Novelist Susan Hill, with a house full of books (much like most of us), decides not to buy any more books for a year and, instead, read the stacks of books she’s accumulated. What follows is a series of chapters of Hill’s reading experiences and tastes. For example, Hill has never been able to get through Proust (neither have I). She rediscovers her love for Dickens and Trollope and Hardy. There are chapters on her favorite travel books (by Chatwin and Patrick Leigh Fermor), her favorite picture books, her favorite pop-up books. Howards End Is On the Landing delights with the story of Hill’s life-long love affair with reading. After reading Susan Hill’s descriptions of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and The Journals of Sir Walter Scott, I wanted to drop everything and read them! Although I’m not going to give up buying books anytime soon, this was a fun experiment to follow. GRADE: A

The only NFL team who hasn’t won a game this season is the lowly Buffalo Bills. Die-hard fans are weeping with frustration as the Bills have come close to winning the last three weeks (two overtime games!) but found a way to lose. A dreadful 0-8 record. But today, the Bills play the Detroit Lions whose quarterback is injured and will not play. Could this be the game that goes into the WIN column? Or will loyal Bills fans find their team remains winless. This game, astonishingly, is not a sell-out so I’ll have to listen to the radio coverage. Yes, I’m aware the game is available online and, if I was really motivated, being shown in bars across the border in Canada. But, I’ll just tough it out and listen to the Voice of the Bills, John Murphy, call the game. Go, Bills!

As I gradually replace my favorite DVDs with Blu-rays, I’m thrilled that BJ’s Warehouse is helping me out. This week they offered the Blu-ray version of Body Heat for a mere $9.99. I loved Body Heat when it was first released in 1981. I’ve owned the VHS tape, the DVD, and now the Blu-ray. Kathleen Turner, the sultry femme fatale and William Hurt, the obsessed pawn, generate sparks every time they’re on the screen. This Blu-ray edition includes lifted scenes; 3 steamy featurettes: Body Heat: The Plan – Screenplay and casting; The Production: Filming; The Post-Production: Editing, scoring and release, as well as vintage interviews with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt, and the theatrical trailer. For less than $10, this is a bargain!

Isaac Asimov died in 1992 and it’s hard to believe he’s been gone for nearly 20 years. I grew up reading Asimov’s science fiction especially his Foundation series. But I always liked the way Asimov blended whodunit plotting and SF in his robot novels. My favorite is The Naked Sun. I was walking through the North Tonawanda Library and my eye fell on the audio book version of The Naked Sun proudly displayed on one of the tables. I’m usually not a fan of audio books. I’d rather read books than listen to them. But, I checked out the unabridged audio version of The Naked Sun (6 CDs, 7.5 hours worth!) and listened to it. The narrator, William Dufris, does a nice job. If you haven’t read any Isaac Asimov lately, this is a good place to start. I also got a kick out of the fact this CD set was produced by Trantor Media, Inc.! Asimov fans will get this joke.

Robert Forster is a member of the rock group The Go-Betweens. Forster was approached by Christian Ryan, editor of The Monthly, to write music reviews of any album he felt like. Ryan wanted the perspective of a practicing member of a rock & roll group to give critical insight into contemporary music. The result is a series of music reviews that are likely to send you looking for CDs that are not in your collection. For example, Forster raves about Glen Campbell’s masterpiece: Meet Glen Campbell. Forster then boosts the Rhino Records box-set of The Monkees. Reviews of CDs by AC/DC, Bob Dylan, Nana Mouskouri, Cat Power, Franz Ferdinand, and Roberta Flack had the affect of generating an irresistible urge to drop everything and seek out this music. If you’re interested in rock and roll, you’ll find Robert Forster’s analysis unlike the typical record review. GRADE: B+

Charles Ferguson–who wrote, produced, and directed this enlightening documentary–captures the look of panic on the faces of many of the principals in the near collapse of the U. S. banking system (the heavy weights like Greenspan and Bernanke declined to be interviewed for this film). If you want to know how we got into this financial mess, Ferguson, with Matt Damon narrating, lays it all out: the drugs, the prostitutes, the pay-offs, the money-laundrying, the phony investment ratings, the “regulators” who looked the other way, the billions in executive compensation, the whole scam. Inside Job shows what I suspected: plenty of academics at our “finest” colleges and universities acting as shills for the banking industry. Ferguson makes the complicated clear and the perplexing understandable. I’m urging all of my students to see this film. You should see it, too! GRADE: A+

Sam’s Club has this 3-DVD set for the bargain price of $26.88. The Best of Soul Train features 50 classic performances from the legendary program. Highlights include -Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin singing a duet on Smokey’s hit ‘Ooo Baby Baby’ with Aretha playing the piano. The two also reminesce about growing up as friends in Detroit.
-Sly & The Family Stone performing two of their classics: ‘I Wanna Take You Higher’ and ‘Dance To The Music’
-Stevie Wonder performing three of his monster hits live in a phenomenal, intimate medley: ‘I Wish,’ ‘My Cherie Amour’ and ‘Sir Duke’
-Barry White on stage performing with a full orchestra
-Marvin Gaye and Don Cornelius playing one-on-one basketball with Smokey Robinson refereeing
-Ike & Tina Turner in a blistering version of ‘Proud Mary’
-Plus, The O’Jays, The Spinners, The Chi-Lites, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Stylistics, and dozens of other performers. If you’re a fan of soul music, this is a must-buy! GRADE: A

I’m not a big zombie fan, but I watched the first episode of The Walking Dead last Sunday on AMC. The setup is basic: a police deputy wakes up in a hospital after being shot and discovers he’s in an abandoned building filled with dead bodies. He learns an illness killed millions of people and then turned them into flesh-eating zombies. The deputy decides to head for Atlanta, but when he gets there, he finds the city has been taken over by “The Walking Dead.” I found the first episode to be a bit slow. However, the apocalyptic premise is compelling and I’ll give this series a few more weeks. The constant shooting of zombies in the head (the only sure way to “kill” them) gets a bit tedious. This series is based on a series of graphic novels by Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore first published in 2003.

I’ve read and enjoyed Jack McDevitt’s previous books in his Alex & Chase series so I was eager to read the just published new novel in the series, Echo. Artifacts dealer Alex Benedict and pilot Chase Kolpath encounter a strange marker with cryptic lettering on it. Then, the first of three attempts on their lives occurs. That only makes Alex more motivated to track down the origin of the marker and solve the mysteries behind it. If you haven’t read the previous books in this series–A Talent for War, Polaris, Seeker, and The Devil’s Eye–you’re missing some great contemporary SF adventures. Each book is essentially a mystery so if you enjoy puzzle novels, you’ll find these books great fun, too. GRADE: B+