I’ve enjoyed Julie Schumacher’s clever and snarky novels about the English Department at Payne University (where students wear T-shirts with PAYNE U: WHERE EDUCATION HURTS). Schumacher captures the chaos and wackiness of the current academic scene. Dear Committee Members (you can read my review here), where the English Department is in turmoil, and The Shakespeare Requirement (you can read my review here), where the English Department is under siege by the Machiavellian head of the wealthy Economics Department, Roland Gladwell. Gladwell plans to gut the English Department and take over their offices and conference rooms. Typical academic turf war!

I once took a trip to New York City with two other faculty members and a dozen students to visit Wall Street and other sites with business connections. It was a nightmare. One student stayed out all night and showed up in the morning dazed and confused from the alcohol and drugs he enjoyed during his binge. We had to sober him up and I had to put him on a train back to Buffalo.

Beleaguered head of the English Department, Professor Jason Fitger, gets pressured by the Dean (or face budget cuts) to accompany a group of students for a three-week tour of England. The students all have issues: one young woman has never been away from her cat before. There’s a student with a juvenile detention record. A pair of artistic twins. A couple who have broken up and remain unreconciled with the predictable awkwardness of the situation. And, of course, the student who thought he was going to the Caribbean and only packed T-shirts, shorts, and sun screen.

It doesn’t help that Fitger hates England. Fitger’s ex-wife (and her possible lover, Thor) cause Fitger to reevaluate his decisions about his life. For a rollicking adventure in England with plenty of laughs, give The English Experience a try. GRADE: B+

The 1-1 Buffalo Bills travel to Washington, D.C. to take on the 2-0 Commanders and Tropical Storm Ophelia. The Bills are favored by 6 1/2 points but the wind and the rain may affect the game. How will your favorite NFL team do today?

If you’re a fan of the John Wick series, you’re going to be disappointed with this prequel to the saga where we’re supposed to learn more about the history of The Continental hotel for assassins.

This 3-episode series is in the 1970s during the middle of a labor strike that leaves New York City overflowing with garbage–an apt metaphor for these shallow and sordid 90-minute duds. The Continental starts with story of how a young Winston Scott (Colin Woodell) winds up fighting for his life after his brother Frankie (Ben Robson) steals something valuable from assassin hotel.

Despite featuring some High Table villains like the masked Adjudicator (Katie McGrath) and eerie sharpshooters Hansel (Mark Musashi) and Gretel (Marina Mazepa), The Continental’s big villain is the disappointing Mel Gibson as Cormac, the New York hotel’s manager. Sure, the body count is high, but this series just doesn’t have class of the institution it’s supposed to be about. GRADE: C-

Mary Kelly (no relation) is best known for her Inspector Brett Nightingale and Hedley Nicholson series of mysteries. But as Martin Edwards points out in his informative Introduction, Mary Kelly was a dynamic writer for decades. She won the Golden Dagger Award for The Spoilt Kill in 1961.

Due to a Death (1962) features a blood-covered narrator named Agnes who is trapped in a loveless marriage, flashbacks that influence the investigation of the murder of a young girl, and a mysterious stranger new to the quaint English village where a murderer lurks.

Classic British Library Crime Classics deserves praise for reprinting this innovative and suspenseful mystery novel. GRADE: B+

Last week I was listening to these collaborative CDs. The Chieftains and a bunch of their friends–Sting, Jagger, Sinead O’Connor, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Jones, and The Rolling Stones–produced a satisfying album back in 1995.

I hadn’t heard Mick Jagger’s version of “The Long Black Veil” before and it’s pretty good. Rod Stewart had a hit with his version of Van Morrison’s “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?” but this rendition is pleasing, too.

Sadly, we won’t have any more music from Sinead O’Connor. The two songs she sings on this CD reminds you of how wonderful her voice was. On the other hand, Marianne Faithfull’s voice is raspy. GRADE: B+

I’ve had Better Together: The Duet Album since it came out in 1991 and only got around to listening to it last week. Johnny Mathis gets played every year at Christmas time. Diane loves his Christmas albums! Mathis and his friends–Patti Austin, Regina Belle, Angela Bofill, Jane Oliver, Take 6, Dionne Warwick, and Deniese Williams–deliver a very listenable album of love songs. Mathis and Deniese Williams had a hit with “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late.”

I really liked “It’s All In the Game” and “In the Still of the Night” with Mathis and Take 6. I’m a big fan of Regina Belle’s voice and she’s stellar on her cut: “Better Together.” If you’re in the mood for some wonderful music, check out Better Together: The Duet Album. Do you remember these songs? GRADE: A-

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

Perfect Summer reading! That’s what Fourth Planet from the Sun (2005) turned out to be for me. Gordon Van Gelder collects some of the best Mars stories first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and provides catchy introductions.

What would a Mars anthology be without a Ray Bradbury story? Or an Arthur C. Clarke story? And, who could resist Leigh Brackett’s “Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon”?

Roger Zelazny’s “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1964. John Varley’s “In the Hall of the Martian Kings” was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1977. “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” morphed in the Arnold Schwarzenegger hit, Total Recall.

I also got a kick out of Van Gelder putting Robert F. Young’s “The First Mars Mission” next to Michael Casutt’s “The Last Mars Trip.” All together, Fourth Planet from the Sun delivers a dozen stories that will delight you! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION — xi

Loosely based on Robert Jordon’s best selling Fantasy series, The Wheel of Time, Season 2 continues the storylines set up in Season 1. In this new season, Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and his friends are separated and under attack by the evil Dark One and his minions. Meanwhile, Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) and her Warder, Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney), are trying to protect Rand and company despite losing their special abilities.

I’m most interested any segment of The Wheel of Time with Rosamund Pike in it. As in Season 1, Season 2 has eight episodes full of conflict and magic. A third Season has been approved. Mildly entertaining. GRADE: B

I’ve read the entire Sean Duffy series: The Cold Cold Ground, I Hear the Sirens in the Street, and In the Morning I’ll Be Gone. You can read my reviews here and here. Then The Troubles Trilogy expanded to include Gun Street Girl, my review is here. Then Rain Dogs, review here. And Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly, review here.

The seventh book in the Sean Duffy series just showed up: The Detective Up Late. Throughout the book, Adrian McKinty hints that this might be Duffy’s last case. Duffy is a veteran Detective Inspector in Belfast, Ireland. The previous books in the series were all based in the 1980s, but The Detective Up Late opens with a new decade dawning.

Sean Duffy is an unconventional police officer. He’s educated and smart–which generates resentment from some of his fellow officers. Duffy investigates the possible murder of a teenage girl and the twists and turns of the case unearths a number of surprises. My favorite episode in The Detective Up Late occurs when Duffy and his squad are ambushed by a hit team armed with automatic weapons. McKinty knows how to write edge-of-your-seat action scenes!

In addition to Duffy’s literary references, his love of music pops up at various times in these novels. For example, “But if you’ve got a record player and you’ve got an album by Ella Fitzgerald, you’r going to change you mind about topping yourself.” (p. 248)

If you’re in the mood for an unorthodox police procedural with sparkling wit and intense action, The Detective Up Late will keep those pages turning! GRADE: B+

After the debacle in the Meadowlands on Monday Night football, the 0-1 Buffalo Bills face the 1-0 Raiders with Bills fans fired up for the Home Opener with hopes of redemption. The Bills are inexplicable 9 1/2 point favorites. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

Diane and I drove over to the North Tonawanda Public Library and joined a dozen other Ann Patchett fans to watch a ZOOM interview of Ann Patchett with Shannon DeVito, Sr. Director, Book Strategy and Customer Experience at B&N and Miwa Messer, Executive Producer of B&N’s POURED OVER podcast.

The hour-long interview covered details of Patchett’s new novel, Tom Lake, which Diane had read (Diane’s read just about every book Ann Patchett has published). I enjoyed Patchett’s stories of how the novel came about (it actually started while she was finishing writing The Dutch House). Patchett also spoke about the impact of the Pandemic on the book and its characters. Patchett also choses the artwork for her novels. She and her husband were vacationing in Paris when she saw the painting that would become the cover of Tom Lake.

I wish I could include a link to this interview, but there’s none on the Barnes & Noble Book Club website. Ann Patchett mentioned how she asked Tom Hanks to do the audio book for The Dutch House and also asked Meryl Streep to narrate Tom Lake. “If you don’t ask, it won’t happen,” she advised. Are you an Ann Patchett fan? GRADE: A