To quote John Lennon.."Another year over, and a new one just begun". This is the first posting of the third year for this blog, but the last for this calendar year. And I have a real mixed bag of books to tell you about, so here we go..........
Non-fiction
A Monk Swimming - Malachy McCourt ($14.00/$.50, copyright 1998, 290 pages, Trade Paperback)
Malachy is Frank McCourt's brother. Having read Frank's book about their impoverished upbringing in Ireland, I thought that Malachy's tales of his early years in New York would be as interesting. Malachy has some great tales to tell, drops names left and right, and always seems to have a drink in his hand in whatever country he finds himself. Then it hit me, almost at the end, that he still had some baggage from Ireland that he hadn't left behind. It was interesting.
Miscellaneous
Metzger's Dog - Thomas Perry ($13.95/$.25, copyright 1983, 314 pages, Trade Paperback)
Here we have the story of "Chinese" Gordon and his friends who steal a supply of cocaine from a university using it for a study. They also, however, manage to take something that the CIA wants back, and the rest of the book involves attempts by both sides to get what they want. It's described as a "comic thriller", but it is 28 years old and it's not quite as comic or as thrilling as it once must have been. It was interesting.
Creepers - David Morrell ($7.99/$.25, copyright 2005, 356 pages, Paperback)
The premise here is that a reporter joins a group of "urban explorers" while they look through an abandoned, about-to-be-torn-down, hotel in Asbury Park. The original intent is to learn about the history of the building, perhaps to get pictures of ornate furnishings and other things, and never to disturb anything. But nothing goes right. Not everyone is who he says he is, and there are plenty of surprises in store. And it all takes place during one dark and stormy night. I enjoyed it.
Gunman's Rhapsody - Robert B. Parker ($7.99/$.50, copyright 2001, 316 pages, Paperback)
I've written about Parker's other westerns before, but this one is different. It's a version of the Gunfight at the O. K. Corral. There are certain historical events that have interested me, and this is one that I've read up on. Parker gets his facts right, but I'm of the opinion that facts - in this case - take away some of the mystique of the event. Kostner and Quaid or Russell and Kilmer may have been more historically accurate, but I prefer Lancaster and Douglas or Fonda and Mature. It was interesting (I was gonna say it was OK).
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas - Tracy Mack & Michael Citrin ($16.99/$1.99, copyright 2006, 259 pages, Hard Cover)
Although mentioned in only a handful of stories, the street urchins that populated London were a kind of private army for Sherlock Holmes. He used them to follow people, listen in on conversations, and probably some other not-so-legal things. Here we find Holmes involved in the death of a tight-rope walker, which leads to a breech of the queen's palace and his old enemy, Moriarty. This book is the first in a proposed series that focuses on the Irregulars, so there is much attention paid to Wiggins and his associates. I enjoyed it.
Graphic Novels
Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware ($19.95/$1.00, published 2000, Trade Paperback)
I've read very few non-super hero graphic novels, but I saw a review last year that said this one had won some awards, so I gave it a try. It was originally published as a series of newspaper strips, then as a section in a self-published book by Ware. It's the story of a middle-aged man trying to get to know his long-missing father, interspersed with past versions of the Corrigan men and their dysfunctional father/son relationships. I found it very depressing, and gave up about a third of the way through. I didn't like it.
That's it for now.
Merry Christmas! And...
Keep reading!
