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
After the terrible October Storm of 2006 when we lost power for three days and our basement was flooded because the sump pump had no electricity to work, we found that the water in the basement also killed our two dehumidifiers. We bought two new GE dehumidifiers and they worked well…until now. One of the GM dehumidifiers died last week (the other one still works but I’m guessing its life might be ending soon, too) so I did some research and decided to order the Frigidaire dehumidifier. We have a Frigidaire microwave, oven, and refrigerator. All problem free.
The Frigidaire FFAD3533W1 Dehumidifier is quiet and works well. If the GE dehumidifier dies, I’ll buy another Frigidaire FFAD3533W1 Dehumidifier for that part of the basement. Do you use a dehumidifier? Do you have a favorite? GRADE: too soon to tell, but so far so good
Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez reprise their roles of Charles-Haden Savage, Oliver Putnam and Mabel Mora, respectively, who are True Crime aficionados. They solved a murder in Seasons 1 and 2 ( you can read my reviews here and here) and now face a third murder investigation in Season 3. Martin Short is finally directing a Broadway play after his disaster of Splash blacklisted him from Broadway directing for years. Steve Martin, who played a cop on a TV program for 224 episodes, dreads the 8 shows a week regimen of a Broadway show so a murder comes as a relief. Elena Gomez plays a podcaster who specializes in True Crime solutions. Together, they focus on the wacky clues in this 10-episode series.
Guest stars Meryl Steep as a struggling actress and Paul Rudd as an egotistical leading man freshen up the formula Only Murders In the Building perfected over the years. GRADE: Incomplete, but trending towards a B
Once in a while I have a need for nostalgia so I go back and read a book I first read usually during the 1960s. Jack Williamson’s The Cometeers falls into that category nicely. I read it when it was first published in paperback although it’s a lot older than that. The first edition of The Cometeers is a collection of two science fiction novels by the American writer Jack Williamson : The Cometeers and One Against the Legion. It was first published by Fantasy Press in 1950 in an edition of 3,162 copies. The novels were originally serialized in the magazine Astounding in 1936 and 1939, and later released as individual paperbacks by Pyramid Books.
Grim news arrives about a “comet” approaching the solar system, a green comet that moves about as if managed by intelligent beings. These presumed aliens are referred to as The Cometeers by the news media. The mystery of the Cometeers and their mission in our solar system inspired Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas to praise the novels as “swashbuckling romantic adventure . . . which make more recent imitators look pallid indeed.”
Are you a fan of Science Fiction from the 1930s? Are you a fan of Jack Williamson who wrote SF for over 70 years? GRADE: B+
I’m not a big fan of tribute CDs but I had these two on my shelves for years so I figured it was time to listen to them. A Nod to Bob: An Artists’ Tribute to Bob Dylan on His Sixtieth Birthday (2001) is a mixed bag. Familiar Dylan songs rub shoulders with unfamiliar Dylan songs. I liked Liza Gillyson’s “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” and “Sweetheart Like You” by Guy Davis. I was much less impressed with Tom Landa & The Paperboys’ version of the classic “All Along the Watchtower.” Compared with the Jimi Hendrix version, it’s a complete dud.
Although these artists obviously love Dylan’s songs, their performances vary widely in quality. Do you have a favorite Dylan song? GRADE: B
Listening to Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors (2000) reminds me why I’m not fond of tribute CDs. The best cover on Stoned Immaculate is Creed’s “Riders on the Storm.” Aerosmith does an adequate job with “Love Me Two Times.” But Train completely misses with “Light My Fire.” That song featured the organ-style keyboard instruments played by Ray Manzarek. Train tries to do “Light My Fire” without the organ. That’s like playing football…without the football! Do you have a favorite song by The Doors? GRADE: C
I’m a big fan of Joe R. Lansdale’s work and you will be too if you read Thing Get Ugly: The Best Crime Stories of Joe R. Lansdale just published by Tachyon Press. The first line in “The Steel Valentine” is: “Even before Moseley told him, Dennis knew things were about to get ugly.” So that’s where the title of this excellent collection comes from. My favorite story is “Driving to Geronimo’s Grave” where two young people are sent to retrieve the corpse of their uncle during the Depression. Lansdale gets the setting right and has the knack (that few writers do) of creating child characters that sound like real child characters.
Joe R. Lansdale has written hundreds of short stories but these are the cream of the crop! Highly recommended! Are you a Joe R. Lansdale fan? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword by S. A. Cosby –7 Introduction by Joe R. Lansdale — 9
“The Steel Valentine” — 13 “Driving to Geronimo’s Grave” — 31 “Mr. Bear” — 59 “The Job” — 79 “Six Finger Jack” — 85 “The Shadows, Kith and Kin” — 107 “The Ears” — 125 “Santa at the Café” — 129 “I Tell You It’s Love” — 139 “Dead Sister” — 145 “Booty and the Beast” — 169 “Boys Will Be Boys” — 187 “Billie Sue” — 207 “The Phone Woman” — 215 “Dirt Devils” — 231 “Drive in Date” — 249 “Rainy Weather” — 263 “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” — 277 “The Projectionist” — 299
When this local production of a musical version of Twelfth Night showed up, Diane and I went to see it. The musical opens with an accordion-playing Jester who sets the scene.
On Twelfth Night, Viola and Sebastian are young twins who are performing on a ship and use their likeness to entertain their audiences. During their journey, Viola and Sebastian are caught in a storm, shipwrecked, and separated. Viola and other survivors end up on the shore of Illyria. A devastated Viola believes her brother is dead. Viola decides to pretend she’s a young man and disguises hereself to join the court of the local Duke Orsino . Viola becomes a page, using the name “Cesario”.
Violia’s boss, Duke Orsino, is madly infatuated with Countess Olivia , who is in mourning due to her brother’s recent death. The Countess uses the tragedy as an excuse to avoid seeing the Duke, whom she does not love. The Duke sends Cesario to the Countess to do his wooing and Olivia falls in love with the messenger, unaware of Cesario’s real gender. Realizing Olivia’s feelings for her, Viola is caught in even more of a quandary when she realizes that she is now in love with her boss, Duke Orsino.
A lot of silliness follows as the plot moves toward a final resolution of the couples love interests. The music in this production had a jazzy flavor that fit the antics on the stage. Of course, for Shakespeare purists, this would be a travesty. But we enjoyed it. Are you a fan of Twelfth Night? GRADE: B
“There are thirty-two ways to write a story and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot–things are not as they seem.”
The quote above by Jim Thompson kicks off a detailed survey of modern storytelling in books and movies. David Bordwell, Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, seemingly has seen a thousand movies and still found time to read a couple thousand books. Perplexing Plots takes a roughly chronological approach at the beginning to describe the field of interest Bordwell wants to concentrate on: plot.
My favorite chapter in Perplexing Plots is Chapter 11: Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine. Bordwell makes a distinction between the Donald Westlake comic capers and the “Richard Stark” serious caper novels. I had no idea that Westlake divided the Parker novels into four parts with Parker the focus of Part One and Part Four while Part Two or Part Three would be told through one of the other characters to provide a contrasting viewpoint. Westlake structured the plots of the Parker novels to give maximum flexibility. This gives Parker (and his heist accomplices) the options of not just knocking over armored cars, but a football game, a casino, a convention of coin collectors, an Air Force base, an African embassy, a rock concert, a revival meeting, a jewelry auction, and a rural race track (p. 346).
I also enjoyed the contrast of Erle Stanley Gardner’s plotting with Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries. Throughout Perplexing Plots Brodwell refers to Tarantino who seems to embody the kind of plotting Bordwell holds up as the Gold Standard.
“Why are hard-boiled plots so hard to follow, let alone remember? In part because of all the lying, but we get that in whodunits too. More markedly, hard-boiled plots tend to abandon the Gold Age tidiness of physical clues, timetables, and a closed circle of suspects. Instead we must keep track of secrets shared among a vast cast spread across an urban milieu.” (p. 200)
Perplexing Plots both delights and informs. I know you are all well versed in mystery novels and noir movies, but I can guarantee you will learn new facts about the plotting of those genres that will make you sit up and exclaim, “Wow! I didn’t know that!” Highly recommended! GRADE: A
Oh, and does anyone know which movie that cover photo came from? It’s only credited to 20th Century Fox.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments — xi Introduction: Mass Art as Experimental Storytelling — 1 Part I 1. The Art Novel Meets 1910s Formalism — 29 2. Making Confusion Satisfactory: Modernism and Other Mysteries — 55 3. Churn and Consolidation: The 1940s and After — 81 Part II 4. The Golden Age Puzzle Plot: The Taste of the Construction — 119 5. Before the Fact: The Psychological Thriller — 157 6. Dark and Full of Blood: Hard-Boiled Detection — 194 7. The 1940s: Mysteries in Crossover Culture — 235 8. The 1940s: The Problem of Other Minds, or Just One — 261 Part III 9. The Great Detective Rewritten: Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout — 285 10. Viewpoints, Narrow and Expansive: Patricia Highsmith and Ed McBain — 318 11. Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine — 336 12. Tarantino, Twists, and the Persistence of Puzzles — 357 13. Gone Girls: The New Domestic Thriller — 382 Conclusion: The Power of Limits — 405 Notes — 413 Index — 467
