Here’s the illustration I drew live Saturday during Ha-ba-Da-Bee off the top of my head of a squirrel family cookin’ some vittles! Hope you all have a family cook out soon! Psst! leave a few bites for the squirrels while yer at it! 🙂

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lilian Jackson Braun
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What a messy story. A slew of mysteries declared, large amount of deaths and significant destruction all while the “hero” Qwill seems lost as he meanders from one oral history interview after another. The diamond key in the story is glossed over, though in the title and pops up and ignored throughout the book until the last couple of pages. Should be obvious for those who know.

Seems Braun bit off more than she could chew and got lost along the way. I can see her base foundation of the story, after reading the book. I believe she started with that and went backward to create the story. While doing that, she dumps characters, new and old, into the plot and destroys structures only to back her base. Then doesn’t back any of that up with realistic reaction as her focus is the base, not a consistent story. Main characters has losses in this book and never seems to care.

Except he is always obsessed with the cats. I believe I’m a bit obsessive about cats, but his losses here are Huge and personal and he just doesn’t care. That’s ridiculous.

I love the intent of her base foundation of the story, but she badly botches the execution.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

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The Cat Who Played Brahms by Lilian Jackson Braun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another of the clunky Braun tales. Drawn out prose wrapped up too quickly and too neatly and too unbelievable. Odd reading these as I run the ‘Midsomer Murder’ series that has the same formula. The HUGE plus of these books are the cats that Braun knows how to write better than any other I’ve read.

The characters are still a bit much with settings loosely written. A plot that should be tighter. The writing done very well.

Still a good story and fun little asides. Also, I’m now writing for a publication and this motivates me more to get the typing done. Something the main character has trouble doing in this volume.
I’ll continue to the next.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.

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Penciled and inked this Tuesday. Wednesday added watercolor and set up this week’s panel for the The Log Whisperer at Old Log Houses by Thomas page. The finished version will show up there sometime soon.

The Case of the Perjured Parrot by Erle Stanley Gardner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The ‘Perjured Parrot’ is a more complex Mason tale than others I’ve read. These earlier books are better written and thought out. This book has a lot going on and kept me guessing. Though, one part, left to the very end, was very obvious to me. The parrot inclusion is a ridiculous addition and the entire book would’ve been better without it.

The dialogue is worth the reading as Gardner appears to be having a lot of fun writing it. The light touch helps move the story along.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.

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Jewels of Gwahlur by Robert E. Howard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Seems to me this was one of Howard’s easier books to write. He just rolled a Maguffin out towards the horizon and came up with a story of Conan chasing it. Sure starts easy involving climbing and meandering about looking for something or other. Then the girl gets dropped in and Conan is distracted from his mission. There’s a bit of folderol of Conan acting like Perry Mason and it all ends as most Conan stories do.

I’m filing through these tales and still struck by Howard’s inventiveness of another world with beings, sounding much like humans, in other-wordly structures. Would love to have seen what Howard might’ve produced if he’d lived another 30 years.

Still puzzled by the faddish mis-understanding of Howard’s work as others write of “racism” and the like. Howard writes of somewhere, some-when else. Current faddish American name-calling being bandied about can not apply. Seems folks aren’t reading Conan as Howard intended.

As usual Howard just doesn’t know how to write of structures. At one point he writes of Conan being in a “bowl-like” area, but never explains that further or have Conan involved with scaling inclines, or the reverse, involving a bowl-like shape.

I rank this of one of the lesser tales I’ve read so-far.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 5 out of 5 points.

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