We're Not Sixteen Anymore: The Saga of an Old Prune & Her Dates
by

Becky Andersen (Goodreads Author)

Susan Grimes's review

Dec 15, 2021  ·  edit

really liked it

bookshelves: fiction, memoir, romance

2 highlights (Private)

While still deep into my career I spent a lot of time on trains, airplanes and meeting new people preferably close to my age. I heard so many stories about the online love searches like Match.com and something called Plenty of Fish. The stories were hilarious, hideous and seldom, but possibly horrendous. When I saw this novel by Becky Anderson, I could not help wondering if she had a story to tell. I presumed it was another story about “way-over 16 year old “dawning of Aquarius” females who were combing the internet for love. That is not quite but close.

This is the story of a lovely “too young to be a widow” who took a daring try into the world of love through an online match site. It is worth to read this book during our pandemic gloomy winter days. I read it in three days only because I had to force myself to put it down.

It is fun. It had some twists and turns that only Match online sites could possibly allow. At times, I kind of wished I could be sixteen again!

Happy New Year and stay healthy. If you are one of us “not-sixteen” anymore people, wear your masks in public, it young’s you up pretty fast and just like Becky’s story, you never know who is
looking.

 

 

 

 

 

The End of the Day   by Bill Clegg   

Published September 2020

This is the story of two childhood friends who have not seen each other for 49 years.  One day, one of the friends (never married) shows up at the home of the other friend (who is now a widow) and leaves a leather briefcase at the widow's door.   The story is cleverly crafted, but the reader has to keep track of the story--it moves from the friendship years story back and forth to the 49+ "No see but now you are here again" story.  The temper of this novel is a story of complicated bonds of friendship, breaking of those bonds and the role of forgiveness as time goes on.  This novel is nothing like Pulp Fiction, but the leather briefcase plays a big part throughout the story!

It is beautifully written.  The story flows so smoothly.    The characters are each unique to the story but connected with each other. 

One thing I did not consider "closed" at the end of the novel was the role of the Moravian Church.  The friend in this novel who remained single carries around a book about the Church.  I had to go look up the Moravian Church and it sounds pretty inviting and passionately spiritual.  But how it fit into this story, I am not quite clear; perhaps it is where the forgiveness and salvation comes in to the characters' resolutions. 
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OK--now the words in this novel that were new to me:

•      imprecisely-- not precise, inexact, vague
  
•      acquiescence--(I like the sound of this word)-passive acceptance or submission
•      pediment-- a style of architectual design often seen on houses
  
•      dust mote--a small speck of dust (no wonder I didn't know--we only have dust tumbleweeds)

And the Word I Will Never Use in Social Conversation:

     SOLIPSISTIC (What is this? It shows up three times in the novel.)
     Definition:  
     1. Philosophy: The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.
     2. The view that the self is the only reality.
     3. Absorption with oneself without consideration for the needs and desires of others: a self-indulgent memoir that revealed the author's SOLIPSISM.   

Finally:  My favorite sentence in the novel.

     "The heart is a stubborn muscle."


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The Interesting Annex:

Dust Motes:

There is more information and attention to dust motes than I could have even imagined.  First of all--lets get it straight what DUST is.

DUST: 
Dust is a collection of microscopic particles of material. Dust is heavy enough to see and light enough to be carried by the wind. Dust can be made up of pollen, bacteria, smoke, ash, salt crystal s from the ocean, and small bits of dirt or rock, including sand. Dust can also contain tiny fragments of human and animal skin cells, pollution, and hair. 

Dust motes is a speck of dust.

Dust motes seem to show up in more than bundles under your bed: 

• Dust mote geography (National Geographic)
• Dust mote science
• Dust mote science curriculum
• Synonyms for "dust more"
• Anagrams for "dust mote"
• Phrases that have the word "dust mote"
• Poems that have the word "dust mote"
• Quotes that have the word "dust mote"
• Rhymes with the word "dust mote"
• Poems that include the word "dust mote"
  
• Abbreviations containing the word "dust mote"
• Song lyrics that include the word "dust mote"
  
• Scripts containing the word "dust mote" 
• And my favorite:  You can find "dust mote" on Amazon!!
  

Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came (Agatha Raisin series #12)

Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came

 M.C. Beaton  (2002)

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I am in the midst of the Goodreads.com 2020 reading challenge.  This is my third challenge year and I am 4 books behind schedule.  Yikes!  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.  Of course the closure of the libraries in my town make it a little awkward.  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 the 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 a biography of 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 #3

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Another warm summer day with Agatha Raisin ends up being quiet enjoyable.  Nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than a protagonist who ends up locked in a meat locker.   I seriously forgot it was 90 degrees on my balcony!  

This cozy mystery series of an amateur detective (who is also a frustrated adult female in very high heels) and the men she chooses--never disappoints.  This is not a spoiler, but this novel begins with Agatha being quite frustrated, and she finds a way to be frustrated at the end.

This series is best read in order.  If it were just about the mystery, the series can be read in any order, but it is the frustrating romance situations Agatha encounters that are best when read in order.   For example, besides a mystery this time, Agatha has to juggle at least 5 men.  One who has disappeared, one who married a younger female in Paris and poor Agatha did not even get an invite, a very young male friend who comes in and out of the story, a police detective who seems to enjoy Agatha's style of investigation, and then there is some old guy who wants to kill her.    Not a bad romance gang of characters.

If a mystery reader needs to cuddle up with a series for the winter and/or the pandemic days we have left, this series is one I would suggest.   This is book 12--and I know there will be more.  How do I know?  Well, at the end of this mystery, Agatha cannot stop thinking of the guy who disappeared.  There is love in the air and if nothing else in book 13, Agatha is going to find it. (I hope).

I will be sorry when this series comes to an end.

The Good Killer

Harry Dolan

February 2020

Nothing better during these quiet days at home during the pandemic than a Harry Dolan mystery novel.  This is his latest release.  Reading his mysteries is like settling down in a quiet room and not agreeing to get up from your book until the end.   His sentence structure is so smooth, that the story just slides along with your eyes and you cannot stop "stream-reading".   

No spoilers in this review, but I cannot deny that there are some rough action events in the mystery storyline.  Just sign it off to the fact that rough and tough men read Dolan novels, too.    After the yoga chapter, its fair balance! 

The protagonists are Sean, the good killer and Molly, his significant other girlfriend, and they are running away from antagonists: Jimmy, Nick, Kelly, Tom and Lincoln.   Molly takes a little time off to attend yoga week in Montana as mentioned.  The antagonists find her.  OOPS!! 

Then just to make the story really fun to read, there are some characters to keep track of because they round out the plot.  They are:

•      Adam, (Molly's old rich guy boyfriend)
•      Howard Frazier and his wife
•      Henry Keen
•      Steve Z
•      Carla Whyte
•      Dalton Webber
•      Noura Ibrahim
•      Ray and Rapheal..a little love story between two detectives-- don't miss that.  It's cute but not cozy.          
•      Rose Dillon   She plays a significant role as this story begins.  But as the mystery builds, you almost forget about her. She shows up to close the story and turns out your reading light as this mystery is solved, resolved and sadly for the reader, it ends.   But Rose insists having her own ending.
•      Cole, the friend with the black boots.  Some friends are hard to forget

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Favorite quotes: 

"We look ahead.  We prepare. That's our advantage.  Because we know the battle's coming."  (Sean Tennant)

                             

"Today a new sun rises and we start again".  (Molly Winter)

Just perfect for encouragement during the pandemic. 

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I love these mysteries and hope you will soon join me in that love as well!!  (I did read the first three Dolan mysteries in order and I advise that, but the last two have been wonderful stand-alones.)

Pick up this mystery--and stay safe. 

Let me know what you think and certainly what you are reading!

Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society: America's Original Gangsters and the U.S. Postal Detective Who Brought Them to Justice (Hardcover)

I am in the midst of the 2019 reading challenge.  This is my second challenge year and I am 4 books behind schedule.  Yikes!  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 a biography of 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

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So--here is my review of a true crime, turn of the century story about life in America in the early days of the postal service.  I chose this book as my grandparents were young adults at the same time as the characters in this book .  I was curious to read about my grandparents' young adulthood and  American life.  

Also, I am not Italian so  I never  knew how the Mafia made their money.  But now I know.  And if you ever wondered how the postal routes were laid out as the country grew and took on new states and new migrations of Americans moving west, it is all in this book. 

This book is written by William Oldfield, (great grandson of Frank Oldfield) and Victoria Bruce, a journalist and historian.  Together they have delivered a cohesive story about Mafia's use of the postal service to execute their criminal activity.  The Mafia was using the Postal Service to extort money by mailing "pay up or die" letters to Italian immigrants.   William's great grandfather, Postal Service Investigator Frank Oldfield led the investigation and the take down of this Mafia ring.  It took years to bust this Mafia ring, but the effort resulted in the first international organized crime conviction in America.  The story flows smoothly from Investigator Oldfield's suspicions to discovery, to indictment, conviction and punishment of the Mafia's Black Hand Society, surprisingly to me, based in Columbus, Ohio.    I live in the NYC area and was sure it would be Brooklyn.  The investigative methods that Frank Oldfield used to break this case were fascinating.  Not so sure that any of them would work today.

This is not a spoiler:  The good guys always win, but this time, it was not so easy!!

So what happened to Frank Oldfield after the resolution of this investigation?  You will be surprised.  At minimum, he should have been awarded the "Stamp of Excellence".   But not so.  For years the story of Frank Oldfield's investigative work was kept hidden, unmentioned in  the postal service history and unknown to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.   It seems that for a century, Frank Oldfield's story was only known in the family stories shared during family events and holidays.  

When William Oldfield became the heir apparent to the investigation records and collateral preserved by his great grandfather...he authored this Frank Oldfield story and it came to life again. 

This book was a pleasure to read and obviously an effort devoted to family pride.

Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey. Outrageous fun chasing criminals and money.

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 #3.

This is the second book I have read in the Florida series written by Tim Dorsey.  Tim is a great ambassador for Florida and reading his books is like a non-stop vacation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.     Florida Roadkill is the first book in this Florida criminal chaos series.

In case you have never been to Florida lets get acquainted:
--Nickname:  Sunshine State
--Capital:  Tallahassee
--Statehood:  27th state added to the union (1845)
--Famous for the Florida Keys—a few are well known but there are actually 1,700 islands making up the Florida Keys and the  Keys are geographically the southernmost part of the United States
--Florida has the most toll roads and the most bridges of any other state
--Florida is the 8th most populated state in the union
--Top tourist attraction:  Disney World
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The story of Florida Roadkill involves three main characters: 
--Serge—who is expert on the history of Florida and an expert criminal
--Sharon—who showers attention on wealthy, old men, but they end up dead
--Coleman—a goofy guy, a slow thinking but lovable cartoon freak

What is a good criminal chase novel without big insurance money fraudulently acquired
--Insurance money
--Missing valise full of insurance money
--Uncertainty about just who has the valise
--Several dead people associated with the big money chase

No mention in this novel:
--Disney World—because chasing criminals and big insurance money is not a “happy place” to be
--Use of toll roads and only slight reference to the bridges—because that would slow down the action and no one in the story gets an “easy pass”.

Dorsey jumps into action from page one.  He sets the pace as fast and furious.  There is comedic happenings, non-stop chaos and downright violent murder, totally unlikable characters in search of the money.  The main characters as a team are likable and  good at wooing victims, making lucrative deals and then come the violent murders.

Here is what is interesting about this book and Dorsey’s style of storytelling.  It is exhausting in a captivating way that forces the reader to keep going.  There are so many characters introduced in the early chapters, it is a little hard to know what is really happening without continuing to read. In addition there are so many different modes of violent murders—imaginative and bizarre.  And the persuasive style of deal making leads to endless chase and folly until the very last page.

I read through this book, moving from each crazy, wild action scene to the next.  From the group of characters introduced in the beginning of the story, every wild action eliminated at least one. . .and then after moving the action through the busy cities the remaining characters end up in the Florida Keys. Whew, what a ride!

Then, suddenly, the story relaxes and the action slows and there was time spent at admiring the scenery.  It’s almost like a little reading relaxation break in the warm sun and sand.  The author shares some interesting facts about the Florida Keys:
--The Dry Tortugas—the middle of nowhere and half way to nowhere else
--Eyebrow houses
--Stock Island
--A little presidential history—Harry Truman’s presidential winter home
--The Bait House
--The Seven Mile Bridge
--Fort Jefferson—largest brick masonry structure in the Americas

But don't get too comfortable and cozy, this lovely tour through the Keys does not last long.  Back to action the denouement begins and the story comes to a crashing end.  Two innocent bystanders end up being the good guys that bring this story to an end but not without that final twist. 

So, what about the main characters introduced in the beginning of the novel:  Serge, Coleman and Sharon. . .
--Are they still a team at the end of the caper?
--What happened to the money?
--Who are the innocent bystander good guys?  And will we ever see them again?

You have to read all the way to the end to find out-and that won’t take long.  Remember, it’s all about the money.  If I had to put the money on it, I would bet that this is not the last Dorsey novel you will read.

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.