The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry (2014) 30/40

This is book #30 of my 2018 Reading Challenge sponsored by Goodreads.com.  I pledged to read 40 books.  To make a framework for the books I would read, I established a reading protocol early in the year to make book selection easy and organized.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

This novel satisfies Protocol #5.

The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry. (2014) 

I started off not liking this book at all.  I was unsure if I could really finish it.  Yes, I was ready to let this book just fade into the sunset on the Texas plains.  Then, I did two things:

·      I vowed to read it without comparing it to Lonesome Dove (Pulitzer Prize winner, Larry McMurtry, 1985 and my favorite novel of all time)

·      I started over with a change of heart and just read the book.

This McMurtry novel could almost be considered a sequel to Telegraph Days.(2007)  It has cowboys, historic cattle ranchers, gunfire and Nellie Courtwright who seems to show up everywhere.  She is now in this novel in Tombstone along with the popular characters  of the Wild West.  McMurtry actually uses Nellie to move the novel’s intent along and surprises us with the ending.  Thinking about the ending still gives me bittersweet angst. No Spoiler—you have to read it for yourself.

Despite the lukewarm reviews that the novel received from newspapers across the country (including The New York Times) McMurtry is quite transparent in the very beginning of the novel and describes the novel for what it is—a story or stories of “characters floating in time”.    The reviewers complaints of no clear story line or cohesiveness is not the intent of this novel.  In fact, the reader may just find him or herself floating through those last days of open frontier, predictable boom towns and a country growing. 

Here is what McMurtry says in his introduction:

The Last Kind Words Saloon is a ballad in prose whose characters are floating in time.  Their legends and their lives in history rarely match.  I had the great Director John Ford* in mind when I wrote this book.  He famously said that when you had to choose between history and legend, print the legend.  And so I have done.

Here are some of the characters that appear in this novel, some are connected, some are not:

Connected characters

Charles Goodnight, (born March 5, 1836, Macoupin County, Ill., U.S.—died Dec. 12, 1929), American cattleman, who helped bring law and order to the Texas panhandle.  He is known as “the father of the Texas Panhandle,  however, what might be more familiar is his invention of the food wagon—now fondly known as “Chuck Wagons”.  Lonesome Dove is loosely based on Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. 

Joseph “Ike” Clanton:   (1847-June 1, 1867)  One of the loose association of outlaws known as The Cowboys who clashed with Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday.   When Wyatt and Jesse Earp and Doc Holliday arrive in Arizona, Wyatt felt that Ike Clanton was the only one in town (Tombstone) who would have any interest in shooting him.  Present at the gunfight at the OK Corral but survives.

Billy Clanton:  (1862-October 26, 1881)   William Harrison Clanton was an outlaw Cowboy in Chochise County, Arizona Territory.  He along with his father Newman Clanton and brother Ike Clanton worked a ranch near the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory and stole livestock from Mexico and later from US ranchers. Killed during the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Johnny Ringo:  (1850 – 1882) An American Old West outlaw loosely associated with the Cochise County Cowboys in frontier Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Territory, United States.   Main interest was “cards”.  He was involved in some business deals with Joseph “Ike” Clanton listed above.  He was not involved with the gunfight at the OK Corral.  He died at age 32, following bullet wound to right temple, possibly self-inflicted.  Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are investigated about Ringo’s death, but not charged.

 

Warren Baxter Earp:  (March 9, 1855 – July 6, 1900) Youngest brother of Wyatt Earp He set up the saloon in whatever town the Earps chose to occupy.  He carried the sign “The Last Kind Words Saloon”  from town to town. He was not present at the OK Corral when the famous gunfight occurred.  He was killed in a bar fight in Willcox, Arizona in 1900. 

Non-connected characters

Wild Bill Hickok

Buffalo Bill

General Sherman

Brief reference to Billy the Kid.

So in summary:

·      I finished the book.

·      It reads as a floating ballad of characters as promised. 

·      Short vignettes seem to be the pervasive style throughout the novel. 

Was there a symbolic message in the repetitive mention of HATS--maybe!

Hats described as driven by the wind in Long Grass and in Tombstone.  Was the cowboys' era being blown away? Or was it floating?  As this book ends, Nellie Courtwright shows up again, this time she goes to visit Jesse (Josephine) and Wyatt Earp in retirement in San Pedro, California. She decides to make the trip from LA in her new convertible.  She was not wearing a hat.  Should she have been wearing a hat it would certainly have been swirling with the wind.  McMurtry closes the novel with this trip symbolizing the end of the cowboys’ wild west era.   No hats allowed.

Favorite quote of the book:  

                 “Last time I rode into this town, it was full of Earps."

Check it out.

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*John Ford was an American film director.  He is renowned both for Westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, as well as adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels such as the film The Grapes of Wrath. His four Academy Awards for Best Director remain a record. 

Thanks to Wikipedia for assisting me in lassoing all these cowboys and their place in wild west history.

Uncertain Voyage by Dorothy Gilman Book 31/40 of the 2018 Goodreads.com challenge

Uncertain Voyage  by Dorothy Gilman 1966.

An author’s therapy novel

Introduction:

This is book #31 of my 2018 Reading Challenge sponsored by Goodreads.com.  I pledged to read 40 books.  To make a framework for the books I would read, I established a reading protocol early in the year to make book selection easy and organized.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

This novel satisfies Protocol #4.

I became familiar with Dorothy Gilman by reading her Mrs Pollifax mystery/espionage series.  The series features a bored widow/grandmother who takes a part time job as a CIA operative, travels around the world and somehow avoids getting killed by the obvious state’s enemy

‘bad guys”.  She also raises geraniums and belongs to a garden club.  There is adventure, suspense and humor all rolled into one Mrs. Pollifax. 

Dorothy Gilman also wrote some stand-alone novels that included mystery, strong women facing all odds and surviving, but not as much humor as the Pollifax series.  Uncertain Voyage, published in 1966 and re-released in 1988. while presenting a good espionage story, in this review, I present the reasons I categorize this novel as the author’s “therapy novel”. 

Story Line—no spoilers

A newly divorced female (Melissa Aubrey), who married at age 16, leaves Massachusetts and takes an "around the western world" trip in attempt to find a new lease on life. She starts off on a cruise to Denmark, then her first plane flight to Paris and then onto Majorca.  She meets several men on this trip and she fantasizes each one as the new man in her life. Her trip begins with a cruise to Denmark.  She meets an interesting man but he merely asks her to deliver a book to someone in Majorca (her last stop) because he feels that someone is out to kill him. He is right; he dies on the ship.  She packs up the book and continues on her trip, paying more attention to finding some new man who will give her some feeling of usefulness, romance and bliss. In short, she is eager to fill the "emptiness"; a common feeling post-divorce.   In reality, she discovers that there are older men, boring men, married men and CIA agents who are interested in her.  The “man hunt” is not working out so well, and it becomes obvious to her that possessing that book is dangerous. And she is right.

Why do I call this a “therapy novel”?

In addition to the rather complex espionage spy story, Gilman spends a great deal of time focused around Melissa’s post-divorce depression.  Gilman intertwines this espionage story with Melissa’s understandable feelings of loss, and confusion particularly around the return to single life. This part of the novel goes around in a circle with no resolution or decisive action, and actually becomes burdensome.  This part of the novel mirrored a very personal experience and it was hard not to suspect that Dorothy was writing about her own reaction during her transitional year.  She divorced in 1965, one year before this book was published.

Common elements and behaviors during the post-divorce depression and healing transitional year present in this novel:

·       Melissa:

o   began to pay attention to the conversation she was having in her head.

o   sought out more human touch—she felt deserving of recognition and romance

o   demonstrated that strength is defined in many ways

o   faced her fears and began the fight to establish her new life

o   discovered that she is the only person she can control

o   accepted that there was no sure path to her new life

o   realized that dating is invigorating but being alone is also useful

o   resolved her anger and the impossible became possible--she learned to love herself

o   fantasized male attention as attraction and learned it was not that at all

The Ending

There are a few reviews that discussed the ending as weak.  I found the ending of this novel to be incredibly interesting.  Without a spoiler it is impossible to discuss here.  I will continue to search for more reviews of this novel especially discussions about the ending. At this point, I do not know what really happened at the end.  Would love to hear how other readers interpreted the end.

Without spoiling—I will offer that this novel reads like a Hitchcock movie.   I can easily see Audrey Hepburn as Melissa and Cary Grant as Adam.  It has a very “Charade” feel to it.  Overall, it has a nice blend of romance and espionage.  Both of these best known for being impossible to win.  

The Goodreads.com 2018 Reading Challenge Continues. . .

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg (2002)  Book #28/40 in the Goodreads.com 2018 Reading Challenge.  Will I make it to Book 40/40 before December 31st???
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 As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, I signed up for the 2018 Reading Challenge promoted by Goodreads.com.  I have recently finished  another Fannie Flagg novel titled Standing in the Rainbow.  This is Book #28.  I am still 2 books behind schedule as determined by Goodreads.com, but the good news is that Goodreads has stopped sending me emails reminding me that I am behind.  I guess they gave up.  That was driving me crazy.

I made some limiting rules for this challenge making my book selection easier and more balanced.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

Standing in the Rainbow follows category #3.

This book was either a fast read, or maybe I just love reading Fannie Flagg books.  This is the second book in her Elmwood Springs series about growing up in a small Missouri town and the relationship between big and small towns in the Midwest.  It is also the story of big and small relationships, big and small issues and big and small characters. Magically, there is a section of this novel that pertains to every age group and life cycle. Depending on the age of the reader, each will find themselves in this novel.  As I am in the retirement age group, I particularly found the description of the transition away from family life (kids at home) and work responsibilities (daily grind) interesting, insightful and true.

I read this book this past weekend while in Hot Springs, Virginia.  Not the Midwest but a small town where I lived for two years in the early 80's.   I was there this week to attend the funeral of one of my favorite people on this planet.  I met her the first day I lived in Hot Springs, and over the past 35 years, she has remained one of the most wonderful friends I could have ever had.  We kept in touch, visited at reasonable intervals and I will miss her.  As this novel proves, we "never get that time back". 

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg (2002)

There is no doubt that I am a first class Fannie Flagg fan.  Thinking I had read all of her books with the exception of the Christmas novel, I was pleasantly surprised that I had not read  "Standing in the Rainbow".   Once I got into this book, I wished I had read this book before her most recent novel, "The Whole Town's Talking".  Standing in the Rainbow is about the living cycle of a lifetime in the small Missouri town of Elmwood Springs. Every age group is standing in its own rainbow--has its own colorful characters, its own events, its own adventures and at some point, its own fade.   "The Whole Town's Talking" focuses on how towns change and are affected as generations die.

There were a lot of action, a lot of adventures going on and a lot of characters included in this novel.  Most critical issues good and bad, encountered in a lifetime are demonstrated in this novel.  Once again, as a Fannie Flagg guarantees that the action never ends.   At times its a bit difficult to keep everyone straight and who likes who and who is at odds, when and why.  But all the characters are engaging and it is hard to resist reading to the end even if it is just to know how they all turn out.  This novel clearly illustrates the wins and losses of life, the passing of the years that seem so long at the time, and then in retrospect, went so fast, the softening of differences and the realization that no one ever gets the time back.  That is the way life is and the way this story is told.  It is hard to put this book down.

Fannie Flagg's usual humor is found less often in this novel than the others.  But as a Missourian myself, I have to praise Fannie Flagg for so perfectly  portraying life in the Midwest.  We are generous and kind.  We are accustomed to and really good at creating our own drama.  As kids, we grow up dreaming of getting out of the Midwest and living in places that we imagine are more exciting. but then we get there and find out its just different.   And like people everywhere, we intend to "get together" or "visit" our friends after moving on.  But so rarely is there follow-through,  and many times the outcome is "that it is too late".

Several years ago I left Missouri and moved to the East Coast.  It has been brought to my attention many times that I "am so Midwestern".  I am guilty, and I would never have it any other way.  Maybe that is my Rainbow.  I loved this book.

Goodreads.com 2018 Reading Challenge Book 24/40 Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.

I lived the Southwestern part of Virginia for 10 years of my adult life.  I absolutely love what American literature categorizes as “local color” that is still exhibited among Southern people, towns, and communities.  Upon leaving the South I took up reading the Fannie Flagg fiction novels just to remind me of those Southern days.  After reviewing a Fannie Flagg novel, Goodreads.com sent me an email suggestion that I take a look at author--Susan Gregg Gilmore.  By such good luck, I found Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, Susan Gregg Gilmore's first novel.  Just the title that hinted a possibility of salvation at a Dairy Queen sparked my interest.  However, this novel demonstrated the comfortable joy of reading fiction novels set in the South that is more addictive than a Blizzard. There is no doubt that this novel fit that "comfortable joy" category for me. 

Plot synopsis but no spoilers:

So without spoilers (and there are a couple of shockers in this novel that you do not see coming) here is a quick synopsis:

The story is set in small town Georgia.  The narrator, Catherine Grace, is the older of two daughters of the town preacher.  Their mother died in a drowning accident when the girls were 6 and 2.  They have lived their entire childhood under the scrutiny that comes with being a preacher's child, but they cast their dreams far and away while eating Dilly Bars at the town Dairy Queen every Saturday afternoon.  The novel follows these two girls through school with the charmingly typical things that girls do included.  Catherine Grace graduates from high school and pursues her one dream of escaping a small town and making her mark in a big city.  She chooses to stay in the South and off she goes in a Greyhound bus to make that dream come true in a Big Southern City.  Her sister, Martha Ann, chooses to stay close to home and although she voiced an interest in dreaming like her older sister, once Catherine Grace leaves, Martha Ann pulls back and sticks where she feels much safer, and that is in the embrace of family and community in their town of Ringgold, Georgia.

A few Southern lessons:

Any non-Southern readers may benefit by a few lessons I learned while living in Virginia (and these lessons are all included throughout this novel.) 

1.  People in the South talk gently--so they have many wonderful sayings that communicate exactly what they are fixin' to tell you.  You will find some of those sayings in this novel--and you will love them.  

2.  There are two powerful forces in Southern towns and intrinsically in Southern people:  Family first and Community second.  No matter how far one travels from Southern roots, the roots will pull back and that pull never stops.  The "pull" is a strong element throughout Catherine Grace's dream, her move after high school and how she lives out her dream.

3.  Southern communities do not particularly like secrets.  If a member of the community tries to keep a secret, shame or no shame, he or she runs the risk of being villified as Southerners are story-tellers and they will fill in the blanks. But instead of secrecy there is transparency, the member is accepted, assisted and embraced in the community without a single objection.  Yes, Southerners prefer to be in the know and part of the action. 

4.  Once is never enough for Southerners.  The answer to every problem is to visit, and bring a casserole.  Not just once, but three or four times or until the next problem occurs and the casseroles move on to someone else.  These casseroles are a little high in calories, but they are so, so good.  There are several casserole events in this novel.  Don't miss them.

5.  Religion is very important to the Southern communities--it is how they come together and stay together.  One look at the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was sold.  It is truly God's Country.

Susan Gregg Gilmore writes with humor, strong story plot, lots of surprises, includes characters found in every Southern town and an obvious effort to extend the local color of the Southern life to a new generation of readers.  I recommend this book to any reader who wants to get comfortable and relax with a good book, not just at the beach but in any season. 

Favorite quote in the book: 

Chapter 2 when Catherine Grace and Martha Ann are talking about their memories of their mother, (which are few, since they were so young when their mother drowned):

     "It's funny how you can take just one memory of someone and create a lifetime of feelings and attachments."

Not a complaint--just distraction:

If I had one thing that distracted me while reading this book it is the name of the narrator--Catherine Grace.  I actually went to school with a Catherine Grace through high school at which time she took off to follow her dream of living in another part of the country.  The girl in this novel had an eerie likeness in character to my classmate. After many years, my classmate did feel the pull and she did come back to a class reunion, and then again to see the total solar eclipse last summer, but did not come back to stay. 

I learned to “can” while living in the south.  Yes, Southerners are experts at “putting up” tomatoes, green beans, strawberry jam, peach preserves, etc.  I would have loved to have seen the strawberry jam recipe that Catherine Grace and Martha Ann used included in this novel. I lost mine when I moved--it substituted red wine for some of the sugar.   Sound familiar, anyone???? 

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The Good Reads 2018 Challenge is underway. Book #16

OK--I just finished reading COME SUNDOWN by Nora Roberts. Initially I honestly did not know how I would finish reading 40 books pledged to the Goodreads.com 2018 challenge BUT once I set up some rules on how I would choose the books I would read, its easier. Now, I am pretty confident that I will make it to 40 reads before December 31.

Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.

This book was chosen for a few reasons and the selection followed Rule #1.

• Nora Roberts is an author whose name is familiar to me, but I have never read any of her books. 
• She is listed as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels. 
• She also writes under the pen name J.D. Robb. 
• But most importantly, she was recommended to me on a Sunday morning in St Louis.
•  When I dropped into Michael's craft store to pick up a little collectable toy for my granddaughter, the cashier was not busy and she was reading a book. It seemed that reading on the job was against the rules as she held the book under the counter and had the book wrapped in brown paper bookcover. HEHE--must be good!! I asked her what she was reading, and she began to tell me the joy that Nora Roberts' books bring to her--she is NEVER disappointed. So, I went to the library in St Louis and found the Nora Roberts 2017 book titled COME SUNDOWN (satisfies Rule #1).

Here is what happened when I read this book. The book is set in Montana outside Missoula. I have been to Montana and the sunsets are phenomenal. That was a positive reason to choose this book. As I read the first quarter of the book, I tried to categorize the genre of this book fell and realized it could be called any of these:

·      a psychothriller,

·      a murder mystery,

·      a multi-generational family dilemma fiction,

·      a western,

·      a romance novel,

·      a battle of the sexes, and/or

·      the demographic and political landscape of the wild west.

YIKES.  All those genres in one exciting book. BUT it worked. Reviewing my notes taken during reading this book, it seems Nora Roberts absolutely followed the scheme or design or rules trueto each of these genres. In fact, the denouement included the resolution of the psycho problem, the murderer was revealed, there was a shootout, the family dilemma appears to be resolving, the demographics and the political issues were addressed and the battle of the sexes worked out.  There is a potential for further development and a storyline hinting toward a sequel. (Nora Roberts writes many of her books into a series--so there is always that chance that a standalone like this book won't be alone forever).

Discovering that Nora Roberts books seem to be conversation starters was a pleasant surprise. People actually just started talking to me when they saw me carrying or reading the book.

·      I was told by a woman in the grocery checkout line ( I always take a book to the grocery store in case there is a line at checkout) that she thought that COME SUNDOWN was Nora Roberts' best book so far, and that she actually hoped that there would be a sequel as she missed reading about characters she felt she had come to know!!!!

·      Someone else who saw me with the book told me that there were rumors that this book would be a movie soon.

·      A very nice woman asked if I liked the book--that reader had not picked it up yet. 

So kudos to you, Nora Roberts.

I cannot promise that I will read another Nora Roberts book--but I will watch and see if this book ends up as Book #1 of the Montana series and then maybe consider it. Should it become a movie--I will not see the movie at the theater--but will wait to enjoy this on NetFlix, sitting on the couch under my comforter--exactly the way I read it.
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NOTE to Nora Roberts--if you do make this into a series, perhaps you can use my name "Susan Grimes" as a character who escapes the east coast  with her golden retriever and stays at the resort in one of those posh cabins. A minor role or "mention" is fine with me!! (I love wearing fashionable hats!! )   Thank you in advance.