From Monday, 4 November to Friday, 15 November, I read Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind (NY: Signet Books [The New American Library, Inc.], May 1973 [tenth printing; undated, but cover price is U.S. $0.95]; 176 pps.); originally published in the Feb. through Apr. 1973 issues of Analog: Science Fiction and Fact. The unsigned cover is by ( Read more... )

From Tue., 23 July 2013 through Sun., 28 July 2013, I read Christa Faust's novel Choke Hold (London: Hard Case Crime [Titan Books, a division of Titan Publishing Group, Ltd.], 2011; 256 pgs.; ISBN: 0857682857) on my Kindle.


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From Sunday, 21 July 2013 through Monday, 22 July 2013, I re-read Christa Faust's Money Shot (London: Hard Case Crime [re-published in electronic format in 2011 by Titan Books, a division of Titan Publishing Group, Ltd.; originally published in mass market paperback in February 2008 -- Hard Case Crime Book Number HCC-040 -- by Dorchester Publishing ( Read more... )

From Sunday, 14 April to Sunday, 23 June, I read Hanns Heinz Ewers's Alraune, translated by Joe E. Bandel, and illustrated by Mahlon Blaine; book-ended by short tone pieces ("Arsis" and "Finale") by Wilfried Kugel (originally published in German in 1911; Bandel's translation published in 2009; Kindle edition published 24 April 2010; self-published ( Read more... )

This Valentine’s Day, as with every day, always remember your safe word.

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I'm facing something of a logistical nightmare in reading the 2nd printing of the mass market paperback version of Vardis Fisher's Pemmican, whose print date was October 1957 ( Read more... )

Sarah Weinman has a post on The New Yorker's "Page-Turner" blog ("Who Was the Real Woman Behind 'Nine and a Half Weeks'?"; posted Friday, 30 November) that caught my eye.

I read 9½ Weeks (credited to Elizabeth McNeill, published in 1978) in the late 1980s, after I saw the dull 1986 movie version starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. (And ( Read more... )

A co-worker lends me his news magazines about Africa; I'm interested in keeping abreast of the news from Africa (I used to listen to the BBC World Service's Network Africa -- just ended this year after a 40-year run -- and Focus On Africa over the Internet, before mine employer blocked most streaming media), even if sometimes I'd rather take a pass ( Read more... )

On the commentary track to Magnum Force (1973), the second of the five Dirty Harry movies starring Clint Eastwood, the co-screenwriter, John Milius (who also co-wrote, uncredited, the screenplay for the first movie in the series, Dirty Harry [1971]), said that the scenes of the two women throwing themselves (separately, mind you) at Harry Callahan ( Read more... )

I recently got through the third season of Californication; that's the Showtime series starring David Duchovny as the congenital horn-dog, drunkard and druggie (and occasional published author) Hank Moody. Hank apparently really loves his pubescent daughter, the Wednesday Addams-lite Becca (Madeleine Martin), and her mom, Hank's on-again/off-again ( Read more... )