Twelfth Anniversary Edition!

 When I started this blog back in November of 2009, I wasn't sure where I was going with it. I intended it to be, at best, a sporadic posting of books I'd read, shows/movies I'd seen, opinions I had, and personal experiences that I had a strong emotional reaction to. Over the years, that has been simplified into a monthly recap of just the books I'd read. Two years ago, I began to substitute "Bookmarks" for several monthly posts due to the medical situation I was in. This year I actually missed a couple of months due to a continuation of the same situation. Since then, I've been bouncing back and forth between several novels but I have to admit that my concentration has been flagging. I've been spending a lot of time binge-solving crossword puzzles but I did manage to get through a couple of short books.

Series

Friday The Rabbi Slept Late - Harry Kemelman ($4.99/$.50, copyright 1964, 198 pages, Paperback)

When I was working as a Business Systems Analyst I dealt with a lot of programmers and the largest majority of them were Orthodox Jews. I learned a lot about them and when I came across this, I took to it at once. This is the first of Kemelman's Rabbi Small novels and won the Edgar award in 1965 as Best First Novel. David Small has been the Rabbi to a congregation in Barnard's Crossing, Massachusetts for about a year and his contract is up for renewal. Many of the congregation members are unhappy with him and there looks to be a struggle looming over his qualifications. Then the body of a local Nanny, Elspeth Bleech, turns up in the parking lot of the Temple and Rabbi Small becomes the prime suspect. Kemelman has created some great characters here - Rabbi Small is well defined as a thoughtful, deeply religious man and Hugh Lanigan is the affable Irish-Catholic Police Chief who investigates. Their friendship grows from there and is perfectly believable. The various members of the congregation are somewhat typical stock players like Becker the Car Dealer and Doble the Maintenance Man but some like Wasserman the President are also given their own personalities. This is a nice little mystery with a nice twist but it's also gives us some insight into Jewish culture and Talmudic wisdom. I liked it.

The Pale Horse - Agatha Christie ($.75/$.50, copyright 1961, 210 pages, Paperback)

I read a few of Christie's Poirot books in the past, mostly her Poirots, and had no interest in reading any more. Then I found this and noticed that it didn't involve any of her usual sleuths so I picked it up. A Boarding House roomer, Ms. Davis, is suffering from a severe bout of influenza and calls for a priest. She dies after giving the priest a list of names and mumbling how sorry she is to have gotten involved with it. The priest is then murdered on his way home and the police find the list in his shoe. What they also find is that several of the people mentioned have also died recently and that makes them curious. Mark Easterbrook is the main character who's been working on his latest book about the Moorish way of life and is looking for an excuse to get away from it for a while. He gets drawn in to the deaths because his late aunt's name was on the list. There's a lot of upper-class dialogue here but the characters were, to me, not very involving. Christie throws in a few twists and turns and the solution is a surprise but I found that getting there became tedious. It was OK. 

Since this is an Anniversary Issue and even though I did miss a few months, I did read this year and I have the totals for you.

Type Count Cover Paid

Series 11 $59.14 $27.06

Miscellaneous 7 $70.09 $31.82

Off The Shelf 3 $31.98 $15.98

Plays 3 $23.54 $12.25

Totals 24 $184.75 $87.11

Grand Totals 421 $3958.65 $631.50

Not too bad considering. 

I'm starting to get back into the habit and began an adventure story set during the Napoleonic Era but realized that it was the second in a series because of the various references. I had no choice but to put it down and order the first from one of the Discount sites I like. While I was at it, I ordered two other books - one of which is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche about his adventures during the Great Hiatus. Hopefully, it's as interesting as it seemed in the descriptions.

That's it for now.

December is rapidly approaching and with it - Christmas. As well as snow, ice, and freezing temperatures. The perfect type of weather to wrap up in a comfy blanket with a good book and a holiday movie in the background. So ...

Merry Christmas!

Wear Your Mask -

Wash Your Hands -

And - 

Keep Reading. 

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-eight

Did you miss me? I know. When I started this Blog almost 12 years ago I was no longer working so I did, in fact, finally have "Time Enough At Last" and I would post every month. But shortly after my post on July 24th I found myself in a situation where I was unable to. I'm calling this my own, personal Great Hiatus. I did have a few books with me and I tried stretching them out but there was just too much free time. Fortunately my Daughter came to the rescue with my Birthday present - a Kindle Fire! I happily downloaded several old favorites for Free which carried me over. I'm not in my place yet but I've been by a few times and have access to my huge To Be Read pile again. Here's how things stand now.

Series

The Vig - John Lescroat ($.50/$6.99, copyright 2005. 376 pages, Paperback)

I read quite a few of Lescroat's Dismas Hardy books years ago and found this one, again, in the TBR pile. Hardy is a lot of ex's - ex-cop, ex-lawyer, ex-husband - and now is a part-owner in his Brother-in-law Moses 'bar The Shamrock. He's tending bar one day when Shanahan former office-mate in the D. A.'s Office walks in and tells him that a vicious criminal they put away has been released. That criminal, Louis Baker, had threatened to kill both of them and Shanahan wanted to warn him. The next day, Hardy goes to Shanahan's houseboat and finds the body of a woman and signs that indicate Shanahan is also dead and his body has been thrown into the canal. Hardy tries to convince his friend Abe Glitsky, a Detective, but Glitsky wants proof. What follows is a convoluted story that includes overtones of racism (Baker and Glitsky are black, Shanahan and Hardy are white) but Lescroat shifts the focus between characters much too often. He does give us a large, well-defined cast with some personal looks into the lives of the main characters but I figured it out early. At that point it began to drag for me. It was OK.

Cold Service - Robert B. Parker ($.50/$9.99, copyright 2005, 336 pages, Paperback)

This is the 32nd book in the Spenser series and Parker sticks to his tried-and-true formula. I've read quite a few of these but I think my introduction to Spenser  was the TV Series from the mid-80's starring Robert Urich as Spenser, a Private Detective and Avery Brooks as Hawk, his friend and sort of a hit man/bodyguard. In this one, Hawk has been shot in the back while bodyguarding a mobster and the mobster and his children were killed. Hawk wants revenge and Spenser goes along. This leads them to a nearby city under the thumb of a crooked mayor and a connection to the Ukrainian mob. Parker knows his characters and presumes that the reader does too so he doesn't waste time with descriptions or backgrounds. This moves the narrative along at a brisk pace. He also has a great way with dialog not just between the two protagonists but with Spenser's' girl Susan and Boston PD Lt. Quirk. I enjoyed it.

Miscellaneous

A Man Called Ove - Frederick Backman ($5.00/$16.00, copyright 2012, 337 pages, Trade Paperback)

I'd been seeing very positive reviews and comments about this book so when I found it on one of my Discount Sites for a reasonable price I opted for it. Ove is referred to in many of the write-ups as a curmudgeon but I think that's a misjudgment. He's a man who's spent his life doing things a certain way and he resents people who don't do them like he does. He's 59 and has had his carefully constructed life completely destroyed by two things - his wife has died and he's been let go from his job. Now all he has left in his black and white world is his daily inspection of his townhouse development which causes him no end of annoyance when things aren't as they should be. He has reached the stage where ending his life seems a better alternative then keeping it. That is until the Iranian family moves in next door. The father is inept, the kids are nuisances, and the pregnant mother is an intrusive, buttinsky. Ove resents them for impinging on his plans but they become the catalyst for some interesting changes. Backman has created some really memorable characters here. I actually found myself relating to some of Ove's sentiments and reactions. I could understand why he did/said what he did. That doesn't happen very often. I really enjoyed it.

 

                            KINDLE 

As I mentioned above, I now have a Kindle and have downloaded several free eBooks from Amazon. I searched through their listing of "Classics" and picked out a couple that I hadn't read and a couple that I had. And here's what I've finished so far.

Around The World in 80 days - Jules Verne (published 1872, 233 pages)

Jules Verne has written several really imaginative adventure novels but this may be his most famous. He gives us the ultimate, unflappable Englishman in the form of Phileas Fogg a well-off gent who makes a sizable bet with his club mates that he can travel around the world in 80 days. He sets off with his new French Valet Passepartout and travels by all sorts of means to return to where he started. Along the way they go through some amazing stuff - arriving on an elephant in India to rescue Aouda, fighting bandits in America while riding on a train, etc.. The action just keeps on coming. Verne has created some memorable characters, captures the feels of each location, and gives us an ending that surprised me the first time I read it. I enjoyed it. (Note: I also remember the movie from the '50's with David Niven so I naturally visualized him as Fogg while I was reading.)

I am still dabbling with a couple of other downloaded books two of which are large short story collections. I'm slowly working my way through -

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Father Brown: The Complete Collection by G. K. Chesterton

And I'm savoring every story. Also, again thanks to a tip from my Daughter, I just got access to my local library's collection which I can "borrow" for download. I usually prefer to own a book so I've compromised with myself. I'll "borrow" a book first and, if I like it, I'll see if I can get it from one of the Discount Sites I use.

That's it until next time. 

It's getting darker earlier now, and it's starting to feel cooler out. The Holidays are just around the corner and I've already picked up some Christmas presents including a brand new J. K. Rowling - "The Christmas Pig" -  for my newest Grandchild.

Till next time -

Stay Safe

Wash Your Hands

Wear Your Mask and

Keep Reading.

 

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-seven

 July has become the new August. When it's hot, it's HOT. When it rains, it RAINS. Usually on the same day. I have been dealing with some stuff that has had me running around getting scans and gathering info. This has cut into my free time a lot but I did manage to get a couple of books read.

Series

The Turtle Boy - Kealan Patrick Burke ($5.99/$5.99, copyright 2002, 109 pages, Trade Paperback)

Have you ever read a book that you enjoyed but thought that the author could've easily told the story in a lot fewer pages? Burke has done that with this book. It's the first in his Timmy Quinn Series and it reminded me of those summer coming-of-age books written by Robert McCammon and Dan Simmons but without all the extra melodrama. Timmy Quinn is an 11 year old boy living in rural Delaware and he has a best friend named Pete. School is over, summer has started, and the possibilities for adventure are wide open. While exploring the muddy banks of an abandoned pond - one that they were told not to go near - they come across an unexpected visitor. A creepy looking young boy whose appearance alone scares the boys. From there, Burke takes us on a non-stop ride that runs from the first inklings of love to the final realizations of the cruelty that some people are capable of. Like I said, this is a very short book but Burke has done a great job with the characters and the atmosphere. I enjoyed it. Note: This is the first in the Timmy Quinn series and it's self-published (I bought it through Amazon). When I looked to continue the series I found that the individual follow-up volumes are no longer printed and I had to order the "complete" series which includes 3 additional novels and a prolog for $12. I was OK with this until I found out that there's a final book in the series that wasn't included and I had to order it separately for another $10. Hopefully they'll turn out to be as captivating as this one was.

Sherlock Holmes

As most of you know, I am a Sherlock fan. As far as I know, he is the only literary character who is still "alive" and well in the public's imagination. He has appeared in several TV shows and movies recently  and books starring and/or about him continue to be published. These books are generally classified as Parodies (spoofs or mysteries where a renamed Holmes comes across as inept) and Pastiches (homages to the Master that strictly adhere to the Canon). Many of these Pastiches are based on references from the source material itself.

The Giant Rat of Sumatra - Richard L. Boyer ($.50/$1.50, copyright 1976, 223 pages, Paperback)

Boyer has based his book on one of the most famous references in the Canon - the Giant Rat first mentioned in the  "Adventure of the Sussex Vampire". Holmes himself considered it so potentially damaging to some of the protagonists that he persuaded Watson to lock it away in his bank vault until everyone had passed. The case is actually 2 cases at once. While Holmes finds himself stumped by the kidnapping and ransom of a wealthy couple's daughter he becomes drawn into a bizarre situation that starts with a waterfront fire and the recent arrival of the Matilda Briggs and the murder of one of her crew. Upon investigation, he and Watson uncover the unbelievable story of several passengers who seem to have brought aboard  the Giant Rat. Since he can't follow up both cases at the same time, Holmes stays in London and sends Watson to accompany the couple to their country home to keep tabs on the kidnapping. Boyer does a great job describing the various scenarios throughout and his characters ring true. He evens add a lot more adventure and danger then are usually found in one of these. His depiction of Holmes and Watson seem, to me, as if he based them on Jeremy Brett's mischievous Holmes and Nigel Bruce's stalwart but somewhat dense Watson. I enjoyed it.

Of course, I've started and stopped several other books and have ordered and received even more. My TBR pile continues to grow. I have to do something next week that might keep me from reading for a few days but, comes August, I should be back at it again. Till then please continue to ...

Wash your Hands, 

Maintain your Distance,

Wear your Mask, and

Keep Reading.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-six

 

So far, June has been a pretty active month. Restrictions have been lifted all over and I've been seeing more and more people out and about. The interesting thing - at least to me - is that most of them are still wearing masks. In fact, there's only been 4 or 5 people I've seen who weren't and those were all men. I never said we were the smart ones. Anyway, I'm still wearing mine when I'm out and still spending the majority of my time home and alone. Well, not completely alone - I've got a huge TBR pile in the Living Room and shelves of other books that I'd like to reread. A plethora of riches. There are so many that I found myself reading one part-way then switching to another several times. I did manage to finish a couple, though.

Off The Shelf

 Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz ($7.99/$7.99, copyright 2003, 446 pages, Paperback)

Odd Thomas is a short-order cook in the small desert town of Pico Mundo. His is a happy, quiet life and he enjoys his job and his time with his girlfriend, Stormy Llewellyn. The only glitch in his life is that he sees dead people. They seek him out for help but they can't speak so he has to figure things out himself. Compounding this is a stranger who's come to town accompanied by a horde of hyena-like creatures called Bodachs. The man's name is Robertson but Odd refers to him as Fungus Man who he tracks down to an abandoned house. There he discovers the real horror that is scheduled to happen within 24 hours and he must rely on Stormy, Police Chief Porter, and his ghostly allies - including one he refers to as the King of Rock and Roll - to stop it. Koontz has created an interesting little town and populated it with a great cast of characters, especially Odd. Koontz has given Odd a back story that explains his reluctance to go out into the bigger world and yet gives him the courage to deal with the things he does. I enjoyed it. (NOTE: I'm not sure Koontz intended this to become a series so I didn't categorize it that way. . I did read the 2nd volume which I remember being just as good and the 3rd which wasn't. I didn't read the others.)

Miscellaneous 

Lamb, The Gospel According To Biff - Christ's Childhood Pal Christopher Moore ($5.09/$16.99, copyright 2002, 444 pages, Trade Paperback)

I am a BIC (Bronx Irish Catholic) which means that I was raised in The Faith but have my doubts and love a good, sacrilegious joke. Moore's book is, so far, my favorite interpretation of the life of Jesus. Levi bar Alphaeus, AKA Biff, has been the best friend of Joshua bar Joseph, AKA Jesus, since the day he came across Josh resurrecting lizards in the village square. More importantly, he's the only one who knows where the soon-to-be Savior was from the time he was dazzling scholars in the Temple to his return as The Messiah at the age of 30. That's why the Angel Raziel has resurrected Biff to write a new Gospel. Biff explains that everything started when Josh wanted to track down the Magi who showed up at his birth and find out why. Biff, being his friend, goes along to keep him out of trouble. Their travels take them all over Asia from Afghanistan to China to India. In each place they face all kinds of hardship but each learns something different. For Joshua, it's a spiritual journey that teaches him what he will need to become who he needs to be. For Biff, it's a more physical journey where he learns about potions, explosives, and all the vital skills that The Messiah shouldn't know.  Together, they complete each other. Moore describes each location simply and his characters are well defined. In addition to Biff and Josh, we get to see different versions of Mary Magdalene (Maggie), John the Baptist, the Disciples, and each of the Magi - separately. He also throws in a goodly dash of several Eastern Religions just for effect. Being a Sherlock Holmes fan, I was reminded of the Great Hiatus when Holmes supposedly died at the Reichenbach Falls  but was actually traveling throughout the Orient. I enjoyed it.

It's getting hot out again. According to the forecasts, it will be in the upper 90's by Tuesday. My advise - run your errands early then do whatever you can to stay cool. I'll be lying on my bed, in front of the fan, with the TV on (right now I'm watching the new "Hawaii 50" on ION), and a cold drink on the night table (just water). I've got a book of crossword puzzles on the other table and 3 different books in 3 different genres in 3 different stages of being read on the side of the bed. I'm good.

July is coming up quickly and looks to be just as hot and muggy. Do whatever you do to enjoy it and if you go out remember that it can't hurt to wash your hands, wear a mask, and keep socially distant. 

Until next time -

Keep Reading.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-five

 

It's a lazy, warm day in May and I'm hanging out with the TV on for background noise and a pile of things to read on the table in the corner and in several bags below it, the most recent being from the Book Sale I was at last month down in Hazlet. I've been dipping in and out of them and finally settled on a few that I've been jumping back and forth with and managed to finish a couple. But That's Not All!! I was looking for something in my back room that I could tie in to Super Hero Day on April 28th when I found a bag of Comic Books that I picked up years ago at a Book Sale in South Amboy and forgot about. You might say that this month's selections are a "mixed bag".

Series

Fer-De-Lance - Rex Stout ($5.50/$4.08. copyright 1934, 285 pages, Paperback)

This is the first in Stout's Nero Wolfe series which are narrated by Wolfe's Assistant Archie Goodwin. Wolfe is a Private Detective who is described as being very large, although the word obese is not specifically used, and averse to any physical activity. He spends his time eating whatever meal Fritz the chef makes, drinking beer, seeing to his orchids with his gardener Horstmann and mulling over whatever problem has found it's way to him. That's where Archie comes in - he does all the leg work. Here, they take on a missing person case as a favor to another Detective they've employed from time to time. While Archie is gathering information, the missing person turns up murdered. then things get interesting. They discover a link to another death - a College President has collapsed on a golf course in White Plains - and that link proves it to be another murder. Archie spends a lot of time with the dead man's family and the people in the golfing party (the Barstows and the Kimballs) and dealing with an arrogant District Attorney (Armstrong). Of course, Wolfe figures it all out. Stout has created an interesting scenario that he throws a great twist into which includes the titular creature. He then lets us see the extent to which Wolfe will go to to solve the case and earn his considerable fee. This includes  staging a fake kidnapping and setting up another death. The characters are well defined and their personalities come through nicely. The fact that it's set after Archie has been working for Wolfe for over 7 years allows Stout to skip the usual getting acquainted stuff and get right into things. I enjoyed it. 

Free Fall - Robert Crais ($7.99/$799, copyright 1993, 288 pages, Paperback)

This is part of Crais' Elvis Cole series. Elvis is a Private Detective in Los Angeles - one of the wise-cracking but serious, tender but tough guys that have become popular. In this one, a young woman named Jennifer Sheridan is worried about her boyfriend Mark Thurman, a Los Angeles cop who's been recently promoted to an elite Robbery-Homicide Unit. She thinks he's gotten involved in something illegal but Elvis thinks he's just cheating on her. He takes the case anyway and goes about gathering  information in a relaxed manner until it starts to look like Jennifer might be right after all. He winds up being pressured by Thurman and his partners so he brings in his partner, Joe Pike. They wind up going up against the Eight-Deuce Gang of South Central and the rogue unit of cops while trying to stay one step ahead of being arrested for murder. Crais has a great feel for LA and he puts a lot into his characters. Although his depiction of the relationship between Elvis and Pike is somewhat similar to the one Robert Parker created for Spenser and Hawke there is more of a personal feel to it. I enjoyed it.

Comic Books

As I mentioned earlier, I found a bag of Comic Books that I'd bought at a Book Sale years ago. I'm not sure why I haven't read them until now but that's what happens sometimes, at least to me. I remember being surprised that they had Comics and took advantage of their "$5 a Bag" offer. I wound up jamming in 100 different ones into a paper bag which came out to $.05 for each one. Definitely a good deal. I've spent a few hours sorting through them and they break down like this:

Indies

13 books from Publishers Dark Horse, Wildstorm, Dynamite, and Vertigo with a Cover Price Total of $38.39. Characters include Midnighter, The Boys, and John Constantine but not Hellboy or Sandman. 

Marvel

52 books  with a Cover Price Total of $173.75. Characters include The Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Spiderman, The Punisher, and Captain Britain but, strangely, no X-Men.

DC

35 books with a Cover Price Total of $95.10. Characters include The Justice League, The Justice Society, The Flash, Green Arrow, Superman, Robin, and Nightwing but, again strangely, no Batman.

100 books for a Cover Price Grand Total of $307.24! 

I've started to work my way through these but I'm spacing them out, taking my time. I won't be done with them this month but I can say that I'm really enjoying them. 

I've got a lot of free time lying in front of me and a lot of books stacked up to fill it. Next month is June and the weather is already teasing a warm summer. Restrictions are being loosened but it still wouldn't hurt to ..

Wash your hands, wear a mask, and ..

Keep Reading. 

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-four

 Since my last Chapter, we've added a new family member - my second Granddaughter Ava - on Palm Sunday. That brought us happily into April where we were able to celebrate Easter together the following week. Then, the day after Easter, we got back together to celebrate Our Little Maddie's 6th Birthday. (I know, it was a Monday, but she was home on her Spring Break.) One of my presents was her first boxed set of chapter books which were the first 4 volumes in the Junie B. Jones series. (Her Mom suggested them.) I'm of the opinion that when you want to give a gift to someone you can't miss with a book. That being said, down to this months choices and I have something old and something new to share.

Series

Cross Justice - James Paterson ($9.99/$.50, copyright 2015, 400 pages, Paperback)

I'm not sure which of Patterson's Alex Cross books I read first but it was one of the earlier one's that used phrases from Nursery Rhymes as titles. Whichever one it was, I was hooked and continued with the series for a long time until I felt that it started to suffer, in my opinion, from Patterson's expansion into collaborations with other writers on other series'. I picked this one up at my local library sale on a whim and I'm happy I did. Patterson has brought the Alex Cross series back to the characters and intensity that I remember. Cross has driven down to Starksville, North Carolina with his wife Bree, his daughters Jannie and Ali, and his grandmother Nana Momma. he's come home after 35 years because his niece Naomi has asked for his help in defending his cousin Stefan Parks in a murder charge. He has misgivings about returning due the bad memories he has of his childhood in the town but the evidence against Stefan is overwhelming Naomi and he feels an obligation to help. Patterson mixes in political corruption with Southern bigotry and adds a dash of a suspected drug ring with deep claws. Then, to spice things up, Patterson brings up the death of Cross's parents which  takes him on a side trip to Florida and gets him involved in a series of socialite murders. Cross's investigation there leads to a surprising suspect and some answers to other problems. As usual, Paterson's characters and locations are well-defined although he does occasionally resort to stereo-types. I enjoyed it. (Side Note: There have been a  couple of attempts to adapt this series to Film but they didn't click with audiences. In my opinion, this was due to the casting of the Alex Cross role. One attempt had Morgan Freeman in the part - an excellent actor but not the physical presence that Cross should have. The second was Tyler Perry who just doesn't have the chops for something like this.)

Mycroft Holmes - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse ($7.99/$5, copyright 2015, 337 pages, Paperback)

I have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since I first read "The Adventure of The Speckled Band" back in Grammar School. Over the years I've read the complete works several times including an Annotated Version by William S. Baring-Gould, a large, hardcover, 2-volume, slip-case edition given to me as a Christmas present back in the early '80's. There have been many other authors who have tried their hands at creating another Holmes story. Some successful, some not so much. Some writers have taken a slightly different approach and chose to center their work around auxiliary characters such as Inspector Lestrade and Professor Moriarty. Here we have a new approach. Kareem has chosen Sherlock's older brother Mycroft as his central character. The story is set in 1870, Mycroft Holmes is 23 and proficiently working his way up the ranks  in the Secretary of State’s office. It's an interesting period in British history where they had many protectorates and  territories around the world and for the main part the story is based in Trinidad. Mycroft hears of some disturbing killings of children down there from his friend Cyrus Douglas, a black tobacco salesman and store owner who has gotten some disturbing letters from home. He tells his fiancé Georgiana whose family has ties to Trinidad and she insists that she's  going there. Mycroft figures out a way he can go by tricking the Secretary and brings Cyrus along. Here's when things start to heat up. There is a poisoning and violence that start the mystery on the long sea voyage and then the writers kick up the action. They give us pickpockets, drug dens, Gatling guns, a secret Chinese martial arts society, and the invasion of a secret island by a motley group of men. The writers do a great job with the various scenarios and characters and I'm pretty sure the similarities and the differences between Mycroft and his younger brother are there intentionally. The Mycroft/Cyrus relationship is a lot like the Holmes/Watson one although the story is told in the third  person. I enjoyed it. (Side Note: Yes, the Primary Author is THAT Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I don't know how much of the book is his or Anna Waterhouse's but it does come together well.)

That's it for now.

I was able to actually physically go to a Book Sale at the Hazlet Library last Saturday. It was held outside and it was chilly but I did buy 15 books in a bag for $5 (8 of which I gave to my Daughter for her YA readers). And, what may be stranger, I bought a couple of Trade Paperbacks from the Sale Book table at my local Shoprite - both of which are outside my usual wheelhouse.

Anyway, May is next and that means warmer days, flowers, and Mother's Day. Till then - 

Wash your hands-

wear your mask-

stay socially distant-

And

Keep Reading.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-three

 

It's now March. The days are longer but the amount of time we spend inside hasn't changed much. I usually pass the time watching TV, solving crossword puzzles, and - of course - reading. This time around, I have a couple of books from different genres that I'd like to share with you. Interestingly, they do have something in common. 

Miscellaneous

Nothing Lasts Forever - Roderick Thorp ($9.32/$4.00, copyright 1979, 245 pages, Trade Paperback)

Thorp lays out a very simple premise. Joe Leland is a middle-aged former WW2 Ace and ex-cop who now works as a security consultant specializing in anti-terrorism. He flies out to LA to spend the Christmas Holidays with his daughter and grandchildren. He meets up with her on Christmas Eve at an office party in the high-rise Klaxxon Oil Building where she works and is just freshening himself up in the Men's Room when 12 Terrorists attack, taking Leland's Daughter and co-workers hostage. Leland must now mount a single-handed rescue mission and defeat the bad guys. Sound familiar? That's because it's the basis for the 1988 box office hit "Die Hard" starring Bruce Willis. There were changes made of course. The most obvious is that the hero's name was changed to John McClane now a NYC cop who meets up with his estranged wife in the Nakatomi Plaza Building when terrorists attack. Also, the book being older, the technology is somewhat dated and the terrorists' reasoning in the book is more about stopping the oil company's operations in Chile then money. But a lot of the action stuff is taken directly from Thorp - running barefoot through broken glass, using a fire hose as a bungee cord to jump off a roof, and a dangerous climb through an airshaft to mention just a few. Thorp keeps the action moving while building the suspense. His characters are mostly stereotypes but he does right by Leland giving us a lot of  background and motivations through what he's thinking as he goes through with his plans. I have to admit, though, that having seen the movie first I prefer McClane to Leland. I liked it. SIDE NOTE: This book is actually a sequel to Thorp's "The Detective" written in 1966 and made into a movie in 1968 starring Frank Sinatra as NYC Detective Joe Leland. There was talk of Sinatra reprising his role but he turned it down so it was rewritten to fit the brassier persona that Willis displayed.

The Searchers Alan Le May ($5.99/$8.19, copyright 1954, 333 pages, Paperback)

The book's title obviously gives away the commonality with the previous book. It's the basis for the 1956 movie starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter and directed by John Ford. The story is well known by this point: after the family of Henry Edwards is killed by a raiding party of Commanches, two men, Amos Edwards and Martin Pauley, begin an epic quest to find the family’s missing two daughters, Lucy and Debbie, who have been kidnapped by the Indians. Amos (Wayne, renamed Ethan for the movie)  is the brother of Henry, and Martin (Hunter) is the adopted son of the Edwards, his family itself killed years before in an Indian raid. It covers the span of 6 years and we see them deal with fading tracks, dead leads, brutal encounters with both whites and Indians, fierce weather, and dimming hope. The movie only has a limited time to convey a lot of what's going on so it's usually up to the actors to express the basics. In the book however, Le May has the time to create a background including humanizing the Comanches by letting us see how much Amos knows about their culture and customs. He hates them, but he also understands them. Also, Le May's descriptions of the frontier and weather our heroes travel through/experience are well done. Thankfully, Ford's direction and the cinematography really play a part in the movie and give us a real feel for things. The main characters are well defined and personified well - especially Wayne's Ethan. I'm leaving a lot out because I don't want to spoil anything. If you haven't seen the movie then go find it. If you have, then watch it again. Then go out and get a copy of this book. I enjoyed it and I hope you will, too.

There you have it - I found out that 2 of my favorite movies were based on books and I was able to track down copies of each. There's an old saying that the book is always better then the movie. I guess there's always going to be exceptions. I just noticed an interesting difference between these two. "Die Hard" takes place in a very insular almost claustrophobic space while "The Searchers" is as vast as the great outdoors. This doesn't mean anything, just something I realized while writing this.

April is next and I find myself with a backlog of books and no particular one I want to start up with. I'll just have to dip in and out until something grabs me. Until next time -

Wash Your Hands,

Wear Your Mask,

Stay Socially Distant, 

Get Your Shot, and

Keep Reading.