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So I finally read the first book in this long running Easy Rawlins mystery series. Easy just got laid off from his auto factory job in the late 1940s and took some "easy money" to try and find a white girl for someone. Of course, things are what they seem and pretty soon he is enmeshed in all kinds of double and triple crosses, as well as in the crosshairs of the LA police.

Of course, the big hook is that Easy Rawlins is a black man, trying to make it in the virulently racist America of his day. And Mosley doesn't sugarcoat it. In fact, it got a little overwhelming for me a few times. Of course, as a middle aged white guy, there is no way I could even imagine the troubles a black in the 40s would run into, but it also means it can get a little (no, a lot) discouraging.

But I persevered and it was pretty solid. I have to admit to not being able to keep all the names completely straight. So I wasn't exactly sure who was backstabbing who. And his sort of sidekick Mouse's violent explosions were a little scary!

Still, I am anxious to move on to the next one, [b:A Red Death|84548|A Red Death (Easy Rawlins #2)|Walter Mosley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1171055721l/84548.SY75.jpg|986123].

very long intricate book about Addie LaRue, who makes a deal with Luc (the devil?) so she can escape an arranged marriage in the early 1700s. In exchange for her soul at some time in the future, Addie become forgettable. No, I mean really well and truly forgettable - as soon as she is out of sight of a person, she is completely forgotten. And also, she is immortal.

So the story follows Addie into the present, with many flashbacks and flash forwards. Luc periodically shows up to ask for her soul, but she refuses to give in.

A very interesting conceit, pretty well pulled off. It is kind of funny how she gets by. Even going to sleep will make some forget her, so she gets the "who are you?" treatment from the morning after quite often.

So I liked it but thought it went on extra long. Probably could have done with far fewer vignettes of her life across the centuries. It was well written, with some pretty turns of phrases. Addie herself was a dynamic starring character, although I still really have no idea who "Luc" is and what he finds in Addie.

Palahniuk has to be one of the strangest writers around. I don't even know what to say about this book, other than it is profane, violent, X-rated, funny, crazy, indescribable. Told in a fractured English dialog (so well narrated by Paul Michael Garcia!), it tells the story of Agent 67 from an unnamed authoritarian regime, slipped into the Midwest as an exchange student, but indoctrinated against the United States as an evil empire and with his fellow exchange students planning a huge terrorist strike.

Pygmy offers up crazy interpretations of Midwestern evangelical life (well, maybe not so crazy!) and describes his indoctrination into his belief system and how the evil Western empire of the United States needs to be toppled. But he does it in an incredibly naive and open eyed way, where you just have to laugh so many times. He gets himself into strange predicaments and ends up becoming a hero, much to his discomfort.

Much like the other Palahniuk book I read, [b:Damned|9912994|Damned (Damned, #1)|Chuck Palahniuk|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1296236310l/9912994.SY75.jpg|14805540], it is the product of an unbelievably febrile imagination and you just never know which bizarre situation the narrator will take you to next, one that can either make you gasp or laugh or usually both. I still don't know what to make of it!

I have been reading this book off and on for a while, and when I read that they are going to make a movie of it, I decided I should power thru and finish it. And I am glad I did! It tells the story of the Osage Indian murders in the 1920s. The Osage Indians were, like many tribes. forced onto "barren" lands as a reservation, but it turned into a real gold mine, as oil was discovered there. Soon, the Osage were among the richest people in the world.

Of course, white man couldn't have that and quickly started passing laws declaring the Native Americans were too "child like" to have that much money and the only thing that would save them would be white guardianship. And you don't need much of an imagination to see what kinds of corruption and thieving that led to.

Even worse was the idea of "headrights", which is the inheritance of the portion of the oil windfall. A white man could inherit the headright if the woman he was married to "died". Even more diabolical, if other of her relatives were to die first, she would gradually get more and more headrights, and then you could get them if she died.

The end results was literally countless Osage Indian deaths. This book documents some of the more egregious plots planned by the evil Mr. Hall, but only something like 20 may have been his planning. Literally hundreds of others died during this "Reign of Terror", often with little or no oversight.

White man's imagination and cruelty of "others" has no bounds and this story is a chilling example of it. A forgotten chapter that is well explored here. The only drawback is that there are a lot of names to keep track of. Really, if he is white, he is bad. There were a few who tried to stem the tide of violence, but it was a corrupt society from top to bottom. The FBI, early in Hoover's reign, came in and got some justice, but very little. Chilling story well told, with a great deal of sympathy and feeling.

In this, the 6th book of the series, Thorn takes on a childhood friend, who seems to be running some kind of scam pain facility. He takes in people who have lost the use of their legs and experience "phantom pain", but he's under investigation by the Feds for perhaps laundering money. Thorn himself becomes a patient and enmeshed in old grievances.

Perhaps my favorite Thorn book since the first. It was an interesting subject, one that predates oxycontin but almost predicts it. Hard to read sometimes, listening to their pain. But hearing things from the bad guys point of view didn't feel quite so weird and jarring. And the plans weren't as complicated as before, but equally twisted.

The fact he was a long time childhood friend, and his friend's father is a long time doctor of Thorn himself was a little hard to swallow. I realize the Keys are probably a small place, but that seems a little ridiculous. But Thorn's relationship with Monica, carried over from the previous book, was bumpy and interesting. I wonder where it will go?

So on to the next book in the series, Blackwater Sound. Pretty funny, as I was just about ready to give up on the series, but these last two books have been pretty good.

A very funny book, a very personal book and not much of a travellogue, as Ms DeRuiter herself freely admits. She candidly writes about her health problems, marital problems, family problems (she has one of the most unique upbringings I have ever heard about) and even bathroom problems. The scene of the overflowing toilet is truly one that is hard to forget!

I laughed out loud in so many places, although I have to admit by the end of the book, the shtick was beginning to wear thin. But it is a pretty short book, so it doesn't outstay its welcome. She is, I guess, a "travel" blogger, although I have to admit to have never read her in the past. Some how I ended up following her on Twitter and thru that, heard about her book.

My favorite chapter was where her husband took her to see the Milky Way, something she had never really experienced, living in mostly urban areas. It really resonated with me, because I "introduced" my wife to the stars while we were traveling in Australia. We stayed at a "resort" at Kings Canyon and they have a glorious boardwalk that goes deep into the surrounding desert (to avoid us clumsy people trampling the vegetation and wildlife). We went to the very end and were both completely awed by the display. I have heard that the area there is one of the human inhabited places the furthest away from any big city. Let me tell you, the stars fairly explode from the sky. And Ms. DeRuiter's descriptions of her trip brought me back to a very happy time. And can you ask anything else from a memoir?

So looking back on my reviews of the previous 2 or 3 books in the Thorn series, it seems I wasn't too crazy about them. For one thing, I prefer my mystery series to be first person, and this one is the omniscient narrator, telling the story from multiple sides, including the perp, so Thorn solving mysteries isn't part of the reason you would read one of these.

So why would you read these? Great action. A central (but not singular) character like Thorn who is kind of broken but kind of cool. Interesting side characters. And a crime with panache.

Well, this book has all that and more! It jumps into the action early and never lets up, as it tells the story of a twisted mind taking control of an ocean liner and Thorn and his lifelong friend Sugar (hired to crack the case) try to figure out what is going on and how to stop it before the liner crashes.

There's plenty of pop psychology, which can be annoying. But the villain in this book isn't as wacky as in previous books. I mean, he's a real psychopath, but his plan isn't as far fetched as in previous books and he seems to have it under control.

So I really enjoyed this one. Glad I already have the next one ([b:Red Sky at Night|1164036|Red Sky at Night (Thorn, #6)|James W. Hall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421584536l/1164036.SX50.jpg|1151706]) already in hand!

In June, 1980, 2 women were shot to death on a West Virginia back road,. They were hitchhiking their way to a Rainbow Gathering, a festival of free thinkers and "hippies". Their bodies were found later that night and the mystery started. Who killed the "Rainbow Girls"? And what happened to their friend, the third Rainbow Girl?

After just a few days, it was discovered the third girl had split up with those two and had gone back home, because she found out her father was getting married. But the mystery of the murders stained the small communities that surrounded the area. One man was convicted but later found not guilty.

What makes this true crime book even more interesting is that the author has pretty close ties to the area. She was a member of VISTA for about a year in 2009 and worked with local teenage girls to help them empower their lives. She later heard about the murders and decided to write about them.

I enjoyed this book, as it intertwined stories of the girls, the case and her own growing understanding of herself. She tries to explain the culture of the area and how to understand what happened and how the cases went down. Her confusion about her own life (barely out of her teens when she first showed up from Long Island) and the area shine through with an almost painful honesty.

I have to admit to losing track of all the names early on. It took a bit for me to get into the rhythm of the book, but I was richly rewarded and literally had a hard time putting it down. Warning though - no real answers here, just strong suspicions. It gives a real insight into the psyche of West Virginia and goes through 2016,. so it describes its swing from a Democrat state to a Republican one. Recommended.

Addendum - reading some of the 1 or 2 star reviews kinda makes me mad, I have to admit. I am not going to argue that everyone needs to love this book, but most of them seem to be complaining the book isn't what they want it to be - a dry retelling of a horrible crime. What raises it above the usual true crime book IS its very difference - bringing personal memories and knowledge of the area and the time. It gives the book so much more depth. It is far better than a low3 star rating, trust me, as long as you don't go into it thinking it is "merely" a true crime retelling.

The second Stephanie Plumb book was even more fun than the first. This time, she is on the lookout for Morelli's cousin, who skipped out on bail and seems to be involved in some kind of shady gun deal. Stephanie has to deal with the cop Morelli, who has gotten under her skin more than a few times during her life, as well as the no good cousin and her meddling mother and her crazy grandmother.

I laughed out loud a few times, especially by the antics of Grandma Mazur. I also loved the deep reaches of family all over Trenton and this story, as she tries to untangle all her relationships, including the one with the hot Italian cop. She doesn't trust him any further than she can throw him, but she does like to see him and really can use his help. She is learning on the job and trying to not get killed while doing it.

So much fun and I can't wait to dive into the next one.

This book tells the story of William Dodd and his family (wife, daughter and son), who is named ambassador to Germany in the 1930s, as Hitler is rising to power. Focusing on Dodd and his daughter Martha, it describes the escalating tensions and violence as Hitler settles into power. Dodd, who quickly becomes upset at the way Hitler is "ruining" his Germany (he went to school there as a college kid), is an early and vocal Hitler opponent, which runs afoul of the establishment, the "Pretty Good Club" of rich, Ivy League educated diplomats.They want him to be quiet and get Germany to do business.

I am a huge Erik Larson fan but this was, I think, one of his weakest. The biggest problem is there really wasn't a focus on a real interesting event, like the Galveston hurricane or the bombing of Britain. It was just the slow burn of the awful Nazi rising. And much like reading about the Reconstruction, you know it is going to end badly and you just see how blind so many of the people going into it are going to be.

So things kind of meandered around. And oh, the purple prose! Maybe he felt like he need to brighten up an awful time in history, but he tried extra hard to write about glorious blue skies and trains looking like toys. I think he was bound and determined to make a book of this research but it really was kind of weak.

Martha, for all her weaknesses, I thought came across as unique. What I was most impressed with is her independence and, to be honest, sexual freedom it seems, which seems like it was so far in the future. I liked how proud she was, although misguided, but her own views and not those of the men around her or even her father. She fell for the Nazi "strength" and only slowly came around to how gross it was.

The other thing that was really gross about this whole time period was the casual antisemitism. I mean, you can believe the awful violent antisemitism of the Nazis, but the casual antisemitism of the US folks was gruesome. "Oh, don't feel bad, Mr. Nazi, we find the Jews to be awfully uppity ourselves but see we can handle it better" isn't really much of a defense. This came up time and time again, about how Dodd's bosses back in Washington were virulent antisemitic, although maybe Roosevelt himself wasn't. Just gross.

So not really great. I have covered this same time period in Shirer's classic "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and I think it is much better and much briefer. I don't think the two "heroes" of this book are that interesting, although Dodd was one of the few early leaders who railed against the Nazis from an early date. Too much appeasement and too much isolationism enabled Hitler's rise, much to all of our chagrin.

This book tells the story of a Mafia lieutenant who wants to become the big boss. So Kid Sally Palumbo gathers together his closest allies and tries to knock off Papa Baccala and take over his gang. As you can tell by the title, things don't go smoothly and there are a lot of funerals for the upstarts.

The most amazing thing about this book is just how well it captures the time it was written. It just reeks of 1960s New York, with bad cops, corrupt officials and Mafia dons. Breslin, of course, followed the maxim of "write what you know" and he knew this turf better than anyone. He had funny swipes at everyone, from the Mayor to newspapers. Every page just drips with small time corruption and grifters trying to grift.

Oh, and it is funny as hell. So many amazingly apt descriptions that make you smile or even break out in laughter. And I am as big a New York City hater as any Boston boy could be, but this was just a delightful read, even today.

This is at least the third time I have read this book, the 6th in the classic Travis McGee series. It tells the story of Travis, getting ready for a bum summer, coming across an acquaintance who got fleeced and, of course, he has to help out. Some kind of intricate land swindle left Arthur high and dry, but Travis finds out where the money that's left might be and hatches a plan to get it.

A bit more exposition than I am used to in a McGee novel, but still an excellent read. Sure, his take on women is a bit prehistoric, but his heart is in the right place, so you have to give him that. And in Boone Waxwell, Travis runs up against one of the most violent and psychopathic villains in any of his books. And Boone's end is something I have always remembered, ever since I first read this, probably at least 40 years ago.

Travis is like an old friend, who brings back memories of when my dad and I used to read these in tandem. I'm looking forward to continuing on in the series.

Well, I am not sure what I just listened to but it sure was a fun ride! This 2007 Hugo nominated book tells the story of a crew sent to investigate the source of alien probes. Led by a re-animated vampire because they can think on levels unimaginable by humans, they are tasked with figuring out who the aliens are and if they are belligerent. A small crew with diverse talents, they have no idea what they are in for.

And, to be honest, I am not entirely sure what they ran into, even after listening to the book. Probably because I couldn't go back an reread some of the more confusing portions - I just kept plunging ahead! Certainly not a fault of the narrator, as T. Ryder Smith did an amazing job with this wildly literate tale.

A real treat for hard science fiction fans, as the world envisioned by Peter Watts in the far future just explodes off the page. Everything from strange plagues to virtual sex are seamlessly interwoven into the story. Just amazing.

I'm going to knock it down to 4 stars only because I couldn't quite follow some of the twists and turns of the story. Not that I don't think they weren't structurally sound, I just found it hard to track. But an amazing book nonetheless and I can't wait to read the free short story (found (here) and the followup book, [b:Echopraxia|18490708|Echopraxia (Firefall, #2)|Peter Watts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380224957l/18490708.SX50.jpg|26174428].