A Bob Dylan Christmas album. The mind reels! All of Bob Dylan’s U.S. current and future royalties from sales of Christmas In The Heart will be donated in perpetuity to Feeding America (once called Second Harvest), the organization that provides needed supplies to food banks across the country. That’s why I’ll be buying a copy–plus, I’m curious to hear Dylan sing “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” This CD goes on sale October 13.

I suppose I could have waited and used this classic adventure novel for Patti Abbott’s FORGOTTEN BOOKS on Friday, but why wait? There’s a rugged soldier-of-fortune, Eric Nelson, battling the unknown forces. There’s a beautiful woman (featured on the the wonderful EMSH cover) who Nelson has to save from unimaginable dangers. And all of that within 159 pages. Eric Nelson takes on a mysterious assignment deep in the borderlands of Tibet. There, in a legendary valley, Shan Kar, the man who has hired him, tells Nelson that he is humankind’s last ditch defense against the valley’s intelligent animals, who plan to take over the world. If Nelson is successful, his reward is a fabulous treasure in platinum not far from the city of the animals. But after an encounter with a beautiful warrior-maid who fights along side the animals, and an encounter with a telepathic wolf, Nelson wonders if he has been told the whole story. To find out he will has to enter the city of the animals, have his own personality transferred into the body of a wolf and run with the pack. If you’re in the mood for an out-of-body experience and a brief return to a “sense of wonder,” read The Valley of Creation. GRADE: B+

Diane and I attended the “Gala” season opener for the BPO. Their guest stars were Gil Shaham and his lovely wife, Adele Anthony. Shaham started the concert by playing Sarasate’s “Carmen Fantasy” from his latest CD. Then Shaham and his wife played Bach’s “Concerto for Two Violins.” Conductor JoAnn Falletta devoted the second half of the program to that war horse, Beethoven’s “Symphony #9.” Clearly, the attempt to win more subscribers to the BPO dictated the music selections. But Diane and I enjoyed the music and hope to attend more BPO concerts as circumstances allow.

TMC has issued a dozen of these collections: mysteries, romantic comedies, SF, etc. I’m featuring TCM: BATTLEFRONT EUROPE because I don’t believe you can beat the value of this package. It includes Kelly’s Heroes (a personal favorite), Where Eagles Dare, The Dirty Dozen, and Battleground. Four classics for $16.84 at Sam’s Club, or a couple bucks more at AMAZON. These movies bring back a lot of memories, and in these times of fluff and reality TV, projects like these will go the way of the dinosaurs. Buy them while they’re still available!

Fredric Brown wrote wonderful mysteries and wonderful science fiction. Not many writers are that skilled and that adroit. The Mind Thing blends science fiction with mystery. An alien criminal is exiled on Earth, in rural Wisconsin. If he can find a way back to his home planet, the alien will be pardoned. The alien looks like a small turtle, but he has the power to take over the minds of sleeping creatures. He can only be released from his hosts by killing them. Much of the book involves the alien’s attempt to take possession of Doc Staunton, a vacationing MIT professor, who would provide the perfect access to technology that would allow the alien to return to his home planet. But Staunton suspects something is wrong from the rash of animal deaths and human suicides. Fredric Brown creates a cat-and-mouse game that ends with a bang. Don’t miss this one!

Okay, I confess: I bought Wild For You because of the cover. Karrin Allyson looks like a deliciously sultry redhead ready to go wild. Wild For You is basically Allyson covering a collection of classics: “Don’t Let me Be Lonely Tonight,” “Wild World,” “Help Me,” “Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word,” “It’s Too Late,” “The Right Thing to Do,” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” But, if you’re going to cover classics, you need to bring something new to the table. Allyson does this with her best song on the album: “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.” But Allyson can’t compete with Roberta Flack when she sings “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” So, Wild For You is a mixed bag. GRADE: B

Michael Weinstein’s brilliant Paperback Covers explores about 1600 paperback covers (while reproducing hundreds of examples of cover art both in B&W and color). I don’t know any other book that is this comprehensive. Weinstein’s approach is to use the five arts involved in the production of paperback covers–painting, photography, blurbwriting, typography, and design–as the focus of his analysis. If some of the examples seem overly weighted towards Robert McGinnis artwork and 1940’s paperback covers, it should come as no surprise these two areas are Weinstein’s preoccupations. If you’re as interested in paperback covers as I am, you need to order this book RIGHT NOW! You’ll discover hours of delight within its pages and a myriad of detail about cover artwork that you never knew. GRADE:A

No, I won’t be buying this box set of 90 CDs. The price is $789.98. And, although it comes with a 312-page hardcover book detailing Yo-Yo Ma’s career and there’s a dandy photograph of Yo-Yo Ma by Annie Leibovitz, I’m not shelling out that kind of dough for a career retrospective. SONY must think that people are going to buy this set, but in the teeth of a recession, this project seems misguided. It’s hard to imagine who the target market for such a pricey item might be. Perhaps, a few years from now when this set is selling for a heavily discounted price, I might consider it.

Books like The New Literary History of America attract me with an irresistible force. Who wouldn’t be fascinated by a 1,128 pages about Elvis, Walt Disney, noir, architecture, automotive history, and dozens of other aspects of Popular Culture. The title of this volume is a misnomer. Yes, Hawthorne and Melville make cameo appearances, but the main focus is squarely on rock & roll and movies with detours into books, magazines, and television. This should be expected with Greil Marcus, noted Rock Critic, running the show. The book bursts with photos and artwork (which explains the $49. 99 price tag). With this book around, you’ll be compulsively dipping into its vast collection of informative articles. If you can’t spring for it now, ask Santa for it for Christmas. GRADE: A

Health care reform is the key problem we need to solve or we’ll be losing ground to other countries as globalization continues. That’s the crux of T. R. Reid’s argument in The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid suggests several approaches to managing health care based on models from France, the UK, Germany, Japan, and Canada. If you’re interested in health care reform, The Healing of America is required reading. You may think you know a lot about health care, but Reid’s book brings new facts to the table. I’ve read T. R. Reid’s previous book, The United States of Europe, and found that book just as compelling as The Healing of America. Reid is a Washington Post correspondent who specializes in breaking down complex topics and making them intelligible. He succeeds brilliantly in this latest book. GRADE: A