Things That Make Me Happy

We have had much beautiful weather, especially temperature wise. Although we could use some rain. We are installing a sprinkler system next week, which should help.

Really happy Megan is sneaking out next weekend for two days. Although we saw her in NY in April and will see her in Toronto in October, we never really get enough time with her unless she comes here.

DETROIT was an amazing movie although the Algiers Motel incident, which was the centerpiece, was the most harrowing 45 minutes I've spent in a theater in a long time. Maybe ever.

Happy that Phil is through 2 weeks of radiation and low-dose chemo without any real trouble. 3-4 to go.

Music from DETROIT

Dunkirk Music

FFB, July 28, 2017

( From the archives: Chad Eagleton)
THE RED RIGHT HAND, Joel Townsley Rogers

People say that nothing good comes cheap.

My local library used to have a book sale every Wednesday with a huge section of 10 cent paperbacks. That’s where I found my copy of Joel Townsley Rogers' The Red Right Hand.

At best, I hoped for a few hours of entertainment. At worst…I hoped for a few hours of entertainment.

What I got was something much more—an amazingly well-plotted and sinister thriller. A nightmarish fever dream that’s reminiscent of a David Lynch film—when he’s on his game and puts aside all the arty gobbledygook of creamed corn and rabbit-headed protagonists.

Inis St. Erme and Elinor Darrie are on their way to Vermont to be married. On a lonely New England road, they are attacked by a hitchhiker, a strange little man with sharp teeth and twisted, corkscrew legs. Elinor manages to escape. St. Erme is not so lucky. The mad dwarf kidnaps him, dragging him along on a demented joyride that ends with several other townspeople dead and St. Erme’s corpse found along the roadside—his right hand hacked off at the wrist.

The mad dwarf’s rampage should have taken him directly past Dr. Henry Riddle and his stalled coupe. But Riddle didn’t see anything—no killer, no St. Erme, and no car.

Why? It’s the question that pulls Riddle into the hallucinatory murder spree, and plunges him into a surrealist nightmare that leaves him questioning his own sanity. As the action moves back and forth over the course of a single, tense night, Riddle tries to make sense of the events, his words shifting—sometimes brief, clipped, to the point; sometimes formalized, complex sentences befitting a learned man with a well-ordered brain; others a feverish frenzy pouring forth from the subconscious, a stream of images seething and writhing, the disjointed thoughts of a madman. All of which builds toward an unforeseen climax.

Originally published as a short story and then expanded into a novel, The Red Right Hand has been reprinted several times. (My own copy is from 1964, cost 50 cents, and was issued by Pyramid Books as part of their “Green Door Mystery” line.) Copies are easily found.

You should get yours before someone figures out that something this good does comes cheap and corrects the error.

Sergio Angelini, THE NIGHT MANAGER, John LeCarre
Yvette Banek, MR. PINKERTON GOES TO SCOTLAND YARD, David Frome
Joe Barone, LEGACY OF THE DEAD, Charles Todd
Brian Busby, WHERE IS JENNY NOW? Frances Shelly Wees
Bill Crider, ENCHANTED PILGRIMAGE, Clifford D. Simak
Martin Edwards, THE BLACKMAILERS, Ernest Tristain
Richard Horton, TREMOR OF INTENT, Antthony Burgess
Jerry House, THE RADIO MAN, Roger Sherman Hoar
George Kelley, WODEHOUSE ON CRIME, P.G. Wodehouse
Margot Kinberg, BLOODY WATERS, Carolina Garcie-Aguilera
B.V. Lawson, AN AIR THAT KILLS, Margaret Millar
Steve Lewis, APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH, Agatha Christie
Todd Mason, Spillane Parodies and Pastiches by Jean Kerr, Fritz Leiber and Howard Browne
Neer, ENVIOUS CASCA, Georgette Heyer
J.F. Norris, THE THING AT THEIR HEELS, Harrington Hext
Steven Nestor (THE RAP SHEET) DOG SOLDIERS, Robert Stone
Matt Paust, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS and WAS IT MURDER, James Hilton
James Reasoner, CHILDREN OF THE SUN, Edmund Hamilton
Gerard Saylor, MAN ON THE BALCONY, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
TomCat, CASE OF THE SMOKING CHIMNEY, Erle Stanley Gardner
TracyK, CITY OF DRAGONS    Kelly Stanley

You Belong To Me

Jewelry

What piece of jewelry evokes a book or a movie for you? Probably not too many. The ruby necklace in PRETTY WOMAN was a nice touch. And, of course, the locket from THE LOCKET.

Of course, Guy De Maupassant's THE NECKLACE is the most famous example. 

And thanks to a pal (Anon) we know THE LOCKET is on TCM on August 6 early in the morning. I have my DVR fired up. 

This is the Show That Introduced Megan to old Movies

Tuesday Music

Forgotten Movies: THE LOCKET

If someone asked me what film sent Megan running toward noir, I would name this film.I remember her watching it like it was yesterday.

Eerie, surprising, complex. I look for it on TCM sometimes and never see it. It's a B cast (Larraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchun)  but it works.The movie was known for its extensive and skillful use of flashbacks.Have you seen it?

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

Although I can't say that the movie DUNKIRK made me happy, it did make me glad to see how seriously Christopher Nolan took his task in bringing that battle to life. His method of showing it through three narratives worked well for me. And the sense of self-sacrifice exhibited by many characters in that film reminded me that good people still exist. I especially enjoyed the performance of Mark Rylance, who is always spot on.

I was very happy at how well my meeting with the book group who read SHOT IN DETROIT went. This was a group of women who had been together for almost fifty years. I think my book was difficult for some of them (unlikable protagonist issues), but they were good sports, asked smart questions, made good observations, Some of them were Survivors and how I would love to hear their stories. All of them were still engaged by life, books, movies, lectures. What a great afternoon.

Also enjoyed my own book group as we discussed LOVING DAY, Mat Johnson's novel is about being bi-racial. The woman who hosted it was a widow of two months. What strength it must take to force yourself out in the world so quickly. She promised her husband she would do this and she was keeping that promise.

And my third group of women, that meets Thursday mornings, always manages to make me happy. As we bat around current events and personal issues, munching on fruit and drinking tea or coffee, we always leave smiling.

I am also happy that Phil has found two groups of men to meet with. The Hump Day group, meeting Wednesday afternoon, is very large and their speaker didn't turn up this week, so they pelted Phil with questions about the presidency. It was good for him to talk about his scholarship again. His Sunday group, much smaller,  talks more about sports, politics, etc.

This new community has been so good for us. I am so happy we moved when we did.

Still the Same: Bob Seger

FFB: Heist Week, July 21, 2017

 HEIST SOCIETY (No. 1) Ally Carter

I spent a lot of time, a really lot of time, looking for the right book to read for this topic. Although I have seen dozens of movies about heists, I had never read one. Well. maybe I had and just don't remember it. I must have read a Westlake one.
I took a handful of books out of the library, and none of them grabbed me. Although I loved the topic onscreen, perhaps for me heists are visual subjects.
As I looked for books online, the name Ally Carter kept popping up. I saw her first book in a series was available for almost nothing online so I downloaded it, still not realizing it was a YA book. I don't read YA books really. Well, I read THE HUNGER GAMES and the Greene one about the girl with cancer but on the whole, no.
And then I became fascinated with how an author was going to write a series about a girl burglar. How could she justify it satisfactorily? She certainly didn't want to encourage teenage crime.
She gets off the hook by having her heroine disavow a life of crime and then constructing the plot around the idea that the girl's father is accused of stealing famous paintings. And it is up to Katarina Bishop to find the stolen paintings and prove it was not the work of her father. To this end, she does the time-honored thing and assembles a group of teens to help her.
Carter manages to be witty and fun throughout the book and yet, I found it wanting. I can see that full-fledged adults would be able to read this for the fun of it without thinking the author was endorsing a life of crime. Yet if a twelve year old reads this, what is their takeaway? I am not sure.. I guess my uncertainty stems from the fact that I was reading adult novels and not YA novels from 12-16. So yes, I was reading some pretty questionable narratives in terms of morality. But those books were not written with a teenage reader in mind. If you are writing YA, what is your responsibility? Yes, Katarina only steals for the greater good. But she puts herself, (a fifteen  year old) in harms way to do it. Carter has written several more additions to this series. I am pretty sure they are based on the same formula: Katarina is asked to use her gift for humanity's good.
Looking at the reviews of this book afterwards, clearly the majority of readers saw it as a romance. Maybe as it should be seen. Maybe all YA girls see books as romantic.

The H connotes books that deal with a heist or a similar theme. 

Sergio Angelini, THE FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH, Ed McBain
Yvette Banek, ARROW POINTING NOWHERE, Elizabeth Daly
Joe Barone, MERCY FALLS, William Ken Kruger
Les Blatt, CLUTCH OF CONSTABLES, Ngaio March
Elgin Bleecker, THE MONEY TRAP, Lionel White (H)
Alice Chang, THE HOW OF HAPPINESS, Sonia Lyubomirsky
Bill Crider, ROSS MACDONALD'S INWARD JOURNEY, Ralph Sipper. ed
Rick Horton, Ring Around the Sun, by Clifford D. Simak/Cosmic Manhunt, by L. Sprague de Camp
Jerry House, BLOOD ON THE MOON, Basil Cooper
George Kelley, MARILYN K and THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR, Lionel White (H)
Margot Kinberg, TALKING TO THE DEAD, Harry Bingham
Rob Kitchin, DEAD WATER, Ann Cleves
K.A. Laity, FRENCHMEN'S CREEK, Daphne DuMaurier (H)
B.V. Lawson, OLD SLEUTH'S FREAKY FEMALE DETECTIVES (H)
Evan Lewis, Forgotten Adaptations of Books
Steve Lewis/Bill Pronzini, A TASTE OF ASHES, Howard Browne
Todd Mason,  ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW by William P. McGivern (Dodd, Mead 1957); YA birthday bonus heistlet: FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E. L. Konigsburg (H)
J.F. Norris, DEAD RECKONING. Bruce Hamilton
Matt Paust, WHERE THE MONEY WAS, Willie Sutton with Edward Linn (H)
James Reasoner, HIGH LONESOME, Lous L'Amour; WE ARE ALL DEAD, Bruno Fischer (H)
Richard Robinson, A SIX-LETTER WORD FOR DEATH, Patricia Moyes
Gerard Saylor, THE UNBURIED DEAD, Douglas Lindsay
TomCat, BOOK OF MURDER, Frederick Irving Anderson
TracyK, THE MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE, Richard Stark (H)
Zybahn, A TWIST OF FATE: THE LOCKET, John Saul 

The writers for THE DEUCE begin an outline for the second season in Baltimore. That's James Franco in the rear with the baseball cap. David Simon next to him. Price on the other side. Pelecanos, Lisa Lutz and Megan up front. Don't know the others.

What Book Has Been in on Your TBR the longest and why haven't you either read it or ditched it?

Well, of course, there is more than one. And generally, they are books that came highly recommended or I wouldn't still have them, books I at least gave a start to, but then put aside. Books I know I should read but never seem to. And usually they are books known for a high violence quotient that I am sort of scared of.
Like THE KILLER INSIDE ME by Jim Thompson or SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER by David Goodis.

What about you?

FORGOTTEN MOVIES: THE GIRL WITH THE GREEN EYES

Based on the novel, THE COUNTRY GIRL, by Edna O'Brien, Rita Tushingham brings her winsome charm to the story of a girl's first love affair, with an older novelist.More than movies about teenagers from Hollywood of this era, which seemed to be always set on a beach, this reminds me of my youth.

I am a great fan of British cinema from this era. Do you have a favorite film from the UK? 

Things That Made Me Happy

I made arrangements to put up a new fence across our backyard. We have to wait until October however. Apparently the dearth of people willing to work for the kind of low wages places like this pay has cut down on their employee pool. I heard the same thing from a few other places recently. I will be very glad to have a fence that isn't falling over come October. Just in time for snow.

Saw an interesting documentary about Gertrude Bell, who was a founder of modern day Baghdad. Her accomplishments were many. The footage the film had from 1920s Iraq was amazing.

I am going to talk to a book group this week about SHOT IN DETROIT. I have always been somewhat worried about this because I'm a transplant to Detroit and have been afraid I got some of it wrong. Or was in someway exploitative. Crossed fingers it goes well.

So happy Phil, Josh and Kevin got to see the Tigers win. The white stuff on Phil's face is zinc from the sun bloc.

Grantchester on PBS is going in unexpected directions. All three major characters are having crises unrelated to crime-solving. Bravo for making me interested in their lives as much as their crimes.

Friday's Forgotten Books, July 14, 2017

Todd Mason will have the links today. I really appreciate the help he has extended me through this trying year. Although there is no sign of cancer on the last scan, the oncologist has recommended six weeks of radiation and low dose chemo (taken as a pill)  as an insurance policy. A second opinion backed this up. We begin Monday.


Next week is heist week for those who have one to recommend.

The Best Film About an Unhappy Childhood Ever? What do you think?

Forgotten Movies:THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY: HIM; HER

Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy star in the his and her film versions of a breakup of a marriage after the death of their infant. Directed by Ned Benson, the two films do not cover exactly the same ground although there are many intersections. The films are a study of grief and how different people and perhaps different sexes handle it differently. Benson eventually made one film of it: THEM.

The supporting cast is excellent and includes: Isabelle Huppert, William Hurt, Viola Davis, Bill Hader, Ciaran Hinds. This is a painful movie but well worth your time for the excellent acting and believable plot. There is real chemistry between the leads and you root for them to find their way back to each other.

Longer Trailer for THE DEUCE

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/243807/

Things That Make Me Happy

Two years ago I came to Huntington Woods from a neighborhood where I rarely saw people on the streets. Now if I look out my window, there is always someone walking, riding their bike, pushing a stroller, skate-boarding. In couples or threesomes. In families, In bike brigades. Many lawns bear signs saying NO HATE HERE or similar sentiments. I am grateful to live in a place where people care about each other. I am grateful to be where people are embracing.

Enjoyed the Fourth of July parade in Huntington Woods. It mostly seems to be about throwing candy and politicians making themselves known but I guess that's normal

Kevin is working on a comic book series called Nuggetman. He has about a dozen issues of it. Nuggetman throws a lot of people in jail. (Kevin seems to like drawing jailhouse pictures). At the end of each issue, he includes a crossword puzzle (just for show) and a page showing how he created Nuggetman. He also enacts his adventures on video with his friends.

He is also getting good on the guitar, especially for a ten-year old. The big difference has been twice a week lessons and Mondays is with the studio's rock band. Learning with other kids instead of just one- to- one has spurred him on. I am amazed at how much music is already tucked into that head.

And I am thrilled at how Kevin's parents make sure he gets to sample everything. This summer he is going to see Treasure Island at Stratford, doing a  hockey camp, doing a tech camp, doing the guitar lessons, doing an all-purpose camp. He has polished off most of Judy Blume in the last few months. I am so sorry for the kids whose parents cannot afford this sort of enrichment. It used to be the schools stepped in with music and art, but no longer. Speaking of which...

I met an artist at an art fair on Saturday who told me he learned his craft of jewelry making while at Cass Tech High School in Detroit. I wonder how many high schools are still able to offer such an specific class. Cass Tech was the jewel of what was once a fantastic school system.

Really enjoyed the movie THE BIG SICK although the combination of Ray Romano and Holly Hunter's quirky voices can wear thin. Note to film-makers: one odd voice is probably enough.

I also found BABY DRIVER rather thrilling. The plot does not hold up to scrutiny but boy, it's a good time. The music is a knockout. The car chases are amazing.

Have enjoyed the series SHETLAND on Netflix. It is so well cast and Scotland looks terrific if a little forbidding.

I really enjoyed Karen Dionne's THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER . We were amazed at Karen's knowledge of living in the wilderness but the mystery was solved by an article in a UK paper that explains she did just that for three years. You can read it here.

So what are you up to?

Bell Bottoms

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, July 7, 2017

 Friday, July 21 those who care to will review novels about heists, bank jobs, etc. (one-week delay)

Todd Mason will have the links next week

(from the archives) Sarah J. Wesson is a local history librarian by day, writer of con-game fiction by night, and all-around sleep-deprived, chai latte addict.

THE CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS, Erle Stanley Gardiner

While Earle Stanley Gardiner can hardly be called a forgotten author, nor Perry Mason a forgotten character, the books that first introduced these icons to the public appear to be fading from memory. Or at least they are in my library, where most of them have been relegated to the large print shelves so that the patrons who grew up reading about the singular cases of the granite-hard defense attorney can enjoy them without squinting.

The earliest Gardiner in our collection is The Case of the Lucky Legs. First published in 1933, it was the fifth of what would be roughly eighty-two Perry Mason adventures. Stilted by our standards, with rigid standards of grammar and punctuation, and---heaven forbid---not a few adverbs, this mystery still grabs the imagination and keeps it there until the last page.

The case starts with a provocative photograph of a pair of shapely female legs, sent to the lawyer by a prominent businessman, who wants Mason to do something about a fraud that has hurt a young lady of his acquaintance. It seems that a movie studio man has been conning innocent girls into competing in a Lucky Legs contest, the winner of which is promised a screen career that never materializes. Unfortunately, there is no legal recourse unless the con man confesses.

Unlike the televised, post World War II Perry Mason who has entered our cultural lexicon, the Perry Mason of the 1930s wasn't afraid to get his hands or his ethics dirty---he basically agrees beat a confession out of the huckster, though he does pause to square this plan with the county prosecutor before heading to the man’s hotel. In the lobby, he bumps into a frightened young lady with good-looking gams, so it comes as no surprise---to the reader or our hero---that Mason discovers the murdered body of the con man. Moments before the police arrive, alerted by a neighbor who heard a woman’s screams, Mason extracts himself by a bit of slick trickery and gets to work.

It seems odd that Perry Mason doesn’t set foot in a courtroom in Lucky Legs---he didn't settle into regular trial work until later in the series. It’s clear that Gardiner is till getting to know his character and hadn’t quite settled on his formula. But Mason does tamper with a crime scene, trap himself in a legal corner or two, smoke enough to stun a camel, and bring the murderer to justice at the fifty-ninth minute of the eleventh hour despite numerous red herrings. Furthermore, his client is as lovely and clueless as they come and the man footing the bill is an interfering, opinionated pain in the tuchus. Della Street is smart, sassy, and loyal, while Paul Drake is hangdog, hungry, and resourceful.

These are among the golden elements that have kept Perry Mason going for almost eighty years. They’re well worth a revival, not only as the prototypes to modern legal procedurals or slices of social history, but as terrific who-on-earth-dunnits.

I confess that I check out these books fairly often to keep them off the weeding reports. If that's a crime, I doubt even Hamilton Berger, Mr. Mason's D.A. foil and frenemy, could bring himself to prosecute.

Yvette Banek, THE EMPEROR's SNUFF BOX, John Dickson Carr
Joe Barone, SEARCH THE DARK, Charles Todd
Les Blatt, DETECTION BY GASLIGHT, Douglas G. Greene
Elgin Bleecker, THE KILLING, Lionel White
Bill Crider, DESERT STAKEOUT, Harry Whittington
Scott Cupp; SHERLOCK HOLMES: ZOMBIES OVER LONDON, Stephen Mertz
Martin Edwards, NECK AND NECK, Leo Bruce
Curt Evans, MURDER IN PASTICHE, Marion Mainwaring
Elisabeth Grace Foley, TISH, Mary Roberts Rinehart
Richard Horton,  STEPSONS OF TERRA, by Robert Silverberg/ A MAN CALLED DESTINY, by Lan Wright
Jerry House, THE GIRL FROM HOLLYWOOD, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Nick Jones, Science Fiction Books Bought Near Brighton Station 
George Kelley, MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY, Martin H. Greenberg and Robert Greenberg
Margot Kinberg, INSPECTOR IMANISHI INVESTIGATES, Matsumoto Seicho
B.V. Lawson, DEATH AND THE SKY ABOVE, Paul Winterton
Evan Lewis, RED HORSE, Will Murray
Steve Lewis, DEATH PULLS A DOUBLE CROSS, Lawrence Block
Todd Mason,  PULLING OUR OWN STRINGS: FEMINIST HUMOR & SATIRE edited by Gloria Kaufman and Mary Kay Blakely
Matt Paust, RANDOM HARVEST, James Hilton
James Reasoner, HELL'S RECRUIT, Phil Richards
Richard Robinson, THE COMING FURY, Bruce Catton
Gerard Saylor, THE RIVALRY, Norman Curwin
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, DEATH OF A SNOB,  M.C. Beaton
TomCat, THE DA DRAWS A CIRCLE, Erle Stanley Gardner
TracyK, TRACK OF THE CAT, Nevada Barr
Zybahn, BOOK OF BLOOD, VOl 1, Clive Barker

HUNGER, Roxane Gay

'I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.'
New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay

This is an exceptional book although a very painful one. I cannot recall a memoir more painful. Roxane Gay, a professor and the author of several other works, lays out the pivotal event in her life. The event that sent her on an eating binge that still goes on. At 12, she was gang-raped by a group of boys. Her accelerated eating quickly followed this. Her thinking was that if she was large, she would be less vulnerable. And she is large at 6'4 and of varying weights. In HUNGER, she tells us everything about herself: the shame she feels at her weight, the horrible insults hurled at her in person and through social media, the difficulties being fat incurs, all of it. You can find many interviews with Professor Gay on you tube if you'd like to hear her. Or read the book. It took her almost thirty years to tell her story--and she tells it all. Brave woman.

Whose memoir moved you? 

Happy Fourth of July

What is your favorite patriotic movie? SAVING PRIVATE RYAN perhaps.

Things That Make Me Happy

So happy to see three terrific plays at Stratford: GUYS AND DOLLS, THE BACCHAE and HMS PINAFORE. Stratford never fails to impress with their terrific staging, acting, singing, etc. Truly they are the gem of Canada.If you are in traveling distance, try to get there.

Really nice to meet up with Brian Busby in Stratford. He is doing the final edits on his book on forgotten Canadian novels. It will debut in August. Grab a copy. I bet the title sounds familiar.

 

I am so lucky to have a friend like Todd Mason who helps me out whenever I need help. 

It is always wonderful to be in Canada where life seems sane again. Happy 150th to the best neighbors ever.  

What makes you happy this week?