ANY PLACE I HANG MY HAT by Susan Isaacs

 Finished Mo 7/25/22

This is one of my new books that I ordered on Amazon because I loved 'LILY WHITE' by Isaacs. I received the novel on Sa 7/16/22.

Amy Lincoln is a successful young woman who has never been able to accept the fact that her mother abandoned her when she was only ten months old. Her maternal grandmother raised her and her father was in and out of prison. 

She finally confronts the woman and the big 'reveal' is that mom had never been worth the effort. She meets the woman and realizes that mom actually was a shallow and selfish person, so she ended the relationship. 

Susan Isaacs is a great writer and her books are funny, witty, and insightful. 

From the book's page at GoodReads:

"Amy was barely born with a spoon in her mouth let alone a silver one. Her mother abandoned her before her first birthday and her father, a small-time crook, was in jail more time than he was out. Raised by her flaky and slightly felonious grandmother, Amy worked hard and managed to get scholarships to boarding school, then Harvard, then the Columbia School of Journalism. But now -- a few years into her stint as a reporter for a prestigious magazine -- she doesn't know who she is or how to connect with the world. Seeking answers, she sets out to find the mother she never knew...and maybe a place to belong."

From Publisher's Weekly:

"Publisher's Weekly

A political reporter in her late 20s goes in search of the mother who abandoned her when she was a baby in this jaunty if rather jerky 10th novel by Isaacs (Long Time No See; Red, White, and Blue; etc.). Amy Lincoln was brought up in the projects by her Grandma Lil, a leg waxer and devoted Falcon Crest viewer; her amiable father, Chicky, spent most of Amy's childhood in prison on a series of minor theft raps. A boarding school scholarship rescues Amy from lower-class oblivion; she goes on to Harvard and Columbia, then lands a job at In Depth, a highbrow weekly. Upbeat and self-deprecating, Amy spends little time bemoaning her past, but an encounter with college student Freddy Carrasco, who claims he's the illegitimate son of a Democratic presidential candidate, gets Amy wondering where her own mother might be. While advising Freddy how to approach his father, she uses her reporting skills to track down her elusive mother. The political subplot is anticlimactic Amy doesn't even get a scoop and Amy's eventual reunion with her mother, revealed to be a chilly suburban housewife, is credibly if rather disappointingly subdued. The parade of lavishly and loopishly described secondary characters and gossipy New York scene-setting give the novel its zing; Amy's rocky relationship with her documentary filmmaker boyfriend provides a jolt of romantic excitement and a happy ending. Agent, Owen Laster. (Oct. 5) Forecast: This might not do as well as Isaacs's last novel, Long Time No See, which reintroduced popular Isaacs protagonist Judith Singer, but a major marketing campaign including heavy promotion in the New York area and a seven-city author tour should help it hit some bestseller lists. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information."

KINDRED by Octavia E. Butler

Refinished Th 7/22/22

This was one of my ancient paperback books and according to the flyleaf I 'began & finished on Sa 12/19/93.

A young California woman from 1976 (the book was published in 1979) is 'magically' (the mechanics of the 'time travel' is never explained) transported back to Maryland of the early eighteen hundreds. The young woman is black and her husband is white.

The novel highlights the psychological differences of existing in a society without slavery and one that does. I think this would be an excellent book to recommend to high school age students. I really liked the book.

From the novel's page at Wikipedia:

"Kindred is a novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler that incorporates time travel and is modeled on slave narratives. First published in 1979, it is still widely popular. It has been frequently chosen as a text for community-wide reading programs and book organizations, as well as being a common choice for high school and college courses.

The book is the first-person account of a young African-American woman writer, Dana, who finds herself being shunted in time between her Los Angeles, California home in 1976 and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. There she meets her ancestors: a proud black freewoman and a white planter who has forced her into slavery and concubinage. As Dana's stays in the past become longer, the young woman becomes intimately entangled with the plantation community. She makes hard choices to survive slavery and to ensure her return to her own time.

Kindred explores the dynamics and dilemmas of antebellum slavery from the sensibility of a late 20th-century black woman, who is aware of its legacy in contemporary American society. Through the two interracial couples who form the emotional core of the story, the novel also explores the intersection of power, gender, and race issues, and speculates on the prospects of future egalitarianism.

While most of Butler's work is classified as science fiction, Kindred is considered to cross genre boundaries. It has been classified also as literature or African-American literature. Butler has categorized the work as "a kind of grim fantasy."

The link to 'KINDRED' on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_(novel)

 

NELSON ALGREN: A Life on the Wild Side by Bettina Drew

 Refinished Sa 7/16/22

This is one of my old trade paperbacks that I bought at The Old Book Barn on Sa 6/1/96 and according to the note on the flyleaf that I finished on Sa 8/3/96 "in 2 days".

Best known for his 1949 novel, 'THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM'. I ordered this book from Amazon and I remember seeing the movie (Frank Sinatra, Arnold Stang), but I don't think I've read the novel.

Also, famous for his sexual affair with Simone de Beauvoir (THE SECOND SEX). They were friends and lovers for decades, yet Jean-Paul Sartre was the true love of her life.

Born in Detroit, but spent most of his life in Chicago.

He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign, Il. during the roaring twenties. I found it odd that all he wished for during his 'riding the rails' phase during the 20's was not to get 'conned' by all the shady characters that he was hanging around with. 

Algren is known as an author of the 30's and 40's who couldn't adjust to the changing times. When he went to Vietnam during the sixties to cover the war he got involved with smuggling items from the PX. He failed at this and was beaten up by other thieves. 

Nelson Algren (3/28/1909- 5/9/1981)

A THIN DARK LINE by Tami Hoag

 Finished We 7/6/22

This is a relatively new paperback that I bought at the library book sale on Sa 1/11/20. I recently read another novel by Hoag and I am going to loan both books to Janny. She and Joe are supposed to drop by tomorrow with some home-grown zucchini.  

Tami Hoag is more of a storyteller than a writer, but she presents a beguiling tale. My only fault is that it might come across as a little too romantic, but I think that's what she's going for. 

Set in Set in Bayou Breaux, Louisiana which would be just east of Lafayette, LA.

From GoodReads:

"A suspected murderer is free on a technicality, and the cop accused of planting evidence against him is ordered off the case. But Detective Nick Fourcade refuses to walk away. He’s stepped over the line before. This case threatens to push him over the edge.

He’s not the only one. Deputy Annie Broussard found the woman’s mutilated body. She still hears the phantom echoes of dying screams. She wants justice. But pursuing the investigation will mean forming an alliance with a man she doesn’t trust and making enemies of the men she works with. It will mean being drawn into the confidence of a killer. For Annie Broussard, finding justice will mean risking everything—including her life.

The search for the truth has begun—one that will lead down a twisted trail through the steamy bayous of Louisiana, and deep into the darkest reaches of the human heart."

"A Real estate agent is found dead and mutilated in one of her vacant listings. There are several other deaths peppered throughout southern Louisiana that have had the same MO. The authorities are stumped until Nick Fourcade a detective finds evidence pointing toward a man who knew the victims, however, the incriminating evidence is thrown out on a technicality. The local public becomes enraged and father of the latest victim try's to shoot the suspect, on the courthouse steps, upon his release.

Annie Broussard is the deputy who found the body and is doing her own investigation into who is committing these gruesome murders. Late one evening while she is off duty, Annie comes across intoxicated Nick Fourcade while he is beating said suspect. She must for his own good arrest him before he beats the suspect to death. This makes her very unpopular with the locals and she is completely shunned by her fellow officers. This in turn makes her even more determined than ever."

VALIS by Philip K. Dick

 Refinished Sa 6/25/22

This is part of one of my trade paperbacks that contains all of 'The Valis Trilogy'; VALIS, THE DIVINE INVASION, THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER.

Over the decades I've read this several times and always find something new.

Beth- wife

Christopher- son  "Pink Light"

Sign of the Fish could signify The Double Helix

Kevin's dead cat- Why did god allow this to happen?

Gloria- addict; suicide

Sherri- cancer; sadomasochistic tendencies

'Valis' the movie; MOTHER GOOSE (Rock Band- Eric & Linda Lampton)

Ferris Freemont (Richard Nixon)

***From a reader at Goodreads:

"A question we had to learn to deal with during the dope decade was, How do you break the news to someone that his brains are fried?” So says the first-person narrator in VALIS, Philip K. Dick’s autobiographical novel of spiritual odyssey, a novel where the narrator begins by laying out the major issues he must deal with as he attempts to gain a measure of sanity along with a sense of purpose and the meaning of life: drugs, a desire to help others, the pull of insanity, suicide and death, time and place (Northern California in the 60s), split-identity (the narrator alternately identifies and disidentifies with one Horselover Fat), God and occlusion (he receives otherworldly messages via a beam of pink light prompting him to explore ancient Gnosticism) – all in all a 60s California-style version of the novels of Hermann Hesse, novels like Siddhartha, Damion and Steppenwolf. What a wild ride. For example, here is a list of what I see as the top ten conundrums we are asked to ponder:

One - Theophany

The narrator explains how a theophany is self-disclosure by the divine, in other words, a theophany isn’t something we do; rather, a theophany is something the divine – the God or gods, the higher powers – does to us. The intense pink beam of light experienced by the narrator’s persona Horselover Fat was just such a theophany. But, then, the question invariably arises: how are we to know if we received a true theophany or are suffering from an illusion?

Two - When your theophany goes against the grain of the conventional

One of the most fascinating and hilarious parts of the novel is the narrator’s therapy session with Maurice, a Hasidic Jew. In his session, Horselover Fat contrasts the ‘true’ God, the God of the Gnostics, the God of his pink ray of light, with the ‘flawed’ God of Genesis. Maurice’s reaction to such an esoteric explanation of the universe makes for lively reading, a high point of insight into the rocky spiritual challenges faced by our narrator.

Three - When your discover others share your theophany

Turns out, there are a number of other people who have had a similar theophany from the true Gnostic God. Horselover Fat’s encounter with these men and women challenges his very idea of sanity since he observes just how far zealots will go in their zealotry.

Four – How to deal with your theophany once it starts to wear off

From the novel: “They ought to make it a binding clause that if you find God you get to keep him. For Fat, finding God (if indeed he did find God) became, ultimately, a bummer, a constantly diminishing supply of joy, sinking lower and lower like the contents of a bag of uppers.” Darn, if only God were as readily available as drugs.

Five – When you encounter the many sides of you

As Harry Haller of Hesse’s Steppenwolf experiences the many facets of his personal identity in the Magic Theater, so, in the course this novel, PKD (yes, again, a very autobiographical work) discovers the many sides of PKD. How many versions are there? Feel free to round to the nearest dozen.

Six – The concept of time

Is someone or something playing a board game with time and we humans as mere players? Can time be abolished and transcended? If so, how do we go about it?

Seven – Zebra, that is, pure living intelligence, so called by Horselover Fat

Can an out-of-cosmos intelligence contact humans? This question is related to the possibility of a true theophany.

Eight - The presence of evil in the universe

Is there an answer to Kevin’s pressing question: What about my dead cat? In other words, why do bad things happen to good cats or why is there evil in the world?

Nine – The Exegesis

An exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of scripture or a sacred text. VALIS includes many entries from PKD’s thousand page exegesis published as a separate book. The question looms: would PKD have expanded his exegesis to several more thousands of pages had he lived to age 90? My own guess is definitely ‘yes’, since once you start to unravel the mysteries of the universe according to your own schemata, three questions pop up for every answer you offer. Ah, the mysteries of the universe!

Ten – What is VALIS?

Sure, it stands for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, but where does it fit into the novel? I wouldn’t want to spoil this question by providing an answer. You will have to read it for yourself. Once again, novel reading as a wild magic carpet ride. I recommend you hop on."

STILL WATERS by Tami Hoag

Finished We 6/22/22

This was a paperback that I bought at the library book sale two years ago; Sa 1/11/20.

I just read another novel by this author and I like her stuff. Slightly too much romance, but within acceptable levels. 

Set in the fictional town of Still Creek, Minnesota.

A town father is murdered- his throat was cut, and the body was found by the editor of the town's paper.

Review from Publishers Weekly:

"After a messy and very public divorce from her magnate husband, Elizabeth Stuart is persuaded by her old college chum to move from Atlanta to Still Creek, Minn. When car trouble strikes, Elizabeth hoofs it to a construction site--and finds the developer, Jarrold Jarvis, in his car with his throat cut. Sheriff Dane Jantzen figures the deed was done by a transient: Jarrold's wallet was stolen and his glove compartment rifled. Elizabeth, who now owns the local newspaper, suspects most everyone in town: Jarvis had kept a secret list of names of people who owed him money. Dane and Elizabeth start off their eventual romance by treating each other like dirt--exchanging what passes for snappy repartee. Dane insists on escorting Elizabeth to a press conference because ``I want to know where your mouth is.'' She retorts, ``it won't be kissing your ass.'' The characters are no more agreeable than the plot is focused on finding the murderer. Perhaps that's why the effect of Hoag's ( Lucky's Lady ) story is less ``still'' than static."

Random observations at GoodReads:

"...a great romantic thriller which hits right from the first page.

We have an Amish community, a normal close knit town, 2 killers ( one so unlikely) murders (obviously) a police sheriff and a new outsider newspaper editor who slowly falls in love so we get a HEA. There are many many up and downs twists and turns which all links together to make the grand final."

"Elizabeth and her teenage son, Trace, flee Atlanta and end up in small town Still Creek. Naturally, Elizabeth is gorgeous and dislikes men. The sheriff in town, Dane, is gorgeous and dislikes women. And they end up in bed together. Naturally.

Elizabeth happens on a dead body, the first murder in this town in decades. The sheriff is surly and lusty towards her (if he grabbed her by the arm and steered her one more time....seriously) and she's determined to find the killer, despite never having done anything like that before.

Also, enter the Amish with their dislike of the "English".

I know quite a few Southern people and have never heard the word "sugar" in conversation as Elizabeth."

"They are mildly entertaining, but after about one hundred or so of the same thing- usually some detective falls in love with the female victim and now they both have to come together to fight off some serial killer before he kills again- it does get old and tired, and VERY predictable. Formulaic novels are good when you want to shut down though, I'll give them that."

THE NARROWS by Michael Connelly

 Finished Fr 6/16/22

Maddie is only six years old in this Harry Bosch novel and still living in Las Vegas with her mother. There is no indication that I had read this book, but I'm sure that I have- just not this particular edition. 

Anything by Connelly is worth a look and the early Bosch novels are the best.

The title refers to the concrete culverts used to divert storm water during rainstorms in California.

 From the book's page at GoodReads:

"FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes--and apparently he has not forgotten her.

Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too--from the widow of an old friend. Her husband's death seems natural, but his ties to the hunt for the Poet make Bosch dig deep. Arriving at a derelict spot in the California desert where the feds are unearthing bodies, Bosch joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI...and squarely in the path of the Poet, who will lead them on a wicked ride out of the heat, through the narrows of evil, and into a darkness all his own..."

From the book's page at BookBrowse.com:

"FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years: the one that tells her the Poet has returned. Years ago she worked on the famous case, tracking down the serial killer who wove lines of poetry into his hideous crimes. Rachel has never forgotten Robert Backus, the killer who called himself the Poet - and apparently he has not forgotten her either.

Harry Bosch gets a call, too. The former LAPD detective hears from the wife of an old friend who has recently died. The death appeared natural, but this man's ties to the hunt for the Poet make Harry dig deep - and lead him into a terrifying, bewildering situation.

So begins the most compelling, frightening, and masterful novel Michael Connelly has ever written. The Narrows places Harry Bosch in league with Rachel Walling, at odds with the FBI and squarely in the path of the most ruthless and ingenious murderer in Los Angeles's history. What follows is a taut and tantalizing mystery that has Harry Bosch racing from the hostile vistas of the Nevada desert to the glittering Las Vegas strip to the dark corners of Los Angeles.

Through it all, Bosch works at his newfound life as father to a young daughter, balancing the deepest love he has ever felt with his own sense of mission and his profound awareness of evil. This spectacularly dramatic and shocking novel will have Michael Connelly's readers desperately hungry for the next novel from "one of America's best writers"."