Heart of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

* Just to note: Due to illness and a hafty workload, I’ve fallen behind my goal of 100 books in 2018. So, I’m reading through a series of Mountain Man books to catch up.*

The book that preceded this one, ‘Guns of the Mountain Man, was just terrible. A bulk of the book were pages and pages of previous books framed as a flashback. Here the formula continues to a lesser extent.

I don’t know what was happening in the Johnstone Clan stable at the time of the publication of this book. Was Johnstone fighting illness now and unfinished books were filled with other content to beef them up? Was Johnstone thinking such reflection necessary? But why at 25 books into the series such a dramatic change of course? There had been reflection in past books occasionally, but not at the rate of ‘Guns’ and then this one, ‘Heart of the Mountain Man’.

Instead of Smoke’s wife being kidnapped, this time it’s the sheriff’s with not unexpected results ensuing. One plus is references to various characters that populate the town and area usually not mentioned much after their initial appearance. The writing is fine. The characters always good. The settings lacking.

The title stinks and cover art useless. I get the tradition of the one word followed by ‘of the Mountain Man’, but I’m dumbfounded why better words are hardly ever used at this point. That and just any ol’ tin type form hundred plus years ago is tacked on the cover. I know this changes later, but, unfortunately not much for the better.

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

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* Just to note: Due to illness and a hafty workload, I’ve fallen behind my goal of 100 books in 2018. So, I’m reading through a series of Mountain Man books to catch up.*

Guns of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I don’t know what was happening within the Johnstone Clan stables in the late ’90s, when this book was published. Perhaps they were grappling with the few series of books they were chugging out at the time or this is when William Johnstone began getting ill, ultimately leading to his death in 2003. Whatever was occurring, this book should never have seen the light of day. As with Mountain Man books just previous to this one, the book stinks.

The worse of this book is re-re-re-re-revisiting the story of Smoke stopping the “tree”ing of a town. As the Johnstone Clan has proven later in the 2000s, as the Johnstone seemingly-nearly-endless series began, there are a ton of other stories to create beyond the treeing of a town. Again, i believe something was going wrong at the time with the Johnstones and these books were pumped out to fulfill contracts.

Next worse, is the horrible & lazy act of filling about 3/7ths of the book with content of other books. As a writer myself, I know it would be easier to write in fluffy filler, than researching sections of older books and cut and paste into the newer. I believe this gets back to problems in the Johnstone stable where multiple people were assembling these books and adding earlier sections of books to fluff out a short story written by someone else, all the while fighting deadlines for their contracts. I’d hate to think the filler was intentional. Filler cheats the reader and is wrong.

Next is the story. No surprises. Nothing new. In fact, an old location is used and a shorter version of the original story with the location is presented. More cheating the reader.

Characters are very good, as, I believe, is the hallmark of the Johnstone Clan series. A huge boo-boo is made involving one main character who’s dialogue is written one way in the actually story, but written differently in section cut in from another book.

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

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Burglars Can’t Be Choosers by Lawrence Block
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I do like Block’s writing very much, but as I wade further into his work, the plotting and core stories are proving the lack of an ability to construct a cogent story.

This was the first of a series involving a burglar who finds himself in larger stories than his choice of occupation. This first story is a surprise to start off with as I ended the book and looked back on a convoluted tale with tacked on characters. It all made sense when I read the postscript by author Block in the 1994 edition of the book, basically, explaining the ending came from a person he lodged with in his travels. Sounds like emotion got the better of reason and produced a ridiculous solution to a crime that no part of law enforcement could prosecute.

His characters are, again, top notch. They seem for real, despite many used just for window dressing.

Nevertheless, Blocks writing make the silly trip worthwhile again. I shall continue with his books for that reason only.

Bottom line:
I don’t recommend this book (Unless you want to read Block’s writing). 5 out of 10 points.

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Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m becoming more and more a fan of du Maurier. This is another tale so very well written and enthralling.

One thing I really like about du Maurier is her writing of characters. All are distinct and most very memorable. Her tales are pretty simple is the characters and the setting and dialogue that raise the book above simply plotting.

Much like Frank Slaughter she does a terrific job of creating the backdrop of her literary theater. Her writing of period London, Cornwall, Frenchman’s Creek, the ship and homes are well constructed and you can place yourself and, more importantly the characters in the scenes. You can almost hear the echo as the main character enters her Cornwall home at the beginning of the book.

This is a very romantic tale and conjured up memories of Barbara Cartland. Though far better written.

A side note: I love the cover by one of my favorite illustrators, Charles Geer.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 7 out of 10 points.

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Monahan’s Massacre by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, the Johnstone Clan best keep this ghost writer in the stable. Book 2 of this new series is setting a standard above Johnstone himself.

Book 2 in the series continues to follow the journey of Dooley Monahan. It’s a tough journey that is full of, a Johnstone trademark, outstanding characters and a journey that is added with complicated plot developments this ghost writer placed in the first book that made it so compelling. My favorite of complications is the issue of Manahan’s memory. After the last book, the ghost writer has made the reader uncertain what is real and what may be some hallucination. Another is the main female character featured is NOTHING like I’ve read before in any book. Kinda wish we could know more about her and how on earth the writer saw her getting to be where she is in the book.

I also love the way the writer works in Blue, the dog, and General Grant, the horse. They are also main characters in the book and greatly affect all events.

The settings are very well written. I like how the writer intersperses the characters, narrative and dialogue and the setting. I would have to figure the writer is a huge fan of Twain and learned from him.

My only qualm with the writer is that Monahan escapes certain death a bit too often. It’s a neat plot device, but used a bit much.

My qualm involving the top of the Johnstone Clan, on the superficial side, again, involves poor choices of unrelated cover image and a dumb title that has nothing to do with the book. The books clearly state over and over again Monaham being older and having trouble realizing his age. The writer indicated a couple times that Monahan is around 40 or older. Also, Blue is – Surprise! – BLUE! The horse, also could not be General Grant. Finally there is no “massacre” in the book. But I won’t grade this book based upon the publisher’s bad moves.

Overall this book is a joy to read and I hope the Johnstone Clan doesn’t lose this one!

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

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Intellect: Mind over Matter by Mortimer J. Adler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All that ‘Intellect’ presents has come more true since it’s first publication. Instead of reasoned conclusions, imaginary fantasy is creating laws and warping mindset. Mortimer Adler would be considered very un-P.C. today. Likely why his name seems to have disappeared during the Great Ideas conferences he developed at the Aspen Institute. I’m almost gald he is not still with us today to asee what has happened in the world. Though I would LOVE to hear what he would say about it.

This volume lays out Adler’s reasoned view of the elements of intellect: the brain and the mind, and why the two are separate. Adler breaks down his view and argues just about every angle. It’s all reasonable and logical. He also addresses counter arguments to his view and lays out why those are wrong.

As was Adler’s goal, the writing is not overly complicated. For those of us that read a lot of philosophy, his writing is too simple. Some philosopher’s have tagged Adler as a Pop Philosopher for spurning academia and writing for the general public and not to justify college tenures. As Adler introduced his simpler approach to writing philosophy, he couldn’t have known how even his approach is overly complicated for today’s American population.

He addresses his concerns about technology and what it could do to the intellect. His concerns, writing almost 40 years ago, are very mild to what has happened so far. I remember reading these views of Adler’s decades ago and thinking the ideas sounded extreme. An iPhone came into human’s lives and made concerns horrors.

Something else that has solidly entered human’s lives is the introduction to the panicky view of being healthy. To most all that means eating well and exercising. To Adler it is only involving reasoning. If you use your brain and mind, the grape-nuts & track run are obvious conclusions. But without the thinking part, it’s just a fad without commitment & dedication.

I found Adler’s arguments that language and communication being the same wanting. His argument is flimsy if that and his “natural & “nurture” arguments. Both chapters are short and he later in the book writes that those are his shallowest views. I agree.

Overall, this should be required reading for anyone wanting to be motivated to greater reasoning skills of the brain and mind.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 9 out of 10 points.

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This is the penciling. Much more to do. then inking. Then adding color.

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Then on to the old Osceola County courthouse. Leslie, of the guardian ad litem program partly housed in the building, was very kind to give me a tour through this fascinating building. There are more photos of the courthouse over at my Swampy’s Florida page.

After leaving Kissimmee, i did some poking around for books, that I usually like to do on my birthday. I found some wonder books! And quite a few for friends!

The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I love the Queen series. i just picked up another clump of them. This is one of them. However, this is not an example of the reason i picked up so many.

This Queen tale is waaaaaaay too prolonged with an involved MaGuffin that seems orderly enough, but gets monotonous quickly as little else happens involving, what appears to be, a domestic dispute. The story doesn’t make sense unless Queen jumps to too many assumptions. which is something he warns not to do in many of the Queen novels. This is a repeated inconsistency that is the only way the writers could link events, but a flimsy one and one that had me find the entire tale ridiculous.

Due to the prolonged trip through the alphabet, the few characters are very well identified. Odd that the few settings, that are repeated many times, did not have the detail they could have.

The ending is very unsatisfying considering all it took to get to the point. All proving this would have been a far better short story.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 5 out of 5 points.

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Massacre at Powder River by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Now than I’m well into multi-dozens of Johnstone Clan read, i again come across the British ex-pat wanting to make it big in US story. This one, though, is a switch in which there are 2! A variation of other Johnstone Clan books. This book is very similar with very similar encounters, characters and outcome. A bit of a disappointment to feel like I’m re-reading a Johnstone Clan book.

The characters, as always are interesting, if not too similar to others in Johnstone Clan books. The inclusion of a historic figure is interesting but more as a plot device than to tell a story. This is basically an older Johnstone Clan book that includes Winston Churchill.

The setting is not as well told as in other books.

Still, this is a well written book and fun to read…and if you aren’t scarfing up all of the Johnstone books like me… so…

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 out of 10 points.

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