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 …
Read the full post →“<em>The Romance of Yder</em>, ed. and trans. by Alison Adams”
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 …
Read the full post →“<em>The Gentleman Says It’s Pixies</em>, by Gardner Rea”
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 …
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, …
Read the full post →“<em>They Got Me Covered</em>, by Bob Hope”
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 …
Read the full post →“<em>The Girl from Outer Space</em>, by Carter Brown”
The seventh installment in Mack Bolan’s war against the Mafia finds the Executioner returning stateside after his devastating dealings with the Mob in London. He barely escapes the trap set for him at the airport and only does so through the assistance of folks unconnected with the battles … though soon they will be heavily …
Read the full post →“<em>Nightmare in New York</em>, by Don Pendleton”
In this, the sixteenth entry in the long-running series of Mr. & Mrs. North mysteries penned by husband and wife writing team Richard and Frances Lockridge, a noted palaeontologist published by Jerry North’s firm is being harassed by means of fake ads in newspapers claiming he wishes to hire, e.g., tree surgeons, the ads resulting …
Read the full post →“<em>Dead as a Dinosaur</em>, by Frances & Richard Lockridge”
It had been many years since I had last read the comic strip Fred Basset when I ran across this paperback and picked it up. I still found the often-jovial hound amusing, though I had forgotten — if I had ever noticed — that the strip was set in England. Worth a look for fans …
I’ve been slowly making my way through the several Loeb Classical Library volumes that contain the historical work Roman Antiquities, by the first-century B.C. author Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and I recently finished up the fifth volume, covering Books 8 and 9 (through section 9.24). The volume is largely devoted to the career of, and the …
Read the full post →“<em>Roman Antiquities</em>, Books 8-9.24, by Dionysius of Halicarnassus”
Louis L’Amour pens a contemporary mystery-thriller, albeit still in a western setting, with The Broken Gun, as an author interested in what happened to two brothers who had brought a herd of cattle west and then disappeared finds himself the target of those who know what happened and themselves have something to hide. Though he …
Read the full post →“<em>The Broken Gun</em>, by Louis L’Amour”
