Diane and I saw Mary Chapin Carpenter in concert at Melody Fair (in the round) in the 1990s. We own and listen to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s CDs frequently. We never saw Shawn Colvin live before tonight, but we have listened to her CDs, too.
When you read the concert poster and see “Together On Stage” that is exactly what you’re getting: two singers with their guitars on the stage. No backup band or singers.
Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin chattered between songs. Some people like that.
The less than sold-out audience applauded each song. Some of the ardent fans screamed, “We love you!” I was mildly entertained, but tomorrow I’ll have to listen to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s CDs and Shawn Colvin’s CDs to get the full musical experience. GRADE: B
Gary Lovisi, best known for his excellent publication Paperback Parade (started in 1986), has written about paperbacks and paperback writers for decades. In A Mystery, Crime & Noir Notebook, Lovisi collects dozens of articles he’s published over the past 40 years. A Mystery, Crime & Noir Notebook is a Graduate class in the history of paperbacks featuring articles on book covers (over 140 examples of classic paperback artwork grace the pages of this book), authors (some Lovisi knew personally), and book collecting.
I especially enjoyed reading Lovisi’s articles on some of my favorite paperback writers: quirky Michael Avallone, James Hadley Chase, Bruno Fischer, Richard Jessup, and the King of the Caper Novel–Lionel White.
Although you might think you know a lot about paperbacks and paperback writers and artists, Gary Lovisi knows more…way more! A Mystery, Crime & Noir Notebook is a must-buy for those who love paperback mysteries, crime novels, and Noir classics. Have fun reading about the paperback genres and learn a lot at the same time! Highly recommended! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 7
INTRODUCTION By Gary Lovisi — 11
About Mystery, Crime & Noir
The Noir Trap: Money, Women, Love, Sex & Fame — 13
The Hardboiled Way — 17
Various Authors & Books
Collecting Vintage Mystery Paperbacks — 23
Avon Books: Centerpieces of Vintage Mystery & Crime — 32
Back in 1990, Time-Life brought out a 2-CD set called Guitar Rock. I can’t discern any real difference between the songs on DISC A and those songs on DISC B. Some artists like Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton show up on both CDs. I’m familiar with all the songs on these CDs. Obviously, Time-Life played it safe and selected songs that reached the top of the BILLBOARD charts and proved to be favorites on Oldies radio stations.
How many of these songs do you remember? Any favorites? GRADE: B (for both)
Edward D. Hoch, who wrote nearly a 1000 short stories, featured a number of characters in stories: Simon Ark (who might be a 1000 years old), Dr. Sam Hawthorne, Nick Velvet (the thief who steals worthless objects), Captain Leopold, Susan Holt, and many others.
The Ripper of Storyville collects 14 Ben Snow mystery stories. In his Introduction, Hoch explains how a series about a man many people think is Billy the Kid evolved into a character involved in a presidential assassination, a serial killer investigation, a locked room murder, and a mission into Mexico. The stories span 1882 to 1935 as Ben Snow travels around the West.
Hoch warns readers that some of the Ben Snow stories, written early in his writing career, don’t have the craftsmanship of his later stories. Even in the early 1960s, Hoch displays his talent in these Ben Snow stories. I enjoyed them and so will you! Marvin Lachman’s informative “Long Way From Home: The Travels of Ben Snow,” traces the history of the Ben Snow stories and their settings. I also appreciated the chronology of the Ben Snow stories that Marv provides. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION By Edward D. Hoch — 9
Frontier street — 13
Valley of arrows — 27
Ghost town — 39
Flying man — 52
Man in the alley — 65
Ripper of Storyville — 82
Snow in Yucatan –101
Vanished steamboat — 117
Brothers on the beach –130
500 hours of Dr. Wisdom — 144
Trail of the bells — 158
Phantom stallion — 171
Sacramento waxworks — 185
Only tree in Tasco — 197
Long way from home: the travels of Ben Snow / Marvin Lachman — 209
Diane and I drove over to our local AMC Theater and joined hundreds of Swifties for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The two-hour and 48-minute concert film featured most of the songs Taylor Swift sang during her “The Eras” tour. The sold-out theater with women and girls, dressed up in their favorite Taylor Swift garb, sang enthusiastically along with Taylor Swift and her backup singers.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Taylor Swift: the Eras Tour took in $126 million this weekend making it the highest grossing concert movie in history. The spectacle, the lighting, the special effects, and the platforms that took Taylor Swift up and down on the stage thrilled the audience. The sound, sometimes a problem in concert movies, was clear and brilliant. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour puts Taylor Swift and her talent on grand display! GRADE: A
In the October 23, 2023 issue of TIME Magazine, from pages 67 through 73, this issue presents “The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time” in chronological order (you can check out the actual article here). For convenience, I typed up the list. If you want to check out the book covers, go to the Time web site. How many of these books have you read? Any favorites?
THE 100 BEST MYSTERY & THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME
1. 1860: THE WOMAN IN WHITE By Wilkie Collins
2. 1867: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT By Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. 1878: THE LEAVENWORTH CASE By Anna Katharine Green
4. 1898: THE TURN OF THE SCREW By Henry James
5. 1902: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES By Arthur Conan Doyle
6. 1926: THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD By Agatha Christie
7. 1929: THE CRIME AT BLACK DUDLEY By Margery Allingham
8. 1929: THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18 By Mignon G. Eberhart
9. 1930: THE MALTESE FALCON By Dashiell Hammett
10. 1932: THE CONJURE-MAN DIES By Rudolph Fisher
11. 1934: A MAN LAY DEAD By Ngaio Marsh
12. 1935: GAUDY NIGHT By Dorothy L. Sayers
13. 1935: THE THREE COFFINS By John Dickson Carr
14. 1938: REBECCA By Daphne Du Maurier
15. 1939: A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS By Eric Ambler
16. 1943: DOUBLE INDEMNITY By James M. Cain
17. 1945: IF HE HOLLERS LET HIM GO By Chester Himes
18. 1947: IN A LONELY PLACE By Dorothy B. Hughes
19. 1951: THE DAUGHTER OF TIME By Josephine Tey
20. 1952: BEAT NOT THE BONES By Charlotte Jay
21. 1953: CASINO ROYALE By Ian Fleming
22. 1953: A KISS BEFORE DYING By Ira Levin
23. 1953: THE LONG GOODBYE By Raymond Chandler
24. 1955: BEAST IN VIEW By Margaret Millar
25. 1955: THE QUIET AMERICAN By Graham Greene
26. 1955: THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY By Patrica Highsmith
27. 1962: WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE By Shirley Jackson
28. 1963: THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD By John Le Carre
29. 1973: THE HONJIN MURDERS By Seishi Yokomizo
30. 1975: WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? By Mary Higgins Clark
31. 1977: THE SHINING By Stephen King
32. 1979: THE LAST GOOD KISS By James Crumley
33. 1980: THE NAME OF THE ROSE By Umberto Eco
34. 1984: THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER By Tom Clancy
35: 1986: A DARK-ADAPTED EYE By Barbara Vine
36. 1987: THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDERS By Yukito Avatsuji
37. 1988: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS By Thomas Harris
38. 1990: DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS By Walter Mosley
39. 1990: MEAN SPIRIT By Linda Hogan
40. 1990: POSTMORTEM By Patrica Cronwell
41. 1991: FACELESS KILLERS By Henning Mankell
42. 1992: DEAD TIME By Eleanor Taylor Bland
43. 1992: THE SECRET HISTORY By Donna Tartt
44. 1992: SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW By Peter Hoeg
45. 1994: WHEN DEATH COMES STEALING By Valerie Wilson Wesley
46. 1996: FADE AWAY By Harlan Coben
47. 1997: KILLING FLOOR By Lee Child
48. 1997: LADY JOKER By Kaoru Takamura
49. 1997: MORITURI By Yasmina Khadra
50. 1997: OUT By Natsuo Kirino
51. 1999: INNER CITY BLUES By Paula L. Woods
52. 1999: A PLACE OF EXECUTION By Val McDermid
53. 1999: THOSE BONES ARE NOT MY CHILD By Toni Cade Bambara
54. 2000: BLANCHE PASSES GO By Barbara Neely
55. 2000: DEATH OF A RED HEROINE By Qui Xiaolong
56. 2000: THE REDBREAST By Jo Nesbo
57. 2001: MYSTIC RIVER By Dennis Lehane
58. 2001: THE SHADOW OF THE WIND By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
59. 2001: THE SURGEON By Tess Gerritsen
60. 2002: THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK By Stephen L. Carter
61. 2002: FINGERSMITH By Sarah Waters
62. 2003: THE ICE PRINCESS By Camilla Lackberg
63. 2004: 2666 By Roberto Bolano
64. 2004: CASE HISTORIES By Kate Atkinson
65. 2005: THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X By Keigo Higashing
66. 2005: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO By Stieg Larsson
67. 2005: THE LINCOLN LAWYER By Michael Connelly
68. 2006: SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN By Naomi Hirahara
69. 2007: QUEENPIN By Megan Abbott
70. 2007: WHAT THE DEAD KNOW By Laura Lippman
71. 2007: THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN’S UNION by Michael Chabon
72. 2009: DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD By Olga Tokarczuk
73. 2009: WIFE OF THE GODS By Kwei Quartey
74. 2010: BURY YOUR DEAD By Louise Penny
75. 2010: FAITHFUL PLACE By Tana French
76. 2010: THE PLOTTERS By Un-Su Kim
77. 2011: THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING By Juan Gabriel Vasquez
78. 2012: GONE GIRL By Gillian Flynn
79. 2012: THE ROUND HOUSE By Louise Erdrich
80. 2013: SIX FOUR By Video Yokoyama
81. 2013: ORDINARY GRACE BY William Kent Krueger
82. 2014: BIG LITTLE LIES By Liane Moriarty
83. 2014: EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU By Celeste Ng
84. 2014: LAND OF SHADOWS By Rachel Howzell Hall
85. 2015: THE SYMPATHIZER By Viet Thanh Nguyen
86. 2017: BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD By Attica Locke
87. 2017: HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE By Kellye Garrett
88. 2018: MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER By Oyinkan Braithwaitej
89. 2018: THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL By Sujata Massey
90. 2019: MIRACLE CREEK By Angie Kim
91. 2019: THE NEED By Helen Phillips
92. 2019: THE OTHER AMERICANS By Laila Lalami
93. 2019: THE TURN OF THE KEY By Ruth Ware
94. 2019: YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY By Steph Cha
95. 2020: BLACKTOP WASTELAND By S. A. Cosby
96. 2020: DJINN PATROL ON THE PURPLE LINE By Deepa Anappara
97. 2020: MEXICAN GOTHIC By Silvia Moreno-Garcia
98. 2020: WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING By Alyssa Cole
99. 2020: WINTER COUNTS By David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Despite the disastrous trip to London to lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars 25-20, the Buffalo Bills found themselves 14-point favorites over the NY Giants at the beginning of the week. By Wednesday, the Giants revealed that their Quarterback, Daniel Jones, could not practice because of a neck injury. Former Bills QB, Tyron Taylor, will be running the Giants’ offensive tonight. As soon as that news broke, the Vegas betting line shot up to 17-points.
However, the weather in Orchard Park is predicted to be cold and rainy for Sunday Night Football. The weather conditions could cause havoc for both teams. How will your favorite team perform today?
HULU and Starz brought out this 2015 horror/comedy series, Ash vs. Evil Dead, just in time for the Halloween season.
The series is set approximately 30 years after the first three Evil Dead films, and serves as a sequel to that trilogy. Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) works at the “Value Stop” as a stock boy. Also working at the store is his friend Pablo (Ray Santiago) and the object of Pablo’s affections, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo).
Ash has done very little with his life since returning from 1300 AD at the end of Army of Darkness except hiding out. At the beginning of this series Ash is living in a trailer and drinking alone in bars. However, Ash has to renounce his routine existence and become a hero once more by taking up arms and facing the titular Evil Dead as they attack him. Pablo and Kelly decide to join him on his quest to save humanity.
I’m a sucker for any series that features The Necronomicon. This 10 episode series is silly, occasionally funny, and gory. Lots of fake blood! A second season of Ash vs. Evil Dead showed up in 2016 and a third season arrived in 2018. One season was enough for me. GRADE: B-
Friend of this blog, Jeffrey D. Smith, with the help of Karen Joy Fowler and Subterranean Press, edited this wonderful collection! I’ve included the Subterranean Press description of The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness to show how this volume certainly ranks at the top of the James Tiptree, Jr. collections.
If you’re a James Tiptree, Jr. fan, don’t miss this marvelous book! GRADE: A
“Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler.
Pioneering science fiction writer Alice Sheldon, who found fame using the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr., among others, left behind a remarkable body of short fiction, much of it uncollected or out of print. Now The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness, co-edited by Jeffrey D. Smith and two-time Booker Prize nominee Karen Joy Fowler, brings new light to some of Tiptree’s best and overlooked stories.
The stories represented span Tiptree’s career, and were primarily selected from a list made by Sheldon which she called “the cream of Tiptree,” none of which were included in Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. With a title drawn from Sheldon’s description of Tiptree as “the voice that murmurs in the darkness,” among the wonders featured here are…
In “Excursion Fare,” Dag and Philippa are about to be lost at sea in the wreckage of their balloon Sky-Walker, their grand adventure a failure, when a hospice ship called Charon rescues them, and they find themselves on a cruise exclusively for the dying—which may be carrying far stranger passengers.
A surreal evening ensues in “The Man Doors Said Hello To,” when a tall man enters a bar, carrying miniature girls as tenants in his pockets, and takes the narrator with him on a strange rescue mission through secrets hiding in the corners and ledges of the city.
At nineteen, Jolyone Schram cries out in “Time-Sharing Angel,” despairing when she glimpses a vision of overpopulation and resulting planetary devastation, only to be heard by an interstellar angel who produces a shocking, simple fix that affects children across Earth and changes the future.
And, in “Yanqui Doodle,” a soldier undergoes a harrowing detox treatment from specialized drugs given to soothe the conscience during combat—a process that might itself be as painful as the memories of atrocities committed under their influence—and grows ever more unstable.
The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness encompasses thirteen exceptional stories and one essay (“How to Have an Absolutely Hilarious Heart Attack”), covering the years 1968 to 1987, and includes an exclusive introduction from Karen Joy Fowler. Throughout this landmark new collection is Tiptree’s remarkable prose, shot through with invention and big ideas, exploring classic themes of identity, politics, what it is to be human, and the miraculous oddity of life—from what lies inside us out to the very edges of the universe.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler. — 7
Excursion Fare — 11
The Snows Are Melted, the Snows Are Gone — 59
The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Awful Things to Rats — 73
Fault — 101
All the Kinds of Yes — 109
The Man Doors Said Hello To — 131
Beam Us Home — 139
The Only Neat Thing to Do — 155
Time-Sharing Angel — 215
How to Have an Absolutely Hilarious Heart Attack — 229
I spent last week listening to a dozen Greatest Hits CDs. Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream (1983) and The Essential Paul Simon (2007) stood out among the various discs. I actually saw Cream live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at a bar called The Scene on May 03, 1968. The venue was jammed with fans. I really didn’t know all that much about Cream, but the performance was electric! I don’t remember the entire Set List, but I do remember Cream playing:
“Sunshine of Your Love”
“Spoonful”
“Toad”
“I Feel Free”
Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker delivered a blistering performance that energized the crowd. I still marvel at Ginger Baker’s searing drum solo! GRADE: A
I’ve never seen Paul Simon live, but I have seen plenty of concert videos and TV performances. The Essential Paul Simon includes two CDs of Simon’s music, and a DVD with Saturday Night Live performances, other TV appearances, and some MTV music videos. I enjoy the songs from Paul Simon’s early career, especially the songs with Art Garfunkel. But, the pair broke up and Simon and Garfunkel went solo.
I’ve always admired Paul Simon’s lyrics: smart and savvy. “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” still gets played on Sirius/XM radio. I just heard it again yesterday. Love “Homeward Bound.” Are you a Paul Simon and/or Cream fan? Any favorites? GRADE: A
