State Fair Murder” featuring a murder of a publisher by a poisoned dart! I also enjoyed Ellery Queen’s “The Adventure of the Three R’s” and Vincent Starrett’s Sherlock Holmes pastiche “The Unique Hamlet.”
But maybe the best story in this book might be Cornell Woolrich’s “The Book That Squealed” with a librarian who goes to the police to report a crime, but is turned away. Plenty of suspense!
If you’re looking for a nice collection of mysteries about books, this is a good one! GRADE: B+
Diane got up early and drove over to our Wegmans grocery store at 6:00 A.M. The line of Buffalo Bills fans was out the door. Diane waited about 20 minutes before she got the opportunity to buy this Fisher-Price Little People Collector set of Buffalo Bills for 2023. This is the third year of this promotion. The first set of Fisher-Price Little People for the Bills sold out literally in minutes. Last year, Fisher-Price increased the number of sets, but they also sold out in a day. This time, the number of sets was increased again and Diane finally scored!
This all-new set includes QB Josh Allen, TE Dawson Knox, LB Von Miller, and a Buffalo Bills super fan wearing the iconic Water Buffalo headgear.
Fisher-Price, the Western NY toymaker, is charging $25 for the set with $10 of that donated to John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. These sets are now on eBay selling for $50…or more! What kind of promotions does your favorite NFL team do?
“There are two essential ingredients for an anthem. First is timelessness. An anthem is a song that transcends genres, generations, and eras, to continually reach new fans over the decades.
The second, and more important is universality.” (p. xvii)
I won’t argue with Steve Baltin’s definition of rock “anthems” but I will argue with some of Baltin’s 29 song choices. I have no problem with The Temptations’ “My Girl” or The Beach Boys iconic “God Only Knows.” I enjoyed Grace Slick providing her views on “White Rabbit”:
“[White Rabbit] has a buildup, the same way that sex has a buildup. You start kissing, then you start feeling around. Then you get into bed and take off your clothes and then you poke like crazy and then, oh boy! A climax. That the way “White Rabbit” is. It stars off softly and comes to a climax in the end. So people are geared to like that progression.” (p. 28)
Grace Slick wrote “White Rabbit” and admits she “borrowed” from Ravel’s “Bolero” and Alice in Wonderland to create the song. She’s surprised that “White Rabbit” appears in the movie Platoon, the animated TV series Futurama, The Sopranos, American Dad, Skull Island, The Handmaid’s Tale, and a dozen other series and films.
I also enjoyed Carly Simon sharing the origins of “Anticipation” which she wrote in 20 minutes while waiting for her date to show up. As much as I love Linda Ronstadt, “Skylark” is not the song that I associate with her long career of hits. The same goes with the selection of U2’s “One” which wouldn’t be at the top of my Favorite U2 songs.
Do you remember these anthems? Any favorites? GRADE: B
Table of Contents
Foreword Cameron Crowe ix
Prologue Spencer Proffer xiii
Introduction xvii
1 The Temptations, “My Girl” 1
2 The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows” 11
3 The Doors, “Light My Fire” 19
4 Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit” 27
5 Neil Diamond, “Sweet Caroline” 37
6 The 5th Dimension, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” 47
7 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Our House” 55
8 The Jackson 5, “ABC” 61
9 Carly Simon, “Anticipation” 69
10 Don McLean, “American Pie” 79
11 The Spinners, “I’ll Be Around” 87
12 Barry Manilow, “Could It Be Magic” 95
13 KISS, “Rock and Roll All Nite” 103
14 Janis Ian, “At Seventeen” 111
15 Hall & Oates, “Sara Smile” 121
16 Aerosmith, “Walk This Way” 129
17 Bob Marley, “One Love/People Get Ready” 137
18 Earth, Wind & Fire, “September” 143
19 CHIC, “Le Freak” 151
20 TOTO, “Africa” 159
21 Linda Ronstadt, “Skylark” 167
22 Tears for Fears, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” 173
23 Fleetwood Mac, “Big Love” 181
24 U2, “One” 189
25 Shania Twain, “You’re Still the One” 199
26 Tom Waits, “Take It With Me” 209
27 TLC, “No Scrubs” 217
28 Linkin Park, “In the End” 225
29 My Chemical Romance, “Welcome to the Black Parade” 235
