The Movies, Books, Theaters, Concerts, CDs Etc I Saw/Read In 2011

Updated December 31, 2011

MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES

1. Secret Sunshine ***
2. The Strange Case Of Angelica * 1/2
3. Welcome ***
4. Shoah ****
5. Downton Abbey (TV series) ***
6. The Red Riding Trilogy: 1980 ***/
7. The Red Riding Trilogy: 1983 ***
8. White Material (good Tindersticks score) ** 1/2
9. Everyone Else *** 1/2
10. Long Ride Home ***
11. Country Strong **
12. Howl * 1/2
13. Judge Hardy and Son (1939) * 1/2 (but good prayer scene for Mickey Rooney)
14. Bluebeard *** 1/2
15. Animal Kingdom ***
16. Inspector Bellamy *
17. Nowhere Boy ** 1/2
18. Cold Weather **
19. Oscar Animated Shorts * 1/2
Madagascar, A Journey Diary ***
Let's Pollute **
The Gruffalo *
The Lost Thing * 1/2
Day & Night ***
20. Oscar Live Action Shorts *** 1/2
The Confession ** 1/2
Wish 143 ***/
Na Wewe *
The Crush ***/
God Of Love *** 1/2
21. Potemkin at Film Forum ****
22. Sapphire (1959) ** 1/2
23. Elsewhere ** 1/2
24. Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964) **
25. Bambi on BluRay (1942) ****
26. Morning Glory **
27. Unstoppable ***
28. Eyes On The Prize ****
29. Dexter Season One ****
30. Dexter Season Two ** 1/2
31. Dexter Season Three ***
32. Dexter Season Four ***
33. Songs Of America (Simon & Garfunkel TV special) ** 1/2
34. The Harmony Game: The Making Of Bridge Over Troubled Water) ****
35. The Killer Inside Me ** 1/2
36. Pioneers Of Television: Westerns **
37. Pioneers Of Television: Science Fiction *
38. Hereafter * 1/2
39. How Do You Know? * 1/2
40. The Tourist *
41. Terribly Happy ** 1/2
42. Dancing Co-Ed (1939) * 1/2
43. The Black Power Mixtape ***
44. Rejoice & Shout ***
45. Allegheny Uprising (1939) ***
46. Treme Season One ** 1/2 (very frustrating series)
47. Source Code **
48. Honolulu (1939) * 1/2
49. State Of The Union (1948) *** 1/2
50. The Frozen Limits (1939) * 1/2
51. I Walked With A Zombie (1943) ***
52. Sansho The Bailiff (1954) ***
53. Forbidden Games (1952) *** 1/2
54. The Big Heat (1953) *** 1/2 (great Glenn Ford)
55. Out Of The Past (1947) ****
56. The Reckless Moment (1949) ** 1/2
57. Out Of The Fog (1941) ***
58. Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939) **
59. Mr. Moto in Danger Island (1939) * 1/2
60. Mr. Moto Takes A Vacation (1939) * 1/2
61. Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) * 1/2
62. Everything Happens At Night (1939 w Sonja Henie) *
63. Out Of The Fog (1941) ***
64. Thor **

Cannes Film Festival 2011

65. Midnight In Paris **
66. Sleeping Beauty (2011) * 1/2
67. We Need To Talk About Kevin ** 1/2
68. Restless * 1/2
69. Polisse ** 1/2
70. The Fairy ** 1/2
71. The Slut **
72. Habemus Papam/We Have A Pope ***
73. Michel Petrucciani ** 1/2
74. Arirang zero stars
75. Jeane Captive/The Silence Of Joan ** 1/2
76. Hearat Shulayam/The Footnote *** 1/2
77. Wu Xia aka Swordsmen aka Dragon ** 1/2
78. Michael *** or maybe *** 1/2
79. 17 Filles/17 Girls **
80. La Fin Du Silence/The End Of Silence **
81. The Kid With A Bike/La Gamin Du Velo *** 1/2
82. The Artist *** 1/2
83. Take Shelter ***
84. Martha Marcy May Marlene ***
85. House Of Tolerance/L'Apolloniade * 1/2
86. The Tree Of Life ****
87. Hors Satan/Outside Satan **
88. Snowtown **
89. Le Havre ***
90. Skoonheid/Beauty **
91. Bonsai **
92. Hanezu No Tsuki *
93. Melancholia **
94. The Conquest/La Conquete ** 1/2
95. Oslo, 31 August **
96. Ichimei aka Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai **
97. The Skin We Live In/La Piel Que Habito **
98. L'Exercice de L'etat/The Minister ** 1/2
99. Drive **
100. This Must Be The Place ***
101. Play ***


End Of Cannes Film Festival

102. X-Men: First Class **
103. Battle: Los Angeles ** 1/2
104. Chains (1949) ***
105. The Eagle * 1/2
106. Went The Day Well (1942 at Film Forum) ***
107. Way To The Stars (1945) ***
108. Let Us Live (1939) * 1/2
109. Follow Me Quietly (1949) **
110. The Spiral Staircase (1946) ** 1/2
111. Grand Central Murder (1942) ** 1/2
112. Gambling Lady (1934) ***
113. Pale Flower (1964) *** 1/2
114. Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon *
115. Torchwood: Children Of Earth TV miniseries *** 1/2
116. Knight Without Armor (1937) **
117. Q Planes aka Clouds Over Europe (1939) ***
118. Home On The Prairie (Gene Autry)(1939) *
119. Las Acacias (Cannes film truck driver giving mom and baby lift) ***
120. Captain America: The First Avenger ** 1/2
121. Harlem Rides The Range (1939) no stars
122. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes ***
123. Metropolis (restored version 2010 w Alloy Orchestra live) ****
124. The Murder Man w Spencer Tracy ** 1/2
125. Trouble In Paradise at FF (1932) ****
126. Jewel Robbery at FF (1932) ***
127. The Immortal Battalion aka The Way Ahead dir by Carol Reed edited US version 91m (1944) ***
128. Girls Night Out at FF (1931) ***
129. Heat Lightning at FF (1934) ** 1/2
130. Union Depot at FF (1932) ** 1/2
131. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 3-D ***
132. They Made Me A Criminal (1939 John Garfield) * 1/2
133. Jane Eyre (2011 w Michael Fassbender) ***
134. Conan The Barbarian (2011) no stars
135. Rally Round The Flag, Boys (1958) *
136. King Of The Underworld (1939) **
137. Fallen Angel (1945) *** 1/2
138. Brute Force (grim prison movie) (1947) *** 1/2
139. Spy In Black (1939) **
140. Mysteries Of Lisbon ** 1/2
141. Intimidation (1960) ** 1/2
142. Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955) *** 1/2
143. Life Begins For Andy Hardy (1941) ***
144. A Man's Castle (1933) ** 1/2
145. The Long Voyage Home (1940) ***
146. Harper (1966) **
147. We Can't Go Home Again (Nicholas Ray) *
148. Music According To Tom Jobim ** 1/2
149. Patience (After Sebald) **
150. Tahrir **
151. Dreileben: Beats Being Dead ***
152. Dreileben: One Minute Of Darkness ***
153. Dreileben: Don't Follow Me Around **
154. Society Lawyer (1939) * 1/2
155. Moneyball **
156. Stronger Than Desire (1939) * 1/2
157. Carnage (film version of God Of Carnage) ** 1/2
158. The Bishop Misbehaves (1935) **
159. Dexter Season Five *** 1/2
160. The Penguin Pool Murder (1932) * 1/2
161. All Creatures Great And Small Season One *** 1/2
162. All Creatures Great And Small Season Two ***
163. All Creatures Great And Small Season Three *** 1/2
164. Shanghai Express (1932) ***
165. Four Daughters (1938) ***
166. One Third Of A Nation (1939) **
167. Circo ***
168. They Were Expendable (1945) ***
169. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) ****
170. The Four Feathers (1939) ***
171. Koyaanasqatsi (1982) (live at Lincoln Center w orchestra and Glass Ensemble) ****
172. The Great Flood w Bill Frisell at Carnegie Hall ***
173. The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943) *** 1/2
174. The Earrings Of Madame De... (1953) *** 1/2
175. The Crowd at Film Forum w live piano (1928) ****
176. Hugo * 1/2
177. The Wind (1928 w Lillian Gish) ***
178. Pariah ***
179. Courageous Daughters (1939) **
180. Weekend ***
181. Arthur Christmas *** 1/2
182. The Muppets ***
183. Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows **
184. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol ***
185. The Adventures Of Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn **
186. The Bishop's Wife (1947) *
187. They Drive By Night (1940) ***
188. Tokyo Drifter (1966) *** 1/2
189. Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (1974) *** 1/2
190. Diary Of A Country Priest (1951) *** 1/2
191. Danton (1983) ****
192. High and Low (1963) *** 1/2


BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by JRR Tolkein ****
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King by JRR Tolkein ****
3. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand *** 1/2
4. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin ****
5. Two Adolescents by Alberto Moravia *** 1/2
6. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard ** 1/2
7. Cart & Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones ** 1/2
8. A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ****
9. A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin ***1/2
10. Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg * 1/2
11. Dodsworth in Rome by Tim Egan ***
12. Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster ***
13. Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster ***
14. Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
15. A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
16. Queen Of The Falls by Chris Van Allsburg ** 1/2
17. A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
18. The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris by David McCullough ***
19. The Great Night by Chris Adrian ** 1/2
20. Empire State Of Mind by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
21. The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel * 1/2
22. 21: The Story Of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago ** 1/2
23. The Siege Of Washington by John Lockwood & Charles Lockwood ***
24. Malcolm X; A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable ****
25. Dawn, Dusk or Night by Yasmina Reza ** 1/2
26. Unforgivable by Phillipe Djian **
27. On Being: A Scientist's Exploration Of The Great Questions Of Existence by Peter Atkins **
28. Mygale by Thierry Jonquet **
29. Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Kruschev And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by Frederick Kempe *** 1/2
30. High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story Of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry by Stephen Tignor ** 1/2
31. Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon ** 1/2
32. Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon ***
33. My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara ***
34. Drive by James Sallis **
35. The Magicians by Lev Grossman ***
36. The Magician King by Lev Grossman ***
37. The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka ****
38. Fly By Night by Frances Hardinage ***
39. Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara *** 1/2
40. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler ** 1/2
41. Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller *** 1/2
42. East Of The West by Miroslav Penkov ***
43. Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman ***
44. Green Grass Of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara ***
45. A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
46. Willie & Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin ***
47. The Cut By George Pelecanos ** 1/2
48. Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar ***/
49. A Matter For Men: War Of the Chtorrs by David Gerrold **
50. A Rage For Revenge: War Of The Chtorrs by David Gerrold * 1/2
51. The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout ***
52. Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
53. River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
54. When The Emnperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *** 1/2
55. The Sun Also Rises by Eernest Hemingway *** 1/2
56. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson *** 1/2
57. Cousins: A Memoir by Athol Fugard **
58. The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach *** 1/2
59. The Rings Of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ****
60. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse * 1/2
61. John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ***
62. Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson ** 1/2
63. Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin ***
64. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ** 1/2
65. Prince Valiant Vol. 4 1943-1944 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
66. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ****
67. Habibi by Craig Thompson *** 1/2
68. The Vicar Of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith ** 1/2
69. The House Of Silk by Anthony Horowitz ** 1/2
70. George F. Kennan by John Lewis Gaddis ***
71. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien ****
72. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell ****
73. The Invention Of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ***
74. The Leviathan by Joseph Roth (trans by Michael Hofmann) *** 1/2
75. Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir by John Paul Stevens * 1/2
76. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson ***
77. Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls **
78. Pogo: Through The Wild Blue Yonder -- The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Vol. 1 by Walt Kelly ****
79. Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes (trans by Edith Grossman) *** 1/2
80. The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden ***


THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS

1. The Importance of Being Earnest (w Brian Bedford) ** 1/2
2. The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church (Daniel Kitson show) *** 1/2
3. Other Desert Cities (Jon Robin Baitz w Stockard Channing, Stacey Keach) **
4. John Gabriel Borkman (Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Lindsay Duncan) * 1/2
5. Mavis Staples at Bell House in Brooklyn ***
6. Fitz and the Tantrums at Bowery Ballroom ***
7. The New York Idea **
8. Blood From A Stone with Ethan Hawke ** 1/2
9. Gruesome Playground Injuries ***
10. The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore with Olympia Dukakis *
11. The Road To Qatar *
12. Nixon In China at the Met *** 1/2
13. The Whipping Man w Andre Braugher **
14. The Hallway Trilogy: Rose ***
15. The Hallway Trilogy: Paraffin ***
16. The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing **
17. Small Craft Warnings Tennessee Williams revival zero stars
18. The Diary Of A Madman with Geoffrey Rush at BAM ***
19. Timon Of Athens with Richard Thomas at the Public ***
20. The Broadway Musicals Of 1921 at Town Hall w Bobby Steggert ***
21. Nightingale at BAM dir Robert Lepage ***
22. Good People (w Frances McDormand) **
23. Beautiful Burnout (Frantic Assembly at St. Ann's) **
24. The Civilians at Joe's Pub w work-in-progress Let Me Ascertain You ***
25. Three Sisters (w Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard) *** 1/2
26. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark at Terminal 5 ***
27. The Pogues at Terminal 5 ** 1/2
28. Room (Virgina Woolf piece at Women's Project) ***
29. Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert -- The Musical * 1/2
30. Ghetto Klown (John Leguizamo show) ** 1/2
31. Cactus Flower (revival with Maxwell Caulfield) *
32. Teddy Thompson at City Winery *** 1/2
33. The Dream Of The Burning Boy ** 1/2
34. Double Flasehood (Shakespeare play) **
35. Macbeth (with John Douglas Thompson) **
36. Between Worlds/Entre Mundos (w Siudy) * 1/2
37. Arcadia (revival with Billy Crudup) *** 1/2
38. Mike Birbiglia's My Girlfriend's Boyfriend ***
39. Ron Sexsmith at Highline ** 1/2 (voice shaky that night; he's great)
40. How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (w Daniel Radcliffe) ***
41. Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo (w Robin Williams) **
42. Amadou & Mariam at Cooper Square Hotel ** 1/2 (bad acoustics, hard to see them)
43. Anything Goes (w Sutton Foster) ** 1/2
44. The Divine Sister (w Charles Busch) *** 1/2
45. War Horse (at Lincoln Center) ***
46. Catch Me If You Can (w Aaron Tveit) *** 1/2 production of ** 1/2 musical
47. Sleep No More (PunchDrunk's immersive Macbeth at McKittrick Hotel) *** 1/2
48. Peter and the Starcatcher (dir by Roger Rees) *** 1/2
49. Evans Haile at Etc. Etc. ***
50. The Motherf**ker With The Hat (w Chris Rock) ***
51. Being Harold Pinter at La MaMa ** 1/2
52. kd lang at Le Poisson Rouge *** (would have been **** if she had played a full concert)
53. Wonderland *
54. Jerusalem w Mark Rylance ***
55. Alexandria reading ***
56. Young Jean Lee's We're Gonna Die ***
57. Baby It's You *
58. Die Walkure at the Met w Deborah Voigt ***
59. Born Yesterday revival w Jim Belushi ***
60. The Normal Heart w Joe Mantello ***
61. The House Of Blue Leaves * 1/2
62. Sister Act * 1/2
63. The School For Lies (w Mamie Gummer) *** 1/2
64. Carson McCullers Talks About Love (w Suzanne Vega) * 1/2
65. The People In The Picture (w Donna Murphy) *
66. King Lear at BAM (w Derek Jacobi) ***
67. Pygmalion w Rupert Everett in UK **
68. Lord Of The Flies (Open Air) * 1/2
69. Operation Greenfield (UK Christian rock band) ** 1/2
70. Much Ado About Nothing (UK Globe) ** 1/2
71. All's Well That Ends Well (UK Globe) ****
72. One Man, Two Guvnors (UK) ***
73. Much Ado About Nothing (UK West End w David Tennant) ** 1/2
74. Ladysmith Black Mambazo (UK) *** 1/2
75. The Cherry Orchard (w Zoe Wannamker) ** 1/2
76. The Book Of Mormon *** 1/2
77. Lysistrata Jones * 1/2
78. The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism and Socialism with a Key To The Scriptures ***
79. The Illusion (Tony Kushner at Signature) *
80. One Arm (Tennessee Williams screenplay) ***
81. Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark * 1/2
82. Broadway By The Year: 1996 (at Town Hall) ** 1/2
83. All's Well That Ends Well/Shakespeare In The Park ** 1/2
84. Unnatural Acts (at CSC) ***
85. Zarkana/Cirque Du Soleil at Radio City Music Hall **
86. Measure For Measure/Shakespeare In The Park ***
87. Rickie Lee Jones at City Winery ** 1/2
88. Master Class (w Tyne Daly) ***
89. Silence! The Musical **
90. Hair (revival on Broadway) ***
91. Olive and the Bitter Herbs ** 1/2
92. The Bardy Bunch (FringeFest) **
93. 2 Burn (FF) * 1/2
94. Parker & Dizzy's Fabulous Journey To The End Of The Rainbow (FF) ** 1/2
95. Civilian (FF) **
96. Rachel Calof (FF) ** 1/2
97. Walls And Bridges (FF) **
98. What The Sparrow Said (FF) ** 1/2
99. Hard Travelin' With Woody (FF) ***
100. Romeo & Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending (FF) **
101. Books On Tape (FF) ** 1/2
102. Paper Cut (FF) ***
103. Leonard Cohen Koans (FF) *** 1/2
104. Yeast Nation (FF) ***
105. Hero: The Musical * 1/2
106. Cymbeline at Barrow St. Theatre ***
107. The Select (The Sun Also Rises) ERS at NYTW ** 1/2
108. Sweet And Sad **
109. Crane Story **
110. Septimus & Clarissa *** 1/2
111. Follies *** 1/2
112. Araby (FF) *
113. The Mountain Song *** 1/2
114. Pearl's Gone Blue (FF) ***
115. Lake Water **
116. The More Loving One (FF) **
117. Ennio: The Living Paper Cartoon (New York Musical Festival) ** 1/2
118. Newsies at Paper Mill Playhouse **
119. Kissless (NYMF) * 1/2
120. Crazy, Just Like Me (NYMF) ***
121. Time Between Us (NYMF) * 1/2
122. The Pigeon Boys reading (NYMF) ***
123. Fucking Hipsters (NYMF) **
124. Ghostlight (NYMF) ** 1/2
125. Cyclops: A Rock Opera (NYMF) *
126. Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of A Wild Prairie Dame (NYMF) *** 1/2
127. We Live Here (Zoe Kazan play) **
128. The Submission (w Jonathan Groff) **
129. Jack Perry Is Alive (And Dating) (NYMF) * 1/2
130. The Mountaintop ** 1/2
131. Central Avenue Breakdown (NYMF) ** 1/2
132. Kiki Baby (NYMF) ** 1/2
133. Greenwood (NYMF) *
134. Madame X (NYMF) **
135. Tut (NYMF) * 1/2
136. Gotta Getta Girl (NYMF staged reading) ** 1/2
137. Richard Serra exhibit at Gagosian ** 1/2 (space not tall and airy enough for piece)
138. The Agony & The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs (at Public) ** 1/2
139. Man and Boy (w Frank Langella) * 1/2
140. Rumer in concert ****
141. Relatively Speaking * 1/2
142. PigPen's The Nightmare Story *** 1/2
143. Milk Like Sugar ***
144. Love's Labor's Lost (at Public) ** 1/2
145. The Atmosphere Of Memory (w Ellen Burstyn and John Glover) 1/2 *
146. Other Desert Cities (on Broadway w Rachel Griffiths) ** 1/2
147. 69 Degrees South (at BAM) * 1/2
148. Chinglish * 1/2
149. Sons Of The Prophet *** 1/2
150. Queen Of The Mist (w Mary Testa) ** 1/2
151. Godspell (on Broadway) ** 1/2
152. Hand To God ***
153. All-American **
154. King Lear w Sam Waterston (at Public) **
155. Satyagraha at Met w English National Opera production ****
156. Venus In Fur w Nina Arianda on Broadway ***
157. Hugh Jackman: Back On Broadway ***
158. Fragments (Beckett plays) ***
159. Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays **
160. Radio City Christmas Spectacular ** 1/2
161. Private Lives (w Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross) **
162. Seminar (w Alan Rickman) **
163. White Christmas (at Paper Mill) ***
164. Wild Animals You Should Know ** 1/2
165. An Evening With Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin ***
166. Bonnie & Clyde **
167. The Cherry Orchard w Diane Wiest and John Turturro at CSC **
168. The Man Who Came To Dinner (at St. Clement's) **
169. Misterman w Cillian Murphy (at St. Ann's Warehouse) ** 1/2
170. Once (at New York Theatre Workshop) *** 1/2
171. Maple and Vine **
172. Krapp's Last Tape w John Hurt at BAM ***
173. Stick Fly **
174. Titus Andronicus (at Public) * 1/2
175. On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (w Harry Connick Jr.) * 1/2
176. Shlemiel The First ** 1/2
177. Lysistrata Jones on Broadway *
178. Close Up Space *


CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS (Only the CDs I've listened to thoroughly and with a strong emphasis on the ones I like, so don't think I love everything I listen to -- I just don't bother really listening to the ones I don't like more than once and don't think it's fair to rate on a cursory listen)

1. Cake -- Showroom Of Compassion ** 1/2
2. Charles Bradley -- No Time For Dreaming **
3. Chris Riffle -- Introducing Chris Riffle ** 1/2
4. Cyndi Lauper -- Memphis Blues **
5. John Grant -- Queen Of Denmark ***/
6. Local Natives -- Gorilla Manor ** 1/2
7. Antony and the Johnson - Swanlights ** 1/2
8. Olof Arnalds -- Innundir Skinni **
9. Robert Wyatt -- For The Ghosts Within ***
10. Neil Diamond: The Bang Years ** 1/2
11. Adele -- 21 *** 1/2
12. The Low Anthem -- Smart Flesh *** 1/2
13. Voxhaul Broadcast -- Timing Is Everything **
14. Vinicius Cantuaria & Bill Frisell -- Lagrimas Mexicanas ** 1/2
15. Ladysmith Black Mambazo -- Songs From A Zulu Farm *** 1/2
16. George Michael -- Faith reissue *** 1/2
17. Darlene Love -- The Sound Of Love: The Very Best Of Darlene Love ****
18. Robert Plant -- Band Of Joy *** 1/2
19. Amos Lee -- Mission Bell **
20. Charlie Haden Quartet West -- Sophisticated Ladies *** 1/2
21. The Poison Tree -- The Poison Tree ***
22. Rumer -- Seasons Of My Soul *** 1/2
23. Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Del McCoury Band -- American Legacies *** 1/2
24. David Wax Museum -- Everything Is Saved ***
25. Bruno Mars -- Doowops & Hooligans *** 1/2
26. The National - High Violet ***/
27. Tom Jones -- Praise & Blame *** 1/2
28. William Tyler -- Behold The Spirit ***/
29. Various Artists -- The Sounds of Siam ***/
30. Two Door Cinema Club -- Tourist History ***
31. Elvis Costello -- National Ransom ***/
32. 3 Fervent Travelers -- Time For Three *** 1/2
33. Dennis Brown -- The Crown Prince Of Reggae: Singles 1972-1985 ***
34. Ron Sexsmith -- Long Player Late Bloomer *** 1/2
35. Simon & Garfunkel -- Bridge Over Troubled Water ****
36. Teddy Thompson -- Bella *** 1/2
37. Marsha Ambrosius -- Late Nights & Early Mornings ** 1/2
38. Various Artists -- Sucker Punch soundtrack **
39. Henry Wolfe -- Linda Vista ** 1/2 / (but want to listen to more)
40. Various Artists -- Everybody Wants To Be A Cat: Disney Jazz, Volume 1 ** 1/2
41. kd lang -- Sing It Loud *** 1/2
42. Anita O'Day -- Sings The Most ****
43. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues *** 1/2
44. The Secret Sisters - The Secret Sisters ***
45. Frank Sinatra -- Ring-A-Ding-Ding ***/
46. Arctic Monkeys -- Suck It And See **
47. Beastie Boys -- Hot Sauce Committee Part Two *** 1/2
48. The Bo-Keys -- Got To Get Back ***
49. Bright Eyes -- The People's Key ***
50. Fleet Foxes -- Helplessness Blues *** 1/2
51. Brad Paisley -- This Is Country Music *** 1/2
52. Theophilus London -- Timez Are Weird These Days **
53. The Coral -- Butterfly House *** 1/2
54. Cowboy Junkies -- Demons ** 1/2
55. Colin Hay -- Gathering Mercury ** 1/2
56. Art Pepper -- Meets The Rhythm Section ****
57. Field Dasy -- Projector **
58. Gretchen Parlato -- The Lost and Found **
59. Ian Axel -- This Is The New Year **
60. Ingram Hill -- Look Your Best **
61. Jared Mees & Grown Children -- Only Good Thoughts Can Stay **
62. James Carter -- Caribbean Rhapsody ***
63. Heidi Spencer -- Under Streetlight Glow **
64. Joan As Police Woman -- Deep Field **
65. John Martyn -- Heaven & Earth **
66. Young Presidents -- Freedom Of Speech * 1/2
67. John Shannon -- Songs Of The Desert River **
68. Justin Bond - Dendrophile **
69. Justin Hines -- Days To Recall ** 1/2
70. Kate Bush -- The Director's Cut ***
71. Keren Ann -- 101 ** 1/2
72. Khaira Arby -- Timbuktu Tarab ***
73. Kina Grannis -- Stairwells * 1/2
74. The Magic Numbers -- Runaway ***/
75. Chris Young -- Neon ***
76. Leonard Cohen -- The Complete Columbia Albums Collection *** 1/2
77. James Taylor -- Sweet Baby James *** 1/2
78. Paul Simon -- Songwriter *** 1/2
79. Kate & Anna McGarrigle -- Tell My Sister *** 1/2
80. Various Artists -- The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams ***
81. Tom Waits -- Bad As Me ****
82. Darrell Scott -- Long Ride Home ** 1/2
83. Hall & Oates -- all their singles, in order *** 1/2
84. The Jayhawks -- Mockingbird Time ** 1/2
85. Pistol Annies -- Pistol Annies ***
86. Wilco -- The Whole Love ** 1/2
87. Various Artists -- Boardwalk Empire ***
88. Beastie Boys -- Hot Sauce Committee Part Two ***
89. Dale Watson -- The Sun Sessions ** 1/2
90. Miranda Lambert -- Four The Record ***/
91. Radiohead -- King Of Limbs ***
92. Stevie Nicks -- In Your Dreams ** 1/2
93. Lil Wayne -- Tha Carter IV **
94. Mandy Barnett -- Winter Wonderland ** 1/2
95. Dave Stewart -- The Blackbird Diaries ** 1/2
96. Feist -- Metals ***
97. Miles Davis -- Bitches Brew Live *** 1/2
98. Thomas Dybdahl -- Songs **
99. Zuchero -- Chocabek ***
100. John Brown Trio -- Dancing With Duke ** 1/2
101. Emmylou Harris -- Hard Bargain ***
102. Various Artists - Live From The Old Town School Vol 1-4 *** 1/2
103. Toro Y Moi -- Underneath The Pine **
104. George Strait -- Here For A Good Time ***
105. Gregg Allmann -- Low Country Blues ***/
106. Dawes -- Nothing Is Wrong ** 1/2
107. Glen Campbell -- Ghost On The Canvas *** 1/2
108. PJ Harvey -- Let England Shake ***/
109. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins -- Diamond Mine *** 1/2
110. Lindi Ortega -- Little Red Boots ***/
111. She & Him -- A Very She & Him Christmas ** 1/2
112. Justin Bieber -- Under The Mistletoe ** 1/2
113. Mikal Cronin -- Mikal Cronin ***/



Updated December 31, 2011

DVDs: Woody Allen Back On Top

Oh the DVDs are piling up, and these are the dog days of late December and early January when DVD releases slow to a trickle. Let's get to it.




MIDNIGHT IN PARIS ($35.99 BluRay; Sony) -- Director Woody Allen has often expressed bemusement about why some films are embraced by the public and others don't click, and it rarely aligns with his own assessment. I'm with you on this one, Woody. Why Midnight in Paris should become the highest grossing film in his career is beyond me. (Keep in mind, I am not adjusting for inflation but this is still a very successful film.) It's one of the mild late period Woodys, not so godawful that it makes you like his work less but by no means strong. The story -- modest SPOILER -- is a banal look at a Hollywood screenwriter with a miserable marriage who wishes he could have been in Paris during its 20s heyday. Presto, he gets his wish and rubs elbows with Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and the like. The movie soon reduces to simply introducing new historical figures as if their very presence was amusing. Look! Toulouse-Lautrec! In an embarrassing finale, our hero ignores the adult woman his own age who actually seems interesting (Carla Bruni) and goes off with a minor character who is little barely out of her teens. The timing of the DVD release is good because it puts the movies in the hands of Oscar voters just as they're filling out their ballots. Audiences and older Oscar members ate this up so I expect this will be one of Woody's best showings come nomination, with Picture, Director, Screenplay all in play and perhaps an acting nod for Kathy Bates, though that's a long shot. Owen Wilson is actually a good Woody, but the film is paper-thin if harmless.




ARCHER SEASON TWO ($39.99 BluRay; FOX) -- My favorite sitcom on TV stumbled out of the gate for an episode or two but soon redeemed itself and built on the silly, raunchy and hilarious work of season one. The voice cast is simply terrific -- special kudos to... well everyone, including H. Jon Benjamin, Judy Greer, Jessica Walter, Chris Parnell and the rest. If any voice cast deserved to be nominated for acting Emmys, these are the guys. The setup of a super agent spy that works for an independent company run by his mom remains surprisingly rich in bringing new life to familiar situations like office politics and the like. Sexy, hilarious and you'll want to watch it again and again.




DOLPHIN TALE ($35.99 BluRay combo; Warner Bros.) -- This year hasn't been a total wash for the talented Harry Connick Jr. He released a live album of his Broadway concert show in March. Now at the end, he is stranded on the Great White Way in the woebegone rethought revival of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. But in between he enjoyed a solid family hit with this movie about a kid who finds an injured dolphin and convinces Connick Jr. to help the animal make it back into the ocean. The big names include Kris Kristofferson, Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, but it's Connick, the kid and the dolphin front and center.




DESIGN FOR LIVING ($39.95 BluRay and $29.95 DVD; Criterion) -- This isn't pure Ernst Lubitsch because it's based on a Noel Coward play. But this pre-Code romp allows Lubitsch to add his light touch to a frothy, slightly risque tale of Miriam Hopkins refusing to choose between writer Frederick March and painter Gary Cooper. Cooper is about as convincing as a painter as I would be as a football lineman and this lighter than light comedy isn't quite his speed. But it's presented with care and the extras are great as always with Criterion, including a short starring Charles Laughton that Lubitsch directed and an entire 1964 British TV production of the play introduced by Noel Coward for comparison sake.







KUNG FU PANDA 2 ($49.99 BluRay combo; DreamWorks)
DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME ($29.95 BluRay; Vivendi) -- Kung Fu Panda was better than I expected and the sequel wasn't quite as good as I hoped. But both are fun, entertaining flicks. KFP2 was painted as a disappointment at the box office but in fact it grossed even more than the original worldwide. Since they both hit more than $600 million, you can bet there will be a KFP3. Detective Dee is pure martial arts fantasy flash, with an empty action mystery presented with superior flare. It's fun if you check your mind at the door and don't mind implausibility and empty spectacle. Just wait for the action scenes, though post-Crouching Tiger, we expect more.




THE BORGIAS SEASON ONE ($65.99 BluRay; Showtime/Paramount) -- Whether you're jonesing for The Sopranos or The Tudors, this costume drama about the sleazy, power-mad Borgias (led by an oily Jeremy Irons) delivers the goods according to my brother Chris, who recommends it highly. Overseen by director Neil Jordan who planned a feature film for years but decided he needed a wider -- bigger? Lengthier? -- canvas in which to do the story justice.




SEVEN CHANCES ULTIMATE EDITION ($29.95; Kino) -- The specialty label Kino has been on an extraordinary tear recently, putting out DVD after DVD devoted the shorts and films of Buster Keaton. He's practically their mascot. Lucky him and lucky us because that means we have access to top-notch prints of some of the best comedies of all time. Seven Chances is the one where Keaton must get married to inherit millions and we get the famous shot of him running down a street being chased by seemingly thousands of women in wedding gowns. It's surreal and unforgettable. The strong extras include two more shorts devoted to quickie marriages, including a Three Stooges entry, audio commentary by historians Ken Gordon and Bruce Lawton and more.







THE DEBT ($29.98; Universal/Focus)
BRIGHTON ROCK ($24.98; IFC) -- Helen Mirren is always good, even if the movies she is in don't quite click. The Debt is an unnecessary remake of a fine Israeli film anchored by good performances by Mirren and It Girl Jessica Chastain as the same character at different points in her life. Brighton Rock is a necessary remake that bungles the chance. An earlier version by Carol Reed wasn't faithful enough to the tale by Graham Greene so here was a chance to get it right. Nope. Written and directed by Rowan Joffe, it exhibits none of the subtlety he showed on Last Resort (a gem) or even the George Clooney flick The American (which I'm also not fond of). The cast is certainly top-notch. Sam Riley (from Control) plays Pinkie, the young thug desperate to cover up a murder and maintain control of his gang. Helen Mirren is Ida, the tea shop owner who suspects the worse of him and is determined to get justice. Andrea Riseborough is the timid but determined Rose. Only Riseborough's character captures the character on the page. The first big problem is the casting: the two leads are good but Pinkie and his girl are supposed to be 17 and 16 years-old. Yet Riley is 30 years-old and Riseborough nearly 29. There's a world of difference between those ages. And the time has been moved from the late 30s to the early 60s, which makes their older age all the more significant. A 29-year-old woman in 1964 is a far different creature than a 16-year-old girl in 1938. It throws the entire film off balance. Pinkie's most notable aspect in the book is his disinterest and even disgust with sex and women in general, though he's not necessarily gay so much as creepily asexual. Other than a small twitch in his cheek when he kisses Rose, that crucial lack of humanity is lost. MIrren's character is changed even more. In the book, she's so compelling (and frightening to Pinkie) precisely because her desire to see justice done over the dead man is so random. She doesn't know the victim from Adam, really. In the movie he's a dear friend so her motivation is understandable and thus less disturbing. So without these insights, what are we left with? A young thug and his gal driven to despair by a nosy woman and their past crimes, all of it laid on thick with an over-the-top score that warns of doom and gloom and eternal judgment at every turn. They even change the ending to avoid Greene's final hammer blow to optimism. Not even false hope has a place in his world. What a missed opportunity.




MICHAEL FEINSTEIN: THE SINATRA LEGACY ($24.98; Image) -- Feinstein is more of a curator than a performer, but his sincerity can win you over. This tribute to Sinatra and other Sinatra-era singers is nothing if not worshipful and peppered with anecdotes about the artists and the songs. Feinstein doesn't convince me when he swings (here he's backed by a full orchestra) but on the quiet moments he captures a unique, sensitive style finely tuned to the lyrics that serves him very well, such as on the stand-out track "So in Love." The quieter the better. On the positive side, the direction and editing isn't manic so you get a good sense of the show without constantly whip-cutting from camera to camera. A solid record of his work and if you like him you'll certainly like this.




VIETNAM IN HD ($34.95 BluRay; History/A&E/New Video) -- the first series World War II in Color seemed like an interesting gimmick. They kept coming thanks to big ratings and now we have Vietnam in HD. Really? What's next? World War II in 3-D? (Yes, actually!) Putting aside the meaningless hook, this is Vietnam seen through home movies and other footage alongside the stories of 13 people who were there. Fine as far as it goes, but nothing you haven't heard before.




TWO MINUTES TO GLORY ($19.99; NFL/Vivendi) -- If you're a football junkie, the NFL is determined to package and repackage its footage in every way imaginable. I love the complete Super Bowl sets. But these themed highlight reels are more suspect. They're fine for killing time on TV but do you really need to own more than two hours devoted to analyzing and celebrating the greatest last minute drives in NFL history? You do? Let me get out of your way.






















VELVET GOLDMINE ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
NOTHING SACRED ($24.95 ; Kino)
CITY OF GOD ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
A FAREWELL TO ARMS ($24.95 ; Kino)
HEAVENLY CREATURES ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
TORA! TORA! TORA! ($34.98 BluRay; FOX)
SHERLOCK HOLMES ($34.95 ; Kino) -- Velvet Goldmine looks better all the time. It's a wacky updating of Citizen Kane, with the mysterious figure a Bowie-like glam rock star played well by Ewan McGregor. I'd love to think some fans of the Dark Knight will watch this Christian Bale film and discover he's enamored by this god of pansexual freedom. Great soundtrack, too! Nothing Sacred is a long overdue decent print of a very fun Carole Lombard comedy that satirizes a public's hunger for scandal. Some things never change. City Of God remains a vivid crime flick about the struggle to survive in Rio. No wonder it spun off a sequel and a TV series. Gary Cooper tackles Hemingway and since he's so reticent in general you'd think the fit would be better for A Farewell To Arms. But they both get tamped down here. Peter Jackson unintentionally helped make the case for his directing The Lord Of The Rings via the fantasy sequences in this lurid, fascinating tale Heavenly Creatures, the story of two girls urging each other on to murder. Tora! Tora! Tora! is dutifully accurate in depicting the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. It makes the Michael Bay Pearl Harbor seem positively sprightly in comparison but the BluRay is handsome. Finally, John Barrymore doesn't quite ham it up as Holmes in this 1922 silent film version of a popular stage play that is somehow off just a tad, making the whole exercise not nearly as fun as it should be.

MOST TITLES LISTED HERE WILL BE AVAILABLE IN MULTIPLE FORMATS AND IN MULTIPLE COMBINATIONS, INCLUDING DVD, BLURAY, DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, VOD, STREAMING AND THE LIKE. THE FORMAT LISTED IS THE FORMAT PROVIDED FOR REVIEW, NOT ALL THE FORMATS AVAILABLE. IT IS OFTEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE VERSION WITH THE MOST EXTRAS. DO CHECK INDIVIDUAL TITLES FOR AVAILABILITY IN ALL THEIR VARIOUS GUISES.

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs and BluRays with the understanding that he would be considering them for review. Generally, he does not guarantee to review and he receives far more titles than he can cover.

Books: Well Dog My Cats! "Pogo" Gets Dee-luxe Treatment!

POGO: THROUGH THE WILD BLUE YONDER -- THE COMPLETE SYNDICATED COMIC STRIPS VOLUME 1 BY WALT KELLY ($39.99; Fantagraphics)

For many years, the comic strips that deserved legendary acclaim had to be taken on faith. We can watch old movies and TV shows and listen to classic albums and read great books. But practically speaking, many classic comic strips hailed as influential, ground-breaking, hilarious and the like were simply unavailable or in such a bastardized and incomplete form that it was nigh on impossible to judge them fairly. Even something as wildly popular as Peanuts wasn't really available to read from start to finish the way you would with any other work of art.

No more. We're finally seeing comic strips receive the attention and care they deserve. Classic works like Krazy Kat and Gasoline Alley (aka Walt And Skeezix) and Prince Valiant and yes Peanuts are receiving or have received gorgeous reprints in multi-volume sets that for the very first time since they first appeared in newspapers or magazines lets us appreciate the work and see how it's stood the test of time.

The latest to be lovingly restored is Pogo, Walt Kelly's strip that I have dutifully recognized as probably one of the greats (according to everyone else, at least) though I'd never seen so much as a single panel of it. Fantagraphics has made the wait worthwhile with Volume 1, which covers strips from October of 1948 through December 31, 1950. The book is bursting with useful, entertaining extras, from a foreword by Jimmy Breslin to an in-depth introduction by Steve Thompson that helpfully spells out Kelly's life and the history of the strip to footnotes (called Swamp Talk) by R.C. Harvey. The heart of the book are the daily strips presented with six days of work on every two page spread with the color Sunday comics in a separate section followed by the early daily strips for the New York Star before Pogo was syndicated. Here's a look at this gorgeous, enjoyably hefty volume.



That's all well and fine. The book is lovingly made and the strips presented with care and pleasure. But is it any good? Oh yes. It's funny and charming, bursting with witty wordplay and vivid characters you love immediately. You can see the influence the Marx Brothers and Krazy Kat and Mark Twain had on Pogo and its love of silly grammatical puns and Southern dialect. And you can see the influence Pogo had on Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes in its playful recognition that it was a comic strip (Pogo acknowledges letters about the strip just as Doonesbury would occasionally open a mail bag to answer reader letters) and gentle humor. The lovably grumpy Porkypine is surely a cousin of Eeyore and (later) Oscar the Grouch. Pogo even ran for President, with the catchy slogan of "I Go Pogo" to counter "I Like Ike."

In short, read Pogo and you can immediately see it slide into the pop cultural matrix and how it drew upon the work that came earlier, moved forward the art form of comic strips and influenced artists after it for generations to come. But most of all you'll laugh and savor catch phrases like "We have met the enemy and he is us!" (surely the strip's most famous) as well as Southernisms like "Dog my cats!" and the like.

Pogo is famous for its political satire but in this first volume the denizens of Okefenokee Swamp are (swiftly) defining themselves. Some modest teasing of newspaper reporters and elections don't really square with the image I had of the strip, but that is surely yet to come. Here we engage in simpler pursuits by Pogo Possum, Albert the Alligator (forever swallowing -- by accident -- fellow critters), Porkypine and the rest. They dive deliriously into baseball in October, take care of a stray pup, search for the Fountain of Youth, try to convince little critters to go to Owl's new school ("It's Saturday!")  and so on.

Whether they go digging in the dirt for a square root for math class or insist it ain't cricket to hit a baseball with your tail ("Who's playing cricket?" shouts Albert the Alligator as he rounds the bases. "Look out for Home Run Baker!"), the heart of this first volume is Kelly's delight in language and Southern improvements on it. MIlwaukee is "fraught and ree-plete" with cows and other Western wonders. When Albert tries to learn his numbers he insists that eleven follows seven. "Like the night the day...seven come ee-leven. Anybody knows that!" (The teacher gives up, graduates Albert and makes him a truant officer.) When Owl suggests Pogo actually break some of his New Year's resolutions instead of being a do-gooder, Pogo asks what kind breaks easy. "Any kind I makes," says Owl. "Man, I is got resolutions left over from last year what I isn't even had time to break yet!" Pogo responds, "Bring a couple over, size 6 1/2."

Here's a New Year's resolution for you: dive into Pogo, one of the best comic strips of all time. You don't have to take my word for it anymore; you can read it yourself.

BOOKS I'VE READ -- 2011

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand *** 1/2
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin ****
Two Adolescents by Alberto Moravia *** 1/2
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard ** 1/2
Cart & Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones ** 1/2
A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ****
A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin ***1/2
Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg * 1/2
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A.C. Grayling ***
Dodsworth in Rome by Tim Egan ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Queen Of The Falls by Chris Van Allsburg ** 1/2
A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris by David McCullough ***
The Great Night by Chris Adrian ** 1/2
Empire State Of Mind by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel * 1/2
21: The Story Of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago ** 1/2
The Siege Of Washington by John Lockwood & Charles Lockwood ***
Malcolm X; A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable ****
Dawn, Dusk or Night by Yasmina Reza ** 1/2
Unforgivable by Phillipe Djian **
On Being: A Scientist's Exploration Of The Great Questions Of Existence by Peter Atkins **
Mygale by Thierry Jonquet **
Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Kruschev And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by Frederick Kempe *** 1/2
High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story Of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry by Stephen Tignor ** 1/2
Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon ** 1/2
Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon ***
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara ***
Drive by James Sallis **
The Magicians by Lev Grossman ***
The Magician King by Lev Grossman ** 1/2
The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka ****
Fly By Night by Frances Hardinage ***
Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara *** 1/2
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler ** 1/2
Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller *** 1/2
East Of The West by Miroslav Penkov ***
Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman ***
Green Grass Of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara ***
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Willie & Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin ***
The Cut By George Pelecanos ** 1/2
Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar ***/
A Matter For Men: War Of the Chtorrs by David Gerrold **
A Rage For Revenge: War Of The Chtorrs by David Gerrold * 1/2
The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout ***
Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *** 1/2
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway *** 1/2
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson *** 1/2
Cousins: A Memoir by Athol Fugard **
The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach ***
The Rings Of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ****
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse * 1/2
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ** 1/2
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 4: 1943-1944 by Hal Foster ***
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson ** 1/2
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin ***
The House Of Silk by Anthony Horowitz ** 1/2
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell ****
The Invention Of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ***
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien ****
The Leviathan by Joseph Roth (trans by Michael Hoffman) *** 1/2
Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir by John Paul Stevens * 1/2
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson ***
Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls **
Pogo: Through The Wild Blue Yonder -- The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Volume 1 by Walt Kelly ****

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.  Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews. 


NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of books to consider for review, including digital and physical galleys as well as final review copies. He typically does not guarantee coverage and invariably receives far more books than he can cover.

Veteran's Day -- Five Books To Read

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED BY TIM O'BRIEN ($14.95 PAPERBACK; HOUGHTON MIFFLIN)
MATTERHORN BY KARL MARLANTES ($15.95 PAPERBACK; GROVE PRESS)
WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO TO WAR BY KARL MARLANTES ($25; ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS)
WILLIE & JOE: THE WW II YEARS BY BILL MAULDIN ($39.99 PAPERBACK; FANTAGRAPHICS)
WILLIE & JOE BACK HOME BY BILL MAULDIN ($29.99; FANTAGRAPHICS)

Today is Veterans Day, so I've been leading up to it by reading some of the current and classic works about war and soldiers. You can't go wrong with any of them or a hundred other books one might name. These are just the few that happened to snag my attention in the last few weeks.




You can't go wrong with The Things They Carried, acclaimed as a modern masterpiece the day it was released in 1990 and, if anything, it's reputation has only grown. The Tim O'Brien collection of short stories is a favorite "handseller" of independent bookstores. That is, it's one of those books they will always recommend to lovers of good fiction looking for a discovery.  It's based on O'Brien's experience in the Vietnam War.







That's also the source for the work of Karl Marlantes, who quietly set up shop on the bestseller list with the novel Matterhorn last year. Now he's returned with What It Is Like To Go To War, a nonfiction work about his experience in war and how ill-prepared most 19-year-old kids are to endure it. It's already appearing on lists of the best books of the year and is a fascinating companion piece to Matterhorn.







But today I want to talk art inspired by another war: the cartoons of Bill Mauldin. At one point, this man who made the cover of Time magazine twice was perhaps the most famous average soldier in the world (as compared to generals like Patton and Eisenhower). Mauldin's Willie & Joe were grunts, regular foot soldiers who sat in the mud, complained about the food and otherwise captured the cynical, direct, let's get this job done right so we don't have to do it again attitude that soldiers embodied during WW II.

First and foremost, Willie & Joe are funny. Fantagraphics has put the WW II years out in paperback, but I've got the also available hardcover, a great looking slipcase in army green with two fat volumes of his captivating artwork. Never having served (or even fired a gun), it's an absorbing glimpse into the day-to-day life of soldiers while it was happening and the end not known. It's easy to identify with: employees in any capacity gripe about their bosses. But the more specific Mauldin is, the more biting and fascinating his work is. The strip was a remarkable outlet for frustrations and annoyance and genuine anger: it didn't just poke fun at the higher-ups; it revealed problems and gripes that needed to be addressed. Seeing Willie & Joe endure the same craziness was surely comforting. But this wasn't just an easy way to redirect attention from the actual problems they faced. And while the war was on, people at home took just as much comfort in their sad sack endurance. It was wildly popular among civilians as well as soldiers; being able to joke about the hardships meant they'd be okay in the end, right?

Finally, it's Willie & Joe: Back Home that moved me the most. The cover shows a soldier without a place to stay, sleeping on a park bench and covered in a poster saying "Welcome Home" to the soldiers. Too often, soldiers are praised and appreciated in the heat of battle but treated like an annoyance once the fighting has stopped. Bill Mauldin wasn't even sure anyone would want to hear about Willie & Joe once World War II had been won and, indeed, the strip faded in popularity, especially as Mauldin tackled social issues and kept a spotlight on the poor treatment of soldiers, who deserved better.

Clearly, veterans don't get two votes at the ballot box despite their service and the risking of life and limb when called to duty. But sometimes even that one vote, that one voice is begrudged, whether it's the veteran in Oakland sent to the hospital by cops during an apparently peaceful protest in the Occupy movement or a soldier getting booed during a Presidential debate because he identified himself as gay and said he wanted to serve his country without having to lie.

it's all happened before. Todd DePastino's excellent essay details Mauldin's career, his artistic achievements and the battles he fought within himself and with his syndicators over this series. Mauldin is always funny, but those with a rosy image of WW II will be surprised by the complex world shown here: sometimes veterans are chagrined to discover that jobs they were assured would be waiting for them have disappeared while other times they're disconcerted to see the person who is going to be fired to make way for them. Again and again, veterans are forgotten, forced to travel home by riding the rails or wondering where the crowds are that greeted vets after the victory in Europe but have moved on by the time the Pacific boys head home.

This was bad enough as far as some newspapers were concerned, but Mauldin really lost them when he continually focused on social issues. Mauldin skewered the prejudice that treated a returning vet as a Jap because of how he looked, never mind where he was born or where he fought. He mocked the VFW, at the time held hostage according to Mauldin by the soldiers of a different era who blocked moves to give WW II vets real say in the organization and then publicly supported hateful agendas like segregation that had nothing to do with the group as such. Mauldin could tease young college students fired up by social consciousness but turn around and be blistering over the vicious prejudice and hatred of lynching.

People turned away. Where were the easy laughs of Willie & Joe? Papers dropped him, even as Mauldin found the right voice to balance his heart with his humor. By December 31, 1946 it was all over. Willie & Joe were home but forgotten. Mauldin had just won the Pulitzer Prize one year earlier but no one wanted to hear him now. In the 1950s he would focus on editorial cartooning with great success. And Willie & Joe were still beloved by the greatest generation, given tribute by Charles Schulz in his Peanuts strip on Veterans Day in 1998. Willie & Joe and Mauldin made it onto a stamp in 2010, seven years after he died. And now Fantagraphics has captured Mauldin's most enduring characters in two releases that do him justice.

If Veterans Day proves the spur to dive into any of these books (or the many others I might have mentioned), then that's just one more reason to say thanks to the people who have served in the past and do so today.

BOOKS I'VE READ -- 2011

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand *** 1/2
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin ****
Two Adolescents by Alberto Moravia *** 1/2
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard ** 1/2
Cart & Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones ** 1/2
A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ****
A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin ***1/2
Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg * 1/2
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A.C. Grayling ***
Dodsworth in Rome by Tim Egan ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Queen Of The Falls by Chris Van Allsburg ** 1/2
A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris by David McCullough ***
The Great Night by Chris Adrian ** 1/2
Empire State Of Mind by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel * 1/2
21: The Story Of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago ** 1/2
The Siege Of Washington by John Lockwood & Charles Lockwood ***
Malcolm X; A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable ****
Dawn, Dusk or Night by Yasmina Reza ** 1/2
Unforgivable by Phillipe Djian **
On Being: A Scientist's Exploration Of The Great Questions Of Existence by Peter Atkins **
Mygale by Thierry Jonquet **
Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Kruschev And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by Frederick Kempe *** 1/2
High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story Of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry by Stephen Tignor ** 1/2
Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon ** 1/2
Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon ***
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara ***
Drive by James Sallis **
The Magicians by Lev Grossman ***
The Magician King by Lev Grossman ** 1/2
The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka ****
Fly By Night by Frances Hardinage ***
Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara *** 1/2
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler ** 1/2
Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller *** 1/2
East Of The West by Miroslav Penkov ***
Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman ***
Green Grass Of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara ***
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Willie & Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin ***
The Cut By George Pelecanos ** 1/2
Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar ***/
A Matter For Men: War Of the Chtorrs by David Gerrold **
A Rage For Revenge: War Of The Chtorrs by David Gerrold * 1/2
The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout ***
Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *** 1/2
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway *** 1/2
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson *** 1/2
Cousins: A Memoir by Athol Fugard **
The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach ***
The Rings Of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ****
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse * 1/2
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ** 1/2
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 4: 1943-1944 by Hal Foster ***
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson ** 1/2
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin ***
The House Of Silk by Anthony Horowitz ** 1/2
George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis ***

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.  Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews. 


NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of books to consider for review, including digital and physical galleys as well as final review copies. He typically does not guarantee coverage and invariably receives far more books than he can cover.

Books: The Return Of Sherlock Holmes

THE HOUSE OF SILK: A SHERLOCK HOLMES NOVEL BY ANTHONY HOROWITZ ($27.99; Mulholland Books/Little, Brown) ** 1/2 out of ****

It may seem to you that Sherlock Holmes has never left us. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective has inspired more fan fiction than almost any literary character in history, with acclaimed works ranging from The Seven Percent Solution by Nicholas Meyer to Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon's The Final Solution and Laurie R. King's ongoing series of mysteries, all inspired by that master of deduction. On TV, we have a fun new reboot from the BBC that places Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the present day.

At the movies, we have Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in tales filled with action set pieces that make them almost entirely unrecognizable as Holmesian. (Though Downey and Law would be great with better scripts.)



One could list thousands and thousands of short stories, novels, movies, plays, kids' books, games and so many more, all springing off from that Victorian hero. The Guinness World Records says Sherlock Holmes has been played in more movies by more actors than any other character in history.

But in fact Holmes has been officially quiet since Doyle laid down his pen. Now for the first time the estate of Doyle has authorized a new tale. The writer they selected was a good choice. Anthony Horowitz is the best-selling talent behind the Alex Rider novels (a teenage James Bond) and numerous other TV and book projects. Most notably, he created the marvelous mystery TV series Foyle's War. It was this intelligent, subtle show and its distinctive hero that surely won them over.

The book Horowitz has written is The House Of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel ($27.99; Mulholland Books/Little, Brown). It is indeed fanboy fiction, a book firmly rooted in the style of Doyle, faithful to the character as created and with just enough wiggle room to allow the author to say all the things he's been longing to say about the world of 221B Baker Street. Who can blame him?



The House Of Silk is a novel, of course, making it a rarity among the official works. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories and it was the short stories that turned Holmes into a superstar. Since he was delivering a novel, Horowitz was obliged to raise the stakes and make it a doozy, a case for the ages. If he had written say a dozen short stories, Horowitz perhaps might have felt freer to play with this world and create vivid sketches and scenes. With a novel, the weight of importance is heavy.

The House of Silk involves two strands, two mysteries that you will not be surprised to discover are linked. One involves the theft of paintings in America and an Irish gangster determined to avenge the death of his twin. The other strand involves corruption and evil at the highest levels of society and government, a conspiracy so cloaked in secrecy that not even Holmes has had an inkling of its existence till now.

As a fan, Horowitz delivers every set piece you would expect: the novel begins with Holmes greeting Watson with a flurry of observations that the spluttering fellow insists he explain, which of course Holmes does in his most elementary style. Horowitz moves on to depict Lestrade (not such a bad fellow, as Horowitz sees him), Mycroft Holmes, the Baker Street Irregulars, Professor Moriarty, fog, danger, disguises that we see through but Watson does not and even a nod to Mrs. Hudson (a wonderful woman and under-appreciated). If Horowitz missed a button to push, I've missed it too.

When the novel is not touring all the Holmes highlights like the docent of a museum, it is announcing its importance. Our narrator Dr. Watson repeatedly says things like "I will never forget the 50 minute vigil...." and just a few pages later, "I have never forgotten that night and its consequences."

The mystery itself is vile enough to support a novel and Holmes has some clever moments. If you're a fan, this is comfort food. It feeds your desire to see Holmes in a new tale but does not provide any insight or astonish you with its cleverness. Watson perhaps should not be quite so blind or naive at the end when wrapping up his tale, but the old fellow surely can't handle the monstrousness of what he's witnessed, so I'll let Horowitz off the hook by assuming that is what he meant rather than to show Watson as a little foolish.

If you're like me, you're helpless in the face of any decent Holmes adventure. If so, The House Of Silk will satisfy. If you prefer any new Holmes tale to leap ahead, to surprise and delight in unexpected ways, to offer new insight into the mind of this most vivid character, then you'd best stick with the canon.

BOOKS I'VE READ -- 2011

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand *** 1/2
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin ****
Two Adolescents by Alberto Moravia *** 1/2
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard ** 1/2
Cart & Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones ** 1/2
A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ****
A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin ***1/2
Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg * 1/2
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A.C. Grayling ***
Dodsworth in Rome by Tim Egan ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Queen Of The Falls by Chris Van Allsburg ** 1/2
A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris by David McCullough ***
The Great Night by Chris Adrian ** 1/2
Empire State Of Mind by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel * 1/2
21: The Story Of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago ** 1/2
The Siege Of Washington by John Lockwood & Charles Lockwood ***
Malcolm X; A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable ****
Dawn, Dusk or Night by Yasmina Reza ** 1/2
Unforgivable by Phillipe Djian **
On Being: A Scientist's Exploration Of The Great Questions Of Existence by Peter Atkins **
Mygale by Thierry Jonquet **
Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Kruschev And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by Frederick Kempe *** 1/2
High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story Of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry by Stephen Tignor ** 1/2
Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon ** 1/2
Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon ***
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara ***
Drive by James Sallis **
The Magicians by Lev Grossman ***
The Magician King by Lev Grossman ** 1/2
The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka ****
Fly By Night by Frances Hardinage ***
Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara *** 1/2
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler ** 1/2
Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller *** 1/2
East Of The West by Miroslav Penkov ***
Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman ***
Green Grass Of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara ***
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Willie & Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin ***
The Cut By George Pelecanos ** 1/2
Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar ***/
A Matter For Men: War Of the Chtorrs by David Gerrold **
A Rage For Revenge: War Of The Chtorrs by David Gerrold * 1/2
The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout ***
Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *** 1/2
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway *** 1/2
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson *** 1/2
Cousins: A Memoir by Athol Fugard **
The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach ***
The Rings Of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ****
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse * 1/2
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ** 1/2
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 4: 1943-1944 by Hal Foster ***
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson ** 1/2
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin ***
The House Of Silk by Anthony Horowitz ** 1/2

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.  Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews. 


NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of books to consider for review, including digital and physical galleys as well as final review copies. He typically does not guarantee coverage and invariably receives far more books than he can cover.

The Career Of Mantan Moreland -- A Poem

YOU CAN'T WIN (THE NAMES OF MANTAN MORELAND, ACTOR)

You can't win, Nightwatchman
Jefferson
Jeff
Jeff Jefferson
Jefferson "Jeff" Jackson
Jefferson "Jeff" Smith
Elevator boy
Jeff The Hotel Porter
Sam The Night Club Janitor
Shoeshine man
Red cap #2 (uncredited)
Birmingham Brown
Alabam
Barbershop Porter
Bartender
Subway rider
Messenger
Counterman
Waiter
Old man, you're out of luck


--Michael Giltz

Books: Marriage Plots, Baseball Woes, Economist Superheroes And The Opium Wars

Here's a quick roundup of four of the biggest books of the fall and which ones are worth your time.

THE MARRIAGE PLOT BY JEFFREY EUGENIDES ** 1/2 out of ****
THE ART OF FIELDING BY CHAD HARBACH ***
GRAND PURSUIT BY SYLVIA NASAR ***
RIVER OF SMOKE BY AMITAV GHOSH *** 1/2




THE MARRIAGE PLOT BY JEFFREY EUGENIDES ($28; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) ** 1/2

Can a "marriage plot" still drive a novel, wondered best-selling author Jeffrey Eugenides? It used to be a staple of fiction but now with women having careers and quickie divorces and pre-nups making marriage a matter of convenience, the choice of whom to marry doesn't have the same weighty impact for a woman that it did in the 1800s. Back then, it was often the single defining decision of their lives (if it was their choice at all). So will a marriage plot work today?

Of course it can, since the search for true love is still fraught with peril and desire. But it helps to have a heroine to root for. In his follow-up to the deservedly Pulitzer Prize-winning book Middlesex, Eugenides focuses on a collegiate love triangle.

Madeleine Hanna is an English major devoted to Jane Austen and George Eliot. Mitchell Grammaticus is the dopey childhood "friend" who has always loved her but never found quite the right moment to act. And Leonard Bankhead is a sexy, driven, compelling but fragile bad boy who is just the sort of damaged, highly medicated soul a woman can make her life's work. Eugenides is strong on Bankhead's mental breakdown and best of all Grammaticus' religious journey to India to find himself, where the novel truly comes to life.

Several problems here: Madeleine simply isn't a winning heroine. Worse, she's torn between two men and we can't help feeling that neither one is right for her (nor she for them). In effect, we're reading a novel in which we are hoping no one gets together. Well, a marriage plot can work, but a "please don't get married just yet" plot isn't quite so compelling.



THE ART OF FIELDING BY CHAD HARBACH ($25.99; Little, Brown) ***

One of the most hyped books of the year, Harbach's debut proves a genuine crowd-pleaser and smart commercial bet of the best sort. Comparisons to John Irving make sense since like Irving Harbach is a deceptively straightforward writer with a talent for character and narrative.

The story here is about a college baseball phenom named Henry Skrimshander. (The names in this book are so out there, it must be a sign that writers are running out of names for characters that can be cleared for use; maybe real people should rent out their names and provide a waiver?) Henry is a natural at shortstop and is spotted by Mike Schwartz, who soon recruits Henry to the tiny liberal arts Westish College.

Don't worry if you're not a fan of baseball. Harbach makes the joy of sport -- and specifically the pleasure of refining a skill and getting better and better at it -- universal for anyone. And this is not a novel that climaxes with the big game. (Though of course there is a big game.) It climaxes with a cast of characters and how they bounce off each other.

Henry's roommate is Owen Dunne, a casually out member of the baseball team who finds himself being wooed by the college President Guert Affenlight (!), heretofore happily heterosexual until Owen rocks his world. A widow, Guert is trying to reach out to his estranged daughter, who washes up on his shore after a collapsing marriage. The last thing Pella Affenlight wants is a relationship but the blunt, straightforward, determinedly caveman-like Mike Schwartz simply can't be denied.

A freak accident pushes Henry's ascent to the majors off course and derails everyone around him. Harbach captures the pressure of expectations that weigh down on Henry beautifully, down to the illogical but heartbreakingly believable eating disorder and self-destructive behavior that plagues the kid. Certain plot twists feel just like that -- artificial twists to gin up the excitement -- but Harbach rescues this by having his characters react movingly to them. Plus, he ends the novel on just the right note. So first time at bat he's scored a hit. Great. Now, like any ballplayer, we expect Harbach to do it again.



GRAND PURSUIT: THE STORY OF ECONOMIC GENIUS BY SYLVIA NASAR ($35; Simon & Schuster) ***

Despite policy makers and trouble makers (like Marx), I've always blithely considered economists to be people who describe and clarify the actions of the economy, rather than dramatically change it. But Sylvia Nasar's new book opened my eyes to the radical and powerful influence the men and women devoted to economics have had in the world, much of it for good. Her first book was the surprise bestseller A Beautiful Mind, a biography of John Nash that demonstrated Nasar's gift for elucidating complex mathematical ideas.

Here she turns that skill to a fascinating story on a much bigger canvas.  Like the popular histories of David McCullough and other acclaimed authors, Nasar's Grand Pursuit is chock-full of fascinating men and women and their stories, with one drama-filled account tumbling on top of another. She compellingly tells all their achievements as one overarching tale. Charles Dickens and Karl Marx (among others), bring to light the miserable conditions under which so many people lived and say, this needn't be. Beatrice Webb virtually invented the welfare state and proved that ensuring decent education, food and medical care would dramatically boost the private sector. Irving Fisher had the insight that governments that managed their money supply smartly would increase the likelihood of economic stability (a point echoed by Paul Krugman just today in discussing the European Union's debt crisis). And that's just in the first 170 pages.

It's not a dry recitation, either. Webb earnestly ventures into parts of London most proper women would never dream of seeing. Marx indulges in his own welfare state at the expense of Engels. Fisher's bout with tuberculosis (usually a killer in those days) took years to recover from and turned this academic into a crusader. Grand Pursuit is a very entertaining tale bursting with great stories, like the deftly painted scene at 78 Regent Street, the address where the first women to attend Oxford resided in bohemian splendor. Don't think for a moment you need to have a dog in the fight between Keynesians and the Chicago School to enjoy this book. You may not realize how dramatically the lives of so many people have improved in the last 200 years, but Nasar's Grand Pursuit will show you a major reason why and how it happened.



RIVER OF SMOKE BY AMITAV GHOSH ($28; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) *** 1/2

Whatever you do, DON'T read Amitav Ghosh's new novel River Of Smoke. It's the second book in a sprawling trilogy that began with the international bestseller Sea Of Poppies. By all means, dive into Sea Of Poppies and then you can read River Of Smoke. These two books are so artfully written, you will feel a sense of satisfying completion after each one, even though the story is going to be continued and you're eager to find out what happens next.

They're part of the Ibis trilogy, so-called because the books pivot on the journey of the Ibis, a ship that looms large in these tales. It might just as easily have been called the Opium Wars, since it is set in the early 1800s and leads up inexorably to that showdown between China and Great Britain, with India squeezed in the middle.

Where to begin? With the vision that reveals to an illiterate woman in a tiny village that she will embark on a voyage on the Ibis (even though she's never even seen a sailing ship like that before)? With the opium trader Bahram Modi, who has a gift for navigating the tricky politics of Canton and his dual existence at home and with his true love, a woman on a tiny boat who cooks for sailors? With the naturalist who ventures from England to discover if a fabled plant actually exists or is just the fantastical imaginings of an artist who wanted to beguile?

Ghosh is such an artist. Dickensian is the word the invariably springs to mind, because he has an endless supply of vivid characters and enough plot to keep all of them -- and dozens more -- dancing away for years. His talent for dialogue is especially remarkable for Ghosh is writing in English while capturing the distinctive patterns of both speech and the written word in a bygone era by people who might speak Mandarin or some Indian dialect but are using English to communicate with one another. His dialogue is musical, vivid, funny, utterly original and a sheer delight.

Sea Of Poppies was flawless. This second book does not disappoint, but you do see the gears of this massive tale move the story along here and there as Ghosh leaps from continent to continent and character to character. Pirates, romance, despair, love, suicide, fate, the gods, addiction, redemption and history -- it's all here. Can Ghosh bring his marvelous tale to a satisfying conclusion? If River Of Smoke is any indication, the answer is yes, if "satisfying" includes heartbreaking and moving. We may have to wait till 2014 to find out. But it's worth the wait and you've got two books to read and reread until then.

BOOKS I'VE READ -- 2011

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand *** 1/2
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin ****
Two Adolescents by Alberto Moravia *** 1/2
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard ** 1/2
Cart & Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones ** 1/2
A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ****
A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin ***1/2
Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg * 1/2
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A.C. Grayling ***
Dodsworth in Rome by Tim Egan ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Queen Of The Falls by Chris Van Allsburg ** 1/2
A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris by David McCullough ***
The Great Night by Chris Adrian ** 1/2
Empire State Of Mind by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel * 1/2
21: The Story Of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago ** 1/2
The Siege Of Washington by John Lockwood & Charles Lockwood ***
Malcolm X; A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable ****
Dawn, Dusk or Night by Yasmina Reza ** 1/2
Unforgivable by Phillipe Djian **
On Being: A Scientist's Exploration Of The Great Questions Of Existence by Peter Atkins **
Mygale by Thierry Jonquet **
Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Kruschev And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by Frederick Kempe *** 1/2
High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story Of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry by Stephen Tignor ** 1/2
Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon ** 1/2
Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon ***
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara ***
Drive by James Sallis **
The Magicians by Lev Grossman ***
The Magician King by Lev Grossman ** 1/2
The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka ****
Fly By Night by Frances Hardinage ***
Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara *** 1/2
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler ** 1/2
Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller *** 1/2
East Of The West by Miroslav Penkov ***
Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman ***
Green Grass Of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara ***
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Willie & Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin ***
The Cut By George Pelecanos ** 1/2
Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar ***/
A Matter For Men: War Of the Chtorrs by David Gerrold **
A Rage For Revenge: War Of The Chtorrs by David Gerrold * 1/2
The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout ***
Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
When The Emnperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *** 1/2
The Sun Also Rises by Eernest Hemingway *** 1/2
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson *** 1/2
Cousins: A Memoir by Athol Fugard **
The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach ***
The Rings Of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ****
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse * 1/2
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ** 1/2
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 4: 1943-1944 by Hal Foster ***
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson ** 1/2
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin ***

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.  Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews. 


NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of books to consider for review, including digital and physical galleys as well as final review copies. He typically does not guarantee coverage and invariably receives far more books than he can cover.