Our BORDERS stores are selling everything at 50% off. Plus, BORDERS sent me an email that gave me an addition 15% off my total order. How could I resist these P. G. Wodehouse novels published by Overlook Press! For a pittance, I scooped up all the Wodehouse BORDERS had left. When the discount increases, I’ll go back and do some bottom fishing. The store was so crowded it’s clear plenty of people are tempted by these discounts.

As I kid, I loved the Green Lantern comic books. My favorite superhero was The Flash, but Green Lantern was a close second. If you’re not familiar with DC Comics superheros, Green Lantern is really test pilot Hal Jordan. When Jordan is chosen to become the Green Lantern on Earth, he’s given a ring of power that allows Jordan to do anything he can imagine. However, the ring needs to be recharged every 24 hours and is ineffective against the color yellow. A society of Green Lanterns work together to police the Universe. The recent Green Lantern movie showed the galactic scope of the Green Lanterns. This DVD of Green Lantern’s animated adventures is a fun experience if you’re into nostalgia (like me). GRADE: B+

Diane is a big fan of A Prairie Home Companion and Garrison Keillor so when we found out “The Summer Love Tour” of A Prairie Home Companion was performing at Artpark in Lewiston, NY (home of Hibbard’s frozen custard), I bought tickets. If you’re a fan of Garrison Keillor, you probably know that after his heart attack, he’s announced his retirement. I’m guessing this will be the final performance of Keillor in A Prairie Home Companion that will ever be seen in Western New York. And, a fine performance it was! Garrison Keillor, The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, sound-effects man Mr. Fred Newman, and singer Heather Masse entertained a sold-out theater for almost three hours. My favorite moments were when Keillor and Masse sang “Unchained Melody,” “All You Have to Do Is Dream,” and Dylan’s “If Not For You.” If The Summer Love Tour is appearing in your neighborhood, I highly recommend it.

The Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos are two “rebuilding” teams. Both teams will struggle in the 2011-2012 season. The NFL Lockout stole minicamps and OTAs (Organized Team Activities) from the teams like Buffalo and Denver who needed it the most. Veteran teams (like New England and the Jets) with stable coaching staffs will do well this season. Young teams with new coaching staffs will find the early part of the season a grind against more experienced opponents. But the beauty of the NFL is that the talent levels are, by design, fairly equal across the 32 teams. The Draft and the Salary Cap insures balance. The big variables are coaching and management. Within a few weeks we’ll find out if the Bills and the Broncos are improving or still mired in mediocrity. (This just in: the Bills lost to the Broncos, 24-10.)

Ann Hathaway is terrific in One Day. She plays a British woman named Emma with incredibly bad taste in men. The love of her life, Dex (Jim Sturgess), is an odious creep who manages to become successful on late night TV. So Emma turns to the next closest guy, Ian (Rafe Spall), an unfunny comedian (who can belch the “Theme to the A-Team”). Patricia Clarkson plays Dex’s mother. The movie makes a big deal of Dex and Emma getting together each year on July 15 (Same Time Next Year this isn’t). But when they do get together, Dex is usually drunk and Emma leaves angry. The reason I’m giving this film a failing grade is (SPOILER ALERT!) both Patricia Clarkson and Ann Hathaway are killed (Hathaway dies brutally) (END SPOILER ALERT). This was an aggravating movie to sit through. With a cast this talented, and a better story, a very good movie could have been made. But One Day isn’t it. GRADE: F

If you’re in the mood for time travel stories with a Arabian Nights flavor, you’ll love The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate. Ted Chiang creates a series of intertwined tales about a merchant in Baghdad who has The Gate of Years. If you enter the Gate in one way, you travel 20 years in the future. If you enter the Gate the other way, you go back in time 20 years. Chiang’s clever tales explore the essence of time. Subterranean Press published The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate back in 2007. It swiftly sold out and became a pricey book. I’ve seen copies going for $200 on ABE. But Subterranean Press has recently made The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate available as an ebook so download a copy of pure delight.

This list comes from one of my favorite book reviewers, Robert Burnbaum, who blogs at ourmaninboston. I’ve only read one book on this list: Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers and I can recommend it. I’ll be exploring some of the other books on this list in the following weeks, but if you’re looking for some Summer Reading, this is a good place to start.

The Sisters Brothers:A Novel by Patrick deWitt (Ecco)

Once Upon a River:A Novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell (W. W. Norton & Company)

To Be Sung Underwater:A Novel by Tom McNeal (Little Brown)

Rules of Civility:A Novel by Amor Towles (Viking)

Galore by Michael Crummey Other Press)

Doc:A Novel by Mary Doria Russell Random House

The Informant by Thomas Perry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Mink River by Brian Doyle (Oregon State University Press)

Rodin’s Debutante by Ward S. Just (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (Little Brown)

Tyrant Memory by Horacio Castellanos Moya and (New Directions)

You Think That’s Bad: Stories by Jim Shepard (Knopf)

The Cut by George P. Pelecanos (Reagan Arthur Books)

Remember by Stephen Harrigan (Knopf)

Broken Irish by Edward Delaney(Turtle Point Press)

The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Anne McLean (Riverhead)

Tonight BBC America is broadcasting the first of six episodes of The Hour. The Hour is working the same side of the street as MAD MEN. It’s the story of a British TV news program set in London in 1956. The Hour is on tonight here at 9:00 P. M. EST. Check your local listings for the broadcast time in your area. Here’s a sample of what you’ll see:

Once again, Daedalus Books offers value for your hard-earned dollars. The Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection retails for $69.98. Daedalus is selling this 5 DVD collection for a mere $19.98. The collection includes 124 cartoons, the opening credit sequences from the five Pink Panther movies, a documentary, and a tutorial from animation director Art Leonardi on how to draw the Pink Panther. That’s over 13 hours of pure entertainment! If you’re interested, just click here.

The Help is based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel about race relations in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Like J. K. Rowling and her Harry Potter book, The Help was turned down by dozens of publishers. The movie version, at 137 minutes, is too long. The story is straight-forward: Skeeter Phelan, a young girl who wants to be a writer (played by Emma Stone), decides to write about the African-American maids who work in white households. Getting the maids to talk takes some doing because Skeeter doesn’t really understand how bad conditions are in her hometown. Viola Davis plays Aibileen Clark, a stoic maid, to perfection. Octavia Spencer plays the rebellious Minny Jackson with a blend of seriousness and humor. When I read Kathryn Skockett’s novel, I was shocked at the racism still prevalent in 1963. Somehow, I thought things had improved by 1963. Wrong! The movie softens the racism portrayed in the novel. GRADE: B+