I’m not nutty about two page chapters and this book is pretty much all two page chapters. Something else I don’t care for is pretty much figuring out what was going on and who-done-it within a few chapters (or pages, as it is with this book). I think the story is very humorous and fun about mysterious deaths near a tiki bar somewhere near southwest Florida. It’s just very light on giving you a strong sense of setting, preferring dialogue take its place.

The book surrounds a well known former attraction, Tiki Gardens. Click here to learn more about that. What surprised me is the lack of writing about the location and really defining the Bad Girl’s Bar and Grill as a place. I never could envision the bar while reading the book, so I envisioned the actual Tiki Gardens instead.

Just finished a book I’ve heard many recommend, ‘America Alone’ by Mark Steyn. This is a bit of a horror story of the potential future of the planet. Many of us have read about the changing demographics in America and around the world. Steyn brings a focus to this and implies its repercussions. Those are scary.

The reasoning is cogent which makes it more scary.

In that the census bureau just released numbers a few days ago to further back up this books conclusions, we had better set aside global warming and take this global warning and prepare for the worst.

Sandra and I headed to Orange County. Her for a conference. Me for a haircut at Jim’s Barber Shop. Unfortunately for me, Jim’s ill and his shears are taking a break, too.

That gave me time I didn’t expect, so I hit the bookstores. Picked up lots of goodies. Below are the best covers. All books I’ll probably never read. I’ll just admire the covers. I really like the layout of ‘Native Stone’. The Frank Lloyd Wright-ish structure with teh red tree-ish image and the placement of the T-square, also with red. All that imagery and the artist puts a watch on the guy. Interesting choices. I wonder why. The artist who created the very bottom art put no watch on the pirate. It seems to me pirates would want to know what time it is…Just wondering…

Later I picked up Sandra and headed to Sweet Tomatoes in Altamonte Springs. There we joined our good friends G.K. Sharman and James L. Saunders. Also joining the healthful buffet was my father. Good talk and plenty of cooking hints from Mr. Saunders.

After taking in the five books about Dean Martin, I thought I’d follow with a Matt Helm book. Donald Hamilton’s ‘The Menacers’ was part of one of Dean Martin’s Helm films. I like the sketchy style used on the Matt Helm covers. Very different from the more full-blown illustrations that were around at the time by folks like Robert McGinnis.

After Helm, I thought maybe I would read five action adventure spy books. I picked up Don Pendleton’s ‘Arizona Ambush’. This book stars the vengeful ‘Executioner’, who was the model for Marvel Comics ‘The Punisher’. It was pretty light and took place in the same general area of sand and heat of the Helm book. ‘The Executioner’ is on a mission to wipe out the mob and each of the series slowly does just that. You can read more about it here. Interesting series. More interesting the direction the publisher took the series after Hamilton moved on. THAT would be an interesting book!

The action adventure stuff is a bit much for me, so I turned to an author I haven’t read before, Ross MacDonald. Ross’ real name was Kenneth Millar. He was going to go under the pseudonym John Ross MacDonald, but another MacDonald was already soaring. The success of author John D. MacDonald had Kenneth drop his first non-name not long after his career started. As you can see by the cover above, this is an early novel of Millars…uh, John…uh, Ross….

What a great cover! No computer here. Look at those expressions. The light trying to make its way through the white cloth. The hand to the throat. There is unfortunately no credit given to the artist, of course.

I was going to go for five fictions as I did the five non-fiction, but caved when I finally found Mark Steyn’s America Alone in the bookstore. More about that when I finish it.

I was reading this great book by Dean Martin’s son Ricci and decided to catch up with four other books about Dino that I’ve picked up in the last several years. So, for me, it’s been a Dino Book Fest. Kinda like last Summer I read a slew of books about and by Bob Hope.

‘Martini Man’ is a biography of Dino and is very balanced. Of the five books, this is the only one that is an actual biography. The author really weighs and considers both sides of many issues and is not tough on most with the exception of Frank Sinatra.

‘Backstage at the Dean Martin Show’ is a wonderful book written by someone who must be a real nice guy, Lee Hale. Hale was a producer for nearly the entire duration of the program and all of its incarnations. No one is villified and Hale is careful to keep the focus on Dean and the program. And it’s full of stories of the stars that were part of the program.

Still another terrific book of Dino by his daugther Deana. Heart felt and stirring. Expecially about her actual mother, and Dean;s first wife, Betty. I wish there was much more about her in this and the other books. A tragic figure. A bright light snuffed by a fellow catapulted to super-stardom. The worst part of this book are the missing dates. So much happens without the bracing of the context of time.

Jerry Lewis’ co-title is ‘A Love Story’. That it is. Lewis really brings emotion to his relationship with Dean Martin. He even better defines Frank Sinatra’s feelings toward Dean. In Deana’s book it is mentioned that Lewis was working on this book and was at 3,000 pages. The co-author, James Kaplan, had a hell of a job stream-lining it to under 300. The book is very well-done, but with the knowledge that Lewis wrote so much more, you have to wonder what’s missing.

Since I started these books just after what would have been Dino’s 92nd bithday, June 7th, I have learned so much more of the truth and mythos. Reading all of the books together answers questions left by some and further leaves open other questions. Such as the details of who Betty Martin really was.

Addendum:

This is to answer Craig and Nancy’s question below.

I wrote about Sinatra twice above and I’m not sure which reference you all are referring to.

The first reference is about ‘Martini Man’. The author of that seems not to care for Sinatra and refers to instances in his book. It’d be tough to pull those all out and write about them here.

The reference in Jerry Lewis’ book is easier. Lewis views his relationship as big brotherly though rarely reciprocated. Interestingly, Dean Martin never gave Lewis a gift.

Sinatra also seemed to view Dean as a brother. Sinatra was a real playboy. Something Dino only somewhat was. Sinatra wanted Dean to go out all night and play and have fun. It seems Sinatra didn’t have many he would let or would do that on their own. Sinatra hoped the “brotherly” love would extend to Dean participating in Siantra’s playtime. It didn’t Dean was extremely private and played when he wanted. Sinatra reciprocated with his “brotherly” love and let him and moreover greatly respected and admired Dean Martin’s ability to live this kind of life.

One thing very clear in the five books I read was that as Dean started hitting the heights of success he relized what worked and what didn’t . He was extremely fortunate to have others in his life who understood this and worked with him, such as his wife Jeanne and Dean Martin Show producer Greg Garrison. Dean knew he worked best with what he immediately responded to. He avoided second takes and redoing a song or a scene. It seems Dean got an inkling about handling himself this way from Sinatra, who had similar leanings. Dean was extreme in this. Again, this is all well written about in the books.

Fellow cartoonist Tom Stemmle passed a tape of pre-recording sessions of Sinatra. During these pre-recording sessions you hear Sinatra, someone who didn’t like redo this and redo that. Do just that. I listened to Sinatra wanting an uptempo beat played into line 63 or if Nels (Nelson Riddle) could bring the bass in a little more with the brass. The last cut is with Siantra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean. Without reading the books I wouldn’t have noticed something different about the last pre-session on the tape. I could hear Sinatra making a request here and there. But at the same time I could hear how Sinatra was letting it go more, trying to get the session done faster. Dean makes the comment,” He said we’d be done in 5 minutes”. Sinatra had learned how to get Dean at his best and was working to get that and the sound he wanted as fast as he could and did.

Dean, an only child, had many “brothers”, whether he knew it or not.

This is one of two John D. MacDonald novels of “salvage consultant” Travis McGee I put off reading for a future date. I read the other 19 back in the late ’70s through the mid-80s. Back then I was concerned I would never be able to read a new McGee novel after the death of MacDonald in 1986.

On my 45th birthday May 10th I realized that, as the wise philosopher Snuffy Smith said: “Times A’Waistin’!” Thus I opened ‘A Deadly Shade of Gold’. I figure next year I’ll take on the last I haven’t read.

The funny thing is that I only partly remember the others, so I might as well read them again!

We spent the day visiting Sarasota and the bookstores there. From the old Charlie’s Newstand (or whatever it’s called today) to Parker Books to Helen’s Books to The Main Street Bookstore. We had  a very good lunch at El Greco Cafe. I drew the drawing on the right looking out the window to this building down the street.

We drove out of Sarasota and through Parrish into Plant City where we met my Aunt and long time friends Susie and Russell Noel and their family at Fred’s Market where we had another Fred’s outstanding meal. Many thanks to them for joining us. Getting home we had cake, ice cream and presents.

It’s been years since I read a Shell Scott mystery. This is an early story by Richard Prather and, I would believe, an early story about California religious cults. Many literary detectives have chased around these independent groups following a materialistically distorted view of Eastern myhos, what we now call ‘New Age’. One of the best selling being John D. MacDonald’s ‘Green Ripper’. 1950 was early for a story like this and, unfortunately for me, I’ve read a lot of the earlier stories and saw the ending of this before it happened. Still a well written story and, as always, the good guy wins. Though a bit roughed up for it in the end.