BITS & PIECES

Openers:  Katie had never been more surprised in her life than when the serious young man with the Charles Dana Gibson profile spirited her away from his friend and Genevieve.  -- P. G. Wodehouse, "Crowned Heads" (The Argosy, June 1914)

May Incoming:

• Edward S. Aarons, Assignment -- Angelina.  A Sam Durrell spy-guy adventure.
• Neil Asher, Prader Moon.  Science fiction novel in the Polity  series.
• "James Axler" (Mel Odom, this time), Outlander:  Sargasso Plunder.  Post-apocalyptic SF men's action adventure.
• Gregory Benford & George Zebrowsli, editors, Skylife:  Space Habitats in Story and Science.  SF anthology with 12 short stories and three essays.
• Kate Bernheimer with Carmen Gimenez Smith, editors, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me.  Anthology with forty modern takes on fairy tales from well-known (and mainly mainstream) authors.
• "Max Brand" (Frederick Faust) - Brothers of the Trail, Silvertip's Chase, and The Stolen Stallion.  Western novels all.
• [Buffy the Vampire Slayer], Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1.  Television tie-in omnibus of three YA novels:  Coyote Moon by John Vornholt, Night of the Living Rerun by Arthur Byron cover, and Portal Through Time by Alice Henderson.  Yeah, I'm a Buffy freak. (And don't get me started on Firefly.)
• "Sarah Caudwell" (Sarah Cockburn), The Sirens Sang of Murder and Thus Was Adonis Murdered.  Literate and legal mysteries featuring Hilary (is he a boy or is he a girl?) Tamar.  Great fun.
• Mark Cerasini, 24 Declassified:  Trojan Horse.  Original television tie-in novel feraturing human Eveready battery Jack Bauer.
• Gardner Dozois, editor, Nebula Awards Showcase 2006 and The Year's Best Science Fiction:  13th Annual Collection.  Two anthologies; the first covers the 40th Nebula awards with ten stories, a novel excerpt, two poems, and various commentary, the second collects 24 stories from 1995.  As an editor, Dozois was one of the most important influences on modern science fiction.  He will be missed.
• [Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine], five issues -- April 2003, September-October 2004, July 2004, May 2008, and August 2008.
• Medora Field, Blood on Her Shoe.  One of two mysteries published by the Georgia author (and friend of Margaret Mitchell).  A cemetery ghost hunt leads to murder.
• Jo Grossman & Robert Weibezahl, editors, A Second Helping of Murder.  Cook book with recipes and comment from 148 current mystery writers, plus a few other crime-related recipes.
• Donald Hamilton, The Removers  and  The Ambushers.  Spy-guy, the third and sixth outings, respectively, for Matt Helm, code name Eric.
• Henry Edward Helseth, The Chair for Martin Rome.   Suspense.  A condemned killer escapes, looking to settle some unfinished business.  This was made into a film starring Victor Mature and Richard Conte.
• Hans Holzer, Ghosts, Haunting & Possessions:  The Best of Hans Holzer, Book 1.  Holzer claimed to be a ghost hunter and inflicted a number of books about this bushwah and other occult topics on an innocent public.  As faithful Readers of this blog know, I am a sucker for this type of bullhockey.  The book was edited by Raymond Buckland (another bushwah artist) for Fate magazine. and, yes, there was a Book 2.
• Elmer Kelton, Buffalo Wagons.  Western.
• Donald Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real.  A classic UFO book from 1950.
• Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kohma, Lone Wolf and Cub, Volume 1:  The Assassin's Road.  Graphic novel.
• Cynthia Manson, editor, Murder Takes a Holiday.  Instant remainder mystery anthology with 43 stories culled from EQMM and AHMM.
• Yvonne Navarro, Final Impact.  SF novel about a rogue planet about to crash into Earth.
• Danielle Paige, Dorothy Must Die.  Fantasy novel that turns L. Frank Baum's Oz on its head.  The first in the series.
• Steven Popkes, Caliban Landing.  SF novel, part of the "Isaac Asimov Presents" series of yore.
• [A Prairie Home Companion], Pretty Good Joke Book, 4th edition.  Some pretty good jokes.
• Robert Randisi, editor, The Funeral of Tanner Moody.  Nine western stories about the title character told at his funeral.
• James Reasoner, Wind River.  Western, the first of seven books in the Wind River series.  This one is copyrighted by both James and Livia.
• David J. Schow, Gun Work.  A Hard Case Crime novel.  I have so many of these to catch up.  They are consistently readable.
• Georges Simenon, Maigret.  Mystery novel translate by Rob Schwartz.  Also known as Maigret Returns.
• Dan Simmons, Drood.  A haunting doorstop novel about Charles Dickens and his obsession with Drood.  Simmons is always a worth-while read.
• James Swallow, 24:  Live Another Day.  Television tie-in novel.  Jack Bauer goes through hell.  Again.

I've Been Reading:  Three teeth (and an accidental sliver of bone) removed this week has left me unequipped to concentrate on reading this week.  I did read Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Outlaw od Torn, the second novel he wrote, and enjoyed it despite its many freshman sophomore flaws.  I also read the third Michael Gray mystery from Henry Kuttner, Murder of a Mistress, a good journeyman work from that talented author.  All four of Kuttner's Michael Gray novels are being released in an omnibus edition from Haffner Press and it's about time; most have not been reprinted since their original paperback appearances in the late 1950s.  The glue on my copy of Murder of a Mistress gave up the ghost long ago and I had to read it like a pile of loose-leaf paper.  I've been working my way through John Connolly's He and Stephen King's The Outsider ever so slowly -- a reflection of the pain pills I'm on and not on the quality of either novel.

Not sure what's coming up, but a Bill Pronzini collection and a couple of Fritz Leiber books seem to be moving their way up on Mount TBR.

Toddler?:  POMOTUS met with parents of the victims of the Santa Fe High School shootings this week for about an hour.  One mother said it was like "talking to a toddler."  On the flip side, another mother was impressed with Trump's compassion.  I'm going with toddler.

Florida Woman!:  She was caught this week shaving her legs in a crowded hotel swimming pool.  "Of course this happened in Florida.  It's the trashiest state in the union," one person said.  As far as I can tell there is no law against this, although thanks to Florida Woman, there may well soon be.  Also, I have not been able to find out which hotel where this took place, so it may be best to avoid all Forida hotels.

The Ever-Evolving Florida Man:  Not to be outdone, Florida Man Robert Hardister was arrested for the eighteenth (at least) time.  The link below shows you how much this 26-year-old man has evolved over the past seven or eight years.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/weird-news/florida-mans-mugshots-tell-a-story-of-their-own

Killer Plastic:  A whale in Thailand has died after swallowing more than 80 plastic bags.  Attempts to save the whale proved futile, although the whale did regurgitate five of the bags.  Thailand is one of the world's largest users of plastic bags and hundreds of sea creatures die on its shores each year from ingesting the plastic.  This idea of mankind being the shepherds of the earth is not working out very well.

Happy Birthday, Val McDermid!:  My wife wants you to write some more Tony Hill novels, PDQ!

A Moment's Indulgence:

I ask for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side.  The works

that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.

Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest or respite,

and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.

Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and

the bees are plying their minstrelry at the court of the flowering grove.

Now it is time to sit quiet, face to face with thee, and to sing

dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.

     -- Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)