I’ve been an admirer of Tony Dungy for years. I liked his quiet, but firm style of coaching. Dungy brought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the brink of the Super Bowl (they won it the next year after Dungy was fired–Jon Gruden got the credit). Fortunately, the Indianapolis Colts hired Dungy and he took them to the playoffs and finally to a Super Bowl win. Tony Dungy’s The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently holds plenty of great football stories. Dungy talks about helping Michael Vick rebuild his career and his life. He also talks about the huge effect Chuck Noll, coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, when Dungy was a player (and later a coach) had on his life. The chief secrets Dungy shares is that leaders must be teachers and role models. Nothing earth-shattering, but execution is everything. GRADE: B

Ed Gorman mentioned on James Reasoner’s blog that Clifton Adams had written five or six of the best westerns ever. Imagine my dismay at reading those words with the realization that while I had a stack of Clifton Adams’ novels, I’d never read one of them! Well, that deficiency has been rectified by my enjoyment of Clifton Adams’ Tragg’s Choice first published in 1969. Tragg is an aging performer. As a U. S. Marshal, he shot a desperado ten years before and then went on a lecture tour to cash in on his fame. But, after ten years, audiences have forgotten the desperado and Tragg finds himself looking for another profession. He meets Jessie Ross, girlfriend of a contemporary desperado with a $10,000 bounty on his head. Jessie tries to talk Tragg into helping her collect the bounty on her boyfriend, but Tragg wants nothing to do with it. A hired assassin, a crazed killer, and a lynch mob keep the plot of Tragg’s Choice unpredictable. Tragg’s Choice won the Spur Award in 1969 for Best Western Novel. It’s well deserved.

Arvo Part’s “Fourth Symphony,” written in 2008 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is scored for strings, harp, and percussion. This is melancholy music. Think of Symphony 4 as a cousin to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Stings and you won’t be far off. This CD includes excerpts from “Kanon Pokajanen,” sung by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir led by Tonu Kaljuste. If you like Part’s music, you’ll want to hear this. GRADE: A-

Sigrid Nunez’s latest novel, Salvation City, revolves around a deadly flu pandemic that kills millions in the U.S. and around the world. Cole, a teenager whose parents die in the plague, finds himself adopted by a fundamentalist religious couple. Cole, also a plague victim, recovers with some memory problems. As Cole tries to adjust to his new parents and a whole new post-plague world, the past starts to exert its power as his memory slowly returns. I found Salvation City reminiscent of post-nuclear holocaust novels of the 1950s. This book could also have been marketed as a Young Adult novel. GRADE: B

I love all of Nancy Pearl’s collections of book lists: BOOK LUST and MORE BOOK LUST and BOOK CRUSH (books for kids and teens). Now we have BOOK LUST TO GO: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. Like her previous books, librarian Nancy Pearl recommends wonderful books in every conceivable category. And, the amazing part is Pearl seems to have read every book she recommends! As I grow older and travel becomes more onerous, reading travel books provides an entertaining escape without all the aggravation. Check out this new Nancy Pearl volume. It’s a browser’s delight! GRADE: A

I read the novels in this wonderful LIBRARY OF AMERICA volume as they were published, but it’s nice to have them in one handy volume. Saul Bellow: Novels 1970-1982 includes some of Bellow’s best novels: Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Humboldt’s Gift, and The Dean’s December. I’m constantly surprised at the number of people I encounter who haven’t read Saul Bellow. Trust me, that Nobel Prize for Literature that he won in 1976 was well deserved. And, sadly, Bellow doesn’t appear on college reading lists, either. I’m mystified by the academic neglect of one of our greatest novelists. If you haven’t read these fine novels, you’re in for a treat. You can find the LIBRARY OF AMERICA volumes discounted substantially in bookstores and online. GRADE: A

Emma Stone as suburban high school student in California delights in this comic confection. Emma pretends to have sex with a friend trying to disguise his gay proclivities and that “good intention” leads her to pretending to have sex with a number of high school social outcasts. However, as the outcasts’ social status goes up after encounters with Emma, her own social status goes way down. In English class, taught by “cool” teacher Thomas Haden Church, the class is reading Hawthorne’s classic: The Scarlet Letter. Emma, feeling the student body against her, starts dressing provocatively and wearing a scarlet A on her breast. Emma has high powered parents: Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci. Lisa Kudrow plays a ditzy guidance counselor who will make you laugh. Easy A is very entertaining and surprisingly sweet. GRADE: B+

Case and the Dreamer, Volume XIII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon completes the fine series published by North Atlantic Books. This final volume of Theodore Sturgeon’s work from 1972 to 1983 includes Forwards by Peter S. Beagle and Debbie Notkin and a summary Afterward by Paul Williams. I own this complete series and have enjoyed every volume. Theodore Sturgeon was one of the best short story writers ever and these volumes prove it. I highly recommend all 13 volumes in this series.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Theodore Sturgeon and The Last Unicorn By Peter S. Beagle
Lifelong Passion: Theodore Sturgeon’s Fiction By Debbie Notkin
Tuesdays are Worse
Case and the Dreamer
Agnes, Accent and Access
Ingenious Aylmer
The Sheriff of Chayute
The Mysterium
“I Love Maple Walnut”
Blue Butter
The Singsong of Cecily Snow
Harry’s Note
Time Warp
The Country of Afterward
Like Yesterday
Why Dolphins Don’t Bite
Vengeance Is
Seasoning
Not an Affair
Black Moccasins
The Trick
Grizzly
Theodore Sturgeon: Storyteller By Paul Williams
Story Notes By Noel Sturgeon
Index of Stories in The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon

Fans of Bernard Cornwell’s novels will be surprised by his latest effort, The Fort. The fort in question is Fort George in Massachusetts (later Maine) named for the British king at the time. The British build a crude fort in the summer of 1779 and expected to be dislodged by a larger American force of irregulars. That’s what should have happened. But what did happen at the Battle of Penobscot Bay was the worst American naval disaster until Pearl Harbor. Cornwell tells the story of how the Revolutionary forces led by the cautious General Lovell refused to attack the fort. The even more cautious Commodore Saltonstall, with 40 ships, delays and delays to take out the three ships the British have defending the fort. Paul Revere comes off as a self-centered diva as he “interprets” orders or ignores them completely. Yes, there is some fighting in this book, but it’s a minor part of the politics of warfare. Cornwell’s meticulously researched story shows the idiotic aspects of war. You’ll come away liking characters on both sides of the conflict. GRADE: B+