Now or Never: Thirty-One on the Run

I've missed several installments in  Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" series but picked this up at the library for a little light reading. Entertaining as always and a few changes from the normal formula. Her car doesn't get blown up for a change and she has finally decided to learn how to use her gun and to buy some bullets for it; she shoots someone for the first time ever in the series. Stephanie has accepted two marriage proposals--from both Ranger and Morelli. What was she thinking?! Not only that, but she "celebrated" the engagements with each beau and now she thinks she might be pregnant. She'll keep you guessing until the end. This time, her FTA's include a mob boss and a man who thinks he is a vampire and appears to to have serially murdered several women. He is after Stephanie who is, apparently, still recovering from someone fire bombing her apartment. She has also picked up another admirer, an old school mate who now continually does nice things for her and ignores Stephanie's assertions that she is engaged so would he please desist. Lula is her usual sassy and over-the-top --literally--self, as is Grandma Mazur; characters are well developed and the plotting is fast-paced. An easy read for a tired mind. 

How to Age Disgracefully

This entertaining read from Clare Pooley is centered at a community center that serves the elderly, pregnant women, a daycare center and a veterans group. This is Pooley's 3rd novel after her best selling The Authenticity Project and Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting. "After hiding in her apartment for 15 years, Daphne starts to feel like she doesn’t want to be invisible anymore. On her 70th birthday, she decides that she’ll find a way to step outside for longer than it takes to buy groceries a couple of times a week. It’s time to make friends and, perhaps, find a partner" (Kirkus).She gets dragged into a Senior Citizens Club, which she promptly takes over. During one meeting, part of the ceiling collapses and the town council threatens to shut the place down and sell it, since they "can't afford" to repair it. This will leave several people who Daphne has become attached to in real financial straits and curtail their life choices. Publishers Weekly praises "Pooley's clever and delightfully farcical scenes [that] are laugh-out-loud funny, often thanks to the frank Daphne." 

Booklist offers these enticing comments:  Pooley creates "an unlikely cohort--failed actor/recovering kleptomaniac Art; Ruby, who stealthily knits Banksy-style art installations; Anna, a former long-haul trucker who now rocks a motorized mobility scooter; and Ziggy, a teenage father with a daughter at the daycare, whose mad tech skills endear him to the otherwise prickly Daphne. Throw in a madcap bus ride, a mangy dog, and an audition for a reality TV show, and the result is a lovably quirky, reassuringly wise, and memorably inspiring romp that shatters ageist stereotypes. For fans of Fredrik Backman and Rachel Joyce... Readers seek out best-selling and wily comedic novelist Pooley for just the sort of cheeky break from stress they crave." Kirkus closes their review by asserting that "Fans of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series will enjoy this delightful romp that on its surface is about senior citizens—whom everyone tends to discount—and others coming together to save the local community center but really is about so much more: aging, love, crime, friendship, making mistakes and living through them, and life’s complicated emotions and choices. A frothy, fun, and well-paced cozy mystery—in which no murders take place."

 

One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder

I've read several of Brian Doyle's novels, one of my favorite being Martin Marten. This is a posthumous collection of Brian Doyle's essays that I keep on my bedside table to dip into when I need emotional comfort or inspiration. I'll steal a description from the book jacket that calls Doyle's writing "a balm." There is no longer an author web page for Doyle but it's easy enough to find information about him in such works as The Oregon Encyclopedia. I had the pleasure of hearing Brian Doyle speak at the bookstore in Sisters (Oregon) some years back and was just enthralled. He was clearly an extremely observant, funny, and compassionate being who could move the audience from laughter --when telling stories about growing up in a big Irish family or his twin boys for example-- to tears --when he talked about people less fortunate who need our attention and caring. The book itself is dedicated "to the overlooked and misunderstood, to compassion and grace that conquer all division." He focuses our attention on everyday events and helps us see them in new ways that evoke such emotions as joy, wonder, outrage, sadness, ferocity... He loves to play with words in a way that makes me smile--"fistcuffery" being one of my favorites. Some of my favorite essays from this book are:

The Final Frontier --about humility

Testimonio--a diatribe about pompous, preening, narcissistic arrogance (and the importance of humor)

On Not "Beating" Cancer--but instead enduring, surviving, wielding humor if possible, fearing as appropriate, dancing

An Leabharlann--about the value of libraries

The Bullet--against guns, manufacturers, gun defenders

Everyone Thinks That Awful Comes by Itself, But It Doesn't--self-explanatory

God--on finding God all around us

His Listening--among the many fine qualities his dad had, his ability to truly listen was most cherished

Read it and make your own list. Kirkus describes his writing by saying, "Doyle’s spirituality defies categorization. He was raised Catholic and does occasionally draw from that tradition, but his catechism isn’t comprised of doctrine or theology. Rather, ... Doyle employs the ordinary to catch the reflection of a world that is 'still stuffed with astonishments beyond our wildest imagining, which is humbling, and lovely, and maybe the only way we are going to survive ourselves and let everything else alive survive us too.'” Their final recommendation is "This brilliant compendium of spiritual musings will resonate with people of any faith—or of none." The NYT was effusive in their praise, for example: "Doyle was a writer 'made of love and song and amusement.' Every living thing intrigued him and was worthy of his powerful capacity for study and his equally powerful capacity for celebration."

Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine

Janet Evanovich just keeps churning out new installments in the "Stephanie Plum" series. The plots are fairly predictable and the characters have become familiar to her regular readers--I think I have read every one. Still, they are an amusing light read. Stephanie and Lula are concerned when they come to the bail bonds office one Monday morning to find neither Connie nor her regular box of donuts are there. It turns out she has been kidnapped and Stephanie is determined to rescue Connie without anyone else learning that she's been kidnapped. Of course, Lula is along for the ride. When the kidnappers call and demand a coin that was provided as bail for a recently murdered man, things go from bad to worse, because the coin is nowhere to be found. A phone call to Vinnie, who is out of town is no help as he doesn't even remember taking the coin. Stephanie and Lula track down the coin's previous owner to get a description and then head off to a comic book convention to try and find a replacement. When that fails to satisfy the kidnappers, the threats to Connie's well-being escalate. Of course Ranger has to assist with some less than legal information gathering and with keeping Stephanie safe. This time around, more than a car gets destroyed. Publishers Weekly describes the book as "fast and fun," concluding "This fetchingly frivolous entry may not be Evanovich’s best, but it satisfies." Booklist is considerably more enthusiastic as they gush "Irreverent, raucous, bawdy, and always laugh-out-loud hilarious, this is Evanovich at her brilliant best."

Hyperbole and a Half

Based on a blog by the same name written by Allie Brosh, this was written up in our local paper and my curiosity compelled me to reserve it at the library. Funny, often painfully so as when she talks about her depression, and often uproariously so as when she talks about her dogs (Simple Dog and Helper Dog) or the attack of the stray goose. I am not sure this has converted me to being a regular consumer of the blog, but the book was well worth the time--had me occasionally laughing out loud and all of us can use a little of that! There is an interview on NPR with Allie Brosh about the book here.

Seventeen and Eighteen

I was a little put off by Janet Evanovich's Sizzling Sixteen, feeling it lacked some of the zany energy that her books usually have. But she seems to have regained her footing in Smokin' Seventeen and Explosive Eighteen. In Seventeen, Stephanie's mom is once again trying to set her up with a future mate since neither Morelli nor Ranger seem likely to make the commitment to marriage. While the burned out bail bonds office--temporarily replaced by Mooner's bus--is under construction, dead bodies start showing up in shallow graves on the construction site. The killer is apparently making this personal for Stephanie. Meanwhile, Morelli's grandmother puts the Vordo spell on Stephanie with wild results. Eighteen opens with Stephanie returning from a vacation in Hawaii one day ahead of both Ranger and Morelli--but no one is talking about what happened. Eventually we learn why she has a white tan line on her left hand ring finger, but it takes longer to find out why the photograph that mysteriously appeared in her purse on the flight back is bringing strangers out of the woodwork to threaten Stephanie if she doesn't return it. Except that she doesn't have it anymore. Cars and buses are destroyed, Lula takes a love potion by accident and falls in love with one of their more unsavory FTA's, and their investigations result in a lot of roosters being loosed on Trenton.

Sizzling Sixteen

Nothing unpredictable in the newest Stephanie Plum episode and it's apparently pissing off a lot of series readers. Grandma Mazer is a little more subdued than usual in this episode and even the Joe - Stephanie and Ranger - Stephanie dynamics are a little in the background. I also wish she would just pick one of them and get on with it, but it doesn't happen here. Of course Stephanie messes up cars and ends up in totally ridiculous situations trying to retrieve FTA's. But this time the focus is on rescuing her boss, Vinnie, who has been a colorful but relatively unimportant character heretofore. Vinnie has been kidnapped by people to whom he is deeply in debt and they are threatening to kill him if Connie, Lula and Stephanie don't come up with a million plus dollars. So they set out to rob the bad guys in order to pay off the bad guys and hopefully not get caught at it. They depend on buckets of fried chicken to lure away guard alligators and Connie's tried and true stink bombs. Just the usual stuff in Trenton, New Jersey. Ranger's got her back the entire time so we never have to really worry...just go along for the ride and have a good time.

A Whole New Mind

Ah, the beauty of bookgroups is that you read what you otherwise might not have. Let me admit right up front that I dipped and skimmed this book, but found it intriguing enough that I want to go back and re-read it. Daniel Pink is advocating for the development and employment of more right-brain directed types of activities in the work world, claiming that most of the left-brain directed stuff has been largely outsourced (computer programming, accounting, etc.) to developing nations where the labor is cheaper. He focuses on Empathy, Design, Symphony, Play, Story, and Meaning; he offers a bit of independent research, a lot of summarizing of other people's work, and some nice activities and resources at the end of each chapter. Some of the quote (almost all taken from other people) that I really loved are:"listening is an act of love" and "we are the authors of our own lives." He talked about labyrinths, and gratitude, and learning through stories...in short, a lot of things that resonated with me personally. I even got some good ideas to try out in classes and meetings and right now I'm needing all the help I can get with meetings. There's a 5 minute video of him talking about the book here.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen

Stephanie Plum is at it again in the latest of the numbered series from Janet Evanovich. As I read in an interview with the author, she just can't decide whether Stephanie should go marry Joe Morelli and have lots of kids or live dangerously with Ranger, and that indecision is evident in this episode. True to form, Stephanie destroys cars--more than usual--and ends up in truly ridiculous and humiliating situations, like being in a hot dog costume and then falling over and not being able to get up. This time Lula is also setting things on fire in her quest to win the big barbecue contest with Grandma Mazur as her assistant chef. And as usual, the book is just laugh-out-loud funny, even if totally predictable. As long as she keeps writing them, I'll keep reading them.

Metzger's Dog is delightful

Yet another recommendation from Nancy Pearl, this book is delightfully quirky. It opens when Chinese Gordon is awakened by thieves breaking into his shop, downstairs from his living quarters. He has no weapons at hand so he takes desperate measures, although he knows there will be consequences. As the thieves move into the room and underneath the landing where he is hiding, Chinese drops his cat on the head of one of the thieves. The screams of surprise and distress-- by all parties involved-- convinces the thieves to depart in a hurry. Doctor Henry Metzger, by the way, is the cat and the dog in question is basically a junkyard brute trained to maim and kill. How he comes into Chinese's life and become the property of Doctor Henry Metzger you'll have to find out for yourself. Chinese, his woman friend Margaret and a couple of his equally unredeemed buddies stumble into the middle of a CIA plot and decide to blackmail the organization for 10 million dollars. They cleverly manage to play most of the bad guys against each other, shut down all the freeways in Los Angeles and get away with their ill-gotten gains, and you'll find yourself rooting for them the whole time. Perry, btw is the author of The Butcher's Boy, but it's been so long since I read it, I may have to add it to the pile beside my bed.

A taste for the supernatural?

I really don't like scary books or movies. I've never been able to watch Aliens or Silence of the Lambs without having to cover my eyes for parts of them and I just refuse to read The Exorcist or most of Stephen King's books. Nevertheless, I enjoy more modulated fantasy and sci fi and frequently get occasion to do so as a result of reviewing books for young adults (YA). Recently it seems I've read a handful of books about vampires and other fantastic creatures ...here's a quick rundown. Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More gives us a world where everyone knows there are werewolves, witches, vampires, elves and pixies among us. Although this is apparently the 5th in a series with bounty hunter Rachel Morgan in the lead, the author is new to me and it was a fun read--especially likable is Jenks, her pixie sidekick, who has his hands full placating his wife and keeping track of all the pixie kids. My pal Dale turned me on to some books by Christopher Moore. Bloodsucking Fiends tells of a life turned upside down by an extraordinary mugging...nothing is stolen, but Jody is now a vampire and this presents some serious logistical problems. Practical Demonkeeping also takes a pragmatic and humorous approach to mere mortals coping with the immortals. How does one keep finding worthless human beings to feed a hellish demon accidentally released from a church candlestick. In Tantalize, Cynthia Leitich Smith, a well-respected YA author, weighs in with her own version of vampires, who aspire to take over Austin, Texas by infiltrating a new vampire-themed restaurant called Sanguini's. Normally I would say they can have any part of Texas they want, but I understand Austin is a nice town. Another YA novel with a supernatural twist is The Alchemyst by Michael Scott, starring 15-year old twins Sophie and Josh, who inadvertently find themselves in the midst of a battle between ancient forces of good and evil, from golems to goddesses. Continuing along this line are the books by Rick Riodan, also with a young protagonist, Percy Jackson. In The Lightning Thief, Percy discovers that the reason he's been shipped from one boarding school to another is not because of his behavioral problems, but to keep him out of the hands of certain Olympian gods who are hunting down the offspring of their rivals. Let me know what you think if you decide to read any of these.