I have found a series of books for you film-lovers! The protagonist is named Valentino and he’s a film archivist at UCLA. As the author’s website says about him: he’s “a film detective for UCLA who inadvertently becomes an amateur sleuth.” More than that, he’s found an old 1920s theater he’s hell-bent to restore, and …
Today, for example, when I wandered in since it was pouring rain and I didn’t feel like dashing to the car until the weather began to behave better. This particular store has two sections of books — one consists of older or more beat-up books priced at $1 and the other priced at $5 or …
When Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey III wrote “Seven Days in May” it was supposed to be a cautionary tale about the Joint Chiefs of Staff plotting to overthrow the elected government of the United States. It was a damned good book and an excellent movie. The plot was suggested by the behavior of Army …
Before I went to the reunion in Northern Virginia I bought a Kindle Fire HD 6, which has a 6-inch display screen. I thought that would be big enough to read comfortably while on airplanes. It turns out I read all of Simon Winchester’s “A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the …
Most of us know xkcd, the wonderful comic/cartoon which dispenses wisdom from stick figures. Do you know that the artist/author has published a book called “Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words?” I have a question for the next edition of Things Explained — why is it that when your denim shorts’ hems go bad …
Mom also gave me “The Illustrated Route 66 Historical Atlas”. It’s a look at some 500 attractions along the old road from Chicago to Los Angeles. This is going to be fun to dip in and out of.
We all know “It’s a Wonderful Life,” right? Clarence the Angel, Potter the Evil Banker, George Bailey and all that? Mom gave me a copy of “The Greatest Gift”. It’s the short story on which the movie was based. The story behind its move from print to film is told in an Afterword, and it’s …
I read this a zillion years ago but somehow lost or gave away my copy. It’s a 1954 book which appeared first in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, slightly abridged. The Star Beast is one of Heinlein’s juveniles, and it’s great fun. It holds up pretty well 60 years on, at least in …
I have plenty to read, including the first four Rule of Ten mysteries, Ready Player One and a pile of others. How about you? Who’s reading what?
Back in March of last year somebody suggested Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe® books to me, and I’m very glad they did. Dragon in Exile has just been published, and I’m waiting for it to arrive. Meanwhile, I found Ms. Lee’s Archer’s Beach trilogy. I’m a third of the way through the last …