The Canceled Czech by Lawrence Block

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Certainly one of the hallmarks of a Block book is his laying out a story that scampers in many directions. He does this with the deft ability to create intriguing characters beyond the central figures. His stories solid with very good writing. This is one in the series that I, at this point, like best.

Favorite part involved getting tangled in a wedding.

Bottom Line: i recommend this book. 9 out of ten points.



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Busy day for me, and so many others who volunteered, at the Marion County’s 175th anniversary celebration. I’m exhausted! 

I was floored by the number of people I knew at the event covering a three areas I’m active in: History, environment and politics. It was great to cross introduce folks.

I was part of the North Marion County History area. There I work on an illustration of Marion County history using no pencils and working mostly with brushes. I only did two individual drawings for a couple of children there. Later I was the last of a series of speakers of local history.

Descriptions with each photo. More photos over at my Swampy’s Florida.

Been busy working around the house and attending meetings this week. Was even a speaker at one. 

Gotten back to pen on paper the last couple of days. Below are a couple bits of work. Have a lot more to do. 

I’ll be drawing lots Saturday at the Marion County’s 175th anniversary celebration in Ocala at the McPherson Complex. I’ll be speaking also. Come on by!

Mother West Wind “When” Stories by Thornton W. Burgess

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A friend sent me in search of these books almost 4 years ago. I found three of the set in February. Before delivering the books, i decided to read the books to see why these books are so hard to find.

I’m still wondering why these are so popular. Basically each story is set up as a template with an animal inserted. The tale is the same with only the details of the fantasy of how an animal got thy it is. Seems to me even a child would tire of the same story over and over.

What could save these is excellent writing. The writing is OK, if not ponderous. Not excellent.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this collection of stories. 5 out of 10 points.



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After a mid-day meet of the North Marion Historical Research Society Sunday, I spun out to the 88 Store and Pub and took the #FloridaTrail north through the Ocala National Forest a couple miles and back.

Including Marion County makes 7 hikes in 7 counties. I wonder if I can make it 8?

Back to artwork Monday!

Venom of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This ghost writer of the Johnstone Clan I’ve read in other Johnstone books and is the worse. The narrative is driven with endless questions from all of the characters. Throughout the book characters act or react with a question. Worse, many answers are also questions. Sheesh! Of course, the only way to do this is to have little understanding of the characters and write most all of them the same way. In that the greatest strength of the Johnstone Clan series are distinct characters, this under mines the possibility of a good book.

The poor handling of characters are the worse part of the book. The star of the series is entirely botched in the writing. The inconsistencies are too many to note. The death of a character important to Smoke is written in an off-handed way. Other Mountain Man books, especially one with involvement of Johnstone himself, have been written with a fierce reaction from Smoke. Here he nearly breaks into tears. The greatest failing is when Smoke is told where kidnapped individuals are and then does nothing to get them until much later.

There’s a very surreal turn in which characters are quoting Shakespeare, Longfellow and various other classic writers and playwrights. Others suddenly change character and become brilliant at strategy and negotiation in dialogue not matching insecure dialogue earlier and later in the book.

And what on earth was the writer thinking with just about ever character at some point “chuckling”? Do 14 year olds “chuckle”?

Then there is the obvious plot. The bad guy is known from the start but is written as if a giant surprise occurs at the end. And what a Horrible ending. Over 300 pages wrapped in a few sentences.

There’s a decent story here. It’s recycled from other Johnstone books where it has been done far, far better.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 3 out of 10 points.



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Great Ideas from the Great Books by Mortimer J. Adler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I started this book with the intent of picking it up every so often and get a dose of Adler. That’s what I did. Trouble was as I picked it up and put it down,the book got a away from me for months. I couldn’t find it and I was busy. Finally it was found and I was back to picking up and putting down. In the past couple of weeks I realized I need to finish this thing! i have most of the rest of the Adler library. Best finish this and get on to the next book. So I did.

This is a wonderful collection of columns covering a slew of issues in a question and answer fashion. The book is like a Q & A version of Adler’s ‘Six Great Ideas’. As usual, Adler’s writing is crisp and clear. The answers also balanced with various views. Amazing to realize that Adler crafted his answers into such a short column. I wonder how much work was done in editing? Must have been really tough to make the column inch each week. He surely wrote far more than seen. Hundreds of years of philosophical thought boiled into a column.

That’s the other amazing thing to realize, this column would not survive in a newspaper today. Today’s crowd is lacking the intellect to read writings like this weekly.

Bottom line: i strongly recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.



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Ghost Sniper by Scott McEwen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I peeked at a couple reviews before reading and thought I would be disappointed with this book. After finishing the book I learned the reviewers were not paying attention to the story or maybe only read the 4 th book oin the series. That is a must before reading this entry: Read the series in order to under stand what is happening to these characters.

This is the best of the four novels. In each the characters are being manipulated by one person. The author duo do not overtly explain this.There is plenty of evidence, but the reader has to pay attention. In the 4th book, the manipulator has had a jolt and finds themselves in a position of control, the last place this person should be, because here he can lose full control. The author duo do a top notch job job of setting up and unfolding a very complex plot where some of the best parts are not written.

The writing is still OK, but the story is well worth it.

Bottom line: i recommend this book: 9 out of ten points.





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Back to entertaining! Celebrating Purim at a synagogue near The Villages tonight!

I don’t generally post this sort of thing, but the history side of me wants to share this. Please know your history.:

“You have 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 g-g-grandparents, & 32 g-g-g-grandparents. With an average of 25 years between each generation, this means that during the past 500 years, there were 1,048,576 people–all contributing to the production of you!”

(Twitter friend posted this marking it by an author, Diana Gabaldon.)

The Magic Crystal by Mœbius

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I am determined to try science fiction this year. Specifically the Florida based series by Piers Anthony. Thought i’d try this to prepare. If this is any indication, i’m not getting through Anthony.

The story is some kind of search for crystals with space ships and various typical fantasy creatures. Pretty clear that when the story needed to go some where, some fantasy device is used to move a space. All silly hocus-pocus nonsense.

The artwork is weak in all ways but in the depiction of landscapes.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 2 out of 10 points.



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