Happy November, all! We blew through Halloween pretty quickly - or, rather, Sandy blew through it - and now we're at the threshold to the holiday season. And - more importantly - this is the Third Anniversary of this blog! I have some interesting selections for you this month so let's just dig right in and I'll update you on the numbers later.
Series
Day of Atonement - Faye Kellerman ($7.99/$.5 0, copyright 1991, 373 pages, Paperback)This is one of the early works in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series. Decker is an L. A. cop and Lazarus is a woman he met and fell in love with in the first volume. She also happens to be an Orthodox Jew. All of the books in the series involve some aspect of the religious rituals they follow. This one takes place after their wedding and they’re in N. Y. for the holidays. It revolves around a missing boy and a psycho who takes him in. There’s a subplot that involves family, and I think a message that the ending that you look for isn’t always a happy one. I picked it up because of the NY connection, hoping that there’d be some insight into the orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn but, after the set up is taken care of, the second half moves back to L. A. and it wrapped up too quickly It was OK.
No Badge, No Gun - Harold Adams ($8.95/$1.00, copyright 1998, 203 pages,Paperback) This is one of the Carl Wilcox mysteries that Mr. Adams has produced. Wilcox is an ex-con, sign painter during the Great Depression, who - sometimes - gets involved in mysteries in order to make some extra money. In this one, he’s hired to solve the rape and murder of a young girl in a small town. I am usually a sucker for a mystery that takes place in some era other then the modern age so I was drawn to the setting/time frame but, unfortunately, these don’t really have an impact on the story. I have to admit that I found this hard to get through. Basically, it just plods along. Wilcox talks to people and gathers information. I didn’t like it.
Miscellaneous
Yeats is Dead! - Joseph O'Conner, ed. ($12.95/$.25, copyright 2001, 257 pages, Paperback)
Mr. O’Connor is only the editor of this truly Irish novel. It’s actually written by 15 Irish writers, each of them taking a chapter. Starting with Roddy Doyle and ending with Frank McCourt it tells the story of an eclectic collection of Dubliners - from cops to crooks - on the hunt for the long-lost last novel of James Joyce. This was a real joy to read as each writer adds his/her own twists while maintaining the integrity of the whole (although there were a couple of chapters that could‘ve been tweaked). It’s too long to make into a decent movie, but would make an excellent mini-series along the lines of an old Alec Guinness comedy or a toned-down Monty Python script. I enjoyed it.
The Postcard Killers - James Patterson and Liza Marklund ($9.99/$.50, copyright 2010, 402 pages, Paperback)Here’s another book from the Patterson “studio”. This one revolves around some serial murderers running around in some of the famous cities in Europe. They’re being chased by an NYPD detective who’s daughter was one of the first victims. Most of the book takes place in Sweden and Marklund, being a writer from there, gives it some local color. It has the usual Patterson short-chapter approach, alternating between the cop, the killers, and a Swedish newswoman who gets involved. I found that it didn’t really get going until about 1/3 of the way through. It had some interesting twists, but the ending wraps up some of the details in an off-handed manner. It was OK.
Comic Books
I know, I said that I wouldn't be buying these collections because they were just too pricey but I came across a used book store in Metuchen who had a few priced very reasonably. Here's the first one I've finished.
Showcase Presents - Various writers/artists ($19.99/$5.00, copyright 2012, 539 pages, Trade Paperback)I have been a comic book fan all of my life. I was lucky enough to actually start to be able to read when the Silver Age started in 1956, and even more lucky to have parents who didn’t mind that the material was comics just as long as I (and my brothers and sisters) were reading. At that time comics were still being printed but consisted mostly of war, scifi, western, and romance genres. And then National Comics (who later changed their name to DC) had an idea. They started a publication called Showcase. Here they could test out some new character ideas. This volume contains the first 21 issues starting from March/April 1956 to July/August 1959. It’s an interesting mix. There’s a couple of issues dealing with a fireman. There’s one about frogmen in WW2. There’s a couple starring The Space Ranger. These fit in with the times. But mixed in are characters that have carried on into the DC Universe. Lois Lane, of course, has been a character in the long-running Superman books but takes center stage in a few issues of her own. And we have the creation of some new memorable characters - The Challengers of the Unknown, Adam Strange, and Rip Hunter. But the most important character to appear here is Barry Allen - The Flash. Appearing for the first time in issues 4 (Sept/Oct 1956) and later in issues 8, 13, and 14. The Silver Age is considered to have started when he got his own magazine. It's an interesting, eclectic mix and includes the works of Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gardner Fox, Wally Woods, and Gil Kane. I enjoyed it immensely.
Numbers
This year, the numbers break down as follows: 15 Series books, cover prices $154.27, my costs $8.75. 23 Miscellaneous books, cover prices $239.30, my costs $10.95. 6 Graphic Novel/Comic books, cover prices 91.90, my costs $6.00. 2 Non-fiction books, cover prices $27.00, my costs $1.50. 3 Sherlock Holmes books, cover prices $44.99, my costs $3.24. Totals this year are 49 books, cover prices $557.46, my costs $30.44, average cost per book $.62. Three year totals 147 books, cover prices $1630.45, my costs $118.71. average cost per book $.81.
And it's all still a lot of fun.
That's it for this month. Just a reminder....Thanksgiving is in 3 days. This year, after what has happened in the last few works (some of it personal, too), I know that I have a lot to be grateful for. Let's not lose that feeling of gratitude amid the onrush of Christmas commercialism that seems to be starting earlier and earlier each year.
Keep Reading!
