Currently Reading

Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them) by Mark Crispin Miller © 2005
Synopsis: Renowned critic and political commentator Mark Crispin Miller argues that it wasn't moral values that swung the election-it was theft. While the greatest body of evidence comes from the key state of Ohio-where the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee found an extraordinary onslaught of Republican-engineered vote suppression, election-day irregularities, old-fashioned intimidation tactics, and illegal counting procedures-similar practices (and occasionally worse ones) were applied in Florida, Oregon, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and even New York. A huge array of anomalies, improper practices, and blatant violations of the law all, by a truly remarkable coincidence, happened to swing in the Bush ticket's favor.
Comments: Normally, political books aren't my bag, however, after seeing Miller speak on C-Span's Book TV last weekend, this topic fascinated me so much that I wanted to read the book for myself. And you know what? It is fascinating! It reads like some kind of sinister movie plot, but the scary part is it's probably true. Who knew that The Bush Administration would stoop so low as to orchestrate a deliberate phone jamming scheme to prevent Democrats from voting in New Hampshire? Pretty sneaky, sis!

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The James Dean Story by Ronald Martinetti © 1975
Synopsis: He was the rebel without a cause for a generation of youth in search of a hero. Dean's sullen and uncompromising independence fired the imagination, giving the young a champion, who by his example would lead them out of the post-war rut.

But who was James Dean? Was he the monumental talent some claimed? Was he a closet homosexual? Was he a ruthless manipulator? Was he a petulant, spoiled troublemaker? Or was he an innocent in Tinseltown, struggling to preserve his identity?
Comments: It's been my opinion that Dean was the perfect man: Devastatingly handsome, multi-talented (Acting, Sculpture, Music), tortured, intellectual, humble, etc. Of course I could have lived without the (rumored) fact that he rarely bathed (blech), but with all that other stuff going for him, I might have been able to look the other way (Damn, he was HOT!). Then again, maybe not. Either way, when I saw this book, I had to get it. First off, it's such a great cover. Second, it has well over 2 dozen great black & white photos inside (I love it when paperback books do that. I miss that.). And thirdly, I've had the documentary of the same name for years and have never run across this hard-to-find edition of the tie-in paperback book. A must-have for a Dean fan like myself. *Just 99¢ at Half.com

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The Eyes of Laura Mars by H.B. Gilmour © 1978
Synopsis: Her Eyes See Everything. Love. Death. Destiny. She is beautiful, bewitching...a dazzlingly chic photographer whose mirror-bright lens captures fantastic images of silken eroticism and passionate cruelty. Hers is the bizarre, glittering world of high fashion.

He is handsome, stalwart...a fiercely dedicated law-and-order cop opposed to those who mindlessly glamorize violence. His is the dark secret underworld of brutal and sudden death.

Laura Mars and John Neville. Death is the lure. Love is the lock. Destiny is the secret that embraces them forever.

Her Eyes Are The Psychic Connection Between Life And Death.
Comments: In 1978, the film version of The Eyes of Laura Mars was released in theaters. Written by John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog) and starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones, it's one of my favorite psychological thrillers of the 70's. The movie is like a time capsule of life in New York in the late 70's. The movie has a great look that seems timelessly decadent. Having caught the movie recently on cable, I fell in love with it all over again and decided that I had to read the book. A great suspense thriller if there ever was one. Guaranteed chills on a warm Spring day. *Just 1¢ at Amazon.com

*I found it interesting that the author who wrote the book version of The Eyes of Laura Mars also wrote the novelizations of some of my other favorite movies: Fatal Attraction, Saturday Night Fever and Pretty in Pink, to name a few.