Yesterday & Today

Often, truth is stranger than fiction. Here’s the opening line from an article by Yaron Steinbuch at nypost.com: “A Canadian woman is thanking her lucky stars after narrowly avoiding a meteorite that slammed into her pillow while she slept.” It happened in British Columbia.

Born in Missouri, William W. Johnstone had an impressive literary run, writing mostly westerns, more than a hundred novels in all. Before becoming an author, he worked at a traveling carnival, as a deputy sheriff, and in radio. He also did a hitch in the Army. I just finished Return of the Mountain Men, part of a series. The main character is a young man whose family, first his dad and brother, later his wife and young son, was wiped out by plunderers who used the stolen land to build a thriving community in territory that eventually became Idaho, post Civil War. He plots revenge. Unbeknownst to him at first, he has allies, the title figures, all older than 60, one who raised him from the age of 15. I was reminded of Nevada Smith (1966), which was lifted from the novel The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins. There is a big difference. The narrative is more like today’s action flicks, body count high. While the familiar story is solid, I found the prose disappointing, the use of language not varied enough. Here’s an example, the opening line of Chapter 20: “Levi Pass lay sullen under the heat of the sun. Bodies littered the pass…” Why he used “pass” the second time instead of “it” is beyond me. I doubt many besides writers would think that faulty. I did enjoy the dialects, the book’s best aspect. Here’s one line: “Most unrespectful young un I ever hepped raised.” There are also references to classical literature by a beautiful school marm and one of the men, a surly midget who was a teacher before choosing to live in the wilderness. The 189 pages of the hardcover edition read like considerably less, as there are many blank pages between the chapters. I would be surprised if its appeal extended beyond fans of the genre. 368 users at Amazon have rated Return of the Mountain Men, forging to a consensus of 4.6 on a scale of five. I’ll go with 2.5. Published in 1986, it has been reprinted at least once and is still selling modestly. Johnstone passed away at 65 in 2004. A niece is writing under his name. (Facts from Wiki)

Here’s an eye-opening headline from newsmax.com: “China’s Big Problem: Taiwan Likely Has Nuclear Weapons.” I had no idea. It would explain why the red menace has not made the move many have expected.

My thanks to the kind folks who donated and bought books today. The highlight of the session came when I asked Wolf if he wanted a beat up edition of Official Guide New York World’s Fair 1964 / 1965 by Time-Life Books. I wished to thank him for the four books in Russian he’d just given me. His face lit up. He worked there in a coffee shop, earning minimum wage, a buck-sixty back in the day. An heir to Maxwell House, a young woman, was the manager.

Here’s what sold today: A hardcover in Russian, four pocket-size cook books; Don’t Blink by James Patterson; The Lincoln Conspiracy, historical fiction by Timothy L. O’Brien; Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys by Peter Evans; several DVDs, including Bulletproof Monk (2003) and The Princess Bride (1987); and this:

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