THE RISK POOL by Richard Russo

Finished Fr 1/13/23

...and I didn't want it to end. I loved this book and will try to find more by this author.

This is one of my ancient trad paperbacks that I had apparently never read.  

Set in Mohawk, New York which is in upstate New York, halfway between Syracuse and Albany.

In broad strokes it is the relationship between a young man and his dissolute father. Dad never has a steady job, he is separated from his wife and they have a combative relationship and his son is caught in the middle.

The book is divided into four sections based on the grandfather's method of dividing the year:

1) July 4th; 2) Mohawk Fair; 3) Eat The Bird; 4) Winter

From the book's page at GoodReads:

"The Risk Pool is a thirty-year journey through the lives of Sam Hall, a small-town gambling Hellraiser, and his watchful, introspective son Ned. When Ned's mother Jenny suffers a breakdown and retreats from her husband's carelessness into a dream world, Ned becomes part of his father's seedy nocturnal world, touring the town's bars and pool halls, struggling to win Sam's affections while avoiding his sins." 

THE MATCH by Harlan Coben

 Finished We 1/4/23

This is one of the hardback books that The Brandenburgs gave me for Xmas.

This is about a 'wild boy' who was left in the woods and learned to live by breaking into vacant summer homes. He uses websites that specialize in searching the users' DNA profiles to find matches of relatives and this drives the action. 

From the book's page at GoodReads:

"'At the age of somewhere between 35 and 45 - he didn't know exactly how old he was - Wilde found his father ...'

Wilde has grown up knowing nothing of his family, and even less about his own identity . All he knows is that, as a young child, he was found living a feral existence in the Ramapo mountains of New Jersey.

He became known simply as Wilde, the boy from the woods.

Now Wilde has had a hit on the DNA website he has been researching. A 100% match. His father. They meet up, and Wilde soon realizes that his father doesn't even know he had a son and is as mystified as Wilde is by his existence.

Undaunted, Wilde continues his research for his family on DNA websites where he becomes caught up in a community of online doxxers, a secret group committed to exposing anonymous trolls.

Then one by one these doxxers start to die, and it soon becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting this secret community - and that his next victim might be Wilde himself. "

The problem with Coben's books is 'there are not enough words on the page'. He has the story covered in spades, but character development is lacking. And, in this novel especially, I think he just added too many characters and made the tale unnecessarily confusing. Coben keeps you reading, but his books tend to fade from my memory fairly quickly. 

THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown

 Refinished Th 12/29/22

This was one of my ancient trade paperbacks (QPB Books) that I first completed Su 10/19/03.

Thesis:

The 'Feminine Principle' has been obscured by the Catholic Church. Jesus was actually married to Mary Magdalene and there is a 'bloodline' that exists to this day. 

From the book's page at Goodreads:

"While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci—and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever."

I really liked the book and the weird facts of biblical and secular history. Mary is actually in Da Vinci's painting 'The Last Supper' and she sits on the right side of Jesus. And, that the Knights Templar invented the system of banking that's still in use today. 

I plan to loan this novel to Janny and see if she can appreciate it.  

GOODBYE, MICKEY MOUSE by Len Deighton

 Finished We 12/21/22

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had apparently not read. The flyleaf says that I bought it for 25 cents at the library on Sa 1/28/95.

I really enjoyed this novel and it concerns a group of American fighter pilots stationed in England a few months before the Normandy Invasion. These guys were charged with protecting the bomber groups that were flying missions to Germany. 

This is not the kind of book that I would normally read, but I really loved this one! The battle sequences 'in the air' were especially compelling and the 'war/love' stories were very believable. 

Michael Morse had a nickname of 'Mickey Mouse'. 

Vera- one of the English women who is married to an English officer stationed in Burma. She just wants to have a good time with the Americans and doesn't want to get a divorce. When he comes back, she tells hubby that she's having an affair with Vince. But, actually she's having sex with 'Mickey Mouse/ Morse'.

Victoria is a young English girl who falls in love with Jamie Farebrother. His father is a general who gave Jamie up in the divorce from his mother. Jamie is killed. and Victoria with 'Mickey Mouse/ Morse'. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"In Goodbye Mickey Mouse Len Deighton has written his best novel yet: a brilliant, multi-dimensional picture of what it is to be at war… and what it was to be in love in the England of 1944.

Goodbye Mickey Mouse is Deighton’s fourteenth novel and a vivid evocation of wartime England, the story of a group of American fighter pilots flying escort missions over Germany in the winter of 1943-4.

At the centre of the novel are two young men: the deeply reserved Captain Jamie Farebrother, estranged son of a deskbound colonel, and the cocky Lieutenant Mickey Morse, well on his way to becoming America’s Number One Flying Ace. Alike only in their courage, they forge a bond of friendship in battle with far-reaching consequences for themselves, and for the future of those they love."

CASS TIMBERLAND by Sinclair Lewis

 Finished We 12/14/22

This was one of my ancient paperbacks that I had apparently never read.

Basically, it is the story of an older man falling in love with a much younger woman. The book was published in 1945 and I suppose this premise was pretty shocking, but today it isn't such a big deal. 

Cass Timberlane is a young judge at 41 years old and the love of his live, Ginny is about a decade younger. But, Lewis also focuses on the attitudes and points of view of the people in the town of Grand Republic, Minnesota. Some of his characterizations are absolutely hilarious. 

From a review at Kirkus:

"It is a story of marriage, the focus on Judge Timberlane and the lovely, somewhat unstable young wife, Jinny, who alternately stimulated his passion, his worship, his jealousy. But it is too the story of a community, of various types of people, patterns of marriage -- a story of an average mid-western small city today."

From Wikipedia:

"Judge Cass Timberlane is a middle-aged, incorruptible, highly respected man who enjoys good books and playing the flute. He falls for Ginny, a much younger girl from the lower class in his small Minnesota town. At first, the marriage is happy, but Ginny becomes bored with the small town and with the judge's friends. She leaves him for an affair with a lawyer, Timberlane's boyhood friend. Eventually, disillusioned with her lover, Ginny returns to her husband and becomes his loyal wife. The novel is Lewis's examination of marriage, love, romance, heartache and trust."

I enjoyed the novel a lot more than I thought that I would. Cass's affection for Ginny was hard to believe, but Lewis's observations of the people in the town were insightful and humorous. 

This was one of the last books that Sinclair Lewis wrote.   

GRAY MATTERS by William Hjortsberg

Finished Mo 12/5/22

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at The Book House on Sa 3/24/01 and I finished it on Mo 3/26/01.

A note on the flyleaf says that the author of this novel also wrote the film 'ANGEL HEART' with Micky Rourke and Robert DeNiro. I wonder how I found this out since I don't even know if I had my first computer in 2001.

The novel takes place a few hundred years in the future and it had been decided that humans must pay more attention to their spiritual advancement and human bodies had become superfluous. Brains are kept alive without bodies. The 'brain/minds' were kept active with dreams and fantasy.

3 BODY TYPES:

1) Tropiques- People from the tropics? Black, Brown

2) Nords- Aryan people. Blue eyes, blonde hair

3) Amphibios- Humans evolved from dolphins

There is a rebellion in the brain storage units. The 'brains' against the robots that provide maintenance for the facility. 

3 CHARACTERS:

1) Skeets- he was only a 12 year old boy, but he is the oldest 'brain'.

2) Vera- An Hungarian film star

3) Obu Itubi- He's the rebel that broke free of the robots  

From the book's page at GoodReads:

WWIII has devastated most of the world, but life is still good for the lucky & rich few hundred who had their brains preserved in an automated conservatory. Altho they have no bodies to move around with, they're free to mentally visit any of the other residents, & engage in all the emotional, intellectual & pseudo-sexual congress that they desire.

This is the story of a projection of life in the 25th century. People have been reduced to Cerebromorphs--disembodied brains stored in tanks in huge Depositories & wired up to computers, memory files & mammoth study programmes. In the tanks they're supposed to pass thru various levels of understanding before they are liberated, implanted in hatchery-nurtured perfect bodies & sent back into a pastoral paradise flourishing outside. The novel follows a small group of these brains: that of a 12-year-old boy killed in an air crash; an ex-movie queen, fastidious, rich & lethal; a former Nigerian sculptor & the last of the great humanists."

MR. MURDER by Dean Koontz

 Finished Fr 12/2/22

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at the library sidewalk sale on Sa 6/14/14 and I finished it Mo 6/30/14. That was the day that I bought a laptop from BLH.

MR. MURDER is typical Dean Koontz. It takes off like a rocket and never lets up. Not much character development, but the action never wanes. 

A writer is living in Mission Viejo, California with his wife and two daughters. Out of nowhere, he begins to notice a sense of dread and he doesn't know what's causing these feelings. 

At the same time, a hired killer has finished a job in Kansas City, Kansas and this man feels a strong pull that's pushes him toward the west coast.

The killer is convinced that the writer is really him. He must get back to California to 'save' his 'real' family. 

The killer is a 'killing machine' that has been genetically engineered to be the 'perfect' murderer. 

And the book leads to a showdown with the Martin Stillwater's family and 'the deluded' killer.

From a description of the novel at Goodreads:

"Martin Stillwater has a vivid imagination. It charms his loving wife, delights his two little daughters, and gives him all the inspiration he needs to write his highly successful mystery novels. But maybe Martin's imagination is a bit too vivid...

One rainy afternoon, a terrifying incident makes him question his grip on reality. A stranger breaks into his house, accusing Martin of stealing his wife, his children - and his life. Claiming to be the real Martin Stillwater, the intruder threatens to take what is rightfully his. The police think he's a figment of Martin's imagination. But Martin and his family have no choice but to believe the stranger's threat. And run for their lives.

But wherever they go - wherever they hide - he finds them..."