B. G. Wilson. Passenger Trains of the World ( before 1966) & Edmund Hamilton. What’s it Like out there? (1974)

     B. G. Wilson. Passenger Trains of the World ( before 1966) The UK is over represented, taking up about 1/3rd of the total, but otherwise a nice little survey of passenger trains in the late 1950s and early 1960s. No date, as was the British habit back then, and annoying one it was too. Printing is average for the period. The book was aimed at youngsters, so production values had to be kept cheap. ** (2006)

     Edmund Hamilton. What’s it Like out there? (1974) Anthology of Hamilton’s early stories. His early style wasn’t one: wooden, flat, cliched, and overuse of one-sentence paragraphs. With exclamation marks, yet! But he had a powerful imagination, and as his style improved (or wasn’t edited down to the common pulp denominator), his uncomfortable explorations of identity become impressive. His later novels are worth reading by any fan of SF; this collection is of historical interest only, as a precursor of his better work. *½ (2006)

H. C. Casserley. The Historic Locomotive Pocketbook (1960) & Mike Laws, ed The Times Crossword Book 2 (2001)

     H. C. Casserley. The Historic Locomotive Pocketbook (1960) A survey of about 200 loco types that Casserley thinks have historical significance. While his write-ups are interesting, few of them persuade that their subjects are indeed as significant as Casserley believes. That is, most neither epitomised contemporary locomotive practice nor greatly influenced future development. Still, a nice little book, with lots of info of the kind that’s crucial when you need it. ** (2006)

     Mike Laws, ed The Times Crossword Book 2 (2001) Same successes and issues as with Book 1. The clues that rely on British usages and customs I can tolerate. Those that misunderstand N. American usage annoy me. Rebuses whose parts bear no relation to each whatever annoy me greatly. Those that use metaphoric definitions are simply unacceptable - metaphors cannot be reverse engineered. But I spent many happy hours doing these crosswords. ** (2006)

L. Gough. Accidental Deaths (1991) & Anon. The Yellow Book of Locker-Room Humour (1980)

     L. Gough. Accidental Deaths (1991) I read this on the way to England, and have forgotten almost all of it. It’s a hard-boiled ‘tec story, in which a number of deaths appear accidental, but aren’t. The style was overwrought, and the characters and plot obviously forgettable. Still, in my notebook I rated it ** (2006)

     Anon. The Yellow Book of Locker-Room Humour (1980) A collection of mildly risque stories, the kind that rely on innuendo and puns, etc, for their effect. This makes some of the stories quite witty. **  (2006)

Henry Sampson, ed. The Dumpy Book of Veterans of Road, Rail, Sea and Air (1960)

     Henry Sampson, ed. The Dumpy Book of Veterans of Road, Rail, Sea and Air (1960) Sampson may be a partner in the publishers of this little book, which represents state of the art printing for 1960. It looks like offset printing was used; there is almost no visible screen on the pictures, and the blacks tend block out detail. Anyhow, the content is exactly what the title says, except of course that the sample is heavily weighted towards English subjects. Road and rail are done in many small pictures, with short captions. The ships and planes are given extended captions with more or less complete histories. Still of interest today. But I have no way of gauging the accuracy of the information. **½ (2006)

Hilda Lawrence. Death of a Doll (1947)

     Hilda Lawrence. Death of a Doll (1947) A reprint from 1982, and you may wonder why. It’s a book that draws you in if you give it time; it took me a while to get through the first third of the tale, but then I wanted to read on. The plot circles around the suspicious death of a shopgirl, who has just moved into Hope House, a kind of YWCA. But one of her regular customers does not believe it was suicide. She engages a family friend who happens to be a ‘tec, and he, along with two elderly ladies, gather enough facts to first show that it was murder, and then unmask the culprit. That person is a classic psychopath. The atmosphere, the descriptions of New York in wintertime, the characterisation are all first rate. Only the pacing of the story falters, especially in the beginning. But a satisfying read all the same. *** (2006)

Amanda Cross. Death in a Tenured Position (1981)

     Amanda Cross Death in a Tenured Position (1981) The victim, Janet Mandelbaum, called to a newly endowed chair in Harvard’s English Department, dies because of her opposition to feminism. This should make her the darling of the Eng. Dept. Professors, who are almost all opposed to the monstrous regiment of women, but bend, reluctantly, to the demands of the times. For this is a novel about the lethal effects of the feminist wars. Kate Fansler, professor English at a New York University (carefully disguised, but modelled on Columbia), is asked to help Janet acclimatise, and fails. This failure is one of the causes of Janet’s death. Kate realises this too late, just as she unravels the knotty mystery.
     Along the way, Cross provides her usual mix of fond and satirical takes on academia. That’s one of her book’s chief delights, at least for anyone with a nostalgia for that supremely irresponsible and therefore supremely useful life. For if humans did not value learning and art, they would have no reason to moil for pelf. I enjoyed the book, but it’s not a top-notch mystery, just a very good one. ***

Spiderman 2 (2004)

     Spiderman 2 (2004) [D: Sam Raimi. Toby McGuire, Kirsten Dunst] Peter Parker disappoints his boss (pizza baker), his friend (Mary Jane), his other boss (editor), his aunt, and his prof. Why? Because his deadlines and appointments are messed up when he answers a call for Spiderman. So he decides to give up being Spiderman, which seems to work out OK, except that his conscience, in the form of his dead uncle’s ghost, urges him to do what he has to do. Oh, yeah, Dr Octopus, a physicist who’s invented controlled fusion, has been hi-jacked by his A.I. harness, which proceeds to feed off his darker impulses and wreaks major havoc. Of course it all works out just fine in the end, after a few major CGI effects, including one in which he stops a speeding elevated train using only his spidey webs and his muscles. Cool!
     Maltin rates this as “the best comic book movie ever made”, which is hyping it a tad too much. For one thing, Dick Tracy (1990) I think is better, and for another, the attempt to make Parker into a more or less normal nerd doesn’t quite succeed. The reason is Toby McGuire, who either can’t act or is poorly directed. I can’t decide, but I suspect it’s the director’s limited vision of nerdiness. Apart from that, it’s a pretty good movie, and would probably be even more effective on a theatre screen. Spidey’s travels along the deep canyons of the City need a really, really big screen for maximum effect. ***