I finished just two books during this week, though I read about half of another that I have chosen not to finish, at least at this time. I also read one dialogue of Plato and much of the latest issue of the magazine Cirsova. The Best Cartoons from France, edited by Edna Bennett — This …
Weekly Reader — January 8 – 14, 2023
I finished five books and one magazine this week. Monday Mob, by Don Pendleton — The 33rd book in Pendleton’s highly successful series about Mack Bolan, the Executioner, kicks off a Hell Week as the warrior brings his special brand of destruction to the Mafia before retiring from that war to tackle a different threat …
Weekly Reader — January 1 – 7, 2023
The year 2023 is off to a pretty good start on the reading front, as I finished 6 books through January 7: The Lone Rider (I Must Ride Alone), by Jackson Gregory — First published in 1940, though I read the Popular Library paperback whose cover is shown above. This is a reasonably effective western …
Merry Christmas!
In This Corner…Dennis the Menace, by Hank Ketcham
I’ve long been a fan of Hank Ketcham’s creation, Dennis the Menace, and I pick up old collections of the strip whenever I get a chance. I bought a copy of this Fawcett Gold Medal paperback at a local book sale a couple years ago and got around to reading it earlier this year. The …
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The Romance of Yder, ed. and trans. by Alison Adams
A young man (Yder) renders a service to King Arthur but the king shows a lack of gratitude, resulting in the fellow going off on adventures. He later becomes the object of Arthur’s jealousy when the king compels Guinevere to reveal the man whom she’d least object to marrying should Arthur die — though young …
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The Gentleman Says It’s Pixies, by Gardner Rea
Ohio-born cartoonist Gardner Rea was among the initial contributors to The New Yorker, but in his long career, his work was published by various magazines. Among them was Collier’s, whose cartoon editor, Gurney Williams, edited this volume of Rea’s cartoons first published in that magazine. The contents cover a wide variety of subjects, from the …
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The Romans of Partenay, or of Lusignan: Otherwise Known as The Tale of Melusine: Translated from the French of La Coudrette (before 1500 A.D.)
In the late fourteenth century, the Anglo-Norman author Jean d’Arras, at the behest of the Duc de Berry, wrote an account of the fantastic ancestry of the House of Lusignan: Specifically, Count Raymond of Poitou had married a fey woman, Melusine, upon condition that he never observe her on a Saturday, and their union produced …
They Got Me Covered, by Bob Hope
In 1941, Bob Hope published They Got Me Covered, a humorous autobiography. It’s a light-hearted look at his early life that focuses chiefly on his career, and particularly on his radio program and his motion pictures. The writing and the tone are much like what one experienced in his monologues and conversations during his specials, …
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The Girl from Outer Space, by Carter Brown
Hollywood fix-it expert Rick Holman is hired to discreetly track down a German starlet who has disappeared right after signing a big contract: if she doesn’t show, it’s likely to break the agency that is promoting her. Holman’s investigation takes him to Europe and back and nearly costs him his life as he digs up …
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