Finished THE WOMAN WHO WALKED IN SUNSHINE

This series is a break from life--especially now.  The gentle, caring folks at The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency have solved another mystery taken care of some other problems as well...and all while Mma Ramotswe is on holiday.

I have now started the twelfth book in the P. N Elrod series, The Vampire Files:  Dark Road Rising.  The book starts with Jack driving around with the crime boss who tried to have him killed earlier this evening shot and bleeding out in the back of the car.  Not to worry--he won't die, he is a vampire, too. Jack's friend, Charles, is in the hospital where Jack put him in a moment of fury.  And it is pretty possible that still other hit men will be sent out by the crime syndicate in NY to kill him...

Finished BLOOD NOIR

I continue to be in awe of especially fantasy writers because of the variety of complications they can come up with.  I don't mind at all that this is far-fetched.  Shoot, fantasy is far-fetched.  I continue to enjoy these books, as much for the characters as for the complications.

I have now started reading The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine, a #1 Ladies Detective Agency book by Alexander McCall Smith.  This is, as usual, a break from both "edge of your seat" thrillers and from the madness of everyday life.  Mma. Ramotswe is intelligent, calm, tactful, and gentle.  She often thinks of things to say which are so different from what I would have said in that situation (and so much more intelligent) that she is not only delightful, but funny.  Love these books.

Finished ON WINGS OF EAGLES by Ken Follett

As far as I know, this is Follett's only non-fiction work.  It is researched with books about the Iranian Revolution as well as long interviews with the people involved, including Ross Perot, who Follett thanked for all the help.  Ross Perot, multi-millionaire owner of the majority shares of EDS located (here) in Dallas, TX orchestrated an escape from prison in Iran of two of his employees who were arrested while performing their EDS duties as contracted by the Iranian government.  They were imprisoned without any charge and no charge was ever made.  How it is possible for Follett to take a real event and without going into fiction at all, come up with such a hair-raising climax amazes me.  Another edge of my seat read...

I am about to start Blood Noir, another Anita Blake (Necromancer and Vampire Executioner) book by Laurell K Hamilton.

Short Autobiographical Article by My Friend, Larry Sanders

There exists a contest I had not known about until Larry told me about it.  Two editors in Dallas, Ginnie Bivona and Larry Upshaw solicited short pieces by authors 65 and older, divided them in catagories: poetry, essays, and short stories, awarded them 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and Honorable Mentions and published them in in Ageless Authors Anthology,  of which the 2017 edition is the second annual.  Ginnie, 86, tells elders who complain about not being able to master technology  enough to submit entries, "Just ask your children and grandchildren for help.  After all, you taught them how to use a spoon!"

Larry sent TR and I a copy of this book for Christmas.  I will be adding it to my "to read" pile and will get to the whole thing, but in the meantime, I re-read his piece which won third place in the essay category, "My ' Go Dau Ha' Puppy.  I promised I would never forget."  Larry has written a number of rememberances of his Viet Nam experience as a medic assigned to an Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) unit near the Cambodian border.  Those I have read are traumatic, charming, humorous, and terrifying.  This one is sweetly sad and charming.  I hope he will publish all of them, even if they have to be self published.  He included for us a picture of Deros, his adorable rescue puppy.  It was not published with the story--a shame.  Thank you for this book, Larry.



I have now started On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett.  Unlike vintage Follett, this is a non fiction recounting of the Ross Perot led rescue of his EDS employees stationed in Iran trying to establish a national social security system when they were caught by revolution in 1978.  Because EDS is a Dallas corporation and Ross lived here, he is something of a local hero and this is a local legend.  But evidently is wider known than just here.  This rescue proceeds while our embassy officials were kidnapped and held for ransom.

Finished UNSINKABLE

More fun even than most celebrity biographies.  Debbie was in her 80's when she wrote this one and is as characteristically honest as we elders are known to be.  The first part catches us up on the rest of her life after her first book, Debbie: My Life.  At that point she was newly married to the man she thought would be the love of her life.  It turns out, NOT.  This book is well titled because life does keep knocking her down mountains and up she climbs again--slowly with a huge amount of work--just to be knocked down again.  But there is no giving up for this lady.  The second half of the book is a retrospective of all of her movies and some of her other work.  She talks about her and Harve Presnell's stage tour of The Unsinkable Molly Brown that Caryl (Gamin Coss) and I attended in Dallas and where I took Caryl's picture with each of the stars.  Caryl will be happy to know that she was good to Harve in this book--she very much enjoyed working with this kind and professional star.  Loved this book and LOVED Debbie...RIP, girl.  Your movies made our lives happier.

Finished THE UNSEEN

As usual with the Krewe of Hunters, it was a lovely, exciting, mysterious, romantic ghost story.  I had no idea who the perpetrator was until I was pretty well told.  Very enjoyable.

I have now started Unsinkable by Debbie Reynolds.  She starts with her life pretty much where she left off in her earlier boook.  She has let us know that, as optimistic about her third husband as the was at the end of that book, her optimism was premature.  Now she has proceeded to share what happened.

Finished ROUGHING IT

Mark Twain wrote several travelogues, of which this was his first.  While out west trying to make it in the territories, he kept extensive journals.  Many years later, he went back and reworked his journal into this book.  It is chock full of the exaggerated stories and the tongue-in-cheek humor he became so known for.  By the end of his adventure he had figured out that he could earn a living not only with his writing, but also, more immediately, by "lecturing" with his fabulous brand of humor.  If not the first, he was certainly one of the first stand-up comics.  His very first of these attempts was a wonderful success, though it did take some careful planning.  I enjoyed every moment of this book.

I am now about to start The Unseen,  #5 in the Krewe of Hunters series by Heather Graham.  This is a group in the FBI with "special talents"--they can see ghosts.  These ghosts are rarely evil, rather they are very helpful in solving crimes that might not be solved any other way.  This one is set in San Antonio, to this day one of my favorite cities.