55 Books in a Year: Book #48 The Bloody Spur

"But when they should endure the bloody spur, 
They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades, 
Sink in the trial. Comes his army on?"
~Julius Caesar Act IV; Scene 2

I love film noir and I love classic pulp fiction. There's just something about an underpaid under-appreciated guy looking for the truth, trench-coat flapping, cigarette burning. Cleaning my classroom this summer I found a bunch of old books and in that pile was this lovely book The Bloody Spur (1st edition, opposite of mint condition). I cataloged the book and looked to see if they had it on the Nook, as I knew I wanted to read it, but didn't want to hurt the spine or break the cover any more than it already was.

Just, so you know last month they began to offer this classic pulp novel as an ebook and it's only $.99. It's got a few typos, but still it's a fun read.

The story opens with the funeral of a prominent newspaper man. At the grave-site and across the way there's a procession for a murdered secretary, the second, they believe, in a row of ghastly murders committed by the same evil man.

And, like any good piece of pulp this book goes off on many devious and bawdy tangents. There are four men vying for the spot left vacant by the newsman's death. These men are sleeping with their secretaries, one hires his mistress to seduce and blackmail someone else, there's lying and thieving and conniving and in the middle of it all there's these grisly murders. Based on real life events:

In 1952, he wrote a successful book called the "Bloody Spur," which was based on the crimes of William Heirens, the "Lipstick Killer," who terrorized Chicago in the mid-1940s. Movie director Fritz Lang later made the book into a celebrated 1956 film noir called "While the City Sleeps," which was set in New York.

Now, I've got to just find that movie...although, I'm sure it's taken out all the juicy bits. 

55 Books in a Year: Book #42 The Garner Files

I have a wee bit of a confession (I love this blog for that reason) I love James Garner. I have loved James Garner for as long as I can remember. The Rockford Files used to come on after school, right before Scooby-Doo and I would walk home really fast so I wouldn't miss it. My first memory of him is in Rockford. He's lying on the grass with some chick (I don't really care who) and he's wearing a cream-colored cable-knit sweater. At the tender age of about 7, even I knew that not every man could pull off a cream colored cable-knit sweater.

I received The Garner Files for Christmas. Chris knew I wanted it...at least I hope he did. Every time we went to the bookstore I touched it or held it, I may have even said I wanted it...maybe. Anyway, I received it for Christmas, but I also received my Nook Tablet for Christmas--it was a miracle Christmas.

I read it a little and then, well, I read my Nook...it wasn't James Garner's fault by any means. His book is filled with all the wonderfulness of the stories of a gentleman who has lived a pretty glorious and awesome life. It was me. It was the darned light up screen and ease of travel. It was the fact that I didn't want to buy the book on my Nook.

And, then something marvelous happened, in hind-sight anyway, my Nook's cord broke and while waiting for a replacement I had to go on a trip to Chicago for a conference. On the way there I read a little James, in between sessions I read a little James and the 2nd night in I finished it.

Really, it's just that good.

It's hard for me to separate James Garner from Thomas Evans, my grandfather. Garner has a no nonsense approach to living. He sued the movie industry not to make money, but because it was the right thing to do. He punches liars and cheaters. He works just as hard as he plays. He loves cars and racing and golf and the out of doors. He loves his daughters and his wife and women. He values hard-work, honesty and ownership. And, he owns a lot in this book...he isn't perfect, but he is moral.

I love that he mentions Rob Lowe in this book because I couldn't help feeling that they both have a lot in common and, just like when I read Rob's book, I couldn't help but think about how cool it would be to meet James Garner and how awesome it would be just to talk with him about pretty much anything.

In his book we see a man that truly as lived life with no regrets. Many people talk about how this book has been narrated by a gentle curmudgeon. I don't disagree, however, James Garner's no nonsense attitude about his fame, his family, and his lot in life is something to be emulated and revered.

He would hate the praise, but he'd take it.

Sidenote: Several years ago James Garner and entourage came through our town. A student met him and the conversation about it went a little something like this.

Student: "There was some old guy who came in to get a cup of coffee at the store last night, my manager says he's famous."
Me: "Oh, really what has he been in?"
Student: "I dunno some show where he was a cowboy and another where he drove this really cool car. My manager was showing me pictures. He's names like Gardner or something."
Me: "Oh my gosh! You met James Garner and you don't even understand how awesome that is!?"
Student: "What, oh, I have his autograph on a receipt...that's cool, right!?"
Me: "What did he say to you?"
Student: "He just some plain coffee."
Me: "And...?"
Student: "That's it. I don't know. He was talking to my manager."
Me: "Gah, that's so unfair!"

I'm still whining about my not getting to meet James Garner. Sad day.

Link to a pretty cool review...I must say I'm a little jealous of her fan club card.

55 Books in a Year: Book #41 Lost in the River of Grass

I've been lost three times in my life. Once was with my friend when I was in 6th grade. We were riding our bikes and took one too many unknown turns and ended up in a field on a gravel path. It wasn't really that scary we'd packed a lunch, had planned on having an adventure and, in my small home town, all we had to do was pedaled to the top of the hill (hard on gravel, but not impossible) to see in what direction we needed to pedal to get back to town.

The second time involved my sisters and my grandparents house in the country. It was a little dicer, but still not that bad. We'd been walking in the fields and ended up walking to a creek out of sight of the house. We sat under a shady tree to cool down and tried to walk back the way we came, but ended up at the bottom of an, I swear, 90 degree hill. At the top of the hill we could see the house. Without food or water it was kind of hard to get up the hill and about half-way up we sat down...bad idea if you are trying to climb a vertical hill in the summer heat. but, we crawled up encouraging each other to get to the flat surface where the fence and yard were. Right when we thought we couldn't go any farther we heard our aunt calling us. She could see us and lifted the barbed wire to let us in. We were scolded with kisses and kool-aid and cold baths. She hadn't thought we were lost at all as she could see us from the dining room window the whole time.

The third time was something else entirely as it involved hiking in the dark unknown. It was my second year of teaching and a group of us had gone hiking. We left early and got to the natural bridge and creek at a wonderful time of day. The only problem was the seed ticks in our socks. We tried to follow the same path back, but it started getting dark and we lost our way. We were in a national park, but hadn't signed the post to say we were going to be in there. It grew pitch black and we didn't have any flashlights. We were not prepared for a night hike. It felt like we were going in circles and the seed ticks didn't help either. We ended up hiking up a hill in the dark straight into someone's back yard. These people were kind enough to take us to our cars.

After reading the book Lost in the River of Grass by Ginny Rorby I realize I've never been lost at all, and I'm not sure I could survive if I were left to my own devices in some sort of wilderness.

Sarah is a misfit at her preppy school. The girls make fun of her clothes, her mom works in the cafeteria and her dad isn't really in construction, he's a construction worker. She goes on the class field trip to the Everglades to hopefully get to know the students in her class better. Her hand-me down clothes and old camera just make her more out of place and when it's only her teacher giving her the time of day. She decides to take the scary advice of a local boy; she decides to go in an airboat into the Everglades. 

There are so many aspects of this book that are just beautiful, will do an excellent job of reeling in reluctant readers and are honest and real. Ginny makes a point to give us clues into Sarah's life but not everything comes to light until the end. Each chapter is divided up into how many days the kids are in The Glades. In Andy, we find a character who's life seems to mirror Sarah's own, however, Andy doesn't have the kind of parental support and therefore doesn't have the same opportunities. However, Andy is more than just your typical boy and Sarah isn't that 'fraidy cat girl she seems to be at the beginning. Finally, we have the Everglades. In this forest of water and trees we find all that is wonderful about nature and all that is deadly. There are gators and gator-crushing pythons, poisonous snakes, fire ants, Palmetto bugs (which I guess is a fancy Florida word for large roaches) and a baby duck named Teapot. 

In the end, I forgot all about how a stupid mistake got them into this mess and I forgot to think of the wilderness as scary instead I focused on the social and emotional issues of being a teenager and of being true to who you are. Rorby doesn't fail in giving us much to talk about at the end and over at YA Reads, we've talked about everything from the baby duck, to believable characteristics, to the wilderness, to what it means to be a teenager, to the cover of the latest edition. Yes, this book is that good and has that much going on. I loved every breathless minute!

55 Books in a Year: Book #39 Warrior's Rise

Warrior's Rise is unlike any book that I have ever read. I suppose that's why I chose it for my book that is outside of my typical genre in my Summer Reading Game.

It's Urban Fantasy with a bit of Spicy Romance...according to KotRT (which is where I received this book), "Spicy" means that there's on screen sex scenes that are written in an artistic and less graphic manner. Sure, I've read urban fantasy and, sure, I've read spicy romances, but never together.

I'm not sure how I feel about the romance aspect. There's nothing more off-putting than reading about demons and the Dark Lord and then having a bonded couple 'coo' terms of endearment. Please do not misunderstand...I love that Deva and Padraig learn from and grow because of each other. I find it interesting that the Goddess has deemed this so because of a past mistake she created. I just wish I wasn't made aware of it all of the time.

That being said...let's break this book down...

Cover: um, yeah, no...I would never have bought this book based on the cover...it looks like cheap porn and not at all like the feel the book gives...even the fonts are wrong.

Characters: At first Deva seemed a little too tough and then she seemed a little too girlie and weak, when she got to be about right the book was over. I think this character progression was on purpose. Padraig was also a character who progressed nicely. My only complaint is that there are too many. This book moves like one of those sweeping sagas...only it isn't that long and I got lost in all the character names, personalities and actions. There were sooo many characters floating around that sometimes I didn't know which were good or had a hint of evil and, sadly I didn't care when any died. And, a lot do.

Plot and Setting: Seriously, fun story about the Dark Lord coming back to claim Earth and the Goddesses' ultimate weapon, Deva, must save the world. It's cool to read a story that moves like fantasy, but is set in the world of Hum-Vs and technology. DeLeon does an excellent job of conveying this world and I love the descriptions of places in the United States that I know mixed with ancient stories. I enjoyed the battle scenes loads.

Style and Pacing: This book had strange pacing that made it really hard for me to get into the first half of the book. I kept on thinking that I'd skimmed over something only to go back and reread and recognize that nothing was missing. There's much detail given to whole days to have weeks summed up in a few paragraphs and whole scenes would sometimes last pages, while weeks would be glossed over. I'm not really sure how much time is given to the whole novel. It seems like years, but I think it's only supposed to be a month or two.

So, while this book is not quite American Gods or The Chronicles of Amber (the only other urban fantasies I can think of that I have read), I enjoyed the added romance novel twist and look forward to reading the 2nd book.

Suggested Summer Reading

Keeping Summer Reading, fresh, fun, priority one
from Teachmama.com

So, I read this post at No Filter Mom about suggested Summer reading for her (sit down for this one please) 5 year old. Here's the post if you are interested in reading it.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole idea for summer reading for little people. I know that I am the kind of parent who has already looked at and bought or asked for books on the list for toddlers and I like the idea of suggested reading at that age because I'm sure there are parents who wouldn't do it otherwise.

But, what about those of us that would? I know that there are people out there who would read to their kidlets all the books on the list, spending the summer checking out the whole list. I know that's what I'd do and I'd make it fun and hopefully help instill a love of reading in my tiny person.

I'm all for summer reading, really. Every year I am amazed that there are students in Honors Sophomore English who complain about the summer reading/don't do the summer reading/don't read at all. It is over-whelming to me that students will perfect their sports skills by doing two-a-days in the hot summer heat, they will hewn their band perfection by practicing their instruments and marching, but many of them will not read to advance their comprehension skills. Not only can I not get these kiddos to read Of Mice and Men and Anthem in the summer (two books totaling about 300 pages), but they don't read for pleasure...no Romance novels, no silly YA adult fiction, no mysteries, they don't talk about books, they don't write about books...it makes me sad.

What does reading do for you? Well...

1] it increases your vocabulary
2] it increases your writing and speaking skills
3] it gets you to think
4] it increases your cultural literacy and background knowledge
5] it makes learning fun!

And, if you practice it everyday, think about how smart you'd be!

But, I suppose I'm preaching to the choir on this one...

"A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others."

~ Abraham Lincoln

The students that succeed are those that are AVID readers. I just hope all this summer reading at the elementary level doesn't turn them off to reading the way the implementation of the Advance-Reading (AR) program has.

What do you think about summer reading programs?