The Buffalo Bills are recovering from playing–and winning–two games in Detroit last week. Up next is an AFC East game in New England with the Patriots on Amazon Prime Video this Thursday night. Bills fans worry Von Miller’s knee injury may derail their Super Bowl dreams. How will your favorite NFL team do today?

“Perhaps the ultimate Thanksgiving pie, pumpkin is a perfect match with this sweet Sherry—which isn’t actually creamy at all, despite the name. From the esteemed producer Emilio Lustau, it’s made from a blend of Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez wines. Smooth and rich, it has notes of fig and warm spice, enlivened by a brisk acidity.”

This is the review that led me to try Lustau Deluxe Cream Sherry. We usually have five pies for Thanksgiving–pumpkin, apple, pecan, banana cream and chocolate cream–and adding a dessert wine seemed to be the next step.

I found Lustau Deluxe Cream Sherry very tasty especially with the chocolate cream pie. Sherry and chocolate seem to go together for me. Usually I drink a glass of red wine per day. The alcoholic content is usually 5% to 7% depending on the wine I choose. Sherry has 20% alcohol so be aware.

“When it comes to matching dessert wine and pie, there are three main characteristics to keep in mind: acidity, sweetness and viscosity. The wine pairing for a very rich pie needs to be rich itself but also marked by bright acidity. And the wine should match the pie’s weight. For example, pecan pie and tawny Port make an ideal pair because tawny Port has terrific acidity as well as concentration and richness. “

Since pecan pie is my favorite pie, I’ll be trying a tawny Port next Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the Lustau Deluxe Cream Sherry was a hit this Thanksgiving! GRADE: A

As Barry N. Malzberg (writing as “Mike Barry”) passes the half-way point of his Lone Wolf series, both book #9–Miami Marauder–and book #10–Harlem Showdown–reveal aspects of Wulff’s desperate mission to destroy the drug trade. The lurid violence amps up as Wulff surrenders totally to his key preoccupations and concerns about the toxic drug culture in America and his obsession to end it once and for all.

The size, the scope, and the heightened intensity of Wulff’s dark and deadly odyssey, tempered with only the bleakness of his chances against the army of thugs and killers surrounding the rulers of the drug cartels, sets off a series of chilling events.

From Miami’s sinister sunshine shrouded in secrets to Harlem’s dangerous darkness, Wulff pursues his devastating destiny as he feverishly fights the forces that seek to crush him and poison America with opioids. GRADE: B+ (for both)

By the time you read this post, Diane and I will be flying to JFK Airport. Once we land and pick up our luggage, we’ll be traveling by Lyft, Uber, or cab to Patrick’s apartment in Brooklyn where Patrick and Katie will have a Thanksgiving feast waiting for us. Our nieces Elise and Kristen will join the celebration as well as some “strays” who have nowhere to go on Thanksgiving. I’ll add some pictures of our Thanksgiving Feast to this post later today so check back and see what delights Patrick and Katie prepared.

The Buffalo Bills will be playing the Detroit Lions while we’re in the air to NYC. The Bills are favored by 9 points.

Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving!

David Mitchell’s blurb on the cover of Claire Keegan’s novella, Foster, says “As good as Chekhov.” I wouldn’t go that far based on reading Foster, but Keegan is a very good writer. Foster is the story of a child taken by her wretched father to live with some relatives in rural Ireland while her mother gives birth to yet another child.

The little girl doesn’t know if she will ever be brought home again. The farming couple, the Kinsellas, provide the girl with a structure missing in her oversized and impoverished family. She’s cleaned up, given clean clothes, and taught to take care of herself. Mrs. Kinsella insists on truth, but the girl learns a few of the secrets of this new household.

Keegan’s story follows the development of the nameless girl over the summer. Mrs. Kinsella teaches her how to read. The girl’s narration of her experience with this couple operates on several levels. Yes, learning is going on. This life with the Kinsellas is vastly different from the grinding deprivation of her own family.

If you’re in the mood for a moving, subtle, and nuanced story, Foster provides in heart-rending glimpse into a desperate situation. GRADE: B

Based on the internationally best-selling novel (2003) by Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram follows an Australian fugitive going under the name “Lin Ford” (Charlie Hunnam) looking to get lost in vibrant and chaotic 1980s Bombay. Alone in an unfamiliar city, Lin struggles to avoid the trouble he’s running from in this new setting. After falling for an enigmatic and intriguing woman named Karla, Lin finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue.

I’ve watched the first episode and the fabulous location of Bombay with its many schemes and unusual characters drew me in. The series will consist of twelve episodes directed by Justin Kurzel and Bharat Nalluri.  Rotten Tomatoes reported a 56% approval rating. It’s too soon for me to assign a grade, but I’ll be watching this series in the weeks ahead.

Jen Adams collected nearly two hundred of the most provocative stories submitted to the tumblr blog TheBooksTheyGaveMe.com to capture the many ways books can change our lives and loves, revealing volumes about the relationships that inspired the gifts of books.

These stories are, by turns, romantic, cynical, funny, dark, and hopeful. There’s the poorly thought out gift of Lolita from a thirty-year-old man to a teenage girl. There’s the couple who tried to read Ulysses together over the course of their long-distance relationship and never finished it. There’s the girl whose school library wouldn’t allow her to check out Fahrenheit 451, but who received it at Christmas with the note, “Little Sister: Read everything you can. Subvert Authority! Love always, your big brother.” These are stories of people falling in love, regretting mistakes, and finding hope. Together they constitute a love letter to the book as physical object and inspiration.

Do you give books as gifts? Have you received books as gifts? How many of these gift books do you recognize? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• INTRODUCTION — xv
• Burroughs, Dry — 1
• Pernice, Meat Is Murder — 2
• Yeats, The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats — 3
• Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept — 4
• Mulford, Love Poems by Women — 5
• Rombauer, The Joy of Cooking — 6
• Nobody. — 7
• Beatty & Dixon & Lopez & Martin. Batgirl: Year One — 8
• Harvey. The Chicago Way — 9
• Anonymous. — 10
• Taleb. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable — 11
• Burroughs. Possible Side Effects — 12
• The Life and Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa — 14
• de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince — 16
• Gregory. Unpossible and Other Stories — 20
• Percy, The Moviegoer. 21
• Milton. Complete Poetry and Essential Prose — 22
• Wright. Tony and Susan — 24
• Winterson. Art and Lies and Art Objects — 25
• Wallace. Infinite Jest — 26
• Tayli. 60 Indian Poets –27
• Vonnegut. Cat’s Cradle — 28
• Various. A Treasury of the World’s Best Loved Poems — 30
• Tolstoy. Anna Karenina — 31
• Lamont. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life — 32
• Waters. The Night Watch –34
• Kundera. The Unbearable Lightness of Being — 35
• Styron. Sophie’s Choice — 36
• Gibran. The Prophet — 36
• Stoddard. The High House — 37
• Poe. The Poe Reader — 38
• Baum. The Oz Books — 38
• Bradford. Red Sky at Morning: A Novel — 39
• Gorey. Amphigorey — 40
• Tolkien. The Children of Hurin — 42
• Martin. The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice — 43
• Smith, Zadie. On Beauty — 44
• Smith, Lane. It’s a Book — 45
• Slang — 46
• Salinger. Franny and Zooey — 47
• Shakespeare. Henry V — 48
• Spoto. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock — 50
• Schlink. The Reader — 52
• Welch. Trainspotting — 53
• Russell. The Sparrow and Children of God — 54
• Walters. Clean Food; Loux. The Balance Plate — 56
• Reclam Verlag. Various — 57
• Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone — 58
• The World Book Encyclopedia — 60
• Wyndham. The Day of the Triffids — 62
• Nabokov. Lolita — 63
• Dylan & Rogers. Forever Young — 64
• Hemon. The Lazarus Project — 66
• Moore. Absolute Watchmen — 68
• Plath. The Collected Poems — 69
• Gaiman. The Sandman Vol 9: The Kindly Ones — 70
• Waller. The Bridges of Madison County — 71
• Rilke. The Book of Images — 72
• Smith. Just Kids — 74
• Kipfer. 14,000 Things to be Happy About — 75
• Romeo & Romeo. 11, 002 Things to be Miserable About — 76
• Robbins. Jitterbug Perfume — 77
• Bukowski. Ham on Rye — 78
• Rimbaud. Rimbaud Complete — 80
• Lawrence & Lee. Inherit the Wind — 81
• Disney. Beauty and the Beast — 82
• Seuss. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! — 84
• Brown. The Runaway Rabbit — 85
• Bronte. Withering Heights — 86
• Seth. A Suitable Boy — 88
• Mayhew. The Soup Bible — 90
• Suskind. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer — 91
• Ghosh. The Calcutta Chromosome — 92
• Plascencia. The People of Paper — 93
• Nabokov. The Original of Laura — 94
• Creeley. For Love: Poems 1950-1960 — 95
• Levithan. The Lover’s Dictionary — 96
• Cervantes. Don Quixote — 97
• The Oxford English Dictionary — 97
• Mrozek. The Elephant — 98
• Kenyon. The Writer’s Digest Character Naming Sourcebook — 100
• Redacted. — 101
• Rand. Atlas Shrugged — 102
• Pynchon. Gravity’s Rainbow — 103
• Pullman. His Dark Materials — 104
• Eugenides. Middlesex — 106
• Pausch & Zaslow. The Last Lecture — 107
• Pancake. The Stories of Breece D;J Pancake — 110
• Ochsner. People I Wanted To Be: Stories — 110
• Neruda. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair — 112
• McCourt. Angela’s Ashes — 113
• Arthur. The Autumn People — 114
• Klosterman. Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story — 115
• Kerouac. The Subterraneans — 116
• Joyce. Ulysses — 116
• Krakauer. Into the Wild — 117
• Quinn. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit — 118
• Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 — 120
• McKillip. Riddle-Master — 121
• Bryson. The Mother Tongue–English and How It Got That Way — 122
• Dickens. Great Expectations — 123
• Du Bois. W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader — 124
• Martel. Life of Pi — 125
• Cohen. Leonard Cohen — 126
• Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go — 127
• Maugham. Of Human Bondage — 128
• Lightman. Einstein’s Dreams — 129
• Krauss. The Physics of Star Trek — 130
• Fadiman. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader — 131
• Hofstadter. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid — 132
• Hesse. SIDDHARTHA — 134
• Hesse. Siddhartha — 136
• Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises — 137
• Fitzgerald. Tender Is the Night — 138
• Gaarder. Sophie’s World — 139
• The Book of Mormon — 140
• Warren. PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God — 142
• Tengbom. I Wish I Felt Good All the Time — 143
• Rilke. Letters to a Young Poet — 144
• Krakauer. Under the Banner of Heaven — 146
• Anthony. The Source of Magic — 147
• Brooks. The Zombie Survival Guide — 148
• Austen & Grahame-Smith. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies — 148
• Antunes. Knowledge of Hell — 149
• Burroughs. Magical Thinking — 150
• Blake. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake — 152
• Allen & Greenough. Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar — 153
• Erdrich. Love Medicine — 154
• Goodkind. Wizard’s First Rule — 156
• Eggers. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius — 157
• Faulkner. Light in August — 158
• Bittman. How to Cook Everything: The Basics — 159
• Bishop. The Complete Poems 1927-1979 — 160
• Milne. Winnie-the-Pooh — 161
• Murkoff & Mazel. What to Expect When You’re Expecting — 162
• Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises — 163
• Heller. Catch-22 — 164
• Heller. Something Happened — 164
• Flynn. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City — 165
• Hay. A Student of Weather — 166
• Gelardi. Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria — 167
• King. The Dark Tower — 168
• Hass. Sun Under Wood — 170
• Khayyam. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam — 171
• Tolkien. The Hobbit — 172
• Rawicz. The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom — 174
• Spillane. The Long Wait — 175
• Evanovich. One for the Money — 176
• Albom. Tuesdays with Morrie — 177
• Jones. Light Boxes — 178
• Saterstrom. The Pink Institution — 180
• Robertson. Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker — 181
• Langenscheidt. Taschenworterbuch: Englisch-Deutsche, Deutsch-Englisch — 182
• Ferris. The We Came to the End — 183
• Child, Bertholle, Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking — 184
• Hodges. Harbrace College Handbook — 185
• Byatt. Possession — 186
• Gershwin. Ira Gershwin: Selected Lyrics — 186
• Fisher. The Art of Eating — 187
• Doyle. The Collected Sherlock Holmes — 188
• Murakami. Norwegian Wood — 189
• Kafka. Die Verwandlung — 189
• Yellow Pages — 190
• Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man — 191
• Dreiser. Sister Carrie — 192
• Brooks. Selected Poems — 193
• Card. Ender’s Game — 194
• Danielewski. House of Leaves — 195
• Crowley. Little, Big — 196
• Cohen. Let Us Compare Mythologies — 198
• Chesterton. The Bull and the Cross — 200
• Fischer. Saint Ben — 201
• Brashares. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants — 201
• Duras. The Lover — 202
• Sedaris. Holidays on Ice — 203
• Fleming. News from Tartary — 204
• Russell. Moon Rabbitt — 206
• Bukowski. O Capital Saiu para o Almoço e os Marinheiros Tomaram Conta do Navio — 210
• de Saint-Exupery. Le Petit Prince — 212
• Brainard. Joe Brained: I Remember — 214
• Faulks. Birdsong — 215
• Derrida. Limited Inc — 216
• Grimwood. Replay — 217
• Hall. The Hidden Dimension — 218
• Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita — 221
• Zusak. The Book Thief — 225
• Eliot. Middlemarch — 225
• Tolkien. The Silmarillion — 226
• de Saint-Exupery. Le Petit Prince — 227
• Young. Rough Trade — 228
• Strunge. Samlede Strunge — 230
• Prose. My New American Life — 230
• You — 231
• Acknowledgements — 233

Because of the Lake Effect snow event that pummeled Western NY, the NFL moved the Cleveland Browns vs. Buffalo Bills game to Ford Field in Detroit. Despite the disruption, the Bills are still 8-point favorites. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

On a cold snowy night last week, Diane and I drove to Buffalo’s Kleinhans Music Hall to hear the Castalian String Quartet: Sini Simonen (violin), Ruth Gibson (viola), Daniel Roberts (violin), and Stefan Morris (cello). We found the music a little dark, but it fit the wintery weather we were experiencing. The Quartet played well and the 200 listeners in the audience with us clapped enthusiastically at the end of the performance.

Diane and I arrived early to hear the Q&A session before the performance and learned interesting facts about the musicians’s lives and backgrounds. The Quartet will be in Schenectady, NY and then New York City next week. Worth traveling in the darkness and snow showers to hear. Are you a fan of chamber music? GRADE: B

PROGRAM:

STRING QUARTET IN D MINOR, K. 421 — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

STRING QUARTET NO. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata” — Leos Janacek

STRING QUARET in B flat, Op. 130, with Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 —Ludwig van Beethoven

My favorite story in The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, 23rd SERIES is John Varley’s “In the Hall of the Martian Kings,” a story of a exploration of the Red Planet with a lot of problems. I also liked Jane Yolen’s “Brother Hart” involving shape-shifting and sadness.

Edward L. Ferman continues the inclusion of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction “Competition” entries. You may or may not like them. I’m not a fan.

I did like Joanna Russ’s essay on “Books: In Defense of Criticism” which extends the discussion beyond Fantasy and SF. Thought-provoking!

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, 23rd Series is the penultimate volume in this long-running anthology series. Next mouth, the final volume…after two years of monthly reviews on this blog! GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Introduction (The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 23rd Series) • (1980) • essay by Edward L. Ferman
• 1 • I See You • (1976) • short story by Damon Knight
• 15 • From Competition 13: Excerpts from myopic early sf novels • (1976) • essay by Janet E. Pearson
• 15 • From Competition 13: Excerpts from myopic early sf novels • (1976) • essay by David T. J. Doughan
• 17 • The Detweiler Boy • (1977) • novelette by Tom Reamy
• 51 • Books: In Defense of Criticism • (1979) • essay by Joanna Russ
• 59 • Zorphwar! • (1977) • short story by Stan Dryer
• 69 • From Competition 14: SF “What’s the Question” Jokes • (1976) • essay by Bruce Berges
• 69 • From Competition 14: SF “What’s the Question” Jokes • (1976) • essay by J. G. Sattler
• 69 • From Competition 14: SF “What’s the Question” Jokes • (1976) • essay by Steve Steinberg
• 70 • From Competition 14: SF “What’s the question” jokes • (1976) • essay by Mary H. Schaub
• 70 • From Competition 14: SF “What’s the question” jokes • (1976) • essay by Chris Leithiser
• 71 • Stone • (1978) • short story by Edward Bryant
• 89 • From Competition 15: Retranslated sf titles • (1977) • essay by Michael Bishop
• 89 • From Competition 15: Retranslated sf titles • (1977) • essay by Chris Reisbeck
• 89 • From Competition 15: Retranslated sf titles • (1977) • essay by Cambridge University Science Fiction Society
• 90 • From Competition 15: Retranslated sf titles • (1977) • essay by John Billingsley
• 90 • From Competition 15: Retranslated SF Titles • (1977) • essay by Daniel P. Dern
• 91 • Nina • (1977) • short story by Robert Bloch
• 101 • Clone, Clone of My Own • [Asimov’s Essays: F&SF] • (1979) • essay by Isaac Asimov
• 113 • In the Hall of the Martian Kings • (1976) • novella by John Varley
• 155 • From Competition 18: Transposed sf titles • (1978) • essay by Al Sarrantonio
• 155 • From Competition 18: Transposed sf titles • (1978) • essay by Harvey Abramson
• 155 • From Competition 18: Transposed sf titles • (1978) • essay by Lynn Pederson and Wes Pederson
• 155 • From Competition 18: Transposed sf titles • (1978) • essay by Marc Russell
• 156 • From Competition 18: Transposed sf titles • (1978) • essay by David Lubar
• 156 • From Competition 18: Transposed sf titles • (1978) • essay by Barry N. Malzberg
• 156 • From Competition 18: Transposed sf titles • (1978) • essay by Jeremy Hole
• 157 • Upstart • (1977) • short story by Steven Utley
• 161 • A House Divided • [Aventine] • (1978) • short story by Lee Killough
• 183 • From Competition 19: SF limericks • (1978) • essay by Doris McElfresh
• 183 • From Competition 19: SF limericks • (1978) • essay by Margery Goldstein
• 183 • From Competition 19: SF limericks • (1978) • essay by David Lubar
• 184 • From Competition 19: SF limericks • (1978) • essay by Phoebe Ellis
• 185 • Brother Hart • (1978) • short story by Jane Yolen
• 193 • Films: Multiples • (1980) • essay by Baird Searles
• 197 • The Man Who Had No Idea • (1978) • novelette by Thomas M. Disch
• 231 • Project Hi-Rise • (1978) • short story by Robert F. Young
• 243 • Prismatica • (1977) • novelette by Samuel R. Delany