Sherlock Holmes--what other literary character has appeared in so many stories not written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Four notable additions to this Conan Doyle sub-genre have appeared in the past year:

In Mitch Cullin's A Slight Trick of the Mind, Holmes is 93, no longer sure of his memory or of his interpretation of events. His post-atom bomb visit to Hiroshima with a Japanese correspondent is haunting.

Michael Chabon's The Final Solution: A Story of Detection, also taking place after WWII, introduces a mute young refugee from the Third Reich. Caleb Carr's The Italian Secretary takes Holmes and Watson to Edinburgh, where murderous scoundrels are profiting from historic events at Holyrood Castle.

Avoiding school supply sales like the plague? Trying to get the most out of your last days of freedom? Need a book that is GUARANTEED to make every minute spent reading it worthwhile?

Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman is that book. Picture a boy out on an important date, (his best friend's vicarious love-life depends on it!). He takes her to a horror movie, then to the beach. The girl is feeling romantic, the boy is feeling lucky. Our hero goes to the trunk to get out the beach blanket, and..

What, you thought I was going to just give it away? Sorry my friend, you'll just have to get the book.

There were no new fiction titles on the list last Sunday. But a few new titles that the editors recommended are always worth a look.

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis has provoked a lot of attention. Ellis has written a novel with a protagonist named Bret Easton Ellis. How much of it is real? Does it matter?

The Good Priest’s Son by Reynolds Price can be added to the small but growing list of 9/11 novels. Once again the prolific Price wrestles with the role of religion in everyday life.

Sean Astin, erstwhile hobbit and son of Patty Duke, is slated to join the cast of 24 this fall. For those who can't wait, Astin's book There And Back Again: An Actor's Tale gives a gritty and honest (too honest?) look into life on the ground during the making of the Lord of the Rings movies.

Nostalgic for high school? Can't wait for it to end so you can get on with your life?

If you don't run with the Heathers, or if your Breakfast Club persona is more Judd Nelson or Anthony Michael Hall than Molly Ringwald or Emilio Estevez, then Freaks and Geeks might be for you.

Set in a northern suburb of Detroit during the 1980-81 school year, the show traces the lives of a group of high school burnouts and their D&D-playing younger siblings as they try to figure out the answer to life, the universe and everything. As heartwarming, cringeworthy, and funny as real life, Freaks and Geeks is solid -- it didn't run long enough to Jump the Shark.

Creator Paul Feig, raised in Mt. Clemens, has just released a new book and is signed on to direct a movie adaptation of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl. McKinley High "alumni" have gone on to appear in projects from Spider-Man and its sequel to ER to The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

There have been numerous accounts of Waterloo, the famous, final and decisive battle of the Napoleonic era fought in Belgium on June 15, 1815. Alessandro Barbero, an Italian historian and novelist, has penned a new and exciting history of the encounter in The Battle: A New History of Waterloo. This truly fresh, balanced and appealing narrative of the battle, drawing on first-hand recollections from participants of all ranks and nationalities, presents new insights along with intense, colorful descriptions of the various skirmishes, charges and defensive stands that decided the outcome.

If you're waiting for classes to begin and looking for some entertainment, try listening to How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Music Theater. The title perfectly describes the plot, with a little David Sedaris and a little Catcher in the Rye thrown in. I'm not sure I would listen to it in public, unless you can keep from snorting when you laugh. Here's my favorite quote from our hero's high school english teacher:

"Oedipus Rex. A heartwarming little family story in which our hero
kills his father, sleeps with his mother, and gouges his own eyes out.
If it had been written last year, the school board would be burning it
on the front lawn, but since it's two thousand years old, it's deemed
acceptable for your impressionable little brainlets" (pg. 58).

Have fun moving in, and remember all the dorm beds are extra long twin!

Critically acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under recently aired its series finale and fans of the show will surely be in mourning for quite some time. The show's Fisher family, operators of a funeral home in Pasadena, showed audiences what a dysfunctional family really looks like. Series creator Alan Ball, who also wrote American Beauty, gave us refreshing characters and story lines that reminded us that television does offer alternatives to the endless selection of reality tv. If you're already a fan, maybe it's time to experience the series all over again. If you're new to the show, start with Season 1 Disc 1 and enjoy. If you're looking for a show that looks at life (and death) with a bit more humor, check out Dead Like Me.

Expecting to hit the bookstores and the library shelves mid September, Marlon Brando’s Fan-Tan, a “film treatment-turned-novel“, has already gathered much media frenzy.

If you missed Dinitia Smith’s New York Times article on August 2nd on the various incarnations of Brando’s manuscript before finally landing at Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher; you might want to check out her weblog. (Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Though 50 degree mornings suggest that summer is in its last gasps, we still have time for another edition of The Fair Ground. Head on out to the 68th Annual Chelsea Community Fair from August 23 through August 27. There will be animal judging, tractor pulls, livestock auctions, clowns and to top it off, a parade! You might also be interested in reading about Agricultural Fairs in America: tradition, education, celebration edited by Julie A. Avery.
See you there!