The Man Who Knew Too Much – G. K. Chesterton, 1922 ★

No Justice, Please, We're British

The biggest mystery in this collection of mystery stories is why G. K. Chesterton is so renowned for writing them. Going by the evidence of this book alone, building a mystery was not something the man did well.

The eight tales all feature Horne Fisher, a brilliant yet somewhat languid product of upper-class Great Britain, back when class still meant something. In each story, Fisher analyzes a particular situation, offers up a few paradoxical aphorisms, leaps to some bizarre conclusion that Chesterton strains to show as somehow exactly right, then explains to his reporter friend Harold March why he won’t do a single thing to right whatever wrong has been committed.

Bob And Ray: Keener Than Most Persons – David Pollack, 2013 ★★★

Two for the Show

These days, surrealism is well-established as a basis for comedy. You don’t even have to get laughs if you can twist what passes for reality in a uniquely enjoyable way. It wasn’t always so.

In the 1940s and 1950s, comedic premises were fairly square and straightforward. People did jokes and sketches and then played music or sold war bonds or whatever. There were cartoons and the Three Stooges, but those were widely seen as being for kids.

Then in 1946, two announcers found themselves on the radio together in Boston, Massachusetts, and American comedy began to change.

El Borak And Other Desert Adventures – Robert E. Howard, 2010 ★★★★½

Wilder, but not as Weird

What happens when you take classic Conan, strip out all that juicy weirdness and sorcery, and double down on the daring-do by making it even more bloody and kinetic? The answers are in these stories featuring another Robert E. Howard character, El Borak.

Lesser known, yes, but in terms of pure escapism and satisfaction, this Texas gunfighter turned Middle Eastern troubleshooter plays second fiddle to no one. Del Ray’s 500-page collection of El Borak tales blazed past my eager eyes in a blur of viscera, censer fumes, and sandstorms.

The collection features seven stories Howard penned near the end of his short life featuring Francis Xavier Gordon, known to people in the hills in and around Afghanistan whom he either fights or befriends as “El Borak,” meaning “the Swift.” Four other desert-set stories of earlier vintage feature two other Howard protagonists, Kirby O’Donnell and Steve Clarney.

The Bill James Baseball Abstract 1985 – Bill James, 1985 ★½

Phoning It In

People who complain about the use of sabermetrics in baseball miss the art of the matter. Statistics tell a story, lots of stories, all awaiting a chance to delight and deepen your appreciation of the game.

Normally this is where I bring in Bill James as my guru, whipping out often amusing, sometimes astounding facts from endless seas of data. So what can I say when he delivers a book so tiresome that it makes the naysayers seem like they have a point?

Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad, 1900 ★★★★

The Price of Dreams

Nearly everybody grows up with ideals; few of us can even try to live up to them. Adulthood is tough enough without that little fact thrown in. Joseph Conrad puts us on a very dark journey by examining how one young man’s failure to measure up costs him everything he had.

The result is a gripping read of probing psychology and cultural displacement that simultaneously raised the bar for naturalistic adventure fiction at the dawn of the 20^th century.

At the root of everything is the man called Jim. Is he a hero, a coward, or just, as we are often reminded, “one of us,” a man stuck in the middle who can only ever see himself at opposing ends of the bell curve of human conduct? Conrad keeps us wondering.