Davey’s Adventures with the Clyde Beatty by Jane Beatty and Ann Pinchot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a terrific book! I’ve read quite a bit, experienced and have friends with many circus tales. This volume covers so much in such a short book. The book is intended for children as is explained early in the book. Yet, there are a number of mature instances of responsibility, not including that Davey’s family let’s him go off to the circus by himself for almost two weeks. I could see the temporary morays of today’s public being up-in-arms about some content in the book.

Setting that aside, Davey’s experiences are very well written and described. There is a lot of concisely written description included. From clown makeup application to setting up circus tents.
A little side note: If my animal rights friends had read this book,they would never have protested a circus. 🙂
Reading this book had me wondering if Beatty and Pinchot had made up situations described. But, as I read, it synced with so much I’ve read and experienced. The writing is just that well done.

I also found the descriptions of Clyde Beatty’s involvement true to life. You’d think, wife, Jane would have her husband throughout the book. Instead he only makes a few appearances involving encounters with Davey, as a circus owner would in real life.

A very impressive volume. Could it be longer? More extensive? Sure. But this works just right.

One issue is the placement of photographs. There are obviously photos that match the narrative, but, instead, the photos are scattered across the book and only early few match the writing.

Florida connection: Clyde Beatty Circus had their Winter Quarters near DeLand, Florida. The only location mentioned beyond “Today’s Town” was Snake River at one point. Otherwise, none of the circus stops described , or the photographs, mention location. Even when the Winter Quarters are noted, the location of that is not stated.

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

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Spirou – l’espoir malgré tout by Émile Bravo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’m going to refer those looking for my review to see the review I placed for the first part of this story.

I find this second entry as pretentious as the first. There are a few better scenes that probably should have been the core of this still-another-retread of WWII. But these are fleeting glances and the story continues on the overly-familiar ground.

Again, the characters of Spirou and Fantasio are flushed away for this emotive mess that avoids a typically creative plot.

Where this one fails greatest is the very ending with a cliff hanger of Spirou about to enter an impossible arena.
The solution in any other Spirou & Fantasio romp I could hardly wait for the creative solution.
Why do I have a sinking feeling a train wreck is ahead? That would anger me if the plot deteriorates to that level.

Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 3 out of ten points.

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The Z Rises Again by Tome
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After the first two very well done, extensive entries in this tale spread over a few decades, this is more reflective of it’s time as a much simpler, less involved story.
After the first two books, this seems more a side bar.

This smaller story takes the science fiction angle of time travel into the future in the one Zorglub story that precedes this one is continued here. The transition from one period to the other is oddly handled with a more metaphysical take, I don’t think works well.

While in this other dimension the artistic efforts are well handled depicting location and machinery.
The well-done characters are the same as before.

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

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Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-Defying Saga of the American Circus by Les Standiford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Often seems Les Standiford is one of the few writers today who knows how to write. Here he goes again!
This is a fantastic book bridging tough subjects and winnowing all to this tight volume of lives and pursuit of success.
Since this dovetails with Florida history, I, again, create the bulk of the review in my Swampy’s Florida podcast:

https://anchor.fm/swampysflorida/epis…

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.

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Bar-Room Ballads by Robert Service
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nifty collection of verse by Robert Service. Most are great fun or a nifty story with a twist.
Favorites are ‘The Ballad of Lenin’s Tomb’, ‘Security’, ‘The Ballad of Casey’s Billy-goat’. My favorite is ‘The Ballad of the Ice-Worm Cocktail’.
Each are well thought out and written.

Two items to note: The “Bar-Room” part of the title is misleading. The entries are not of any specific subject and just a couple even mention a bar.

Of greater note is that this collection was published in 1940 in the U.K. just as all Hell was about to break loose across England.
The last 7 or so verses by Service are anti-war and pointedly against sending soldiers to war.
I’m guessing this book sold poorly as that information got around those in Great Britain.

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

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The Burning by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Another Frank Morgan tale. This one reaches a bit too far as Frank builds a city….with random gun play involved.

It’s all very silly. The main character is strapped with too much cash. Angry at some bad guys, he takes his cash and starts having churches, banks, jails, etc built. Just to spite the bad guys. The excuse given is the “Drifter’ sometimes doesn’t want to drift and wants to stop and settle in. That would be fine,if he was to stay there and upcoming books were about his being in the town. Readers know he’s building it for no reason other to then drift. Thus the ending is apparent. I find this approach frustrating. A better approach would’ve been to have Morgan with a wealthy companion and they both built the town and the companion stayed behind.

This one also has the now, after 7 other volumes, familiar ending of chapters with a gunfight is to occur. The beginning of the next chapter has the gunfight occur. Then someone doesn’t die and a few pages goes on with drivel about why someone doesn’t get a doctor for the dying man. Geez. A few times is OK, but this happens through a few chapters and many books.

The plot is good, but construction falters in logic and, I found, the tale falls in. Making it worse is an odd stringing out of the ending which appears to be more padding than adding to the story. Adding to that is the representation of a continuation of the story in the next volume. That doesn’t happen, which is just another frivolous bit of the book.

Another complaint is another set of sheriffs/barkeeps/store owners/etc. that are near duplicates from other volumes. More of the mechanical effort.

Finally the title has nothing to do with the contents of the book.

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

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The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice by Wilkie Collins
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I usually like Wilkie Collins work. This book gets mired in being over written for the first 2/3rds and, less then than now, typical cute playing games with names ploy. I knew where the book was going early on.

The story starts with a couple characters that are caught in romance and then there’s a bit of trading places and then a death. Then a disappearance. Then the story really drags as the pieces of the story get shuffled further. The last third of the book is the best part of the story, but not worth all to go through to get there. Especially as i saw it all coming in the first 5th of the book.

The characters are very good. A few are too much alike adding confusion to the similarity of names. Very good dialogue. The settings described is the best part of the book. The exterior and interior structures well place the reader at the scenes.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 4 out of 10 points.

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Showdown by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘The Last Gunfighter’ series is appearing to be the better of the many Johnstone Clan series. This one one starts badly and then continues into a fun tale.

It’s a tired tale, even among the hundreds of Johnstone Clan books. The book tumbles into the premise with a whole series of outsiders suddenly finding the famous Frank Morgan. How this happens is not really explained except for some mention of detectives. Considering the book states Morgan happened to the town, that was quick work by detectives and travel from the northeast to Arizona.

All goes awry as the outsiders plans go out-of-control as bad guys will be bad guys. Seems a stretch the outsiders – not a one – expected even the potentiality. All leads to the fun of Frank Morgan cleaning out the mess. That is the fun and worth of the book.

Writing is standard Johnstone clan. Many characters are duplicates of so many before. Dialogue standard. Great characters.

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

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Z Is For Zorglub by André Franquin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To note: The past couple of years I’ve been adding comic/graphic novels to the reading list to keep my head in a good part of my training: Sequential storytelling.

This is the best of the Spirou series I’ve read. The plot is rather simple. It’s the execution and all tied to it that has this a more complicated and fulfilling graphic novel. The bad guy is well introduced through pages and then a splash of an image. From that point the tentacles of the plot spread and snares all in one form or other. How the duo heroes and squirrel and the odd animal get caught up and wrapped into the story is full of clever situations and good storytelling. One welcome missing element are pages of slapstick.

The artwork is very good. Especially negotiating through large crowds and giant machinery.

A major drawback is the font and size used throughout. With such an involved tale, the font setting makes too much hard to read.

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

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Tom and Jerry Wordless Graphic Novels by Christopher Harbo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Instead of purchasing this, best spend less for any of the ‘Tom & Jerry’ comic books that existed from the ’40s through the ’80s. This volume is a poorly illustrated, greatly lacking tale. Sequential story telling isn’t difficult. The ones that put this together have a lot to learn. Making all of this worse is that this is basically a rehash of earlier ‘Tom & Jerry’ tales. The difference is a cell phone is inserted. There was so much that could’ve been done here! And with far less words!

A plus to the earlier comics, besides better stories and art, is that there are more of them. This book has just one story. One of those old Gold Key comics might run you a dollar to, maybe, ten, tops from a local comic book store. You can check E-Bay, too. That is the best direction for ‘Tom & Jerry’ printed material.

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

I should note I got access to this volume via the #NetGalley service for a review.

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Spirou & Fantasio in Moscow by Tome
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is an entry that has some fantastic artwork, but the execution of the story was poorly thought out. Not helping is a far too complicated tale for the limits of the usual length of these tales.

Too much gets confusing with two problems.
1) The inclusion of actual Russian and then a playful use of fonts that turn certain letters backwards to present the feel of Russian. Some of the Russian is translated. Some of it has an asterisk to see a footnote at bottom. The inconsistency makes the story hard to read and know where to look at any one point.
2) The illustrations are handled in a more erratic style that makes understanding what’s going on. That and distinguishing characters.
The two problems together create a story hard to get through.
Then the ending is unsatisfying.

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

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