big part. Here a
re 
som
e of my 
favorites. 
What are 
your favorites? I'll post them along
with 
these.
Roy Rogers reading. Eric Beetner, A Midnight Clear, Willian Wharton
Michael Carlson, The Pistoleer, James Carlos Blake
Bill Crider, Mystery, Clark Dimond
Gary Dobbs, Montana Dead Shot, Chuck Martin
Martin Edwards, Treason in the Egg, Lag Strong
Cullen Gallagher, Spring Fire, Vin Packer (Marijane Meaker)
Sunnie Gill, The Coroner, M.R. Hall
Ed Gorman, Paper Doll, Robert Parker
Jake Hinson, Bunny Lake is Missing, Evelyn Piper
George Kelley, Chronopolis: The Science Fiction of J.G. Ballard; The Crystal World, Ballard
Randy Johnson, The Ed Noon Series, Michael Avallone
Kathryn Magendie, The Maggie Valley Trilogy, Kerry Madden
Todd Mason, The 10th Annual of the Year's Best S-F, edited by Judith MerrilScott Parker, Star Trek Fotonovels
James Reasoner, Dead Game, Michael Avallone
John Shannon, Sympathy for the Devil, Kent Anderson
Kerrie Smith, Maigret the the Enigmatic Lett, Georges Simenon
BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING
Evelyn Piper, 1957
Bunny Lake Is Missing is part of the Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp series from The Feminist Press and contains a publisher’s forward, and an afterword by Princeton professor Maria DiBattista, author of Fast Talking Dames.
A young mother arrives at a nursery school one afternoon to pick up her daughter, but the little girl is not there. The mother’s distraught, of course, but the teachers and the principal just stare blankly back at her. They say they do not know her. They say they have never seen her daughter.
Evelyn Piper’s Bunny Lake Is Missing is a book about a feeling, a sickening sensation that boils in the gut as you follow Blanche Lake, the young mother, as she runs up and down New York City trying to find someone, anyone, who will believe she has a daughter who has gone missing. The year is 1957 and Blanche is an attractive young woman, new to the big city. When she tells people that her daughter, Bunny, is missing, they ask her about the girl’s father. Bunny has no father, she tells them. That draws some judgmental looks in 1957. When Blanche manages to get the police involved, they come to her apartment. Where are the child’s clothes? The toys? Why doesn’t Blanche have any pictures of Bunny?
Piper is deft in setting up her story, and a mood of dread permeates the opening chapters. Since we open with Blanche on her way to pick up Bunny, we don’t really know what—or who—to believe. Is Bunny real? Or did Blanche imagine a daughter for herself, the result of something terrible that has happened in her past? What we know for sure is that Blanche’s terror is real. As the hours tick away, and daylight turns into night, we watch her struggle to keep herself together. Is this frightened young woman going insane? Piper doesn’t reveal the answer too soon, and by keeping us guessing she pulls off something of an interesting switch. We’re certainly pulling for our heroine against all the skeptical people around her, but even we’re not sure if we believe her. For most of its length, Bunny Lake Is Missing is a fascinating page turner.
Alas, Piper stumbles at the finish line. Her resolution is a letdown, a hurried and preposterous deus ex machina that does most of the heavy lifting off stage. It’s an ending pretty much guaranteed to satisfy no one.
Having said that, however, Bunny Lake Is Missing is one of those stories that manages to transcend its own ending. The set up and execution of the plot are snappy and compelling. At the center of it is Blanche, a fascinating character. Is she crazy? Or is she a woman caught up in the grinding machinery of a man’s world? It’s the urgency of those questions, and not the plot mechanics, that stays with you after you finish the book.
“Evelyn Piper” was the penname of Merriam Modell, a Cornell graduate with a taste for pulp. Modell moved to Germany when it was still a happening place to be in the late 20’s, and she was one of the people farsighted, and lucky, enough to flee the country when Hitler came to power in 1933. Her fiction is suffused with both the capriciousness of life, especially for women, and an almost Gothic sense of dread. With Bunny Lake she turned out a classic piece of fifties pulp, not so much in the area of sex and violence (the book has very little of either) but more in the sense of anxiety surrounding the characters and their social and gender roles. The Feminist Press has done a great service by bringing this entertaining and fascinating book back into circulation.
In 1965, Otto Preminger directed a noirish take on Piper’s novel with his film Bunny Lake Is Missing. Check my review of the film at http://thenighteditor.blogspot.com/
George Kelley
Scott D. Parker
Kerrie Smith
Martin Edwards
Randy Johnson
Gary Dobbs
Cullen Gallagher
Todd Mason
THE RAP SHEET
Ray
Michael Carlson
Sunnies Book Blog
Soldiers reading.
ound Benton Harbor, MI, the commune required its members to refrain from sex, haircuts, shaving, 
and the eating of meat. Starting around 1907 the community ran "The Springs of Eden Park" which became a popular vacation spot in the 1930s.
The House of David organized 
a famous baseball team, which toured from the 1920s to the 1950s. The House of David also organized musical bands, which toured the country almost non-stop primarily on the three top vaudeville circuits: the Pantages, the Keith and the Orpheum. The House of David also operated a world-famous amusement park and zoo.
The commune reached its peak in 1907-1927. In the 1920s, newspapers began running articles attacking Benjamin Purnell, who was accused of violating the commune's oath of celibacy. Purnell was tried for "public immorality," and 13 young women, placed under oath, confessed to having had sex with him. The trial led to Purnell's expulsion from the commune in 1927, and the former leader died in 1929. His body was mummified and kept in a glass coffin in the commune.
The group suffered further splintering after his death and ultimately split into two groups. One group, run by Purnell's wife Mary, remained successful until her death at 91 in 1953. The group has since declined, but still has a few dozen members.
Here is a link that someone provided me with. I was unable to open it on this antique computer.
For more MY TOWN MONDAY posts, see TRAVIS IRWIN
Nelson Mandella reading. 
Zora Heale Hurston reading.
The book I picked is probably not the most forgotten book out there.It's Rat Life by Tedd Arnold; the book won an Edgar
last year--like I said, not the wallflower of books. But I picked Rat Life because it's one of the best books I've ever
read, and because it might be off the beaten path a little for some readers (more on this later).
Rat Life is set in the seventies, in a NY town along the (fictional) Chemenga river, where a dead body washes up.
Not that Todd is too concerned about that at first. He's too busy making up stories to make his friend Leaky laugh, and
helping his parents run their motel and take care of his grandma. But then something happens to a puppy, and Todd
meets Rat, a Vietnam vet not much older than him. The two become unlikely friends while working at a local drive-in.
Todd quickly gets tangled up in Rat's complicated life, making him wonder about that dead body, and how Rat might be
connected to it. I loved this book. It had a good mystery in it, but Tedd Arnold didn't sacrifice character, setting or depth for it--a really hard thing to pull of, I know.
The Mystery Writers of America people got it right when awarding Rat Life an Edgar.
Sounds like a book you'd want to read, right? But would you still read it if I told you it was written
for teens?
Really, you should read it anyway, whether you're 16 or 90, or somewhere in between.
And check out the rest the teen section at your bookstore or library
while you're picking up Rat Life. Some of the most exciting, sharp and witty
writing happens in Young Adult books.
Don't dismiss a book because of the label. Check RAT LIFE out, you won't regret it.
Joanna Campbell Slan is the author of the Agatha Award Finalist for
Best First Novel, PAPER, SCISSORS, DEATH. She's also the author of
eleven non-fiction books. Visit her at www.joannaslan.com
THE UGLY AMERICAN-by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick
(Too important to be forgotten)
The Ugly American is a collection of stories written in 1958 by William J.
Lederer and Eugene Burdick (published by W. W. Norton & Company). The book
became a bestseller and gained fame as an indictment of American policy
abroad. Not everything in The Ugly American translates to our post-9/11
world, but you'll discover enough truth to make you wonder why this isn't
required reading for all high school students. The authors show you-through
skillful use of vignettes--why it's critically important to our nation's
security that American citizens brush up on a foreign language (even if only
a few rudimentary phrases!), renew their passports, pack their suitcases,
and travel.
Most ordinary citizens of other countries have limited personal contact with
our nation. They experience "America" when they purchase brands like Coca
Cola, or eat at McDonalds. They get an idea of who we are, and how we live,
when they see us on television and in the movies. The entertainment industry
supplies a huge portion of our exports. In the December 31, 2008, issue of
Newsweek, Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association said,
"Among all the sectors of the U.S. economy, our industry is the only one
that generates a positive balance of trade in every country in which it does
business."
That's good for our economy, but not necessarily a boon to our foreign
affairs. In the absence of "real" human contact, cultural icons loom large.
So McDonalds "is" America to some foreigners. By the same reckoning, what's
seen on television and in the movies can be misinterpreted as examples of
"real" American lifestyles. When we pass a law that has an impact on foreign
wage earners, such as when we taxed coffee in 1999, that too "is" America.
In the battle for hearts and minds, people tend to believe what they see,
hear and experience first-hand over rhetoric.
Fortunately, the remedy is simple. It comes in the form of ordinary
Americans who travel abroad. We are the "real deal," the chance for foreign
citizens to actually have a close encounter that can re-shape and correct
their ideas of who we are as a people and a nation.
I know this to be true, because I've seen it happen. I've traveled to China,
Korea, Japan, and Egypt, as well as countries that share a more common
Westernized history. Once folks get past their initial shyness, they love
asking questions about our lifestyle.and our motives. A driver in Cairo
wanted to know why we didn't kill Saddam Hussein during the first Iraqi war.
Our young guides in China wondered if it was true that Americans adopt
Chinese babies to turn them into servants. They also asked if all our teens
had sex and did drugs. A boy in Korea told me how afraid he was of North
Korea's nuclear capability-and how he hoped he could rely on our country to
keep him safe.
In each situation, for the brief length of my encounter, I found myself
acting as an unofficial representative of my country. The realization was
both thrilling and daunting.
This is exactly the point of The Ugly American. As one character in the book
explains: "Average Americans, in their natural state.are the best
ambassadors a country can have.They are not suspicious, they are eager to
share their skills, they are generous."
With the election of our new president, we have sent a strong signal.
There's been a changing of the guard at Ellis Island. Once again, we step
out into the world with an open hand, a hand offering friendship, even as we
are mindful there are still those who hate us and all we stand for.
But if each of us would read the essays in The Ugly American, perhaps we'd
take travel abroad as our patriotic duty, our personal opportunity to
influence the way the world sees our country. As the book says, "When
Americans do what is right and necessary, they are also doing what is
effective."
And a good first step toward being more effective is to read this book.
More forgotten books:
Bill Crider
James Reasoner
George Kelley
Kieran Shea
David Cranmer
Scott D. Parker
Kerrie Smith
Martin Edwards
Randy Johnson
Gary Dobbs
Cullen Gallagher
Eric Peterson
Todd Mason
THE RAP SHEET
Michael Carlson
Richard Prosch
Ray
PK, The BookeeMonster
Saul Bellow reading.
Elvis Reading 
d in 1914. Poles still make up a large proportion of the population. It is sometimes confused with Poletown, a traditional Polish neighborhood, which lies mostly in the city of Detroit and includes a small part of Hamtramck.
The city has grown increasingly ethnically 
diverse but still bears many reminders of its Polish ancestry in family names, street names and businesses. A recent survey found 26 native languages spoken by Hamtramck schoolchildren. The city's motto was "A League of Nations".
again experiencing considerable growth, with over 8,000 households and a population of almost 23,000.
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