Like many readers, I came to L'Engle through the "increasingly inaccurately titled" Time Trilogy (now up to five books). I was amazed at how her story-telling skill transferred effortlessly from the O'Keefes to the Austins, even without tesseracts, Proginoskes and kything.

Having said that, I think that L'Engle is one of the most delightful authors to read. Her writing is deceptively simple, but every page something new subtley draws you in. Somehow she also seems to understand adolescence. She doesn't write down to teens or fob off some contrived formula (as a great many recent films seem to do); maybe her inner teen is writing these books. I'm likely not the only one who'd like to see L'Engle's books get the Harry Potter treatment on the big screen, but this Disney Channel movie is certainly a good start.

Half Magic is written in that wonderful, light, easy 'fifties style that gets so easily overlooked in favor of more extreme excitements. Later discovered, though, one simply wonders how writing could have ever been this good. A wonderfully understated example is shown in the genial attitude of the good samaritan stranger who helps out the young adventurers. He's first respectful of their mother,then falls more and more in love as the book goes on. This undercurrent is so subdued and tasteful that it's barely noticeable amid the magical misadventures until the conclusion of the book.

The Leave it to Beaver approach to problem solving is also delighfully refreshing--the spells only half work; unlike the obvious fantasy formulae in countless later books and movies, the magic leaves plenty of room for human ingenuity and skill,as well as the need to make decisions. Eager's other great fantasy, Knight's Castle, also continues in this vein, the hyjinks and hilarity deriving from,and always affirming,the human.

It's Lafferty's most visual book, which is to say it conjures up unforgettable pictures. I wish this had been the beginning of a trilogy, because the book drops off right when it gets going. Some of Lafferty's books end up in a very satisfying way, like Fourth Mansions, or Past Master. This book opens up at the climax more than it ends. Like the Star Wars films, you wait for the next one--only there aren't any more.

The idea of this book, of pirates who leap through space to plunder worlds, is strong and substantial, and the lightly comic tone seems made for movies or video games or some larger realm than just one book. Maybe some other writer can take up with Lafferty's characters and worlds, as with the novels based on Isaac Asimov's robots--with, of course, a suitable deal cut with Lafferty's estate. It's odd that Lafferty is such an untapped source, because he's simply a better writer than most of those behind films and TV today.

This is an easy going science fiction yarn that you don't have to be a Lafferterian to devour. But it's better than some of the Keith Laumer and even Phillip Dick I've read, even though those were all pretty good. Lafferty's strong suite is story; but he also evokes some very visual settings; I can't watch Disney's Treasure Planet--Treasure Island in space--without wishing it were Annals of Klepsis.

The DVDs are at least grouped by seasons. In the first season on VHS, the five shows,"Jeeves Arrival," "Golf Tournament," The Gambling Event," "Hunger Strike" and "The Matchmaker," also appeared as: "Jeeves Takes Charge," "The Purity of the Turf," "Tuppy and the Terrier," "The Hunger Strike," and "Brinkley Manor." The A&E boxed VHS set is called "The Very First Jeeves and Wooster."

The Second Season in VHS consisted of "Jeeves Saves the Cow Creamer," "A Plan for Gussie," "Pearls Mean Tears," "Kidnapped," and "Jeeves the Matchmaker." The Third Season on VHS was called "More Jeeves and Wooster," and included "Bertie Sets Sail," "The Full House," Introduction on Broadway," "Hot Off the Press," "Comrade Bingo," and "Right Ho Jeeves." Fourth Season titles are: "Return to New York," "The Once and Future Ex," "Bridegroom Wanted," The Delayed Arrival," "Trouble at Totleigh Towers," and "The Ties That Bind."

I find the first three seasons eminently watchable, although they go slowly downhill from the excellent first season on. The fourth season departs too far from PGW's style to please longtime Wodehousians, but some viewers unfamiliar with Plum's books might like the faster pace better.

This retitling problem occurs with P.G.Wodehouse's books also, since the American editions were often renamed from the British versions, different short story collections were variously titled, etc. etc. In his book, P.G.Wodehouse, in the Thames and Hudson Literary Lives series, Joseph Connolly gives a listing of duplicate books with different titles. I also have a review of that book in the PGW section on Amazon.com for any interested readers.

The Young Ones invents music video, with antics predating the Beatles' Help. It takes place in the Carnaby Street environs currently popularized in Austin Powers. It influenced American beach movies and inspired the East Berlin teen musical, "The Loveable Mouse." Summer Holiday makes reference to the Mods and Rockers and the conflict that would explode the next year, so graphically portrayed in the Who's Quadrophenia. These films help fill in for us stateside bits of British culture with which we are only slightly familiar. That said, The Young Ones is enormously entertaining, with the sort of innocent 'sixties appeal of the original Bye Bye Birdie--another teen musical about a maverick musician.

I'm glad Cliff's albums are being rereleased on CD, because apart from the few that came out on Elton John's Rocket label, his records were generally not available here. I don't know how many films he did, but I hope they all find their way on to DVD as well. I find Cliff's musicals more enjoyable to watch than either Elvis Presley's films or the teen beach movies. It seems surprising that they were never widely shown in the US, but I am delighted to have found the DVD set of The Cliff Richard Collection.

The authors of Blast Off!, on the other hand, did the hard work of writing a real book, somehow combining it with the best photos and graphics I've seen in a collector's book, and sprinkling in enough anecdotes and oral histories to keep it interesting. This book is a major effort from an accomplished team: a knowledgeable collector, a lively writer, and an avid fan and history buff--the last being Mike Richardson, publisher of Dark Horse comics and owner of the Things from Another World sci-fi comic shops.

Blast Off! launches itself as an overview/ intro to the golden age of space toys, but its appeal is really wider than that. This is a book collectors will want, not simply to locate market values for haggling at the junk shop, but to remind them what they like about their hobby. Beautiful and imaginative graphics evoke the promise and wonder of the space age, but the book is so lively and informative I had to read it twice: once to read the captions and look at the pictures, and again just enjoying the text.

It's impossible to overstate how great this book is. The photographs are incredibly clear and bright, and the subject matter is drawn from endlessly rich collections. Books like this tend to fall through the cracks--not really appealing to the general reader, and yet not in-depth enough for the collector. But a reader from the first category who casually glances at this book may find a new interest, and seasoned collectors may find rarities they didn't know existed. Every era has volumes that define it; for the space age, that would be Blast Off!

This book is compiled from three previous Kitahara books covering, respectively, "dolls, clowns and animals"; "planes, trains, boats and cars";" and "robots, spaceships and monsters." Someone interested in one of those categories isn't necessarily interested in all three. I, for one, find myself mostly drawn to the third category of robots and spaceships.

Other visually lavish and not-too expensive books in that category include "Vintage Toys: Robots and Space Toys" by Bunte, Hallman and Mueller. "Marx Toys: Robots, Space, Comic, Disney and TV Characters" by Maxine Pinksy includes lots of old robots because many of them were imported through Marx or its subsidiaries. "Baby Boomer Toys and Collectibles" by Carol Turpen is also fascinating in this regard. One recent book I very much like is "Space Toys of the '60s," by James Gillam, which concentrates exclusively on three toy lines: Zeroid robots from Ideal, Mattel's Major Matt Mason, and Colorforms' Outer Space Men. Along with many color and black and white photos, this inexpensive oversize paperback provides a fascinating history and personal discussion of these toy lines.

"Toys of the 'Sixties" by Bill Bruegman is slighty harder to find, but this large paperback by the editor of "Toy Scouts" is filled with fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from the history of toys, and chock-full of black and white drawings and pictures. Finally, "Boy's Toys of the Fifties and Sixties" and its companion volume, "Girl's Toys..." is a fascinating collection of actual pages from the Sears Christmas Wishbooks from 1950-1969 (something everyone wishes they had kept). Those enchanted by the visual feast of Kitahara's book might want to peruse further in some of these other inexpensive volumes.

That doesn't exhaust where you may have come across Thomas Howard, but those are a few places I ran into him. He described himself once in the New Oxford Review as sitting on a cliff overlooking Rome, dangling his legs off the end, and wondering how long it would be until he jumped. As it turned out, not only Howard, but editor Dale Vree, and everyone else associated with that publication jumped--with the magazine shifting from lively Episcopalian discussions to lively Catholic ones. Eventually I followed Howard and another favorite writer, Malcom Muggeridge, and jumped off myself.

Fortunately, my sponsor gave me this book as a confirmation gift. I say fortunately, because Howard describes a worst-case church service of the sort I experienced as a new convert in a new church. If not for this book, I would never have gone back, and never found the sort of joy and belonging that follows the awkwardness and discomfort of exploring something new.

I gave this book to an Evangelical friend (who did not also jump off the cliff), and he said it was one of the best books he had ever read, and that it makes you excited about your own church, whatever communion you are in. I think this is Howard's gift. A great many people try to live as believers apart from joining any church (at least I did). Howard simply points out the benefits of the latter course. I think the title of the book is unfortunate, as this is really a book for everyone. Curious Protestants may read it to find out what is going on in the puzzling world of the Catholics, but Catholics will be equally enlightened about the diverse practices of Protestants. Howard comes from an Evangelical missionary background, and he is deeply thankful for and respectful of that heritage.

Howard writes two sorts of books--light, breezy ones and thoughtful ones with big vocabularies. Arguably, this book falls into the latter camp, although it is so beautifully written and wonderfully engaging that I'd suggest reading it with a dictionary rather than pass up the pleasure. A Catholic friend of mine preferred his easier book, If Your Mind Wanders at Mass, which covers some of the same ideas.

On Being Catholic works out some of the same themes as Evangelical is Not Enough, while yet rejoicing in things Evangelical. Howard wrote a lively article called 'Catholic is Not Enough" for the Catholic magazine, Envoy (posted at envoymagazine.com) celebrating what believers have in common. On Being Catholic isn't only about Howard's experiences in the Roman Communion; it's also about the universal (the original meaning of "catholic") faith expressed in the Creed. In that sense, On Being Catholic is, like C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity, a book for everyone. "All our quarrels are lovers' quarrels," Bishop Fulton Sheen once said of Catholic-Protestant debates. Howard helps us see the common bond beneath all our differences, and rejoice in what makes us the same.

Powell is nothing if not critical. "Opinionated" was the word the store clerk used. So are all the great rock writers; so are all the great rock books, and despite its encyclopedic format, this is a great rock book. Surprisingly, the author is Professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary; not surprisingly, therefore, he argues with the theology in some songs. For instance, he doesn't agree with the idea of "the rapture" popularized by Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth, and the "Left Behind" series, and prevalent in numerous Jesus Movement-era songs. Most significantly, he takes these artists and their music seriously. This gives the whole genre of gospel rock more signficance than it is often felt to warrant, and certainly more than the tag "ccm" suggests.

If rock rings true, it's because it's about real life. CCM, on the other hand, often sounds phony, stressing the ideal over the real, and marketing over the music. This has left many artists confused, angry and disenchanted. Powell deftly captures the undercurrent of alienation, and the love/hate relationships many artists have with their labels. He also graphs the rise of independent labels like Tooth'n'Nail, and the backlash against business-as-usual "corporate rock." The result is that many artists emerge as "survivors"--ground up and spit out of the music machine, but still standing; Powell's underlying conviction is that it doesn't have to be that way.

Accordingly, he doesn't sidestep the divorces and drugs, lies and lawsuits that attend real history; rather than tarnish these artists, the effect is to increase their street credibility: they emerge as real people instead of cardboard cutouts. By even greater magic of his pen, Powell makes us see all that out-of-print vinyl as a significant part of music history--far too important to relegate to the dustbin of "cookie-cutter" ccm.

Some of the short entries are too short, and many are incomplete, understandable given the mammoth scope of the project. Powell wisely chose to include brief entries when information was unavailable, rather than leave artists out. Some of the long pieces, however, are truly outstanding; the ten page Bob Dylan bio ranks among the best bits on that artist I have read. Again and again I looked up obscure artists I was sure would not be among those present: Larry Norman; After the Fire; Malcom and Alwyn; the Lead; Andy Pratt; Robin Lane; Cliff Richard--each time I was amazed to find that Powell had already been there and done that.

Amazon's price is far lower than retail, and Powell includes a searchable CD Rom disc and websites for bands to pump up the value, and at 1,088 pages, it's really more reading than three Harry Potter books. Professor Powell has done music fans a great service with this ground- breaking book, unearthing more than forty years of virtually unknown history--yet for all that, it's a very enjoyable read.