Life in the "to be continued..." lane

I'm in the middle of a learning curve--not quite sure what I'm learning, but it involves a lot of reading of unbound materials and writing of the same. I did see a beautifully done farce, gorgeously written by Dean Craig, with superb acting, and direction by Frank Oz.
Death at a Funeral




February 17 to March 10, 1978 I read:

Playing for Keeps in Washington, Laurence Leamer
Note: Modes/methods of power

The Ends of Power, Joseph Haldeman
My note "for what it's worth, which is little enuf"

Win or Lose, a Social History of Gambling in America, Stephen Longstreet
Note: didn't finish

Haywire, Brooke Hayward
Note: read about half, incredibly depressing
Her movie star mother
But it sounds like Hayward is doing well now--though it might take a genealogy chart to sort out exactly how: Brooke Hayward now

Eastward Ha! S. J. Perelman
And I found this lovely excerptfrom Westward Ha!

It was pikestaff-plain and Doomsday-certain to me, a deep-water sailor since boyhood, that the Marine Flier was little more than a cheesebox on a raft and would momentarily founder with all hands. Even the veriest landlubber could perceive that the man whose duty it was to drive the ship --- the chauffeur or the motorman or whatever you call him --- was behaving with the grossest sort of negligence; more than likely he was asleep at the tiller or tickling the waitress, abandoning the craft to any, caprice of wind or wave.

February 17 to March 10, 2008


The Traveler (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 1, John Twelve Hawks
Not for the paranoid--unless you get off on being paranoid about the surveillance society and lack of personal freedom and privacy! I personally found paranoia more enjoyable when it didn't so closely resemble reality. The book did have an interesting method of turning astral travel into martial arts. I really do have to say that the male lead had a bad case of "Let's go up in the attic, I'm sure the monster's gone by now, and if not, it'll be okay, because, well it just will that's all." I think the author's plot demands were clouding the character's mind.

The author is reclusive, and rumored to be living "off the grid" although it may just be that the mystery of his identity is to add to the book's mystique.

Blood Brothers (Sign of Seven Trilogy, Book 1), Nora Roberts
No paranoia problems here, pretty mainstream, like 1 part Stephen King and 99 parts distilled water. This author has written over 150 novels under several pen names, and spent literally years on the best seller list. I don't feel qualified to comment.

Okay, I will indulge in one comment about both of those "book 1 in a series" books--a little more of an ending wouldn't hurt, would it? When I was a kid they had "Saturday matinee" movie serials for kids at the local movie theater (Okay, it was the 1950s, but the same serials were on TV too--cowboy and space operas) and each one ended with a cliff hanger. We never managed to get closure on ANY of the cliff hangers. Too much time passed between the episodes and the adults putting the kiddy matinees together didn't care. It was like stroboscopic story telling.