Refinished Fr 2/28/2020- I noticed that I have two hard copies of this novel on the shelves. I bought this paperback at the library book sale on Sa 1/11/2020.
From the book's page at Amazon:
"Detective Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD, but his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller, needs his help. The murder rap against his client seems ironclad, but Mickey is sure it's a setup. Though it goes against all his instincts, Bosch takes the case. With the secret help of his former LAPD partner Lucia Soto, he turns the investigation inside the police department. But as Bosch gets closer to discovering the truth, he makes himself a target."
he Crossing: by Michael Connelly | Summary & Analysis
Michael Connelly, continues the Hieronymus Bosch series in The Crossing as the titular character transitions from life as a police detective to life in the private sector. Presenting a view of the police from one who has been among their number and finds himself unhappily and uneasily outside it, the novel is sure to please Connelly's long-time readers, even as it welcomes new ones into the series. The novel offers readers a thrilling, engaging tale of a man coming to terms with a new life and reassessing the one left behind.
Connelly follows Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch as, several months into a forced retirement, he is brought into the work of his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller. Despite the antipathy between his former profession and Haller's, Bosch finds himself doggedly working to uncover the truth behind the killing of Alexandra Parks, a killing Haller's client stands ultimately wrongly accused of committing. That truth exposes ongoing corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department, and Bosch's efforts manage to put a stop to one iteration of that corruption, exonerating a wrongly accused man and giving Bosch cause to question his former professional pursuits. It is set largely in the Los Angeles area, with a notable excursion to Las Vegas, some months after The Burning Room.
PLOT:
Two crooked vice cops are running an extortion plan against a prominent plastic surgeon. All the murders are tied to these two Hollywood detectives.
I love anything Harry Bosch and they are always worth a 'reread'.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Saturday, February 22, 2020
EDUCATED by Tara Westover
Finished Fr 2/21/2020, the February, 2020 selection for the Contemporary Book Club. This was a new book and expensive. I bought this on a site and I thought that I was getting either a trade, paperback, or hardback, but it was an Ebook.
11,000 Customer Reviews and 14,000 Customer Ratings on Amazon .
This is a non-fiction memoir of a woman who was raised and homeschooled by a family of survivalists in very rural Idaho.
Her mother's teaching was laughable, yet Tara went on to study at Cambridge and Harvard.
Mother was a midwife and this was to be Tara's career.
Father ran a junkyard and made barns and hay sheds.
Abused by her brothers
Buck's Peak Idaho; 123 miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Shawn- brother forklift accident/ motorcycle
Tyler- first brother to college, Tara's close sibling
Charles- boyfriend
Gene- father; Horribly burned while trying to remove a gas tank without draining the tank.
Faye- mother: Permanently damaged in a car accident- head trauma.
Audrey- sister and forever loyal to the family
I liked the book, but not very memorable. Not bad, Not great.
Reminded me of 'HILLBILLY ELEGY'
Link to wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy
HILLBILLY ELEGY at amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
Review in The New York Times:
"Now in her early 30s, she was the youngest of seven in a survivalist family in the shadow of a mountain in a Mormon pocket of southeastern Idaho. Her father, Gene (a pseudonym), grew up on a farm at the base of the mountain, the son of a hot-tempered father, and moved up the slope with his wife, the product of a more genteel upbringing in the nearby small town. Gene sustained his growing family by building barns and hay sheds and by scrapping metal in his junkyard; his wife, Faye (also a pseudonym), chipped in with her income from mixing up herbal remedies and from her reluctant work as an unlicensed midwife’s assistant and then midwife.
During his 20s, Gene’s edgy and not uncharismatic intensity morphed into politically charged paranoia, fueled by what the reader is led to presume is a severe case of bipolar disorder. Around the age of 30, he pulled his eldest children from school to protect them from the Illuminati, though they, at least, had the benefit of a birth certificate, an indulgence the youngest four would be denied. In theory, the children were being home-schooled; in reality, there was virtually no academic instruction to speak of. They learned to read from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the speeches of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. The only science book in the house was for young children, full of glossy illustrations. The bulk of their time was spent helping their parents at work. Barely into her teens, Westover graduated from helping her mom mix remedies and birth babies to sorting scrap with her dad, who had the unnerving habit of inadvertently hitting her with pieces he’d tossed.
Getting hit with a steel cylinder square in the gut was the least of the risks in the Westover household. The book is, among other things, a catalog of job-site horrors: fingers lost, legs gashed, bodies horribly burned. No pointy-headed bureaucrat could make a stronger case for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration than do the unregulated Westovers with their many calamities. Making matters worse is Gene’s refusal to allow any of the injured and wounded (himself included) to seek medical attention beyond his wife’s tinctures — “God’s pharmacy” — a refusal that also greatly exacerbates the effects of two terrible car accidents. “God and his angels are here, working right alongside us,” he tells Westover. “They won’t let you get hurt.” When she gets tonsillitis, he tells her to stand outside with her mouth open so that the sun can work its magic. She does, for a month.
As time goes on, the conflict between father and daughter gathers as inevitably as the lengthening fall shadows from Buck’s Peak above. Gene’s fervor and paranoia are undiminished by the failure of the world to end at Y2K, despite his ample preparations. (Westover offers the pathos-filled image of her father sitting expressionless in front of “The Honeymooners” as the world ticks quietly onward.) Meanwhile, she is starting to test the boundaries of an upbringing more tightly constricted than she can even begin to imagine. Her venture into a local dance class ends with her father condemning the group’s painfully modest performance outfits as whorish. Encouraged by an older brother who started studying covertly and eventually left for college, Westover attempts to do likewise, reading deep into her father’s books on the 19th-century Mormon prophets. “The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand,” she writes with characteristic understatement. (Only very occasionally is Westover’s assured prose marred by unnecessary curlicues.) As if her father’s tyranny is not enough, she must contend also with sadistic physical attacks from a different brother, whose instability was worsened by a 12-foot headfirst plunge onto rebar in yet another Westover workplace accident.
Tara makes her first big step toward liberation by, remarkably, doing well enough on the ACT to gain admission to Brigham Young University. (“It proves one thing at least,” her father says grudgingly. “Our home school is as good as any public education.”) There, she is shocked by the profane habits of her classmates, like the roommate who wears pink plush pajamas with “Juicy” emblazoned on the rear, and in turn shocks her classmates with her ignorance, never more so than when she asks blithely in art history class what the Holocaust was. (Other new discoveries for her: Napoleon, Martin Luther King Jr., the fact that Europe is not a country.) Such excruciating moments do not keep professors from recognizing her talent and voracious hunger to learn; soon enough, she’s off to a fellowship at Cambridge University, where a renowned professor — a Holocaust expert, no less — can’t help exclaiming when he meets her: “How marvelous. It’s as if I’ve stepped into Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion.’”
Westover eventually makes it to Harvard for another fellowship and then back to Cambridge to pursue her Ph.D. in history. Even then, she’s not yet fully sprung, so deeply rooted are the tangled familial claims of loyalty, guilt, shame and, yes, love. It is only when the final, wrenching break from most of her family arrives that one realizes just how courageous this testimonial really is. These disclosures will take a toll. But one is also left convinced that the costs are worth it. By the end, Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others. She is but yet another young person who left home for an education, now views the family she left across an uncomprehending ideological canyon, and isn’t going back."
From a customer review at Amazon:
"In the interest of full disclosure, I'm the Drew from this book, and although Tara and I are no longer together I’ve met all of the key figures in this book on many occasions. Although I don’t have as intimate a knowledge of growing up in the Westover family as a sibling would, I observed first hand everything Tara describes in the third part of the book and heard many stories about earlier events, not just from Tara, but from siblings, cousins, and her parents themselves. I find the claims of factual inaccuracy that have come up among these reviews to be strange for two reasons. First, in a post-James Frey (“A Million Little Pieces”) world, publishers are incredibly careful with memoirs and “Educated” was extensively fact checked before publication. Second, no one claiming factual inaccuracy can do so with any precision. While every Westover sibling, as well as their neighbors and friends, will have different perspectives and different memories, it is very difficult to dispute the core facts of this book. “Educated” is about abuse, and the way in which both abusers and their enablers distort reality for the victims. It’s about the importance of gaining your own understanding of the world so you’re not dependent on the narratives imposed on you by others. I’ve heard Tara’s parents attack schools and universities, doctors and modern medicine, but more importantly, I’ve seen her parents work tirelessly to create a world where Shawn’s abuse was minimized or denied outright. I’ve seen them try to create a world where Tara was insane or possessed in order to protect a violent and unstable brother. I was with her in Cambridge when Shawn was calling with death threats, then saw her mother completely trivialize the experience. For Tara’s parents, allegiance to the family is paramount, and allegiance to the family requires you to accept her father’s view of the world, where violence is acceptable and asking for change is a crime."
James Frey- A MILLION LITTLE PIECES - A memoir that was savaged because it wasn't 100% accurate. EDUCATED is supposed to be the truth.
Some readers could not believe Tara's isolation. It was the 1990's and she was taking dance and acting lessons- starring in ANNIE. So she had to have contact with other people who were aware of computers, contemporary music, television and movies.
Westover ignores the helping hands of people in her community and at her schools, and she acts as if she did it all herself. I don't agree with this viewpoint, but apparently many readers felt this way.
11,000 Customer Reviews and 14,000 Customer Ratings on Amazon .
This is a non-fiction memoir of a woman who was raised and homeschooled by a family of survivalists in very rural Idaho.
Her mother's teaching was laughable, yet Tara went on to study at Cambridge and Harvard.
Mother was a midwife and this was to be Tara's career.
Father ran a junkyard and made barns and hay sheds.
Abused by her brothers
Buck's Peak Idaho; 123 miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Shawn- brother forklift accident/ motorcycle
Tyler- first brother to college, Tara's close sibling
Charles- boyfriend
Gene- father; Horribly burned while trying to remove a gas tank without draining the tank.
Faye- mother: Permanently damaged in a car accident- head trauma.
Audrey- sister and forever loyal to the family
I liked the book, but not very memorable. Not bad, Not great.
Reminded me of 'HILLBILLY ELEGY'
Link to wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy
HILLBILLY ELEGY at amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
Review in The New York Times:
"Now in her early 30s, she was the youngest of seven in a survivalist family in the shadow of a mountain in a Mormon pocket of southeastern Idaho. Her father, Gene (a pseudonym), grew up on a farm at the base of the mountain, the son of a hot-tempered father, and moved up the slope with his wife, the product of a more genteel upbringing in the nearby small town. Gene sustained his growing family by building barns and hay sheds and by scrapping metal in his junkyard; his wife, Faye (also a pseudonym), chipped in with her income from mixing up herbal remedies and from her reluctant work as an unlicensed midwife’s assistant and then midwife.
During his 20s, Gene’s edgy and not uncharismatic intensity morphed into politically charged paranoia, fueled by what the reader is led to presume is a severe case of bipolar disorder. Around the age of 30, he pulled his eldest children from school to protect them from the Illuminati, though they, at least, had the benefit of a birth certificate, an indulgence the youngest four would be denied. In theory, the children were being home-schooled; in reality, there was virtually no academic instruction to speak of. They learned to read from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the speeches of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. The only science book in the house was for young children, full of glossy illustrations. The bulk of their time was spent helping their parents at work. Barely into her teens, Westover graduated from helping her mom mix remedies and birth babies to sorting scrap with her dad, who had the unnerving habit of inadvertently hitting her with pieces he’d tossed.
Getting hit with a steel cylinder square in the gut was the least of the risks in the Westover household. The book is, among other things, a catalog of job-site horrors: fingers lost, legs gashed, bodies horribly burned. No pointy-headed bureaucrat could make a stronger case for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration than do the unregulated Westovers with their many calamities. Making matters worse is Gene’s refusal to allow any of the injured and wounded (himself included) to seek medical attention beyond his wife’s tinctures — “God’s pharmacy” — a refusal that also greatly exacerbates the effects of two terrible car accidents. “God and his angels are here, working right alongside us,” he tells Westover. “They won’t let you get hurt.” When she gets tonsillitis, he tells her to stand outside with her mouth open so that the sun can work its magic. She does, for a month.
As time goes on, the conflict between father and daughter gathers as inevitably as the lengthening fall shadows from Buck’s Peak above. Gene’s fervor and paranoia are undiminished by the failure of the world to end at Y2K, despite his ample preparations. (Westover offers the pathos-filled image of her father sitting expressionless in front of “The Honeymooners” as the world ticks quietly onward.) Meanwhile, she is starting to test the boundaries of an upbringing more tightly constricted than she can even begin to imagine. Her venture into a local dance class ends with her father condemning the group’s painfully modest performance outfits as whorish. Encouraged by an older brother who started studying covertly and eventually left for college, Westover attempts to do likewise, reading deep into her father’s books on the 19th-century Mormon prophets. “The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand,” she writes with characteristic understatement. (Only very occasionally is Westover’s assured prose marred by unnecessary curlicues.) As if her father’s tyranny is not enough, she must contend also with sadistic physical attacks from a different brother, whose instability was worsened by a 12-foot headfirst plunge onto rebar in yet another Westover workplace accident.
Tara makes her first big step toward liberation by, remarkably, doing well enough on the ACT to gain admission to Brigham Young University. (“It proves one thing at least,” her father says grudgingly. “Our home school is as good as any public education.”) There, she is shocked by the profane habits of her classmates, like the roommate who wears pink plush pajamas with “Juicy” emblazoned on the rear, and in turn shocks her classmates with her ignorance, never more so than when she asks blithely in art history class what the Holocaust was. (Other new discoveries for her: Napoleon, Martin Luther King Jr., the fact that Europe is not a country.) Such excruciating moments do not keep professors from recognizing her talent and voracious hunger to learn; soon enough, she’s off to a fellowship at Cambridge University, where a renowned professor — a Holocaust expert, no less — can’t help exclaiming when he meets her: “How marvelous. It’s as if I’ve stepped into Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion.’”
Westover eventually makes it to Harvard for another fellowship and then back to Cambridge to pursue her Ph.D. in history. Even then, she’s not yet fully sprung, so deeply rooted are the tangled familial claims of loyalty, guilt, shame and, yes, love. It is only when the final, wrenching break from most of her family arrives that one realizes just how courageous this testimonial really is. These disclosures will take a toll. But one is also left convinced that the costs are worth it. By the end, Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others. She is but yet another young person who left home for an education, now views the family she left across an uncomprehending ideological canyon, and isn’t going back."
From a customer review at Amazon:
"In the interest of full disclosure, I'm the Drew from this book, and although Tara and I are no longer together I’ve met all of the key figures in this book on many occasions. Although I don’t have as intimate a knowledge of growing up in the Westover family as a sibling would, I observed first hand everything Tara describes in the third part of the book and heard many stories about earlier events, not just from Tara, but from siblings, cousins, and her parents themselves. I find the claims of factual inaccuracy that have come up among these reviews to be strange for two reasons. First, in a post-James Frey (“A Million Little Pieces”) world, publishers are incredibly careful with memoirs and “Educated” was extensively fact checked before publication. Second, no one claiming factual inaccuracy can do so with any precision. While every Westover sibling, as well as their neighbors and friends, will have different perspectives and different memories, it is very difficult to dispute the core facts of this book. “Educated” is about abuse, and the way in which both abusers and their enablers distort reality for the victims. It’s about the importance of gaining your own understanding of the world so you’re not dependent on the narratives imposed on you by others. I’ve heard Tara’s parents attack schools and universities, doctors and modern medicine, but more importantly, I’ve seen her parents work tirelessly to create a world where Shawn’s abuse was minimized or denied outright. I’ve seen them try to create a world where Tara was insane or possessed in order to protect a violent and unstable brother. I was with her in Cambridge when Shawn was calling with death threats, then saw her mother completely trivialize the experience. For Tara’s parents, allegiance to the family is paramount, and allegiance to the family requires you to accept her father’s view of the world, where violence is acceptable and asking for change is a crime."
James Frey- A MILLION LITTLE PIECES - A memoir that was savaged because it wasn't 100% accurate. EDUCATED is supposed to be the truth.
Some readers could not believe Tara's isolation. It was the 1990's and she was taking dance and acting lessons- starring in ANNIE. So she had to have contact with other people who were aware of computers, contemporary music, television and movies.
Westover ignores the helping hands of people in her community and at her schools, and she acts as if she did it all herself. I don't agree with this viewpoint, but apparently many readers felt this way.
Sunday, February 16, 2020
LONELY BOY- TALES FROM A SEX PISTOL by Steve Jones
Finished Sa 2/15/2020
After listening to JONESY'S JUKEBOX for months I decided to order his memoir. I ordered it from Amazon and got a mint hardcover.
NOTES:
Born 1955 in Shepherd's Bush, West London.
Sexual abuse was a big issue in the memoir.
He stole band equipment from Bowie's farewell concert.
He's still an active member of AA and tries to do all of the steps.
He practices Transcendental Meditation.
Lifelong friends with Paul Cook, the Sex Pistols drummer. Cook still lives only two doors down from his childhood home in West London.
From his page at Wikipedia:
"Jones was born in Shepherd's Bush,[9] London, where he grew up with his young mother, who worked as a hairdresser, and his grandparents. He first moved to Benbow Road in Shepherd's Bush and then to Nine Elms in Battersea. He was an only child and his father, Don Jarvis, a professional boxer, left when he was two years old. He revealed in his 2016 autobiography Lonely Boy that he was sexually abused by his stepfather, Ron Dambagella, which he blamed for his later sex addiction and inability to form lasting relationships.[10] He also revealed that he was functionally illiterate until he was in his 40s.[11] With 14 criminal convictions, he was the subject of a council-care order and spent a year in a remand centre, which he said was more enjoyable than being at home. Jones has also said that the Sex Pistols saved him from a life of crime."
From the book's page at Amazon:
"Steve Jones's modern Dickensian tale began in the street of Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush, West London, where as a lonely, neglected boy living off his wits and petty thievery he was given purpose by the glam art rock of David Bowie and Roxy Music. He became one of the first generation of ragamuffin punks taken under the wings of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.
In Lonely Boy, Steve describes the sadness of never having known his real dad, the abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather, and how his interest in music and fashion saved him from a potential life of crime spent in remand centers and prisons. He takes readers on his journey from the Kings Road of the early '70s through the years of the Sex Pistols, punk rock, and the recording of "Anarchy in the UK" and Never Mind the Bollocks. He recounts his infamous confrontation on Bill Grundy's Today program--the interview that ushered in the "Filth and the Fury" headlines that catapulted punk into the national consciousness. And he delves into the details of his self-imposed exile in New York and Los Angeles, where he battled alcohol, heroin, and sex addiction but eventually emerged to gain fresh acclaim as an actor and radio host.
Lonely Boy is the story of an unlikely guitar hero who, with the Sex Pistols, transformed twentieth-century culture and kick-started a social revolution."
This is one of the better rock bios that I've read.
After listening to JONESY'S JUKEBOX for months I decided to order his memoir. I ordered it from Amazon and got a mint hardcover.
NOTES:
Born 1955 in Shepherd's Bush, West London.
Sexual abuse was a big issue in the memoir.
He stole band equipment from Bowie's farewell concert.
He's still an active member of AA and tries to do all of the steps.
He practices Transcendental Meditation.
Lifelong friends with Paul Cook, the Sex Pistols drummer. Cook still lives only two doors down from his childhood home in West London.
From his page at Wikipedia:
"Jones was born in Shepherd's Bush,[9] London, where he grew up with his young mother, who worked as a hairdresser, and his grandparents. He first moved to Benbow Road in Shepherd's Bush and then to Nine Elms in Battersea. He was an only child and his father, Don Jarvis, a professional boxer, left when he was two years old. He revealed in his 2016 autobiography Lonely Boy that he was sexually abused by his stepfather, Ron Dambagella, which he blamed for his later sex addiction and inability to form lasting relationships.[10] He also revealed that he was functionally illiterate until he was in his 40s.[11] With 14 criminal convictions, he was the subject of a council-care order and spent a year in a remand centre, which he said was more enjoyable than being at home. Jones has also said that the Sex Pistols saved him from a life of crime."
From the book's page at Amazon:
"Steve Jones's modern Dickensian tale began in the street of Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush, West London, where as a lonely, neglected boy living off his wits and petty thievery he was given purpose by the glam art rock of David Bowie and Roxy Music. He became one of the first generation of ragamuffin punks taken under the wings of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.
In Lonely Boy, Steve describes the sadness of never having known his real dad, the abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather, and how his interest in music and fashion saved him from a potential life of crime spent in remand centers and prisons. He takes readers on his journey from the Kings Road of the early '70s through the years of the Sex Pistols, punk rock, and the recording of "Anarchy in the UK" and Never Mind the Bollocks. He recounts his infamous confrontation on Bill Grundy's Today program--the interview that ushered in the "Filth and the Fury" headlines that catapulted punk into the national consciousness. And he delves into the details of his self-imposed exile in New York and Los Angeles, where he battled alcohol, heroin, and sex addiction but eventually emerged to gain fresh acclaim as an actor and radio host.
Lonely Boy is the story of an unlikely guitar hero who, with the Sex Pistols, transformed twentieth-century culture and kick-started a social revolution."
This is one of the better rock bios that I've read.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
OUT ON THE CUTTING EDGE by Lawrence Block
Finished We 2/12/2020
This is part of the Matt Scudder series and is an ancient paperback that I had apparently never read.
Although Matt does not drink, his AA meetings are an integral part of the novel.
TWO STORIES:
1) A husband and wife from Muncie, Indiana hire Scudder to find their daughter. She had been missing from her apartment for several weeks.
She was working as a waitress and teamed with a grifter and they were running a credit card scam. He took her to a cabin in the country and killed her. She was then fed to the hogs.
Matt tells the family that she was on a boat and she was killed by pirates.
2) One of Scudder's acquaintances, Eddie, from AA dies of auto-asphyxiation and Matt develops a relationship with this man's landlady, Willa. This woman is a functioning alcoholic and drinks around Scudder. This makes Matt increase his attendance at AA meetings.
It's revealed that Willa is kind of 'an angel of death'. She has been killing people in her apartment building so that she can buy them out and convert to condos. She also killed Eddie.
Matt gets her to confess while he is wearing a wire.
I love all of the Scudder series: set in 80's NYC and Matt's alcohol addiction is always central to the plot.
From a customer review on Amazon:
"This book introduces one of my favorite Scudder cronies; Mick Ballou. Mick is an interesting character built on the character of Bill the Butcher Poole. And the basis of the story is good too. A Midwestern girl comes to NYC to find fame and finds her killer instead. In the end, everyone gets what they deserve (except maybe Mick who is the bad guy you can't help but like). well told and well worth the read...all 18 of them!"
This is part of the Matt Scudder series and is an ancient paperback that I had apparently never read.
Although Matt does not drink, his AA meetings are an integral part of the novel.
TWO STORIES:
1) A husband and wife from Muncie, Indiana hire Scudder to find their daughter. She had been missing from her apartment for several weeks.
She was working as a waitress and teamed with a grifter and they were running a credit card scam. He took her to a cabin in the country and killed her. She was then fed to the hogs.
Matt tells the family that she was on a boat and she was killed by pirates.
2) One of Scudder's acquaintances, Eddie, from AA dies of auto-asphyxiation and Matt develops a relationship with this man's landlady, Willa. This woman is a functioning alcoholic and drinks around Scudder. This makes Matt increase his attendance at AA meetings.
It's revealed that Willa is kind of 'an angel of death'. She has been killing people in her apartment building so that she can buy them out and convert to condos. She also killed Eddie.
Matt gets her to confess while he is wearing a wire.
I love all of the Scudder series: set in 80's NYC and Matt's alcohol addiction is always central to the plot.
From a customer review on Amazon:
"This book introduces one of my favorite Scudder cronies; Mick Ballou. Mick is an interesting character built on the character of Bill the Butcher Poole. And the basis of the story is good too. A Midwestern girl comes to NYC to find fame and finds her killer instead. In the end, everyone gets what they deserve (except maybe Mick who is the bad guy you can't help but like). well told and well worth the read...all 18 of them!"
Sunday, February 9, 2020
THE ESCAPE by David Baldacci
Finished Sa 2/8/20
This was a paperback that Janny loaned me. Over six hundred pages, but a compelling, yet typical Baldacci yarn. Very much a page turner, but not so much on character development or clever description.
CHARACTERS:
Robert Puller: in Leavenworth, Kansas, The United States Disciplinary Barracks for espionage. He had been incarcerated for over two years, but one night the prison lost power and a killer came in to murder him. He overpowered his killer, put on his SWAT suit and escaped to find out who framed him.
John Puller: Robert's younger brother who is a CID agent in the Air Force. He was in Iraq at the time of his brother's incarceration and is contacted by high-level military and espionage people to find his brother.
Veronica Knox: She is working for one of the seventeen US intelligence agencies and is also looking for Robert with John. She is kind of a spy on John and fakes allegiance with the bad guys.
Susan Reynolds: She is the bad guy. She is a high level intelligence officer that is working with a Russian agent. She was behind Robert Puller's attempted murder and she is trying to unleash a deadly ebola attack at the Pentagon. Canisters of the Ebola virus have been converted to aerosol and they were timed to go off when the sprinkler system was activated. Puller and Know cut the wires seconds before they went off.
John Puller falls in love with Veronica Know, but she wants to 'take a rain check' on their relationship, but doesn't rule out future involvement.
From Publishers Weekly about the novel:
"In bestseller Baldacci's clever third John Puller thriller (after 2012's The Forgotten), the chief warrant officer faces his most difficult and most personal assignment yet. Puller's older brother, Robert, a former major in the USAF, is a convicted traitor serving a life sentence in Leavenworth. A seemingly impossible chain of events ends with Robert escaping and a corpse left in his cell. A trio of high-placed officials, Army, Air Force, and National Security, go against normal protocol, and charge Puller with finding and arresting Robert. Puller has to figure out the identity of the dead man found in his brother's cell, as well as who enabled Robert to escape. To add to his problems, he's not sure he can trust the Army Intelligence agent assigned to work with him, Veronica Knox. The Puller brothers are in deep trouble, and it will take all their ingenuity and skills just to survive. Baldacci handles the complex plot with consummate ease as the Pullers navigate nearly endless surprises."
I would read anything by Baldacci, but all of his stuff is 'beach or airport' material. As long as you're not looking for more, you can't go wrong.
This was a paperback that Janny loaned me. Over six hundred pages, but a compelling, yet typical Baldacci yarn. Very much a page turner, but not so much on character development or clever description.
CHARACTERS:
Robert Puller: in Leavenworth, Kansas, The United States Disciplinary Barracks for espionage. He had been incarcerated for over two years, but one night the prison lost power and a killer came in to murder him. He overpowered his killer, put on his SWAT suit and escaped to find out who framed him.
John Puller: Robert's younger brother who is a CID agent in the Air Force. He was in Iraq at the time of his brother's incarceration and is contacted by high-level military and espionage people to find his brother.
Veronica Knox: She is working for one of the seventeen US intelligence agencies and is also looking for Robert with John. She is kind of a spy on John and fakes allegiance with the bad guys.
Susan Reynolds: She is the bad guy. She is a high level intelligence officer that is working with a Russian agent. She was behind Robert Puller's attempted murder and she is trying to unleash a deadly ebola attack at the Pentagon. Canisters of the Ebola virus have been converted to aerosol and they were timed to go off when the sprinkler system was activated. Puller and Know cut the wires seconds before they went off.
John Puller falls in love with Veronica Know, but she wants to 'take a rain check' on their relationship, but doesn't rule out future involvement.
From Publishers Weekly about the novel:
"In bestseller Baldacci's clever third John Puller thriller (after 2012's The Forgotten), the chief warrant officer faces his most difficult and most personal assignment yet. Puller's older brother, Robert, a former major in the USAF, is a convicted traitor serving a life sentence in Leavenworth. A seemingly impossible chain of events ends with Robert escaping and a corpse left in his cell. A trio of high-placed officials, Army, Air Force, and National Security, go against normal protocol, and charge Puller with finding and arresting Robert. Puller has to figure out the identity of the dead man found in his brother's cell, as well as who enabled Robert to escape. To add to his problems, he's not sure he can trust the Army Intelligence agent assigned to work with him, Veronica Knox. The Puller brothers are in deep trouble, and it will take all their ingenuity and skills just to survive. Baldacci handles the complex plot with consummate ease as the Pullers navigate nearly endless surprises."
I would read anything by Baldacci, but all of his stuff is 'beach or airport' material. As long as you're not looking for more, you can't go wrong.
Monday, February 3, 2020
SAY WHEN by Elizabeth Berg
Finished Su 2/2/2020
This is a trade paperback that Janny loaned to me.
In the Author's Notes Berg said that the working title (before she had even fleshed out the story line) was..."Griffin As Claus". She new that it would be about a man who would learn to be Santa. And, she never really new how the relationship would end up until the very end. She just follows the characters' trajectories and reports wherever they go.
It's a wonderful story of a man who is blindsided when his wife asks for a separation. They live in Oak Park, IL and have an eight year old daughter.
The story is told from Frank's point of view.
Frank Griffin- (He goes by 'Griffin') He's a white collar professional. His secretary is Evelyn and she is a celibate woman in her fifties. Her fiance was killed in a car accident when they were nineteen and she's lived alone since then. Frank had been her employer for years and the separation made him ask about her personal life. He was just a little too complacent about the way things were, and this threat of divorce forces him to wake up.
Ellen Griffin- A little eccentric, inordinately shy, and was a stay at home mom and begins to realize that life is passing her by. She enrolled in a course about car repair and met a man, Peter. and this encounter awakened romantic feelings in her that she had only read about.
Zoey- A cute, funny eight year old girl that is bewildered by her parents' breakup, but is very believable in her responses. She might be one of my favorite depictions of a real kid that I've ever read. I just loved her!
Frank meets a woman who photographs children sitting on Santa's knee in a local mall. Frank takes a job as a Santa- partially because he's bored and wants something to do when Ellen goes out, and also he is attracted to Donna, the photographer.
The 'Santa Seminar' where Frank learns how to deal with the kids was my favorite part of the novel. Kids ask if Santa can bring a loved one back to life. They might ask for a new house if they had recently lost their home. What is Mrs. Claus's first name...."We've been married for hundreds of years and even I don't remember".
Although it never came up, I thought one of the most asked question would be how come there are so many Santas. Every mall has a Santa, and sometimes Santas are on various street corners.
Donna and Frank attempt to have sex but Frank is not ready. Donna has been divorced for a couple of years and Frank is her first sexual encounter after her breakup.
Ellen wants Frank to leave the house, but he refuses and she gets a small apartment and a job in a waffle house.
In the end, Frank prevails and realizes that he must change and allow Ellen to grow. But they both seem to feel that Zoe needs them more than anything.
Peter gave Ellen a puppy and she accepted for Zoe. Zoey loves it and Frank realizes that this is best for his daughter- A pet is something that she can love and care for.
"Berg's novels are high-quality comfort food, and sell accordingly".
Janny loaned me several more by Elizabeth Berg and I can't wait to begin another novel by her.
The books page at GoodRead:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/246128.Say_When
This is a trade paperback that Janny loaned to me.
In the Author's Notes Berg said that the working title (before she had even fleshed out the story line) was..."Griffin As Claus". She new that it would be about a man who would learn to be Santa. And, she never really new how the relationship would end up until the very end. She just follows the characters' trajectories and reports wherever they go.
It's a wonderful story of a man who is blindsided when his wife asks for a separation. They live in Oak Park, IL and have an eight year old daughter.
The story is told from Frank's point of view.
Frank Griffin- (He goes by 'Griffin') He's a white collar professional. His secretary is Evelyn and she is a celibate woman in her fifties. Her fiance was killed in a car accident when they were nineteen and she's lived alone since then. Frank had been her employer for years and the separation made him ask about her personal life. He was just a little too complacent about the way things were, and this threat of divorce forces him to wake up.
Ellen Griffin- A little eccentric, inordinately shy, and was a stay at home mom and begins to realize that life is passing her by. She enrolled in a course about car repair and met a man, Peter. and this encounter awakened romantic feelings in her that she had only read about.
Zoey- A cute, funny eight year old girl that is bewildered by her parents' breakup, but is very believable in her responses. She might be one of my favorite depictions of a real kid that I've ever read. I just loved her!
Frank meets a woman who photographs children sitting on Santa's knee in a local mall. Frank takes a job as a Santa- partially because he's bored and wants something to do when Ellen goes out, and also he is attracted to Donna, the photographer.
The 'Santa Seminar' where Frank learns how to deal with the kids was my favorite part of the novel. Kids ask if Santa can bring a loved one back to life. They might ask for a new house if they had recently lost their home. What is Mrs. Claus's first name...."We've been married for hundreds of years and even I don't remember".
Although it never came up, I thought one of the most asked question would be how come there are so many Santas. Every mall has a Santa, and sometimes Santas are on various street corners.
Donna and Frank attempt to have sex but Frank is not ready. Donna has been divorced for a couple of years and Frank is her first sexual encounter after her breakup.
Ellen wants Frank to leave the house, but he refuses and she gets a small apartment and a job in a waffle house.
In the end, Frank prevails and realizes that he must change and allow Ellen to grow. But they both seem to feel that Zoe needs them more than anything.
Peter gave Ellen a puppy and she accepted for Zoe. Zoey loves it and Frank realizes that this is best for his daughter- A pet is something that she can love and care for.
"Berg's novels are high-quality comfort food, and sell accordingly".
Janny loaned me several more by Elizabeth Berg and I can't wait to begin another novel by her.
The books page at GoodRead:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/246128.Say_When
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