Ross Macdonald’s 1951 novel, The Way Some People Die, is the first book in the Library of America’s Ross Macdonald Collection. It’s one of the earlier books in the Lew Archer series, and as I’ve read a number of the later ones, I know this is not Macdonald’s best work. It’s worth a read, if you happen to like Raymond Chandler, and I do, but Macdonald’s later work is much better. Better than Chandler, even.

I’m not the only one who thinks that. The end of this first volume of the Collection includes some miscellaneous pieces from the author, one of which is a letter to his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. In the letter, dated August 28, 1952, Macdonald complains to Knopf that Pocket Books, the paperback publisher, wants him to dumb down the nuance and spice up the action in one of his mysteries for the dime-store audience.

Nolen Gertz’s Nihilism is part of MIT Press’ Essential Knowledge Series, which includes books about citizenship, waves and the mind-body problem as well a number of less essential topics such as cloud computing, open access and school choice. If I had read the full list of “Essential Knowledge” titles, I might have been more prepared for what this book had to offer. I was expecting something like a college intro or mid-level textbook. Instead, the book is a sometimes meandering essay that includes an overview of nihilism throughout the history of Western philosophy, and a scathing attack on contemporary Western culture.

I first read The Problem of Pain back in 2024. Here is my review from the initial reading:

I like C.S. Lewis, but I didn’t much like this book. Not because it was poorly written or poorly thought out, but because I don’t think the basic facts of existence require intricate, arcane theological explanations that rely on thousands of years of convoluted religious and philosophical texts.

James Ross’ country noir, They Don’t Dance Much, published in 1940, takes place in and around Corinth, North Carolina, around the year 1939. Prohibition has ended, the Great Depression is in full swing, and many people, including the book’s protagonist, Jack McDonald, are down on their luck.

McDonald is a failed farmer in a mostly poor Southern town. His crops won’t grow, the bank has a lien on his land, he can’t pay the undertaker who just buried his mother, his chickens won’t lay, and even his cow is mortgaged. Drifting around town one day, looking for a drink, he visits Smut Milligan’s gas station to spend one of his last dollars on a pint of bootleg corn liquor.

Philip K. Dick’s 1966 novel, Now Wait for Last Year, is set in the United States in the year 2055. Earth has been drawn into a centuries-old war between two alien species, the human-like ‘Starmen and the insect-like reegs. World government has consolidated into a single entity under the United Nations, and the current Secretary General, Gino Molinari, is responsible for managing the world’s war effort.

The war takes place in the background of this story. In the foreground, we follow Dr. Eric Sweetscent, a surgeon who specializes in keeping wealthy men alive using “artiforg,” or artificially forged, organs. Dr. Sweetscent works for Virgil Ackerman, the 120-year-old owner of the Tijuana Fur and Dye company.

Leader writes of Western Culture’s current failures to define and treat madness. Western nations currently aim to treat the symptoms of psychosis and to bring the patient’s behaviors into line with social norms without understanding or treating the roots of the disease.

Many “symptoms” of psychosis, Leader argues, are actually not symptoms of the underlying disease but adaptations the patient makes to try to adjust their understanding of the world to how the world actually works. The disorders listed in the DSM and the symptoms that define each disorder seem to be defined by the pharmaceutical companies that have a drug to treat each symptom.

A Shining Affliction is Annie G. Rogers’ account of the mutual healing that occurred between her, acting as a therapist, and a five-year-old boy named Ben, who had been terribly neglected as a child. Ben is untrusting, frequently unmanageable, and often violent. His clinical record notes that after the death of his biological mother, while he was still an infant, he was given to a foster family. His foster parents kept him locked in a windowless room for the first eighteen months of his life, ignoring his cries and depriving him of affection and even the most basic contact. Is it any wonder the kid has trouble relating to others? Or that he acts out in violent, antisocial ways?

San Quentin Exodus opens with Allison Anderson surveying the walls of one of California’s most infamous prisons, wondering if her escape plan will work. Allison is a private school teacher who volunteers in the evenings as a math and writing instructor at San Quentin. While she’s free to walk out of the facility anytime she wants, her escape plan is for one of the inmates with whom she has connected.

Megan Abbott’s novel is set in late 1940s Hollywood, during the studios’ golden era. The main character, Gil “Hop” Hopkins, is a publicist and fixer for one of the studios. His job is to generate good press for the stars and to suppress bad press that might turn the public off. Hop has plenty of work to do because his wards are always getting into trouble. He is a glib, smooth-talking salesman type, apparently handsome and well-dressed, a bit of a seducer who’s not above bribing cops and waiters when necessary, to keep them from talking about the misbehavior of celebrities whose reputations he is paid to protect.

I give this book five stars not because it’s deep or life-changing. It’s entertainment. It doesn’t attempt the match the depth and insight of the great classics. I give it five stars because it’s a master class in storytelling, and for what it is, it’s very good.

I had not read Ed McBain before, though I had certainly heard of him. McBain is one of Evan Hunter’s many pen names. Hunter wrote across a variety of genres, including sci-fi, mystery, crime, children’s books, and possibly porn, though he never fessed up to it. In what must be one of the most unexpected collaborations in film history, he adapted one of Daphne du Maurier’s short stories into the screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.