Monday, Monday

 

 The movie was not without interest, but the central character just couldn't hold my attention. And Pedro Pascal seemed much less interesting than on The Last of Us. Chris Evans was the best thing about it.

On TV, I watched the original The Four Seasons, and I remembered it as better although I admired the ordinariness of its cast. 

Finished Mornings Without Mii, that last third about the cat's death was tough. Reading Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy-terrific writing although the whole book is about the earth dying. Getting a theme here? 

Jane Harper's The Survivors on Netflix is good enough over 6 episodes, but it sure seems like no one ever comes out of the water in Tasmania. 

Boy, I sure sound surly this morning. And the topper: 

We had a murder-suicide in our building but it's never been in the newspaper. I guess what's the point of a story like that when no court case will come out of it. Still..He lived next door to me when I first moved in and he was always slamming doors and shouting so it's not surprising. 

What about you?  

FFB: ON THE WRONG TRACK, Steve Hockensmith

 

originally published by Gerard Saylor on Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Listened: "On the Wrong Track" by Steve Hockensmith

Book two and another fun entry into the adventures of Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer.

1893 and Big and Old have been traveling west after adventures of book one.  They've been cow punching for money while trying to catch work as detectives.  Old has been deeply influenced by Sherlock Holmes and the Holmes method of 'deducifying'.  The Pinkertons won't hire them but at a Utah Pink office they meet famous range detective, Old Guy (I forgot his name) who sends them to see a guy at Southern Pacific Railroad.

Old and Red are hired on as railroad cops even though there Kansas farming roots left a deep hatred for railroads.  Old and Red are given badges and sent to San Francisco on the express train.  Told to stay undercover they are to act if there is trouble from the Give'em Hell Boys who have been robbing SP trains.

Old Red suffers acute motion sickness and while Old is puking off the back of the train both Reds see a bouncing human head.  The baggage car handler has been murdered.  Old and Big immediately clash with a blowhard and bossy conductor.  Old and Red meet the teenage news 'butch' who loves to talk.  Old and Red meet passenger named Diane.  Big swoons for Diane.

More things happen.  Old tries to 'deducify' the strange clues in the baggage car.  The train is robbed by the Give'Em Hell Boys.  Old continues 'deducifying'.  Big Red is thick when it comes to clues and deduction.  Big Red knows this.  Big Red talks a lot.  Old and Red suffer a surprise snake attack.  More things happen.  Big and Red solve the crimes.  The express train crashes. Big and Old take the blame from SP and get $5 each for three days wages.

Comments:
1.  I just read a review about the audio version and the reviewer was initially annoyed by the big voice of William Dufris.  Heck, Dufris performs these books.  Dufris gives plenty of character and voice to the boisterous, friendly, talkative, and sometimes naive Big Red.
2.  More history:  Train travel.  Pullman cars and staff.  Cultural mores and behavior.  "Long riders".  Farmers versus train companies.  Chicago Exposition (a trip there comes up in one of the following novels.
3.  The crime has an inside guy and I figured him out early but I really enjoyed the path to his reveal.
4.  Diane reappears in book three but I do not know if she is in the others.
5.  Theme of Big and Old Red fighting against established people who do not believe they are capable.  Big and Old are assumed to be stupid cow punchers.  The established authorities are usually hiding something.
6.  Theme of young and enthusiastic sidekick.  Book one had the Englishman pining to be a six-gun shooting cowboy.  Book two has the news butch and his love for dime novel westerns and crime stories.  Book three has the Chinese translator who escorts Big and Old around Chinatown.
7.  I presume the Give'Em Hell Boys are a riff off Cassidy and Sundance's Hole in the Wall Gang.
8.  Reminder, Sherlock Holmes is real person in these stories.

Short Story Wednesday" FROM HARD-BOILED

 "Graveyard Shift" by James Reasoner; "The Long Silence After" by Ed Gorman

Browsing in the Dawn Treader bookstore in Ann Arbor, I grabbed a book from the shelves entitled HARD-BOILED. It was an anthology published in 1995, edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian, and published by Oxford University Press. I took it home and was delighted to find stories by two of our old friends, but that isn't why I'm choosing these two stories today.

Although the stories are quite different, they share a theme: men attempting to redress the loss of a wife through criminal action. Though the outcomes are differ, both stories are rich in atmosphere, tension, character and a quality I love: uxoriousness. They rise above many short stories that depend almost totally on plot. Within a few pages, we know these men---or think we do. I highly recommend both stories as primers on how to write a short story as well as stories to be enjoyed.

 

Todd Mason 

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple

Short Story Wednesday: YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT, Curtis Sittenfeld

 In the many years I have been reading short stories, one of the most common scenarios is that of a character at a conference and the sex with another attendee that ensues. This is probably because most short story writers (or novelists) attend conferences on their own and have the opportunity to engage in this activity or at least to observe it in others. The first story in this collection uses this theme. But the second, the title story, also about infidelity, has a more novel theme. What if a character mistakes clever party banter between two people as something more. How humiliating does the response to her overture have to be before "she" gets it. Sittenfeld is a very clever writer (and I have enjoyed three of her novels) although I am hoping not all of these stories are about extramarital affairs. Death or sex themes seem to be very common.

A story I read in THE NEW YORKER by Sigrid Nunez also trod this ground. I would like a percentage on how many short stories have this theme. I am betting over 50% either as its main subject or as a secondary one. What do you think? Probably short stories in genres are less dependent on it.  

George Kelley

TracyK 

Kevin Tipple 

Neer

Monday, Monday

Man on the Train was absolutely delightful-perhaps a perfect movie with a magical ending. I watched in on Kanopy but I bet it's available elsewhere. Then continuing with the train theme I watched The Man Who Watched Trains Go By-based on a Simenon novel. Despite starring Claude Rains, I found it a bit of a mess. The protagonist's character changes from scene to scene and I have to wonder if that was in the novel too. 

Reading the second book for my Senior Center book group. Go as a River (Shelly Read) which seems like a YA book to me. For 70 pages a seventeen year old girl in the 1940s chases after a boy and the author dispenses WW 2 info like we're hearing it for the first time. Yet, it has very enthusiastic reader reviews on Amazon. Are their reviews just a crock? Also racism (against Native Americans) is played with such a heavy hand it is hard to read. 

Maybe Bad Monkeys (Apple) will be good. And Pachinko and Slow Horses are coming back. But the only other thing I watched this week was Broadchurch, which was less brilliant than I remembered. How many red herrings are too many?

We had our Dream Cruise yesterday. Saw 40, 000 vintage cars decked out and parked or driving the 20 mile stretch of Woodward Avenue. This is the largest one-day auto event in the country and the sidewalks are impassable with tailgaters.

Megan arrives Tuesday for 2 days. She has Bouchercon next week. I miss not going but I did it for eight years and that was enough. 

Hey, I listened to a Desert Island Disk podcast yesterday. It was Rob Delaney who is always charming. Wish they would bring back Catastrophe? I see he is on Bad Monkey though.

I would never be able to pick seven interesting pieces of music. Because that somehow needs to define you. Will never forget Hugh Grant picking The Teddy Bear Picnic-and that was well before he had children. What would you pick? I'm working on mine/

What are you up to?
 

Forgotten Movies: A MAN AND A WOMAN

 Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a widower who has become a single father after his wife's suicide, and Anne (Anouk Aimée) is a widow and single mother still reeling from the accidental death of her husband. When the two cross paths at their children's boarding school, both are wary, but they soon form a friendship that is quickly charged with romance. Yet the pair continue to struggle to overcome their past tragedies as they try to begin a new relationship. 

This won several Oscars including Best Foreign Language Film, best actress, and best screenplay in 1966. It is imaginatively but sometimes annoyingly filmed. It's romantic and sexy.

The back stories of the lovers are filmed very differently. Probably still influenced by the French New Wave in 1966. Several scenes seem completely extraneous to the plot. 

This was on Kanopy in my area but it is probably also on Prime. You will be humming its theme song all night.

 

Short Story Wednesday: HARD-BOILED

Graveyard Shift" by James Reasoner; "The Long Silence After" by Ed Gorman

Browsing in the Dawn Treader bookstore in Ann Arbor in January, 2009 I grabbed a book from the shelves entitled HARD-BOILED. It was an anthology published in 1995, edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian, and published by Oxford University Press. I took it home and was delighted to find stories by two friends, but that isn't why I'm choosing these two stories today.

Although the stories are quite different, they share a theme: men attempting to redress the loss of a wife through criminal action. Though the outcomes are different, both stories are rich in atmosphere, tension, and character and a quality I love: uxoriousness. They rise above many short stories that depend almost totally on plot. Within a few pages, we know these men---or think we do. I highly recommend both stories as primers on how to write a short story as well as stories to be enjoyed. 

Casual Debris

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Todd Mason 

Steve Lewis 

Kevin Tipple 

TracyK

Short Story Wednesday: My Ten Favorite Collections in 2010

Reading this 13 years later, I am surprised there is no Alice Munro collection on here and I would probably replace one of these with her work. But other than that, I stand by it.

 My Ten Favorite Collections (at least for today) Patti Abbott

Simply the Best Mysteries, edited by Janet Hutchings. This volume, put together in 1998, collected some of the best stories to win Edgar Awards that first appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. It included stories such as Patricia Highsmith’s “The Terrapin,” Stanley Ellington’s “The Blessington Method” and Philip MacDonald’s “Dream No More.” A very impressive lineup, one that makes the case for the enduring contribution EQMM made to the mystery short story.

Hard-Boiled, edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian. This collection from 1995 includes stories from the 1930s through the 1990s, giving the reader a good overview of the genre as well as introducing him/her to writers that mostly wrote novels like Chandler, Hammett and Himes. Also here are James Reasoner, Ed Gorman, James Ellroy and Lawrence Block.

The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990). This is one of the finest collections of stories centering on the war in Vietnam, or any war, that I’m familiar with. The title story, which lists the items found in a soldier’s backpack is a complete knockout. I have been trying to get my book group to read this for years. Maybe someone out there will.

Too Far To Go, John Updike (1979) This is a collection of stories that Updike wrote about the Maple family, closely mirroring his own, early in his career. It traces a marriage in freefall and finally dissolved. “Giving Blood” in my very favorite, but all of them are sad, cogent, true.

Shiloh and Other Stories, Bobbie Ann Mason (1982). These are the kind of stories you sink into. She along with Carver were known for creating the Kmart school, where brand names and contemporary names are important to her sense of place and time. This either dates or makes her stories more personal, depending on your view. Most of them take place in southwestern Kentucky. She can create beauty from the speech of ordinary people.

Airships, Barry Hannah. Back in 1978 "Airships" knocked everyone out. These stories are about as noir as it gets. You never can predict where a story is going. Just try “Coming Close to Donna” some night. The people and stories in Treme came from writers like Hannah, only a state away.

Lost in the City, Edward P. Jones. This collection of stories, published in 1992, introduced Edward P. Jones to the world, and then he went away and did something more practical to support his family until he got a large award and wrote THE KNOWN WORLD. These stories are about ordinary African-Americans living in Washington D.C. Each one is a gem.

Damn Near Dead, edited by Duane Swierscynski (2006) This is one of the strongest collections of stories on a single theme I’ve ever read. I’m sure most of you have read this collection, but several stories won awards, one at least went on to become a novel which won an Edgar. And Bill Crider's story was nominated for one, too. Stuart MacBride’s humorous tale will split your sides. I swear there is not a dud in the bunch.

Self-Help, Lorrie Moore (1985). I could have chosen her other collections just as easily. Every story of Lorrie Moore’s crackles with humor, sharp observations. I chose this collection because it contains, “How to Become a Writer,” which begins with the advice: “First, try to do something, anything else….It is best if you fail at an early age. Say fourteen….Show it to your Mom…She’ll say, “How about emptying the dishwasher.” Many of her stories are written in the second person and she pulls it off. Brilliant.

The Summer Before the Summer of Love, Marly Swick (1995). Bet you never heard of this one. Swick does not shy away from sorrow, sex, strife. Simply another great female short story writer whom no one outside the rarefied air of literary journals, now disappearing, has heard of. I have shelves full of books by Antonya Nelson, Jean Thompson, Joy Williams and on and on. All good.

Todd Mason

George Kelley

TracyK 

A Hot Cup of Pleasure 

Steve Lewis 

FFB From 2013, WILD WILD WESTERNERS, Tom Weaver -review from Bill Crider

Wild Wild Westerners is subtitled A Round up of Interviews with Western Movie and TV Veterans.  It's not forgotten, since it came out in 2012, but some of you might have overlooked it.  If you're at all interested in western movies and TV, that would be a mistake.  It's a great collection and Tom Weaver has interviewed some wonderful storytellers.

It would be hard for me to pick a favorite, but if forced to do so, I might settle for Andrew Fenady's memories of creating The Rebel, writing the theme song, working with Nick Adams, and so on.  Or maybe Paul Picerni's wild tales of working on The Scalphunters.  Shelley Winters!  Wow.  But there are lot of others, all well worth your time.  June Lockhart talks about her many guest appearances on western TV shows.  Richard Kline remembers Charles Starrett.  Robert Colbert tells how he became a third Maverick brother.  And on and on.  There's a long interview with Fess Parker, and his summary of his proposed movie about Davy Crockett after he survived the battle of the Alamo is great stuff.  There's a lot more.

The interviews collected here all appeared in Boyd Magers' Western Clippings magazine.  I'm not familiar with it, but I think I should be.

 

Short Story Wednesday, TUMBLE HOME, Amy Hempel

 

These are very short stories and a novella. They are often comprised of snatches of a conversation, fragments, so it is not always easy to summon up a theme. Does it need a point if it captures a moment, a truth? Some of them seem more like poems than stories. They take unexpected turns and then turn again. "How short is short?" she is asked in an interview. 

Here's one story "Memoir" 

Just once in my life, Oh, when I have ever wanted anything just once in my life?

That's is. Can you imagine the character? 

Kevin Tipple

TracyK 

George Kelley 

Paul Di Filippo 

Casual Debris

FFB: DIRTY WORK, Larry Brown

 

More and more it is this sort of novel that attracts me. Not exactly crime novels but novels that chroncicle the lives of the sort of people who commit or become viictims of crimes. Books by Larry Watson, Willie Vlautin,  Larry Brown.

DIRTY WORK is the debut novel from Mississippi writer, Larry Brown, and it seemed appropriate to read it around MemoriaL Day since it's about two vets. I picked it up a decade ago and just wish I had picked up more of them. I have RABBIT FACTORY around somewhere and will dig it out now.

Walter James and Braiden Chaney are two Vietnam Vets lying side by side in a Vet hospital 20 years after the war. Chaney has basically spent the entire time in a hospital since the war left him with no arms or legs. James is newly admitted with some sort of brain trauma from a bullet lodge in his head. He has also been badly scarred from his years in Vietnam. 
  
The two men eventually trade war stories, but this book does much more than that. It painted the lives of the sort of men who couldn't dodge the war--the down and dirty life they led in northern Mississippi. Much of Chaney's thoughts are dream-induced and almost biblical in theme. Who could spend 20 years in a bed and not retreat to such a place?

The two men do a lot of drinking with the beer Chaney's sister smuggles in.  They also smoke a lot of pot. Their stories are different and the same. It was men like these two who served in Vietnam and never recovered from it. They either died in body or died in spirit. An amazing and thought-provoking book.

What is your favorite book about Vietnam or its aftermath? Mine would be IN COUNTRY by Bobbie Ann Mason.

Short Story Wednesday: In the Garden of North American Martyrs, Tobias Wolff " An Episode in the Life of Professor Brooke" and "Next Door"

Some years ago, I went to an event where both Wolff's brothers, sitting beside one another in front of a gorgeous fire place, dressed casually, discussed their lives and works. When they were children their parents divorced and Tobias went with his mother, Geoffrey with his father. Both have written about their childhood and a very strange one it was. (Duke of Deception and This Boy's Life) These are very fine memoirs and This Boy's Life was made into a film with a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

Wolff's short stories always feel like this very event surely happened much as it is written. There is a looseness about them, a lack of a strong central theme, that gives me this idea. In "Next Door" a couple listen to the the horrible fight going on next door. The wife asks if she can sleep with her husband in his single bed that night. (We don't know why they are sleeping apart) but when her husband tries to initiate sex she rejects it. This very short story ends with him thinking how he would rewrite a movie he'd been watching: El Dorado. The contrast between the noisy violence next door and the passionless stiffness of the couple is stark. You can't help but wonder if what he would really like to rewrite is his life.

"An Episode" concerns a professor at an MLA conference.  He meets a woman who is helping with the catering and has a one-night stand. He believes he's gotten away with this but a colleague knows and his wife smells the woman's perfume on his shirt. There are a lot of other strands here: the backbiting of professors at a conference, the annoying colleague he gives a ride to, cancer, the enjoyment of poetry that is less than scholarly, how hypocritical so many of us are. And it surely paints a harsh picture of those in the academy. 

Jerry House

Kevin Tipple 

George Kelley 

Richard Robinson

Monday, Monday

 

I have probably seen THE LONG GOODBYE before now but perhaps not because Phil never could stand Elliott Gould. He thought he was a bad actor and didn't really try to be a good one. I am not sure that is the case, but I found a rewatch of this movie somewhat puzzling. It was beautifully filmed, directed and the theme song, which they played constantly, was haunting. I have now read a few reviews and understand this was meant to be a seventies-style version of the forties novel. And I am going to have to read the novel to see if Marlowe was meant to be so laconic and bumbling. I found the casting of Jim Bouton odd. Well, indeed most of the casting was odd. So I have to assume Altman was saying something with that too. It certainly had one of the most violent scenes I have ever watched. Not sure what to make of it. 

Started a new series KATLA, which I kind of like. Finished up THE CHAIR. Will six half-hour episodes stay with me? I doubt it. Not sure what to make of TED LASSO this year. Is it now going to be tragic? I am fearful. 

Reading Sigrid Numez' book on Susan Sontag and just finished BRING YOUR BAGGAGE (Ellis) which is a delightful collection of essays. 

I found out I had COVID when I was in Florida in March 2020. I was quite sick, but at the time the hospital said it was a flu. It doesn't do me any good now because those antibodies that showed up last summer in blood work would be gone now. So I wait for the booster like all of you.

So what's new with you guys?

Still Here

 

Most of my family with the exception of Kevin (14) and Megan have had the vaccine. A big relief as we tick people off. Kevin is soon able to student drive at 14 years and 9 months. That seems crazy to me. I can't believe he now takes a size 12 shoe. He is able to play his guitar very well; it really helped that he used this pandemic to learn how to read music, which they don't normally teach kids at the school of rock for playing guitars. He is also improving his tennis game. But his real love--surprise, surprise is Xbox games. I think it is a way to communicate as much as it is about game playing. 

Josh is back in the office every day now. He has a new boss who beat out a candidate called Scary Mary for Chief Prosecuting Attorney. This is the first time Josh has worked under a Republican. Although his last two bosses were both indicted for crimes so that's not so great either. Josh is the head of the appellate division and is mostly in appeals courts. 

Megan has a book coming out in July (The Turnout) and is working on four TV and film projects. 

Julie, my DIL, is still working from home. She works for Michigan Legal Services which helps people who can't afford a lawyer, especially right now with eviction attempts. 

That is a small family, isn't it? 

I saw Supernova with Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth. I can't believe how many films right now have an Alzheimer's theme. This was set in the Lake District, which almost made up for the grimness of the plot. Great acting. 

Watching Harrow on Hulu about a coroner. The Allen-Farrow doc has been harrowing. So too the Oprah interview with Meghan and Harry. My So-Called Life is on Hulu. We were away for a year when it was on. Very well done. Still working through Handmaid's Tale. Netflix has really crashed and burned lately. 

Those of you who still have traditional cable. What do you pay a month? I am trying to decide if I should cut the cord.

Just started Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Not sure if it's my cup of tea. Of the dozen or so hardbacks I have bought in the last year, I have read few of them. Jo Ann Beard on "By the Book" in the NYT today said she finished any book she started. I would say I finish 25%. I usually finish a short story though. 

What about you? What are you doing? Do you finish every book? What is your cable bill if you have cable tv and Internet?

FFB DIRTY WORK, Larry Brown

(from the archives)

DIRTY WORK is the debut novel from Mississippi writer, Larry Brown, and it seemed appropriate to read it around Veteran's Day since that's its subject matter. I picked it up in Mississippi last month and just wish I had picked up more of them. I have RABBIT FACTORY around somewhere and will dig it out now.

Walter James and Braiden Chaney are two Vietnam Vets lying side by side in a Vet hospital 20 years after the war. Chaney has basically spent the entire time in a hospital since the war left him with no arms or legs. James is newly admitted with some sort of brain trauma from a bullet lodge in his head. He has also been badly scarred from his years in Vietnam. 
  
The two men eventually trade war stories, but this book does much more than that. It painted the lives of the sort of men who couldn't dodge the war--the down and dirty life they led in northern Mississippi. Much of Chaney's thoughts are dream-induced and almost biblical in theme. Who could spend 20 years in a bed and not retreat to such a place?

The two men do a lot of drinking with the beer Chaney's sister smuggles in.  They also smoke a lot of pot. Their stories are different and the same. It was men like these two who served in Vietnam and never recovered from it. They either died in body or died in spirit. An amazing and thought-provoking book.

 

My Year Of Rewatching Movies

I am only rewatching movies I originally liked and it is unpredictable what I will think now. And I have to wonder if 2020 events is influencing my enjoyment.

1. Three Days of the Condor-just as good as ever. It doesn't feel dated at all even though the whole plot would go off the tracks if Redford was able to use a cellphone and a lot of other technology. You don't miss it and in fact, it keeps him isolated and thus it's scarier. Dunaway is adequate but not sensational. It is really Redford's movie.

2. After Hours. It sure seemed to take a long time to get going. The pacing was different then. Four kooky women was perhaps too many and they were all kooky in the same ways. But hey, that is the point of the movie. It was not as good as I remembered it, but it was fun (enough) once it got going.

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-Boy, I guess this idea has been too much copied. Or Jim Carrey gets on my nerves more than he did fifteen years ago, or this is too full of gimcrackery segments. Didn't finish it. Central idea is interesting but the playout doesn't work for me. I may not be a Charlie Kauffman fan.

4  Age of Innocence-Better than it was thirty years ago. It was so good I sent away for the screenplay with commentary. Pristine, is a good word for it. The ending crushes.

5. Pygmalion I have seen My Fair Lady many times and I have seen stage versions of this movie, but I am not sure I ever saw this. It held up well considering its advanced age. Leslie Howard is a dead ringer for Phil's Uncle Tom. Wendy Hiller is amazing but not as much as she is in "I Know Where I Am Going."

6. The Commitments, The music is delightful but the story surrounding it is so hectic. A bit of a disappointment.

7. The Fisher King. I know I saw this but remembered very little of it. When I watch Robin Williams now I just think the tragedy is already in his eyes and he sure plays a tragic guy in this. This was neither better or worse than I remembered but made me want to watch Brazil. (Terry Gilliam)

8. Sunday Bloody Sunday. Maybe I never saw this before but I thought I did. Moody, sad, ahead of its time in its theme. Great acting. Anxious to see Glenda Jackson in her forthcoming movie Elizabeth is Missing.

What have you rewatched lately and did it hold up?

SKIN AND BONES, edited by Dana Kabel

I meant to talk about this a few weeks ago, but...anyway here is a fun anthology published by Down and Out Books, which seems to publish the majority of such books lately. It has been in the works for about three years. All the stories have a cannibal theme of sorts. Writers include Stuart Neville, Charles Ardai, Patricia Abbott, Dave Zeltserman, Lawrence Block, Jason Starr, Bill Crider and a bunch more of notable short story writers. .If your appetite and your holiday money holds up, you might give it a look. In pb and ebook.

FRIDAY's FORGOTTEN BOOKS, June 1, 2018

(Something of a spoiler alert) (from the archives)

Nemesis by Philip Roth.

Nemesis is the story of a polio epidemic in Newark in 1944 and especially about its impact on a Mr. Canter, who runs a playground program and is about to become engaged.

Roth does an excellent job of showing the effects of polio on this small neighborhood, in relaying the horrible progression of the epidemic, which cruelly was most often contracted by kids.

But at Nemesis' end and despite my interest in this polio epidemic plot, I realized it wasn't really about polio. What it was about was the way in which individuals deal with the onslaught of horror in their lives. How some people can go on fairly effectively, not let things like disease or war or economic disasters corrupt their lives. But others cannot get past their terrible luck, and the idea that this turn of events was unjust. They didn't deserve it so it completely derails them. The bitterness poisons everything.

I have read many books by Roth but apparently his last four books have dealt with this theme and I am most interested in seeing how his other characters deal with the fall of the sword. Highly recommended.

Mark Baker, WATCHMAN, Robert Crais
Yvette Banek. ALIAS BASIL WILLING, Helen McCloy
Les Blatt, BATS IN THE BELFRY, E.C. R. Lorac
Brian Busby, ARCTIC RENDEVOUS, Keith Edgar
Martin Edwards, THE AFFAIR AT LITTLE WOKEHAM, Freeman Will Crofts
CrossExaminingCrime, THE STICKLEPATH STRANGLER, Michael Jecks
Curt Evans, THE CASE OF THE PLATINUM BLONDE, Christopher Bush
Richard Horton, COLD IRON, Melissa Michaels
Jerry House, THE OUTLAW OF TORN, Edgar Rice Burroughs
George Kelley, THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION, 4, Gardner Dozois
Rob Kitchin, NIGHT LIFE, David C. Taylor
B.V. Lawson, THE HANGING DOLL MURDER, Roger Ormerod
Evan Lewis, THE BODY LOOKS FAMILIAR, THE LATE MRS. FIVE, Richard Wormser
Steve Lewis, THE BROKEN ANGEL, Floyd Mahannah
Todd Mason, REEL TERROR, ed. Sebastian Wolfe, and Peter Haining
J.F. Norris, THE WEIRD WORLD OF WES BEATTIE, John Norman Harris
Margot Kinberg, INTO THE SHADOWS, Shirley Wells
Matt Paust, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, David Grann
James Reasoner, PORTRAIT IN SMOKE, Bill S. Ballinger
Richard Robinson, WHAT I READ, Part 6
Gerard Saylor, SHOTGUN LOVESONGS, Nickolas Butler
Kerrie Smith, ROGUE LAWYER, John Grisham
Kevin Tipple, SHOTS FIRED, C.J.Box
TomCat, WOBBLE TO DEATH, Peter Lovesey
TracyK, A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED, Agatha Christie

Starred Review from Library Journal

Fiction from Abbott, Andrews, Barron, Hall, Hart, and McCarthy, plus a Debut | Xpress Reviews

By LJ Reviews on April 5, 2018 Leave a Comment

Week ending April 6, 2018
Abbott, Patricia. I Bring Sorrow: And Other Stories of Transgression. Polis. Mar. 2018. 320p. ISBN 9781943818877. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9781947993006. F
Transgression is the central theme in this stellar collection by Abbott (Concrete Angel; Shot in Detroit). Each diminutive story packs a wallop, with plots as varied as the characters that inhabit them. The standout tale “Pox” describes a harrowing attempt by a grieving mother to save her family from a smallpox epidemic. A bleak but surprisingly redemptive story, “Won’t You Pardon Me?” focuses on a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who committed a sin years ago that he can never make right. Creating a bleak and dystopian future in diary form, “The Annas” transports the reader to 2097, where all but a select few humans remain. Abbott’s craftsmanship is on full display in the short story milieu, with an underlying sense of tragic destiny in each of these selections. The pieces can alternatively leave one with a sense of despair or a tentative hope for better days.
Verdict This collection of 26 distinct and penetrating tales belongs in all libraries. Just when the reader thinks they’ve found the best one, they’ll turn the page and fall in love all over again. Strongly recommended for fans of suspense and enthusiasts of the short form.—Amy Nolan, St. Joseph, MI

THings That Are Making Me Happy!

I am happy that my book launch went okay and even more thankful that it is over. I don't mind talking about my work, but I hate twisting arms to get an audience.

Especially thankful that I had friends who make cookies for the event. How kind they were.

Thankful that Robin Agnew (Aunt Agatha's) came in to sell the books. I have been to events where people sold their own book, and it is awkward.

Saw THOROUGHBREDS, which was so-so, but reminded me of the superior picture, HEAVENLY CREATURES, which dealt with the same theme.

Maybe a hint of spring in the air today...PLEASE.

What about you?