HYMN TIME

 The Dixie Hummingbirds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plt2tF7h3R8

4 MOST BOYS #39 (MARCH 1950)

This one took me by surprise for two reasons.  First, the title.  4 Most Boys...are you kidding me?  That implies that there are a number of  boys this comic book for whom this comic book is verboten.  That's like if the title of Calling All Girls was actually Calling All Girls Except Lucinda Who Is a Skank.  True, a banner across the front cover also reads "Foremost Boys Comics,"  But that's offset by the large type of the actual title and by the vertical printing of the title on the left side of the cover.  It is my considered opinion that whoever titled this comic book screwed up big time.

The other surprise was the teaser notice on the lower right cover:  "The True Life Story of All-American CHUB PEABODY"  Hang on a minute.  I know of only one Chub Peabody, Endicott Peabody, the 62nd governor of Massachusetts.  (When my wife worked a sales desk at Jordan March in Nashua, New Hampshire, Mrs. Chub was one of her favorite customers.)  A World War II Navy veteran who was awarded several commendations, including the Silver Star, Chub Peabody served one term as governor (1963-1965) and as known for his vehement opposition to the death penalty and for signing the bill establishing the University of Massachusetts Boston.  Peabody had deep New England roots:  this ancestor, John Endecott (note the spelling), was the longest serving governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company; his grandfather, Endicott Peabody, was an Episcopal priest who founded both the Groton School and the Brooks School, was well as Episcopal churches in Arizona and Massachusetts; his maternal grandfather served on both the Boston Common Council and in both chambers of the Massachusetts General Court; his father served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York for eighteen years; his mother was a noted civil rights and anti-war activist in the 1960s, as an elderly (72-year-old) prominent (Chub was governor, and she was a cousin of Eleanor Roosevelt, and her father-in-law had officiated at Eleanor and FDR's wedding) white woman, she became a symbol of the civil rights movement and was arrested several times; his sister represented the United States on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and had a number of romantic affairs, including ones with film director John Huston and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson (she was with him when he died); his niece, Frances Fitzgerald, is a Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, and National Book Award-winning historian; another niece, Penelope Tree was an influential supermodel in Britain's "swinging sixties" (when asked to describe her in three words, John Lennon said, "Hot.  Hot.  Hot.  Smart.  Smart. Smart." -- and, yes, that's more than three words).  As governor, Chub's liberal roots were also shown in his support of laws to prevent discrimination in housing and in establishing drug addiction treatment centers.  Good intentions sometimes mean little in politics and Chub lost the Democratic primary for reelection.  He later ran for a number of other offices, including the Senate in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and made several attempts to run for Vice President.  What I did not know was that Chub was a Unanimous All-American and First-Team All-Easton college football player who had been inducted into the College football Hall of Fame.  Now, thanks to 4 Most Boys #39, I do.

The issue starts off with "The Cadet," featuring Kit Carter, a cadet at the Daunton Academy for Boys.  Kit and his friend, Dan Merry, stumble across a cabin in the woods being used by detective story writer Dick Mann.  A shot rings out!  It's an aggrieved ghost writer who wants payment for a story he had written for Mann.  Mann takes a rifle to face the ghost writer, but ends up killing himself.  then Mann becomes a ghost.  Kit tries to tackle the ghost writer but it turns out that he, too, is a ghost.  Then Kit is killed and becomes a ghost.  The ghosts begin multiplying and multiple Kit-ghosts and Mann-ghosts chase Dan.  then Dan wakes up.  He had tripped and bumped his head and dreamed the whole thing.  but we knew that, didn't we?

The next story features Edison Bell.  Young Eddie had seen the magician Thorstin's act and was impressed.  He decided to recreate Thorstin's tricks.  But Eddie then gets suspicious of Thorstin and decided to watch his act one more time.  Then he gets even more suspicious...and for good reason,  Thorstin is using his act as a cover for jewel robberies.  Eddie may not be the greatest amateur magician, but he was able to trade Thorstin's costume robes for real-life prison stripes!

Two one-page text stories follow.  "Finger Marks," in which a murderer tries to frame another person with rubberized finger prints, and "The Future Champion," in which Don wins a boxing match despite having two cracked ribs.

Now we get to the four-page story about Chub Peabody, a most distinguished lineman "who was chosen on more All-American teams in 1941 than any other player in the country," and holder of the Knute Rocke Trophy.  At the Groton School, he had a "fine academic record," was "elected president of the missionary society and vice-president of the dramatic club. Not caring for indoor sports, he turned down a  chance to play basketball and opted instead for football, where, in his senior year, he captained the team to an undefeated season.  "Not endowed with prodigious strength or speed,  but the possessor of an unquenchable fighting spirit, Peabody entered Harvard and made football history!"  He worked hard at exercises to develop his back and his neck  -- developing his neck from a 14 to a 17.  By mid-season in his sophomore year, Chub had won a first season berth.  He became the tram's most feared offensive guard; the press began "lovingly": calling him the "baby-faced assassin."  In his final game, Chub played three-quarters of the game with an injured thigh, beating rival Yale 14-0.

The final story in the issue features The White Rider and Super Horse.  (If you are wondering what sort of person names their horse "Super Horse." don't; the horse's actual name is Cloud.  I may be wrong, but I suspect the Super Horse name came from the same genius who called the comic book 4 Most Boys.  BTW, sometimes Super Horse is spelled as two words and sometimes as one.)  Anyway, The White Rider and SH (aka Cloud) are moseying down the rail when they come across a railroad construction camp on fire.  And, golly!  There's dynamite in the cabin and it might go off at any moment.  The White Rider throws a rope around a beam and has SH (aka Storm) pull hard, taking the entire front off the  building down.  Then TWR runs in and grabs the  boxes of dynamite one by one and brings them to safety.  The shack collapses, but not before TWR gets all the dynamite out.  There's skullduggery a-going on -- this was the fifth "accident" the construction crew has had.  If they don't finish the line in a week, the man building the railroad line will be bankrupt and the bank will foreclose (considering the title of the comic book, shouldn't it be "4close?").  It doesn't take a genius to figure out the banker eager to foreclose (4close) is behind it all.  TWR confronts the banker, is taken captive, and is tied up and placed on the railroad tracks in a tunnel with a lit bundle of dynamite ready to explode.  but the bad guys don't count on SH (aka Storm) , who sense something is wrong, rushes into the tunnel, grabs the explosives in his teeth and tosses them over a cliff.  KABOOM!  The there's a gun battle and SH (aka Storm) grabs the bad banker with his teeth and shakes him until he confesses.  You could say the bad guy's plans have all gone to SH.  TWR and SH (aka Storm) ride off into the sunset for more exciting adventures.

An interesting comic book with moderate-to-fair artwork.

Check it out:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=97579&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: KILLERS ARE MY MEAT

 Killers Are My Meat by Stephen Marlowe  (1957)

Marlowe's Chester Drum was a Washington, D.C.-based private eye who blazed his way through twenty popular paperback novels and seven short stories from 1955 to 1968; an  eighth short story appeared in 1973.  Drum was more than your typical hardboiled P.I., though.  He was an ex-cop and ex-FBI agent who runs his own one-man shop, as do many of his literary ilk.  But Drum's cases often took him around the world and often involved espionage and international skullduggery, from Moscow to Mecca, and from South America to Rome, and twice to Berlin (once before the Wall, and once afterward).  Killers Are My Meat, the third book in the series, finds him in Benares, India -- a city obsessed with death and religion.

Drum is asked to locate and return Gil Sprayregan, a down-on-his-luck P.I., to his wife.  Sprayregan is hiding out, in fear for his life, because of what he learned while investigating Sumitra Mojindar, the wife of the First Secretary of India.  Sumitra was much younger than her husband; she was also gifted with the morals of an alley cat.  Sprayregan discovered some secret about the Indian embassy that made him a target.   Drum located Sprayregan, and promising him protection, brought him back to his wife -- just in time for him to be killed in a hut-and-run.  Distraught, Sprayregan's widow accosted Sumitra and was shot and killed by a servant who was sleeping with the Sumitra.  Diplomatic immunity closed the case.

Sumitra's husband was organizing a large conference of Asian and African nations and had invited Western countries to send observers, but not participants.  One of those was Stewart Varley, who also happened to have been none of Sumitra's lovers.  Varley was going through an existential crisis and was expressing extreme interest in various Oriental religions.  Varley's wife hired Drum to accompany her husband to the conference in Benares with orders to be sure that Varley returned to the States and was lured to stay in India to explore the area's religions.  This gave Drum an opportunity to dig further into Sumitra and her deadly manservants...and to uncover a political plot to overthrow the government and to establish an "India for India" regime.

There's a mystic guru, a mute acolyte, a perky young reporter who has has a past with Drum, her rash lover, a kidnapping, murders, crematoriums, some very nasty thugs, and the constant stink of death.  The Varney is reported dead and Drum rushes to the scene to see the body tossed on a fire.

Marlowe keeps the pace moving at a fast clip, but his description of the filth, abject poverty, and decay of Benares is off-putting.  Still, it's an interesting novel, and one firmly entrenched in its time period.  Drum is a worthwhile hero and its easy to see why the books were so popular in their day.

Stephen Marlowe (1928-2008) was born Milton Lesser but legally changed his name to this pseudonym.  He began writing pulp crime fiction and science fiction, writing as both Lesser and Marlowe, but also as Adam Chase, Andrew Frazier, Jason Ridgeway, C. H. Thames, S. M. Teneshaw, Gerald Vance, Darius John Granger, Stephen wilder, and even Ellery Queen.  He began shifting to mainstream novels with 1961's The Shining, followed  by a number of thrillers and best-selling fictional autobiographies of Goya, Christopher Columbus, Miguel de Cervantes, and Edgar Allan Poe.  A one-time member of the Board of Directors of Mystery Writers of America, he was awarded the French Prix Gutenberg du Livre in 1998 for The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus, and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America in 1997.  His work is both literate and enjoyable; his later novels are especially worthwhile, as is his complete Chester Drum series.

ERNIE KOVACS: TOM SWIFT

There are geniuses and there are comic geniuses.  Ernie Kovacs was not only a true comic genius, but his madcap ways helped change the shape of comedy.  Here, Kovacs takes a surreal look at the Tom Swift books of yore.

Enjoy. 

https://audiomack.com/ernie-kovacs/song/tom-swift-6381493

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MOON FOR A NICKEL

"The Moon for a Nickel" by Fredric Brown  (first published in Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine, March 1938; reprinted in The Saint Detective Magazine, May 1954, and in the UK edition of that magazine, March 1956; collected in Brown's Homicide Sanitarium, 1984[ and in Brown's collection Murder Draws a Crowd, 2017)

Fredric Brown began his writing career penning short pieces for various trade journals such as The Michigan Well Driller, Excavating Engineer, Ford Dealer Service Bulletin, Feedstuffs, and Independent Salesman, among others.  In 1938 he began to concentrate on mystery and crime stories with mixed success.  The fist of these to be published was "The Moon for a Nickel," a short-short story about a robbery and its effect on one bystander who was in desperate need of money.  This was the only story in that loose genre to be published in 1938; two earlier written stories were published in 1939, and 1940 saw the beginning of a flood of mystery stories begin to appear.

The protagonist of "A Moon for a Nickel" was an unnamed man with straggly hair who ran a small concession off Lake Michigan, a telescope aimed at the moon with the sign "The Moon for a Nickel."  It was an extremely hot evening and few people were about, and those that were showed interest interest in viewing the moon through a telescope.  Then a stranger came up, shoved a dollar bill in in the man's hands, and said he wanted to look at the Milky Way in private.  The man had never had a request like this but a dollar was a dollar and his wife needed an operation that would cost fifty dollars, so he walked off, keeping an eye on his telescope from the corner of his eye in case the stranger decided to walk off with it.   He saw the stranger adjust the telescope lower and adjust the lens, watching something for a brief moment, then walked away to where a big car was parked.  Before readjusting the telescope back to a view of the moon, the man looked to see where the stranger had aimed the scope -- at a nearby building.  Two men came running out of the building toward the stranger's car...

Within seconds police cars arrived on the scene and officers emerged carryi6ng submachine guns.  A bloody battle ensued and the bad guys were killed.

The man went up to one of the officers, saying that he was a witness  to what had happened and was there a reward he could claim.  The policeman shooed him away.  An alarm had been set, alerting them to the robbery, and the man was lucky they did not arrest for being an accomplice.  Dejected, the m an went back to his telescope, which he then used to view the goings-on.  through the telescope, he could even see the damaged safe that had been broken into.  It was getting late and, aside from the one dollar the crook had given him, he had earned nothing else that evening.  He still needed forty-nine dollars for his wife's operation.

He was about to head home,  but a crowd was beginning to form, curious about the gunshots and the police activity.  He called out to the crowd, Come view the crime scene closeup for only fifty cents!  And the curious mob began to line up.  Before the evening was over he had made another sixty-one dollars.

A very minor, very gimmicky story that incorporated a number of tropes that Brown would use in his later crime fiction:  the unusual setting of a low-level concession which prefigured the carnivals that influenced much of his work, a down-on-his-luck protagonist who was in a difficult position, violent and unexpected crime, and a twist ending that resolves the protagonist's problems, as well as the Chicago-area locale.  Minor though the little tale might be, it is an important indication of where Fredric Brown would take the  mystery story.

The May 1954 issue of The Saint Detective Magazine is available online at Internet Archive.  Also included in the issue are stories by Leslie Charteris (featuring The Saint. of course). Arthur Somers Roche, Octavus Roy Cohen, Steve Fisher (featuring Tony Key), MacKinlay Kantor (featuring Nick & Dsve Glennan), Damon Runyon, Gilbert K. Chesterton (featuring Father Brown), Henry Morton Robinson, Bevis Winter (editor of the short-lived [9 issues] UK men's magazine Stag:  Man's Own Magazine), and one-and-dome author [and possibly a pseudonym] Jimmy Rizutto.

OVERLOOKED FILM: TOL'ABLE DAVID (1921 and 1930)

Tol'able David is an acclaimed 1921 silent film, which won the 1921 Photoplay Magazine Medal of Honor and which was selected in 2007 for the National Film Registry.  It starred Richard Barthelmess, Gladys Hulette, Walter P. Lewis, 

A 1930 remake starred Richard Cromwell, who was born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh; with no previous professional experience, he tried out for this role and was chosen out of thousands of applicants and was given his new stage name by Columbia mogul Harry Cohn.  Cromwell went on to be featured in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, The Road Back, Jezebel, and Young Mr. Lincoln, among others.  He was briefly married to a young Angela Lansbury.

Joining Cromwell in  the remake of Tol'able David were Noah Beery, Joan Peers, Henry B. Walthall, Tom Keene, and James Bradbury.  Far down on the list of credits was an actor billed as Peter Richmond, who was actually John Carradine in his first credited movie role; the "Peter Richmond" name was a holdover from his stage career and was adopted as a homage to Carradine's uncle.  Carradine was one of the most prolific actors of the Twentieth century, with 353 IMDb credits.  F. Gwynplaine Macintyre notes that Carradine plays "a hillbilly named Buzzard, giving precisely the performance you'd expect to see from John Carradine as a hillbilly named buzzard."  Carradine doesn't disappoint here, but nor does he surprise."

David Kinemon (Barthelmess, '21; Cromwell, '30), son of a West Virginia tenant farmer, longs to b e treated like a man, but is constantly reminded that he is still a boy, "tol'able" enough,  but not a man.  Then outlaw Iscah Hatburn (Walter P. Lewis, '21; Harlan Knight, '30)  and his two sons, Luke (Ernest Torrence, '21; Warner Richmond, '30) and "Little Buzzard" (Ralph Yearsley, '21; John Carradine, '30) move into the neighboring Harburn farm.   David is sweet on Hatburn's granddaughter Esther  (Gladys Hulette, '21; Joan Peers, '30) , who warns him not to interfere.  Then the Harburns kill David's pet dog (Lassie, '21; uncredited, '30) and cripple his brother (Warner Richmond, '21; Tom Keene, '30) .  David's father (Edward Gurney, '21; Edmund Breese, '30) was about to face the Hatburns but suffered a fatal heart attack.  David's family loses their tenancy and he has a hard time finding work, but eventually gets his brother's old job delivering mail.  A showdown with the Hatburns ends up with David being shot.  in a gun battle with the Hatburns he comes out victorious, no longer "Tol'able David," but a man deserving of respect.

The film (both versions) was produced and directed by Henry King.  King and screenwriter Edmond Goulding produced the screenplays for both versions, based on Joseph Hergesheimer's 1917 short story.  Despite having the same talents behind the cameras, the 1930 film is considered a poor shadow of the original film.

The 1930 version of the film is not available online, but the 1921 silent is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkxEWjUrxbA

A SEVERELY TRUNCATED BITS & PIECES

Too much going on this week for me to spent the amount of time this post deserves.  Sorry.

Openers:  "Tom, your new atomic sports car is absolutely dreamy!" said Phyllis Newton

Eighteen-year-old Tom Swift Jr. grinned at the pretty dark-haired girl's excitement as his sleek, bronze racer glided along the highway leading out of Shopton.

"You should call it the Silent Streak!" suggested Sandra Swift, Tom's seventeen-year-old blond sister, who was riding in the back seat with Bud Barclay.

"Good name, Sandy," Tom agreed, "but the publicity releases will call it a triphibian atomicar."

"Open 'er up, skipper!"  Bud urged his pal.

Tom advanced the unicontrol lever and the car arrowed forward with a whoosh!  His three companions were thrilled by its smooth, noiseless response, 

-- Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar by "Victor Appleton II" (James Duncan Lawrence, this time), 1962

The original Tom Swift juveniles published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate ran for forty volumes between 1910 and 1941; they vied with other Stratemeyer creations such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew for popularity.  Tom was an inventor extraordinaire and his many gadgets lent a science-fiction-lite tone to the adventure series.  Never to let a good series die on the vine, Harriet Stratemeyer authorized the creation of a new series, featuring the original Tom's son, beginning with Tom Swift and His Flying Lab 1954.  A total of 33 volumes were published through 1971.  (The baton was passed onto a third series with eleven books published from 1981 to 1984; then to a fourth series published from 1991 to 1993 -- thirteen books, plus two crossovers with The Hardy Boys; a fifth series appeared with six volumes in 2006 and 2007; a final series appeared from 2019 to 2022 with eight volumes.  Over the course of these 111 books, Tom Swift has been reimagined, rebooted, altered, and twisted out of any recognizable image.  Who knows?  There be still more to come from this cash cow.

Anyway, about Tom Swift Jr.  I read the first in the series and was greatly disappointed.  I had read all 40 of the original Tom Swift books and -- flawed that they were with jingoism, sexism, and militarism -- found them entertaining, well-paced, and fairly plotted.  Not so, the one I read in the the succeeding series, and judging from the first few sentences of Triphibian Atomicar, others in the series may be as poorly written.  We shall see.  I'm determined to read at least a couple  more in the series before I kae final judgment.

Triphibian is the 19th book in the series.  The author, James Duncan Lawrence, penned two dozen volumes in the series.  In this one, Tom and the gang head to the newly developed republic of Kabulistan to help the country develop its natural resources; they also end up searching for a ruby mine lost for some two centuries.   A bunch of incredible inventions come into play...

Incoming:

• Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold.  Epic fantasy.  "Springtime in Styria.  And that means war.  There have been nineteen years of blood.  The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white.  Armies march, heads roll, and cities  burn, while behind the scenes bankers, priests, and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.  Sar my be hell,, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Telins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too.  Her victories have made her popular -- a shade too popular for her employer's taste.  Murcatto is betrayed and left for dead, her reward a broken body and a  burning hunger for vengeance.  Whatever the cost, seven men must die.  Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous prisoner, a mass murderer obsessed with  umbers, and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing.  And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her done and finished the job Duke Orso started...
• "Victor Appleton II" (James Duncan Lawrence this time), Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar.  Juvenile, the 19th in the Tom Swift, Jr. series.  The original Tom Swift series began in 1912; they were politically incorrect, jingoistic, and simply written; I've read all forty of that series and enjoyed them for what they were.  The Tom Swift, Jr. series began in 1954 and ran for 33 volumes; I've read the first (ghosted by William Dougherty -- his only contribution to the series) and was less than impressed.  The remaining books were ghosted  by five other authors, with Lawrence writing some two dozen of them.  I hope that reading  some of the other books in the series over the next couple of years will eliminate the bad taste from my mouth.  In this one, Tom invents an atomic powered car that can travel on land, over water, and through the air, then Tom travels to the "untamed Asian land of Kabulistan to help the new republic develop its resources," and also to locate a fabulous ruby  mine lost for two centuries.  
• Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare.  Two volumes in one:  The Greek, roman, and Italian Plays and The English Plays.  A "scene-by scene exploration of thirty-eight plays and two narrative poems in terms of their mythological, historical and geographical roots.  It is  not, says Dr. Asimov, a literary evaluation, but rather supplies the modern reader with a working knowledge of the topics which Shakespeare assumed his potential Elizabethan audience to be well versed in."  A great book to dip into, written with Asimov's usual lucid style.
• Leigh Bardugo, Hell Bent.  Fantasy novel, the second Alex Stern novel, a sequel to Ninth House.   "Find a gateway to the underworld.  Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back.  But Galaxy 'Alex' Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory -- even if it endangers her future at Lethe and at Yale.  Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can't call on the Ninth% house for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe.  Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies' most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it."  This one took first place in the 2023 Goodreads Awards for Fantasy.
• Jeremy Bates, Merfolk.  Horror novel, number 4 in The World's Scariest Legends.  "A renowned marine biologist's search for creatures known only in myths and legends turns deadly when the hunters become the hunted."  The back cover has this blurb from writer Brendan McNulty:  "[L]oaded to the gills with suspense, mystery, and scientific terror.  If you love old school  movie monsters, don't  miss out.  Merfolk is Creature from the Black Lagoon for the Netflix generation."
• J. D. Boehninger, Melania:  Devourer of Men.  Erotic, supernatural political thriller, ordered in rection to the Melania film because I am petty.  "Her husband gets all the attention.  Bur she has something to hide, too.   Melania Trump had it all.  A former model living luxuriously high above New York City, she had her every whim catered to and her every want met, far from the public eye.  But when her famous husband becomes President of the United States and leaves for Washington, her quiet life is thrown into disarray.  Now, surrounded by young, strapping Secret Service agents and pursued by the cunning and handsome FBI director James Comey, Melania must work to keep everyth8ing from falling apart.  Because Melania has secrets of her own -- deadly secrets -- and no one yet knows how far she'll go to protect them.  'The best erotic supernatural political thriller I've read this week.' -- Christine Sims, author of Taken by the T-Rex.  'The Hunger Games meets 50 Shades of Gray...this was everything I didn't know I was looking for in a book.' -- Dani Fankhauser, author of Shameless:  How I Lost My Virginity and Kept My Faith.  'I don't know what this is , but I'm totally down for this shit.' -- Jinn from Mercy Bar."  The great thing is that the book is FREE on Amazon Kindle.  Indulge your pettiness and order this book now and watch the charts as the book gets more Likes than the movie.
• Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor.  Science fiction omnibus containing the first two books in the Cordelia Vorkosigan series, a part of the large Vorkosigan series:  Shards of Honor and Barrayar, "[t]ogether they form a continuous story following the life of Cordelia Volkosigan nee Naismith from the day she met her arch-enemy Lord Aral Vorkosigan through the boyhood of her son Miles.  Barrayar won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel of the year."  Also, Memory, the eighth novel in the Miles Vorkosidan series.  this one came in second place for the 1997 Hugo awards for Best Novel and third place for the 1997 Locus Awards for Best SF Novel.  "Dying is easy.  Coming back to life is hard.  At least that what Miles Vorkosigan thinks and he should know, having done both once already.  Thanks to his quick-thinking staff and the specialist who revived him, his first death won't be his last.  But the next one  might be, a realization he finds profoundly unsettling.  Even after he returns to  military duty, his late death seems to be having a greater effect than he's willing to admit.  Unfortunately, his weakness reveals itself to the world at large at just the wrong time and in just the wrong way, and Miles is summoned home to face Barrayaran security chief Simon Illyan.  But when things begin to go subtly wrong in Imperial Security itself, 'Who shall guard the guardians?' becomes a more-than-rhetorical question, with a potentially lethal answer.  Things look bad, but Miles' worst nightmares about Simon Illyan don't compare to Illyan's worst  nightmares -- or are they memories?"
• Chester D. Campbell, The Marathon Murders.  A Greg McKenzie mystery.  "Retired Air Force OSI agent Greg McKenzie never imagined a 90-year-old car cold cause such destruction until he took on a case involving Nashville's defunct Marathon Motor Works.  When PI's Greg and his wife, Jill, look into a potential murder case so cold it's frigid, they face a present-day conspiracy filled with chicanery in circles of power and chaos created by a frenzied killer.  A stash of yellowed records found during restoration of the abandoned Marathon buildings vanishes as the construction foreman who had them is murdered. The McKenzies' clients believe the records would shed light on the fate of a Marathon officer who disappeared in 1914.  He was accused of embezzlement and later found dead.  More murders occur, appearing aimed at suppressing the secret behind the records.  It's a tale of greed, misplaced pride, family loyalty, and the unpredictable violence of an irrational mind."  I know nothing about the author or his works but th book had a praising back cover blurb from Kevin Tipple; one of Kevin's great talents is finding and promoting really great reads from authors with whom I am unfamiliar -- that was enough to make buy this book.  This is a signed copy, by the way.
• Alan Dean Foster, Phylogenesis.  Science fiction, Book One in the Founding of the Commonwealth series, a subset of Foster's Humanx Commonwealth Universe.  "In the years after first contact, humans and the intelligent insectlike Thranx agree to a tentative sharing of ideas and cultures despite the ingrained repulsion they have yet to overcome.  Thus, a slow, lengthy process of limited contact begins.  Yet they never plan for a chance meeting between a misfit artist and a petty thief. Desvendapur is a talented Thranx poet who is bored with his life and needs new inspiration for his work.  Venturing beyond the familiar, Desvendapur runs into Cheelo Montoya, a small-time criminal with big dreams of making a fast buck.  Together they will embark upon= a journey that will forever change their beliefs, their futures, and their worlds..."
• Simon R. Green, Daemons Are Forever.  Urban fantasy; the second book in the Secret History/
  Eddie Drood series.  An "urban fantasy mystery featuring the first name in supernatural action and adventure...BOND.  SHAMAN BOND.  Actually, the name's Drood, Eddie Drood.  For centuries, the Droods have been fighting the monsters in the shadows so that the rest of you lot can go ab out your everyday lives.  These days, I'm the head of the family.  Because I'm the head of the family, it's fallen to me to deal with a bit of a mess left over from World WAr II.  Seems that back then the Droods made a pact with a bunch of demons known as the Loathly Ones to fight some really nasty buggers called up by the Nazis.  Once the war was over, we couldn't get rid of them.  Now they're calling their masters to invade and destroy our world...and we Droods are the last, best hope of stopping them.  I'd say that the world is in a major  bit of trouble."
• Robert Harris, The Fear Index.  Financial thriller, the February selection of Erin's Family Book Club.  "Dr. Alex Hoffman's name is carefully guarded from the general public,  but within the secretive inner circles of the ultrarich he is legend.  He has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that predicts movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy.  His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions.  But one morning before dawn, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of his lakeside mansion, and so begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffman attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.  Fiendishly smart and suspenseful, The Fear Index gives us a searing glimpse into an all-too-recognizable world of greed and panic.  It is a novel that forces us to confront the question of what it means to be human -- and it is Robert Harris's most spellbinding and audacious novel to date."  
• Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water.  Crime novel from a queen of moral ambiguity.  "Vic and Melinda Van Allen's loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinds is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family.  Eventually, Vic can no longer suppress his jealousy and tries to win back his wife by asserting himself through a tall tale  of murder -- one that soon cones true."
• Keith Laumer, The Compleat Bolo. Science fiction collection of six stories (originally comprising the collection Bolo) and one novel (Rogue Bolo).  The classic  military dilemma:  can you trust those who are our servants not to turn on you?  In the years of the Terran Empire the servants protecting mankind are machines endowed with artificial intelligence, and the most powerful of them all are the Bolos.  They started out as simple tanks -- now, the Mark XXX Bolo controls the galaxy.  But is the Bolo mankind's worst enemy -- or mankind's only hope?  When the implacable alien Deng expand into human space the strategic mastermind-machine that is the Bolo leaps to the offensive.   But the Bolo seems to  have a war plan all its own, one that doesn't take humanity into account..."
• Keith Laumer, creator; Bill Fawcett, editor, Bolos, Book 7:  Honor of the Regiment.  The first of six anthologies to play in Laumer's Bolo sandbox; eight stories by S. M. Sterling, S. N. Lewitt, J. Andrew Keith, Todd Johnson, Mike Resnick & Barry N. Malzberg,  Christopher Stasheff, Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon, and David Drake.
• Jonathan Letham, You Don't Love Me Yet.  Novel.  'Lucinda Hoekke spends eigh8t hours a day at the Complaint Line, listening to anonymous callers air their random grievances.  Most of the time, the work is excruciatingly tedious.  But one frequent caller, who insists on speaking only to Lucinda, captivates her with his off-color ruminations and opaque self-reflections.  In blatant defiance of the rules, Lucinda and the Complainer arrange a face-to-face meeting -- and fall desperately in love.  Consumed by passion, Lucinda manages only to tear herself away from the Complainer to practice with the alternative  band in which she plays bass.  the lead singer of the band is Matthew, a confused young man who works at the zoo and has kidnapped a kangaroo to save it from ennui.  Denise, the drummer, works at No Sham=e, a masturbation boutique.  The band's talented lyricist, Bedwin, conflicted about the group's as yet non-existent fame, is suffering from writer's block.  Hoping to recharge the band's creative energy Lucinda 'suggests' so/m/e of the Complainer's philosophical musings to Bedwin.  When Bedwin transforms them into brilliant songs, the band gets its  big break, including an invitation to appear on L.A.'s premiere alternative radio show.  the only  problem is the Complainer.  He insists ln joining the band, with disastrous consequences for all."
• Will Murray, Spicy Zeppelin Stories.  The complete contents of Spicy Zeppelin Stories, volume 1, Number 1, October 1936, if the magazine had ever existed.  It didn't, so it was up to Murray -- who knows more about pulp than I could ever hope to absorb -- to bring it into creation.  Seven spicy zeppelin stories, each under a different Murray pseudonym, as well as poem by "Anonymous."  Supposed authors include Wray Murill, Noah Count, Page Turner, Jason Rainbow, Phillip Space, D. E. Nued, and Ray W. Murill.  Pulp never had it so good.  Great fun!
• James Patterson, with James O. Born, Tim Arnold, and Duane Swierczynski, The Palme Beach Murders.  Collection of three  mystery novellas:  "The Palm Beach Murders (with Born, originally titled "Let's Play Make-Believe"):  Christy and Martin appeared to be experiencing a sexy, romantic dream come true, until they start playing s strangely intense game of make-believe.  "Nooners" (with Arnold):  Tim is a good guy but a lot of the people who know him are getting murdered, and Tim tries to figure out why.  "Stingrays" (with Swierczynski):  A teenager goes missing on  Caribbean beach and it's up too the Stingrays, a world-class that solves the insolvable, to come up with the truth.  I bought this one basically for the Swierczynski.
• James Patterson and Brendan DuBois, Blowback.  Political thriller.  "US President Keegan Barrett has wept into office on his success as director of the CIA.  Six months into his first term, he devises a clandestine power grab -- with deadly consequences.  Barrett personally orders special agents Liam Gray and Noa Himel to execute his plan, but their loyalties are divided.  CIA agents serve at the pleasure of the president, yet they've sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  When the threat comes directly from the Oval Office, that's where the blowback begins."  Although DuBois is now (rightly) shunned, I can't help but like some of his writing.
• Ruth Rendell, The Vault.  An Inspector Wexford mystery.  "In the stunning climax to Rendell's classic 1998 novel A Sight for Sore Eyes, three  bodies -- two dead, one living -- are entomb=ed in an underground chamber beneath a picturesque London house.  Twelve years later, the house's new owner pulls back a manhole cover, and discovers the vault -- and its grisly contents.  Only now, the number of bodies is four.  How did someone else end up in the chamber?  And who knew of its existence?  With their own detectives at an impasse, London police call on former Kingsmarkhan Chief Inspector Wexford, now retired and living with his wife in London, to advise them.  Wexford,  missing the thrill of a good chase, jumps at the chance to sleuth once again.  His dogged detective skills and knack for figuring out the criminal  mind, take him to London neighborhoods, posh and poor, as he follows a complex trail leading back to the original murders a decade ago.   But just as the case gets hot, a devastating family tragedy pulls Wexford back to Kingsmarkham, and he finds himself transforming from investigator into victim."   For some reason, I have always had a hard time reading Rendell's psychological mysteries,  but I love her Inspector Wexford novels.  
• "J. D. Robb" (Nora Roberts), Devoted in Death.  The 41st full-length novel in the futuristic Eve Dallas mystery series.  "When Lieutenant Eve Dallas examines a dead body in a seedy alleyway in downtown Manhattan, the victim's injuries are so extensive that she almost misses the clue.   Carved into the skin in the shape of a heart and inside are the initials E and D.  In Oklahoma, Ella-Lou and her recently released ex-con  boyfriend, Darryl, don't intend to part ever again.  So they hit the road,  but then things get a little messy in Arkansas and they wind u killing someone.  It's an experience that stokes a fierce, solid desire in Ella-Lou and Darryl to kill again.  As they cross state lines on the way to New York to find the life they think they deserve, they leave a trail of evil  behind.  But now the duo has landed in the jurisdiction of Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team at the New York Police and Security Department.  And with her husband, Rourke, at her side, Eve has every intention of hunting down the killers and giving them exactly what they truly deserve."
• Robert Silverberg, Stripper! and Never an Even Break.  A Stark House two-fer reprinting two erotic noir books from the 1960s.  Stripper! was originally published under the pseudonym "John Dexter" and later reprinted as One Bed Too Many as by "Jeremy Dunn":  "Diana DeLisle used to be Donna Hallinger.  But that was when she was young and naive.  Now she is a high-paid stripper at the Pelican Club.  She finds she likes undressing before an audience.   and she doesn't have to put out for cold-hearted Mack, the manager, too often.  Then Mack's boss, Johnny Lukas [sic] arrives.  Johnny seems quite attracted to her.  And before she knows it, she's spending the night with him.  The next evening she meets Ned Fawcett, a collegiate-looking gut who also falls for her.  Diana is completely torn between the hard-muscled mobster and the sweet, crewcut Ned.  Both of them are appealing.  Then Mack comes to her with his crazy plan..."  Never an Even Break was originally published as Passion Play under Silverberg's "Don Elliott" pseudonym:  "Harry Fletcher is a frustrated accountant.  His wife isn't interested in having sex with him, and his kids rarely notice him.  So he takes up with a young lady named Della.  But it becomes increasingly difficult to afford Della on his meager salary.  As an accountant, however, he works with a baby food company, where he discovers =a discrepancy that solves all his problems.  The vice-president is siphoning off some of the profits with a bogus product -- so Fletcher confronts him and blackmails him for $25 a week for Della.  Unfortunately, whatever he spends on Della is never enough.  She always wants more.  If only she weren't so good in bed...If only he could say no."  Silverberg wrote hundreds of these novels between 1958 and 1967, often at the rate of two or more a month in addition to his other very prolific writing.  And, Silverberg being Silverberg, these books are well written, professional, and entertaining.  Stark House has thus far republished fifteen of them, a trend I sincerely hope they will continue far into the future.
• Steven Spruill, My Soul to Take,  Suspense novel.  "DR. SUZANNAH LORD IS TERRIFIED...She glimpsed the horrifying side effects  of a breakthrough medical discovery that lets the blin=d see:  nightmare visions of the future that cold have devastating uses for a dangerous few.  SHE KNOWS HE'S WATCHING HER...Now, a brilliant artist maimed by this evil human experiment is begging her to relieve his agony, even if it means surgery that will return him forever to a world of darkness.  SHE KNOWS HE'S STALKNG HER...But someone doesn't want Suzannah to preform the operation.  Someone who will hunt her down with ruthless efficiency, chasing her into the dark corridors of fear.  WHAT SHE DOESN'T KNOW IS WHEN HE'LL STRIKE...Struggling to unmask her cruel tormentor, she runs in terror as a madman closes in.  With no one to help her and no way out, all she can do is pray for her soul."
• Neal Stevenson, Snow Crash.  A modern science fiction classic, nominated for eight major awards and the winner of the 1997 Imaginaire Award and the 2991 Primio Ignotus.  "In the resl world, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza, but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince.  Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere. Hiro raced along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about Infocalypse."  A wild cyber satire that mixes virtual reality with Sumerian myth.  Also, Anathem.  A doorstop science fiction novel, winner of the 2009 Locus Award for best science fiction novel and 2019 Imaginaire Award, and nominated for seven other major awards.  "On  a planet where quasi-monastic academic institutions have existed alongside the secular world for thousands of years, a young scholar from one such institution becomes part of a planetwide effort to muster an appropriate reaction to a shocking discovery." 
• R. L. Stine, editor, Fear.  Young adult horror anthology with 13 stories.  Authors include Meg Cabot, Alane Ferguson, Heather Graham, James Rollins, Walter Sorrells, Stine, and F. Paul Wilson.
• Larry Strickland, Black Insidious.  Regional mystery novel in the Strick-9 private detective series.  "When the body of a young woman washes up on the beach behind Flora Bama Bar practically at his feet, Sam Strickle, A.K.A Strick-9, a keyboard player by night and private detective  by day, is suddenly thrown into a murder investigation.  As body number two washes up in the same place, the realization that a serial killer is on the loose strikes home.  Strikck-9, along with his longtime friend, Captain Anzio, the steadfast head of Homicide, Escambia County Sheriff's Department, slowly build a case leading to a final confrontation with the killer, a killer who signs his name in the moist gruesome way, a murderer who will soon face a tuff as nails Strick-9, who is bound and determined to return peace and tranquility to Perdito Key."  As with  most self-published books by local authors, this one is a pig in a poke, but I really liked the cover art.  Of course this book is signed.
• Danielle Vega, The Haunted.  YA horror novel.  "Clean slate.  That's what Hendricks Becker-O'Malley's parents said when they moved their family to the tiny town of Drearfield, New York.  Hendricks wants to lay low and forget her dark, traumatic past.  Forget him.  But things don't -go as planned.  Hendricks learns from new friends at school that Steele House --. the fixer upper her parents are so excited about -- is notorious in town.  Local legend says it's haunted.  But Hendricks isn't sure if it's the demons of her past that's haunting her...or of the present.  voices whisper in her ear as she lies in bed.  doors lock on their own.  And then, one night, things take a violent turn.  With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts...if they don't take her first."

A Few Quick Birthday Nods:

• Chicken Nugget, who is six today; never was there a sweeter nor more neurotic puppy
• Lynne, a fellow survivor of the Class of '64, whose birthday is also today; her gentle humanity has always shined through
• Erin, beloved granddaughter, who waited to be born on 2/3/02 instead of 2/2/02 that your grandmother thought would be cool; always loved despite that
• Michael Genovese, who is married to Sarah, one of my six most-favorite nieces; born non February 19
• Wynter, lovely, smart, talented; one-third of a friendship trifecta, along with her mother and grandmother; born on February 21

Whoever said February was the bleakest month?

Today's Poem:

[a little groundhog poem]

In the rhythm of life,

Break free from the norm,

Embrace each new day,

Let your spirit transform.

Be present with all,

In their laughter and tears,

For in shared experiences,

True connection appears.

Let each sunrise awaken

Your soul's gentle glow,

As you dance with the day. 

Let your spirit flow.

-- [taken from a Facebook post]