Review: When it was Great: A Dealer Autobiographic Story by Jim Sinay

This book is an autobiography of a Las Vegas dealer. It sounds like a guy sitting on a barstool telling his life story. It's a book easy to read and interesting. There is a lot of name dropping that you have to expect. He stresses that the good, the bad, and the ugly are just people like you and I, except they live in Las Vegas. If you ever wondered what life behind the scenes was like, this is your book.

Review: One Shot (Jack Reacher, #9) by Lee Child

Not only does Reacher help friends in trouble, he also helps those who weren't friends. In this case in is in Indiana, which seems to be over run with Russian thugs. Everyone seems prepared to help, no matter how long they have known each other or the consequences. As usual, the dialogue is short and crisp, no words wasted. Some characters a bit over the top, but its fiction. No really big surprises.

"Work without pay until somebody offers to pay". - Mark Twain

I wonder if those two Canadians who went naked in Malaysia can make Selfies in prison?

Yeah! Put rappers lyrics on Sprite cans. That will make me buy it.

There's No Such Thing As Nonfiction

My feeling is that there's no such thing as nonfiction. Everything is fiction, because in the moment someone tries to relate an experience of what happened to them, it's gone. The reality that was felt at the moment is almost impossible to describe. It's one reason why there are writers, to come close to how it felt when it happened.

NORMAN MAILER

Mosquito Bite.

      On the way home from P.E.I, my wife was bitten by a mosquito. That was Fri. and on Sat. she had a bubble on it about 1 inch across. So it was best to go to Emergency. It seems that no matter what problem you have, you get to spend 4 hrs. there. She came home with a prescription to take every 6 hrs. They told her not to burst the bubble, because of infection. My wife was scared of getting the Flesh Eating Disease.
      It just so happened that she had an appointment on Mon. morning with an allergy doctor. By then, the bubble started getting larger, about two inches across. The allergy doctor put a needle in and drained the bubble, put an antibiotic on it and wrapped it up. She has to do that twice a day. I think they should have done that at the hospital. Looking better now. Attached is a photo of the early stages. They put a black circle around it and told her to return if it got red beyond the mark.

Review: Near Death by Glenn Cooper

A novel with near-death experience as the main subject. It blends science, police, drug culture and religion. From an intriguing idea comes an absorbing book. Well written, with characters well developed with backgrounds that glue the story together. An excellent read, hard to put down. It takes you to the last page to find the perfect ending.

Next Door

When I got back from P.E.I. on Fri., there was a new vehicle in the driveway next door. At the abandoned house. Here's a photo of the new vehicle.

Wow!

 Big news on CTV. They were interviewing a woman who did a study that suggested it was good for children to play outside by themselves. Even unsupervised and for a whole hour. I don't know whether to laugh or just shake my head.

Visit To P.E.I.

      Been away for the last little while. Spent four days in P.E.I. It's not for myself that I went but for my daughter. She is 42 and has Cerebral Palsy. She can't walk, talk, or do any of the things we take for granted. We have to feed her with a tube. So, we tell her that going to P.E.I. is her vacation. We can't keep her in the house all the time, and it is so much easier to take her in the new van. She can sit in the back and look out the window and at night she can sleep in a motel. She was smiling for the four days. It rained for the first two days, but she didn't mind as long as she can look out the window and see something different.
      My wife will take her away again in Aug. Her best friend lives along the ocean, and they go there for a week. Lots of noise, grand-kids, etc. Another vacation.

Review: Janus Man (Tweed & Co. #4) by Colin Forbes

'Janus Man' is the fourth in a series of 'Tweed and Co.' It's another cold war plot of spy versus spy. This is the first time I've seen Spymaster Tweed come out from behind his desk and work in the field. A man with a cold heart, he can also show weakness. The author has a substantial knowledge of the geographical landscape of his story. He's as good as a road map.
I find his character descriptions a bit too much. Each character mentioned is followed by a complete paragraph for a description, right down to the color of socks. It is obvious he has a fascination for women's legs.
It's a good story, not much of a suspenseful ending with a few threads left dangling.

More This & That

Some of the posts I put in last year are a little crooked in the ground, and some are a little wobbly from all the water. So I had to fix that up. When I bought gravel last year, I saved some for just that problem. I straightened the posts, put gravel around them and pounded it down. Back in business again.
The next thing was to put the clothesline back up. Had to take it down last fall when the trees were being trimmed. When the wind is strong, and the trees bend, it can pull the hooks out of the house. Has happened a few times.
You can pick up my latest book, "Mediterranean Mission," on Amazon for $2.99.

By the Shed

Back outside again. Still have some chores to do. The next thing to do was make a rack on the other side of the shed. I made the same type that I made for the firewood, except this time I gave it three shelves. Places to store different types of lumber, like 2x4's, etc. Still left to do there is to buy some lattice and put it up at the front of each rack. Sort of hides it from everybody.

Review: The Narrows (Harry Bosch, #10) by Michael Connelly

This story moves Bosch along in his life, pointing out that he has struggles like the rest of us. Of course, he is stubborn and ill mannered as usual. It brings together people from past stories, giving the author a chance to tie up loose ends. In the end Bosch is back to square one.
I did not like the mix of first and third person. Sometimes I stumbled when it changed direction. Enjoyed the visual imagery of disasters. The first half was slow but the second half went at full speed.

Hospital Visit.

      Last week I went to the hospital to visit a friend of mine. He's 76 yrs. old and he fell and broke his hip. That seems to happen a lot. As luck would have it, it was the day before his birthday. There was no one around, so he lay on the floor for awhile. In the end, an ambulance took him to the hospital. Then, the hospital climbed all over his wife.
"How could you do that? leave him all alone at home?"
"Well, why wouldn't I - there wasn't anything wrong with him until he fell."
      Sometimes, my friend has a bad attitude. The type that says, "No one is going to boss me around." Bad attitude for a hospital. They tell him that he's not allowed out of bed without assistance. But he didn't listen. He gets out of bed when no one is around and falls. So that caused a big panic. They were afraid he might have broken his other hip. But he didn't, just ended up with a lot of bruises.
       The other day, while his family was visiting him, he started to climb out of bed.
"Whoa, where are you going?"
"I'm getting up."
"Are you allowed to do that?"
"Sure, I can get up when I want."
"You just stay there until I ask a nurse."
      Well, the nurse came, gave him hell and told him to get back in bed. He'll be going home soon, I imagine, and I can see a lot of problems arising there.

From: The Narrows (Harry Bosch, #10)

I love this paragraph.

"Somewhere in the south, I don't remember where, we stopped for gas and there were two water fountains on the side of this service station. There were signs, you know. One said white and the other said colored. And I just sort of went up to the one marked colored because I wanted to see what color the water was."