Reading Forgotten Books: Enchanted Night – Steven Millhauser

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Forgotten Books

When I needed something to wash the taste of a bad book out of my mind, I decided to give this one a try. Richard Robinson at The Broken Bullhorn recommended it one Friday on Patti Abbott’s Forgotten Books and I picked it up. As often happens with folks like us, with new books entering the house on a regular basis, it got sidetracked on my TBR pile. Since I really needed a mind scrub, this one got moved to the head of the line.

Richard does an eloquent job of describing the book, much better than I could, and you should read his review.

My thoughts seem similar to a lot of others. A Ray Bradbury feel with a small town where odd things happen one night. Never read any of Millhauser’s work before. A Pulitzer Prize winner no less. I want to say I will have to look up more of his books, but one glance at the daunting pile of tales waiting their turn makes that unlikely. (sigh) The eternal problem of a reader.

One final note: I was amused to note on the back cover, upper left, the words Fiction/Literature. Can’t even call it a fantasy.

Today’s Humor: What Is Courage?*

* warning: Slightly adult

IS IT TO FIGHT A BULL IN A BULLFIGHT?

IS IT TO FLY A FIGHTER PLANE IN COMBAT?

IS IT TO PRACTICE FREE FALL PARACHUTING?

IS IT BUNGEE JUMPING OR WHITE WATER RAFTING?

NO WAY…..THESE ARE NOTHING!

THIS, MY FRIEND, IS COURAGE!!!

September Book Round-Up

166: WE: The Reformed Gun – Marvin Albert

167: SF: Cap Kennedy: Planet of Dread – Gregory Kern

168: SF: A Martian Odyssey: Stanley G. Weinbaum’s Words Of If

169: SF: Star Trek: The Children of Kings – David Stern

170: SF: The Secret of Sinharat – Leigh Brackett

171: TH: The Spider: Scavengers of The Slaughtered Sacrifices – Don McGregor & Gene Colan

172: CR: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: The Killing Jar – Donn Cortez

173: WE: Hopalong Cassidy Returns – Clarence E. Mulford

174: MY: The Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure – Franklin W. Dixon

175: WE: The Lone Ranger: The Masked Rider’s Justice – Fran Striker

176: WE: The Lone Ranger: Killer Round-Up – Fran Striker

177: SF: The Ginger Star – Leigh Brackett

178: AD: Secret Service Smith – R. T. M. Scott

179: TC: The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and The Birth of Forensic Science – Douglas Starr

180: CR: Beat To A Pulp: Round One – edited by David Cranmer & Elaine Ash

181: SF: Dumarest of Terra: The Winds of Gath – E. C. Tubb

182: SF: Dumarest of Terra: Derai – E. C. Tubb

183: AD: Hunt Through Napoleon’s Web – Gabriel Hunt(Raymond Benson)

184: TH: Swimsuit – James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

September 2010 Movie Round-Up

First Blood(1982)

Gunfighter(1999)

Forgotten Music: Shake Your Moneymaker – The Black Crowes

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Forgotten Music, The Black Crowes

I stumbled across this album in 1990 and, thinking it looked interesting, picked it up. Little did I know just how good this was until I played it(the first purchase happened to be a cassette). Blues influenced, one can find traces of Buddy Guy, Otis Redding(Reddings’ Hard to Handle is one of the best tunes on the set), not to mention early Rolling Stones.

The band has been through ups and downs over the years with singer Chris Robinson leaving the band, a hiatus, reunion, and line-up changes. For six years Robinson was married to actress Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn’s daughter. They had a daughter which they share joint custody and Robinson has since remarried with a child from that one.

The line up of tunes is:

1: Twice as Hard

2: Jealous Again

3: Sister Luck

4: Could I’ve Been So Blind

5: Seeing Things

6: Hard To Handle(Allen Jones, Alvertis Isbell, Otis Redding)

7: Thick N’ Thin

8: She Talks To Angels

9: Struttin” Blues

10: Stare It Cold

11: Live Too Fast Blues/Mercy Sweet Moan

All songs written by Chris and Rich Robinson except where noted.

Here’s a few of my favorites from the album:

Just the two Robinson brothers:

And I’ll even throw in a favorite from their second album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion:

Cannon Novel Covers

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Cannon

I missed that day before yesterday was William Conrad’s birthday, so I thought I would post some Cannon book covers to make up for it.

The first two are by Richard Gallagher, which I could find nothing about, and I’m not sure whether the second was ever published in the United States. The other seven are all by Douglas Enefer, either under that name or his pseudonym Paul Denver.

Hunt Through Napoleon’s Web – Gabriel Hunt(Raymond Benson)

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Gabriel Hunt, Raymond benson

HUNT THROUGH NAPOLEON’S WEB is the sixth and, likely, the last Gabriel Hunt novel. Only six were contracted for and with all the changes going on at Dorchester Publishing, the odds seem long we will see anymore in this series. It will be too bad if that’s so.

Gabriel Hunt’s sister Lucy has been kidnapped by an organization called Alliance of The Pharoahs and the ransom is Gabriel Hunt himself. He is given a place to meet them. No other information.

He first heads to Nice where Lucy lived to look for clues to where she might have been taken. There he hooks up with a beautiful young Frenchwoman named Sammi, Lucy’s friend, a magician and escape artist.

The kidnappers’ representative tells Hunt that they want him to find a second rosetta stone. Found in Napoleon’s papers was mention of a second stone and the fact that it was hidden away, protected by several traps designed by Napoleon and descendants of the original guards. The organization has been looking for the stone for thirty years and now want Hunt’s help. After all, it’s his line. They give him one choice.

Find the stone or Lucy dies!

Gabriel’s mission is twofold: rescue Lucy because he knows they won’t let any of them leave alive and keep the stone out of their hands. Something in the papers lend everyone involved to believe there’s a secret to great power there.

The trail leads Gabriel Hunt across the world to Marrakesh then Corsica. Plenty of action here as one has come to expect in a Hunt novel. I liked it.

The book is supposed to be released today. On Dorchester’s web site, they say books would be available on announced dates as ebooks, then trade paperbacks would follow in six months or so. They say it will be available at all regular sites, Amazon being one mentioned. However, at Amazon, they’re still touting it as a mass market paperback and have a little box that says: WANT TO READ THIS ON KINDLE. LET THE PUBLISHER KNOW.

What’s up with that?

I Have A Question

Is there some sort of Paul Newman thing going on that I don’t know about?

Back on Saturday, August 21st, I posted a DVR alert because Turner Classic was running a block of Newman films during the day, four of which ranked among my favorites. It’s completely out of date at this point.

Except for the last couple of weeks, that post has been inundated with hits. Yesterday alone, I had 167. i8 already today and it’s just 4:30 am as I write this. In the past week, I’ve gotten 659 hits. Yesterday set a record for the most hits on the blog in a single day, breaking the previous record of the day before yesterday. The record before that point goes back a couple of years to Easter when I posted a clutch of adorable pictures of cats, dogs, and rabbits looking a lot alike called identity theft(and for which Charles gave me a justified ration about)HAH!

I just don’t know why such a post is taking large hits, large for me anyway.

Mailbox Monday

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Mailbox Monday

1 & 2 : Ace Double reprinting the first two books in the Dumarest of Terra series in one volume. E. C. Tubb.

It’s thousands of years in the future and humankind has spread throughout the galaxy. Earl Dumarest is a traveler, one of those who “tours” the inhabited planets by landing on one and finding a job while he explores to save money for passage to the next world. He’d stowed away at ten on a ship that landed on Earth and had been to over a hundred worlds by now. He wants to go home but has no idea how to find Earth and humans are so widespread no has even heard of Earth, let alone believes he’s from there.

There are certain worlds he won’t visit where earning passage would be impossible. Now he’s marooned on Gath, strictly a playground for the wealthy. The ship he’d booked passage has been hired by one of the wealthy and everyone but him, he’d already been placed in hibernation, had been bumped.

Now he’s been marooned on Gath and must take a desperate gamble to win passage. And someone wants him dead. Why he doesn’t know. He’s also hung up between two factions on the planet.

3: The Killer of Little Shepherds(review copy) – Douglas Starr: A true crime story of Joseph Vacher, a serial killer that roamed the French countryside in the mid-1890s, killing five boys, five girls, and a woman(all he confessed to though as many as twenty-five were suspected). The book is as much about the beginnings of forensic science and two men who eventually put it all together, put put the word, and then had to extract a confession from Vacher.

4: Beat To A Pulp: Round One (PDF file, review copy)-edited by David Cranmer & Elaine Ash: a forthcoming anthology of stories from the webzine BEAT TO A PULP, a zine devoted to stories in the old pulp style, well told tales of action. Herein you have crime, horror, westerns, science fiction, pirate stories, and some that don’t fit the mold. There’s even one unpublished story, THE STRANGE DEATH OF AMBROSE BIERCE, by Paul S. Powers from the old pulp days found by his granddaughter in his papers.

NFL 2010 Week 3

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Jets, Panthers, Redskins

Another bad week for my teams.

The Panthers lost their third game of the season, 20-7 against the Bengals, equaling last year’s start 0-3. The Clausen era had an inauspicious start what with him mishandling a snap that the Bengals recovered, as well as a pick. Rookie jitters I guess. The defense looked pretty lame also.

Tampa Bay got pounded by the Steelers 38-13 for their first loss of the season and Atlanta defeated New Orleans in overtime 27-24. The Saints had their chance, but their overtime field goal attempt was either tipped or just bad. It was hard to tell from the clip I saw.

The ‘Skins really played bad in their loss to the Ram-THE RAMS!-30-16. The Giants went down, the Eagles won behind Michael Vick’s excellent play again, and the Cowboys got their first win of the season. That leaves the Eagles alone at the top with 2-1 record and everybody else tied at 1-2.

The Jets kept the day from being a total loss, defeating the Dolphins 31-23. Sanchez played well for the second week in a row with three TD passes. New England beat the Bills, Jets and Patriots 2-1.

Around the league; the Vikings managed their first win against the Lions. Kansas City stays undefeated, the chargers lose again(these boys are notorious for bad starts and strong finishes).

After three games, my three favorite teams have a combined record of 3-6.