An imperfect escape is better than no escape at all

February 10 to 18, 1976 I read,

The Catnappers, P.G. Wodehouse
It's hard to remember that 30 years ago I was catless and the word "cat" was pretty much neutral. No recollection of this Wodehouse. I keep meaning to read more. Whenever I see odd sentences quoted from him, they glitter with a wit that beckons.

The Black Tower, P.D. James
This was one of my favorite P.D. James mysteries, and I later read it again at least twice.

Chief! Al Seedman (my notes say “as told to Hellman” NYPD Chief)
I found this description on abe.com (the comprehensive online used books source)
"The distillation of perhaps the country's largest private crime archives -- the personal journals Albert Seedman kept throughout his career as Chief of Detectives of NYPD."


February 10 to 18, 2006, in between other work and getting my tax materials together, I escaped a few times to read:

The Loves of a D-Girl: A Novel of Sex, Lies, and Script Development, Chris Dyer
A “movie business in New York chick lit” novel told in entirely in the present tense—I guess to give the idea of a screenplay—“she stops reading. She puts down the book,” etc. Used judiciously this can heighten tension. Used for the entire book this can become irritating, and did.

Urban Shaman, C.E. Murphy
Comparisons to Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake vampire executioner series are unavoidable, even though the bad supernatural critters faced by the heroine, Joanne Walker, are on the Celtic side, more like those in Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry faery series. There are some interesting elements here. Walker is half Irish, half Cherokee and an awakening shaman--also a reluctant cop and a gifted auto mechanic. Reluctant cop? Hmmm. I don’t even read too many police procedurals, but I had trouble swallowing the way that the entire Seattle Police Department bends over backwards to keep Walker on the job so as to get free car repair! But the story and the heroine held my interest, and I’d read other books by this author.