Friday, June 03, 2011

It's a Beautiful Spring Day in Southern Wisconsin

I Am Inside

Staring at The Computer Screen for The Afternoon. I can leave early today since I work a few hours tomorrow morning. I was going to try and replace some missing shingles on the library roof but do not have a ladder tall enough to get there. Getting someone to come over and replace just a few shingles is not easy.

Fiction

The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville. Short stories. Tales of people disconnected from others and themselves. The stories are interconnected. My advice? Skip the first story and read the rest. I liked Easy Love, Vaara, and The Peach but I am only half-way through my copy.

Thursday, June 02, 2011

3 Chick Novels, 1 Guy Novel, 6 NonFiction

Chick Novels

To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal. Los Angeles film editor goes back to Nebraska to find her old love.

An Unlikely Countess by Jo Beverly. A well reviewed romance. Beverly is well liked.

Centuries of June by Keith Donohue. I sit corrected. Not really a chick novel. "A romp through history, a madcap murder mystery, an existential ghost story, and a stunning tour de force at once ingenious, sexy, inspiring, and ultimately moving." Moving? Yeah, I'm really moved by that description.

Guy Novel

Trader of Secrets by Steve Martini. Attorney Paul Madriani fights evil again.

NonFiction

Pioneer Woman: black wheels to tractor wheels by Ree Drummond. Girl marries Oklahoma cowboy and writes book WITHOUT ANY PICTURES! Where is the photo section?!

The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. A biography of both the Laura Inger Wilder family and the author's reading of the novels. I think a review was in the Madison newspaper.

At the Dark End of the Street: black women, rape, and resistance - a new history of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of black power by Danielle L. McGuire. Not a new history so much as a history that focuses on events and people that usually get missed. The rape and abuse of women and the many women who organized and stood up against the sexual abuse and, accordingly, the racial nonsense that kept it going.

Hitman: the untold story of Johnny Martorano by Howie Carr. I bought Carr's book The Brothers Bulger about the Boston mobster and his powerful politician brother. Since Brothers has been successful here I figure those readers might like this.

In the Garden of Beasts: love, terror and an American family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson. William E. Dodd was given the job of Ambassador to Germany in 1933. Dirty, rotten, stinking, filthy nazis. I refuse to capitalize the word nazi.

Psychopath Test: a journey through the madness industry by Jon Ronson. Author was on television. No self-diagnosis test included.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Lake Mills Farmers Market

Lake Mills Farmers Market

Wednesdays are Farmers Market days at Commons Park in downtown Lake Mills. There are always many dogs at the Farmers Market. None are for consumption.

I gave the camera to a five-year-old.

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Rugs

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Self-photo

Lake Mills High School Graduation, 2011

2011 High School Graduation

I did not attend. One of the library's Pages shows up in the beginning at 1:28 into the video.









Video streaming by Ustream

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Leaning Tower of Fiction and Musical Interlude

Leaning Tower of Fiction

From the previous post.
Leaning Tower of Fiction

Musical Interlude

From one of the first CDs I bought. I just heard this on the radio.

The Godfathers (Another try, if anyone is paying attention.)

Gerald Seymour, Westerns, Sara Gran

Fiction

Bloodmoney by David Ignatius. Ignatius was on the radio talking about this "CIA in Pakistan" novel and how current events match much of the plot. Plot: CIA agents getting killed and lady looking into it finds they are funded by insider trading.

Ambush Creek by Phil Dunlap. U.S. Marshall in Arid-zona is looking for three shifty bounty hunters. Cover photo has a really shiny revolver.

Spur and the Sash: Middle Tennessee, 1865 by Robert Grede. Wounded Union soldier is assigned to protect a farm in rural Tennessee at the end of the Civil War. Wisconsin author is from Milwaukee area. I think.

The Collaborator by Gerald Seymour. I like Seymor's thrillers. He does good work. This one has an Italian college student in London willing to give up her brother, a killer for the Naples mafia.

Troubled Man by Henning Mankell. "A Kurt Wallender Novel." Stockholm, Sweden cop looks into the disappearance of a naval officer.

Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen. Must be a chick book. The cover model has her back to the camera, her hair is tied up, she is wearing some summer dress with thin shoulder straps. There are flower blossoms all over the cover.

Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Romance by a popular author. Her other books have checked out 222 times.

Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. This must be about my wife and her siblings. Ha! That joke doesn't get old.

Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran. Gran does good work. She and Abbott, Junior share a blog. A mystery novel.

Detroit Electric Scheme by D.E. Johnson. A good review from Booklist "The surprise ending leaves you gasping and shaking your head at Johnson’s masterful plotting and the menacing tension that forces otherwise good characters to behave despicably. Every bit as powerful as Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley series, this gem of a debut showcases an author to watch very closely."

Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward. Here's info on the book tour.

Bury Your Dead by Louis Penny. Another murder mystery in Quebec.

Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe by Edgar Allen Poe. I did not know he may have died from rabies.

Quick and the Thread by Amanda Lee. Paperback mystery. I was Entertainment Weekly's summer issue and they were listing upcoming paperbacks. Each one was the paperback printing of a hardcover. No original paperbacks listed at all.

My One and Only by Kristan Higgins. Romance with a small dog on the cover.

Music Magically Embedded Into Thin Plastic Discs

Plastic Discs

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong by [same people]. Compilation album. A donation. ALso features Oscar Peterson. I really enjoy Oscar Peterson, his Canadiana Suite is a favorite.

Best of the Song Books by Ella Fitzgerald. 16 songs.

Love? by Jennifer Lopez. Remember when she used to be a big deal? Or, am I just out of the loop in popular culture?

Hillbilly Joker by Hank III. More punk country by Hank III. I think that's what it is. I've never listened to him before. His other disc here, Straight to Hell, circ'ed 31 times.

Move Like This by The Cars. Paulina Porizkova's husband gets the band back together. Fans have been waiting 20 some years for this. How can the band meet those expectations? Parade Porizkova around on stage? Good idea.