Happy Halloween

Friday's Forgotten Books, October 30, 2015

DON"T FORGET OUR NEXT SPECIAL TOPICS FFB: HOLIDAY -THEMED FORGOTTEN BOOKS NOV 21. Strictly optional though.

FIVE THOUSAND MILES UNDERGROUND; OR, THE MYSTERY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, "Roy Rockwood" (From the archives, Jerry House)

 
My childhood seemed to occur on the borderlands of political correctness and non-political correctness. Some of the Hardy Boys books I read were of the original, non-PC variety; others (many times the same title) were ones rewritten for a kinder, gentler generation. Most of the non-PC books I read as a boy dealt negatively with racial and ethnic stereotypes, including this week's selection. So please forgive me. Hey, I was a pretty naive kid growing up on a farm; what the hell did I know?

Only five paragraphs into the story, we hear Washington White for the first time: "Yas sir, Perfessor, I'se goin' t' saggasiate my bodily presence in yo' contiguous proximity an' attend t' yo' immediate comglomerated prescriptions at th' predestined period. Yas, sir!" Two paragraphs later, we learn that Washington (surprise! surprise!) is a negro; his race being the opposite of his last name. (How I managed to grow up without believing all Blacks were loyal, uneducated, cowardly companions is completely beyond me.)

Five Thousand Miles Underground was the third of eight books in the Stratemeyer syndicate's Great Marvel Series, this one written by Howard R. Garis (who also wrote many of the early Tom Swift books). The adventure features a motley crew consisting of ace inventor Mr. (sometimes called Professor) Henderson, plucky teenage orphans Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson, old hunter Andy Sudds, ex-farmers-now-assistants Tom Smith and Bill Jones (doomed forever, I fear, to remain in the backgrounsd) and the aforementioned Stepin Fe...I mean, Washington White.

In the second book in the series, this crew had discovered a hole in the earth (don't ask). Now Henderson has created a flying boat, The Flying Mermaid, to explore the mysterious hole. So off they go, having amazing adventures every chapter. After being attacked by a maddened whale and surviving a cyclone, they come across a burning ship and managed to rescue fourteen men. Thirteen of the men, alas, are ne'er-do-wells who mutiny and take over the flying boat. Jack and Mark, being clever, pluckish lads, outsmart the mutineers and trick them into jumping overboard (don't ask). Soon they find the hole in the earth and begin their descent. (In the book's illustration, the flying part of the flying boat has a distinctly phallic look; if this was some sort of symbolism, it went way over my ten-yearhold head.) During the descent, they lose consciousness.

When our heroes awaken, we discover that they have descended five thousand miles and have landed on an world floating inside earth--complete with sun and seven moons (one central moon and six revolving around it -- don't ask). We also discover that Jack is accident-prone; he immediately gets gobbled by a giant man-eating plant. OK, so they rescue him, and a few chapers later he (I think; I skimmed this part) gets captured by the half-vegetable/half animal snake-tree and gets rescued again. The water in this world runs thick as molasses, and the sky seems to change color often. We meet giant insects, dangerous walking fish and weird animals that seemed cobbled together from every beast the author could think of.
You can't have an underground world without an underground civilization. This one is inhabited by giant, mis-shapen men with the soft consistency of snow (don't ask). Hankos, their king, speaks an odd mixture of ancient Latin and Greek (don't ask) and (I gather) is the only one to do so (don't ask). Hankos, being scientifically-minded, had somehow managed to up to the earth's surface, where he shrank to the size of a normal human being (don't ask), and, finding himself just a short distance from Mr./Professor Henderson's island. Did I mention that Henderson had an island? It turns out that Hankos managed to sneak aboard The Flying Mermaid and had been hidden there all along through the many adventures (don't ask). By the way, Hankos grew to his normal giant-size when he got back to the centre (note the British spelling) of the earth. Thankful that they brought him home, Hankos took the crew to the Temple of the Treasure at the top of an underground mountain (don't ask), and let them have at it. Suddenly an earthquake (skyquake? don't ask) closed the mysterious hole in the earth. We our heroes trapped? Well, no. Turns out there was another mysterious hole in the earth that could be reached by a (five thousand mile? don't ask) geyser.

Anyway, everyone gets home safely and the boys decided to use their newly-gained wealth to get an education. One hopes it was in plot development and physical science.

As a ten-year old, I ate this stuff up. (Back then, WTF was not in my vocabulary.) Even today, I think it's pretty cool.

[Five Thousand Miles Underground was published by Cupples & Leon in 1908. The other seven books in the Great Marvel Series were Through the Air to the North Pole, Under the Ocean to the South Pole, Through Space to Mars, Lost on the Moon, On a Torn-Away World, The City Beyond the Clouds, and By Spaceship to Saturn.]

Sergio Angelini, TRICKS, Ed McBain
Yvette Banek, DEATH OF AN AIRMAN, Christopher St. John  Sprigg
Les Blatt, THE HOUSE THAT KILLS, Vindry
Brian Busby, THE WINE OF LIFE, Arthur Stringer
Bill Crider, THIS GUN FOR GLORIA, Bernard Mara (Brian Moore)
Scott Cupp, EARTHBOUND, Richard Matheson
Martin Edwards, THE RED REDMAYNES, Eden Philpots
Ed Gorman, APPOINTMENT IN SAMARA and BUTTERFIELD EIGHT, John O'Hara
Rick Horton, THE COUNT'S MILLIONS, Emile Gaboriau
Jerry House, RAPTURE, Thomas Tessler
Nick Jones, DONALD MACKENZIE 
George Kelley, Three Versions of Hitchcock's WITCHES BREW
Margot Kinberg, LONG WAY HOME, Eva Dolan
B.V. Lawson, THE AIR THAT KILLS, Margaret Millar
Evan Lewis, VARNEY THE VAMPIRE or THE FEAST OF BLOOD
Steve Lewis, MORTAL TERM, John Penn 
Todd Mason, THE ANTHOLOGIES OF BETTY M. OWEN
Neer, THE FACE IN THE NIGHT, Edgar Wallace 
Paust, Mathew, DAUGHTER OF TIME, Josephine Tey
Reactions to Reading, LITTLE BLACK LIES, Sharon Bolton
James Reasoner, FRANKENSTEIN LIVES AGAIN, Donald Glut
Richard Robinson, TOP TEN, Alan Moore
Kerrie Smith, BALLAD OF A DEAD NOBODY, Liza Cody 
Kevin Tipple, TEXAS NOIR. Vol 1, Milton T. Burton
TomCat, DEATH COMES TO CAMBERS, E. R Punshon; BLEEDING HOOKS, Harriet Rutland
TracyK, DEAD IN THE MORNING, Margaret Yorke 
Westlake Review, BROTHERS, KEEPERS

Jonathan Ashley's Book Shelf

What books are currently on your nightstand?

Best of the South (Last Ten Years) - Short Story Anthology

War of the Dons - Peter Rabe

Last Notes from Home - Frederick Exley

Cold Spring Harbor - Richard Yates

Who is your all-time favorite novelist?

Probably a tie between Frederick Exley and Richard Yates.

What book might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

Rabbi Jesus by Bruce Chilton, a study of the historical, Rabbinical Jesus.

Who is your favorite fictional character?

Ignatius Reilly from John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.  I felt more comfortable with being an outsider after reading of Reilly's expoits.  Neither of us can get along very well in society and, like Reilly, I have spent more time and energy avoiding becoming a regular Joe than it would have taken to just behave myself. At one point, I almost changed my name legally to Ignatius.

What book do you return to?

A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley. One of the funniest and, simultaneously, saddest pieces of work I've ever encountered. A true triumph.

Jonathan Ashley is the author of Out of Mercy and The Cost of Doing Business. His work has appeared in Crime Factory, A Twist of Noir, LEO Weekly, Kentucky Magazine and Yellow Mama. He lives in Lexington, KY. 

OUT OF MERCY  has been praised by heavyweights such as Jerry Stahl ("The kind of flat-out, heart-stopping, psycho-emotional thrill ride that just might put this author on the map with the giants."), Scott Phillips ("A savage, horrifying and gut-bustingly funny Western.") and Benjamin Whitmer ("Hard, stark and brilliant, Out of Mercy is the best Western I've read in years.").

Happy Songs

Charles said he could not listen to a sad song the other day. I realized something then. I don't always listen carefully to the lyrics of songs. I go more for the sound of it rather than its narrative.
Anyway, what is your favorite happy song? Charles and I want to know.

( The one above comes from the time Phil and I were getting together. I wonder if that has an influence on what makes you happy._

Forgotten TV Shows: THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW: IT MAY LOOK LIKE A WALNUT

Continuing with the vein of humor on TV, this was one of my favorite episodes of DVD. Definitely influenced by THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Comedy

I am always amazed at how often someone will say how funny something is and I will not find it very funny at all. Happened most recently with the TV show "You're the Worst." It has also happened with stand-up comedians, movies, novels, etc. Also happened yesterday when we saw a play that promised side-splitting humor. Not!

So I have come to the conclusion that what you think is funny depends on a lot of things, but probably, most importantly, your age.

I have never found Mel Brooks funny. Nor most of the comics of the 1950s TV shows (Benny, Burns and Allen, Gobel, Phil Silver.). On the other hand, I find FRIENDS very funny. SEINFELD, was a riot to me at age 42, I wonder if it would be funny now. And ALL IN THE FAMILY and MARY TYLER MOORE. SNL in its heyday.

Too blue, I don't enjoy it. Too mean, same thing. Too vulgar, nah.

Now some people are not all that turned on by comedy . My mother never watched comedy other than political humor: Stephen Colbert, Letterman, THE DAILY SHOW, Mort Sahl. 

What do you think is the most universally admired TV comedy? The one that most people found funny then and find funny now. I am going with the first three years of MASH. What would you add?

Saturday Night Music

Friday's Forgotten Books, October 23, 2015

(From the archives)

Heath Lowrance

The Name of the Game is Death, by Dan J. Marlowe

“Forgotten book” might be the wrong way to describe Dan J. Marlowe’s The Name of the Game is Death. For hard-core fans of brutal, fast-paced noir, the book is anything but forgotten-- it is, in fact, considered a cornerstone of the genre. But despite that, in the fifty years since its first publication it’s been out of print more often than in, and most casual readers of crime fiction have never heard of it. For me, The Name of the Game is Death is one of the essential five or ten books in the world of hardboiled/noir.

The story: a career criminal calling himself Roy Martin (more on his name later) holes up after a botched bank robbery, while his partner sends him monthly allotments of their take. But when the money stops coming, Martin suspects the worst and sets off to find out what happened. The small town he finds turns out to be a cesspool of corruption and hypocrisy that makes even Martin’s twisted morality seem sane and rational by comparison.

In the hands of most writers, this rather simple plot wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy, but Marlowe paints a vivid picture of Martin, not just through his actions but also in a set of chilling flashbacks to Martins’ youth and young manhood, where all the signs of a sociopathic personality begin to emerge. And the steps Martin takes to find out what happened to his partner and to retrieve his money reinforce him as a deeply disturbed man.

Quite simply, he enjoys killing and hurting people; in one memorable scene, he’s unable to become sexually aroused for intercourse, and admits to himself that the only thing that really turns him on is bloodshed-- in a later scene, he brutalizes a woman who attempted to set him up, and he’s able to “perform” without a hitch.

So all in all, Roy Martin is a seriously messed-up sociopath, with barely a redeeming feature-- aside from a fondness for animals. Why do we find ourselves almost rooting for him? Because almost everyone else he encounters is a hollow, lying hypocrite. Martin is the only character who is actually true to himself… much to the horror of everyone else.

The climax to Th e Name of the Game is Death is stunningly violent, very dark, and totally chilling-- not the sort of ending that would cause you to expect a sequel. And yet Marlowe did indeed bring the character back a few years later for a book that was almost-but-not-quite as good as the first, One Endless Hour. In that one we discover that Martin’s name is actually Drake (which is how he’s often referred to when discussing The Name of the Game is Death).

More books about “The Man with Nobody’s Face” would follow, each one a bit softer than the one before, until almost all signs of the near-psychopathic Martin were gone, replaced by a repentant crook who now worked for the government.

But lovers of dark, violent tales will always remember him as the blood-thirsty killer calling himself Roy Martin.

Sergio Angelini, A THREE-PIPE PROBLEM, Julian Symons
Mark Baker, HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Sir. Arthur Connan Doyle
Yvette Banek, MESSAGE OF THE MUTE DOG, Charlotte Murray Russell
Joe Barone, DEADLY DANCE, M.C. Beaton
Les Blatt, THE CRYSTAL BEADS MURDER, Annie Haynes
Elgin Bleeker, 13  FRENCH STREET. Gil Brewer
Brian Busby, OUR LAST FAREWELL, Pierre Trudeau
Bill Crider, DETECTIVE FICTION, ed. Robin Winks
Scott Cupp,  PS Showcase #3: Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal by Robert T. Jeschonek
Martin Edward, HENBANE, Catherine Meadows
Curt Evans, THE LABOURS OF HERCULES, Agatha Christie; The Return of Harriet Rutland: Knock, Murderer, Knock! (1938), Bleeding Hooks (1940) and Blue Murder (1942) reissued by Dean Street Press
Ed Gorman, BLACK FRIDAY, David Goodis
Rick Horton,  A Forgotten Ace Double: Warlord of Kor, by Terry Carr/The Star Wasps, by Robert Moore Williams
Jerry House, STOWAWAY TO MARS, John Wyndham
Nick Jones, VOTE X FOR TREASON, Brian Cleeve
George Kelley,  CRIMES & MISFORTUNES: THE ANTHONY BOUCHER MEMORIAL ANTHOLOGY Ed. J. Francis McComas
Margot Kinberg, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, James Cain
B.V. Lawson,  Detective Fiction: Crime and Compromise, Dick Allen and David Chacko
Evan Lewis, THE VAMPYRE, John Polidori
Steve Lewis, VANISHING LADIES, Ed McBain
Todd Mason, ILLITERATURE, Carol Lay
Mathew Paust, A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, Flannery O'Connor
Reactions to Reading, WINTER'S BONE, Daniel Woodrell
James Reasoner, KINCADE'S LAST RIDE, Marshall Grover
Gerard Saylor, THE SWEET FOREVER, George Pelecanos
Westlake Review, TWO MUCH, Donald Westlake 
Kevin Tipple. MURDER TAKES A BREAK, Bill Crider
TomCat, THE SEA MYSTERY, Freeman Willis Crofts
TracyK, THE OLDE  ENGLISH PEEP SHOW, Peter Dickinson 

Review of BRIDGE OF SPIES. 

Tiny Houses

There is at least one if not more shows about tiny houses on TV. And these houses are tiny, some only 200 or so square feet. I am more interested in the people that want them than the houses themselves. Saving money-maybe but most of these tiny houses have pretty nice interiors. Most of the hunters are women and my theory is this is the playhouse they never got as a kid. Much like the sports car is bucking bronco boys wanted.

What do you think? Does a tiny house appeal to you? Do you understand what the charm is?

Forgotten Movies, The L-Shaped Room

 

 

Forgotten Movies: The L-Shaped Room

I read the book by Lynne Reid Banks before I saw the movie. She also wrote two sequels to the story as well as the terrific kid's book THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD.

This is the 1962 story of a pregnant French girl who finds a room in a boarding house when her father kicks her out and gradually comes to find a home there too. Other than Leslie Caron in the starring role, the cast is fairly unfamiliar to me although that is Brock Peters playing the horn. One of those movies where you could wallow in its misery. My favorite kind at fourteen (and sometimes now). One of the many British movies about the working class from the fifties and sixties. It is rare now to find movies that treat urban blue-collar people seriously although perhaps it was then too. American audience, in particular, like glamour in their movies, I think.

Books/Movies That Teach You About Something

I am particularly drawn to stories that describe how a job is performed, how a new chore is learned. That is what drew me to the book and movie of THE MARTIAN. Also the Robert Redford film of last year (ALL IS LOST)
about his struggle to not drown.
Also loved the section in American Pastoral where you learned about making gloves. Or the parts of BURN NOTICE where you got information on being a CIA operative.

What are some of your favorite stories or films where you learn how something is done? 

CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE REVIEW: SICARIO

Right here.

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, October 16, 2015

 Thanks for collecting last week's links, Todd.

Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson (reviewed by Ed Gorman) (from the archives)

Let's begin with a tale of woe. Mine.

Years ago I was asked to contribute a forty thousand word novella to a YA series about shapeshifters. You know, beings humans and otherwise who can transform themselves into other kinds of creatures. I immediately thought of Jack Williamson's The Wolves of Darkness, a grand old pulp novella set in the snowy American West and featuring enough creepy
violence and tangled romance to make it memorable. It even has its moments of sweeping poetry.

Reading Williamson's piece showed me how to write my own. A few days after the young editor received it he called to rave. And I do mean rave. The best of the entire series. Eerie and poetic. Yadda yadda yadda. For the next forty-eight hours I was intolerable to be around. It
was during this time our five cats learned to give me the finger. My swollen head was pricked soon enough. The young editor's older boss hated it. He gave my editor a list of reasons he hated it. I was to rewrite it. I wouldn't do it. I said I'd just write another one, which I did. Old editor seemed to like this one all right but he still wasn't keen on how my "characterizations" occasionally stopped the action. Backstory--verboten.

Shortly after this werewolves began to be popular. I spoke to a small reading group one night and told them about Wolves of Darkness and then about Williamson's novel Darker Than You Think. Everything I love about pulp fantasy is in this book. The werewolf angle quickly becomes just part of a massive struggle for the soul of humanity. As British reviewer
Tom Matic points out:

"According to its backstory, homo sapiens emerged as the dominant species after a long and bitter struggle with another species, homo lycanthropus, whose ability to manipulate probability gave it the power to change its shape and practice magic. These concepts, fascinating as
they are, might make for dry reading were they not mediated via a gripping thriller riddled with startling plot twists, that blends scientific romance with images of stark bloodcurdling horror, such as the kitten throttled with a ribbon and impaled with a pin to induce Mondrick's asthma attack and heart failure, and the pathetic yet fearsome figure of his blind widow, her eyes clawed out by were-leopards. With its scenes of demonic mayhem in an academic setting and the sexual and moral sparring between the two main characters, it almost feels like a prototype of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer in a film noir setting."

Williamson couching his shapeshifters in terms of science fiction lends the story a realistic edge fantasies rarely achieve. The brooding psychology of the characters also have, as Matic points out, a noirish feel. And as always Williams manages to make the natural environment a
strong element in the story. He's as good with city folk as rural. And he's especially good with his version of the femme fatale, though here she turns out to be as complicated and tortured as the protagonist.

This is one whomping great tale. If you're tired of today's werewolves, try this classic and you'll be hooked not only by this book but by Jack Williamson' work in general.. 

Sergio Angelini, READY REVENGE, Catherine Arley
Mark Baker, BLACK ICE, Michael Connelly
Yvette Banek, THE UNFINISHED CLUE, Georgette Heyer
Les Blatt, DEATH OF AN OLD GOAT, Robert Barnard
Bill Crider. THE BABY SITTER, Andrew Coburn
Scott Cupp, BEASTLY BONES, William Ritter
Martin Edwards, THE COUNSELOR, J.J. Connington
Curt Evans, Lady Carew's Secret, THE ABBEY COURT MURDER
Ed Gorman, LEMONS NEVER LIE, Richard Stark
Rick Horton, NORWOOD. Charles Portis
Jerry House, A YANK AT VALHALLA, Edmund Hamilton
Nick Jones, John Smith Spy Novels, Jimmy Sangster
George Kelley, SPECIAL WONDER, ed. J. Francis McConas
Margot Kinberg, CROSSBONES YARD, Kate Rhodes
Rob Kitchin, SIGN OF THE CROSS, Anne Emery
B.V. Lawson, A CRIME REMEMBERED, Jeffrey Ashford
Evan Lewis, THE SHADOW MEETS THE DICTATOR OF CRIME, Maxwell Grant
Steve Lewis, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, Brett Halliday
Todd Mason, WORKERS WRITE! TALES FROM THE COURTROOM edited by David LaBounty, LOVECRAFT: A SYMPOSIUM by Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, August Derleth, Arthur Jean Cox, et al.
J.F. Norris
Juri Numellin, GOODNIGHT MOOM, Jack MacLane
Mathew Paust, SARKHAN, Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer
James Reasoner, THE HORN HUNTERS, H. Bedford-Jones
Richard Robinson, MAIGRET'S PIPE, Georges Simenon
Kerrie Smith, THE SHIVERING SANDS, Victoria Holt
R.T. MR. HIRE'S ENGAGEMENT, Georges Simenon
Kevin Tipple, SHOT TO DEATH, 31 Stories by Stephen D. Rogers
TomCat, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, Cyril Hare
TracyK, THE GLASS-SIDED ANTS NEST, Peter Dickinson
Westlake Review, HOT STUFF, Donald Westlake

Bouchercon 2015

Bad picture of my panel, which I think went well. I was lucky enough to have four panelists who were chatty but not greedy: Laura Caldwell, Edith Maxwell, Rory Flynn (Stona Fitch) and Steph Cha. They were smart and it was a  pleasure talking to them,
We talked about crime in the metropolis to a crowd of about 50. Certainly not a huge draw but I attended ones with fewer people. Thanks to Jeff and Jackie, George, Jeff Pierce, and the Agnews from Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor, Phil Abbott, Fred Zackel, Jen Conley, Megan, Richard Moore and some people I didn't know. And probably a few I am forgetting. It was kind of a blur.

I attended two panels with Megan on them right after mine, and maybe about four others. Megan's panel with Bill Crider, Lawrence Block, Karen Slaughter and question-asker Mark Coggin was a lot of fun. That panel must have had 300 people.

I didn't do all that much of the conference thing-I spent my time mostly with the Meyersons, George and a few others. George was right. The book room was a bust. When I think back to my first Bouchercon in 2006, the difference is amazing. So many cool book sellers at that one. Here is was almost entirely panelists' books.

Raleigh had good food but not much else. There are almost no stores, no movies-so for once coming back to Detroit wasn't so bad. I should have done better with meeting new people or looking for old ones but a bad knee and allergy maladies kept me under the weather. Also our hotel was poorly placed although next door to two great restaurants.

I guess I will never be good at this sort of thing. Which is why I sit in a room and write. Online I am gregarious and with people I know and trust too. But put me in a room with hundreds of people and I falter. Sorry if I could have met you and didn't. I know you would have been wonderful.

The Book Review Club, Wed. October 14, 2015: THE MOST DANGEROUS BOOK, Kevin Birmingham

This is the story of the travails James Joyce endured in getting ULYSSES out into the world early in the twentieth century. It also recounts his personal health agonies as someone suffering from syphilis. A disease he probably contracted at a very young age. Syphilis can take many forms and with Joyce it attacked his eyes. Joyce grew up in Dublin, married Norah, and they immediately left to never return, spending most of their lives in Paris.

Joyce had his champions, but many, including luminaries like Virginia Wolfe, took a long time to see the merits of the book. Even today there are passages that are shocking in their sexual bluntness and use of crass language. However, people like Ezra Pound took up its cause and helped him find small magazines that would publish excerpts as it wound its way through court battles.

Although parts of this book were interesting, I felt it was a book I should have read after reading a straight-forward biography of Joyce. Or at least after having gotten though ULYSSES.

Where I was anxious to learn about the man, I more often learned about the road to publication. It was certainly well written and researched but I longed to understand more about why he felt it necessary to write the book he did and in the way he did. And was it his relationship with Norah that fed the fires.

For more reviews, see Barrie Summy.

Forgotten TV: WALKING DISTANCE, THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Gig Young plays an ad executive who takes a Sunday drive, has some car trouble, and finds himself within walking distance of his hometown, called Homewood. He walks into town and back into his past, reliving a painful incident but remembering the good things too. A merry-go-round plays an important part in this drama. It's typical Serling, didactic yet compelling.

Carousels or merry-go-round feature in so many stories. I find them haunting because the horses faces always seem tortured to me. And the music always feels like its trying too hard to be jolly.

I think of this episode as a very typical one. Well done and reflecting Serling's obsession with whether the past can be rewritten or not.  You can see it in any number of places. Gig Young is terrific in the part.

Returned Home to a Nearly Complete Kitchen

 

Just in time because cooking outside is losing its charm. But now the rest of the house looks like it needs updating!

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, October 9. 2015

Todd will have the links right here.

Wedenesday Night Music: Billy Joe Royal

Tuesday Night Music: Fern Jones