When we last left Morris Morgan, he was high-tailing it out of the town of Marias Coulee to parts unknown. In Work Song, he reappears, ten years later, in the copper mining capital of the world, Butte, Montana.
It is 1919, and Morris (who now goes by the name “Morrie”) arrives in town with no luggage, no job and no place to stay. He finds lodging in a boarding house run by a widow whose husband was killed in the copper mines. Morrie soon discovers that the whole town is run by the despised Anaconda Mining Company. Through a former student who is engaged to the local union leader, Morrie becomes involved in the labor disputes of the town.
A colorful cast of characters includes two retired Welsh miners who live in the boarding house, an old rancher who now runs the town library, and a lightning-fast young boy who is so skinny that his nickname is “Russian Famine”.
Although both Whistling Season and Work Song showcase the character of Morrie Morgan, it’s not necessary to read the first in order to enjoy the second.
“Can’t cook but doesn’t bite”.
Humpty Dumpty has had a big fall indeed, and it looks like foul play. So thinks Jack Spratt, the head of the under-staffed and under-funded Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading Police Department. Jack’s getting pressure to wind up the Humpty investigation quickly, in order to make up his recent debacle trying to convice the 3 pigs of pre-meditated murder of the wolf. But the Humpty investigation is raising more questions than answers, and Jack’s whole Nursery Crimes department is on the line.
Andras Levi, a young Jewish man from Budapest, receives a scholarship to study architecture in Paris. While a student in the City of Light, he falls in love with Klara, also a refugee from Budapest.
The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari
“Hounding the Pavement” is the first book in the Dog Walker mystery series. Judi McCoy started out as a romance genre writer and so there are a few “hot” scenes in this light, entertaining read. My mystery discussion group knew exactly which pages those scenes were on too. One member of the group brought “puppy chow” (for humans) as a treat, so it was all a lot of fun. The protagonist, Ellie Engleman, is a full-figured strong-willed woman, freshly divorced and on her own. The first thing she does is go to the pound and adopt a dog, a Yorkie-poo (Yorkshire terrier and poodle mix) she names Rudy. It turns out she and Rudy have such an emotional connection they can talk to each other–literally. Ellie sets about advertising and promoting her new dogwalking business in New York City, making friends with apartment building doormen and enemies of other dog walkers who feel she’s encroaching on their business. When she discovers one of her customers dead, she is worried that the police aren’t making enough effort to find the whereabouts of his missing champion dog. She’s sure finding the dog will help in finding the murderer. We learn about dogwalking in NYC. A real company called Petaholics was McCoy’s source for information. And all the royalties from this first book goes to a Utah no-kill animal shelter called Best Friends. We learn about the characteristics of dogs and the relationship between dogs and owners. The dog lovers in my discussion group verified the possibility of some sort of communication between them. HAMSPEO99&client=prairiearealib)
I read and discussed The Speckled People: A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood by Hugo Hamilton for the German American Heritage Center book discussion group. There has to be some sort of German or German-American connection (even by the merest thread), and we discuss four books a year. This memoir is told from a child’s point of view though the language itself is definitely adult, complex, funny, and multi-layered. Hamilton’s father is Irish and his mother is German. He’s growing up in Dublin in the 1950s during a time when some people–his father included–really hated the English. The English language is forbidden in their household and they go by the name “O’hurmoltaigh”, English for “Hamilton”. The father is rather dictatorial and the mother, by contrast, seems exceptionally kind and loving. There are several delightful passages with her instructions about how to bake a cake and serve it:
Stewart O’Nan has been called the “bard of the working class”. He loves writing about those who normally have no voice, the ones other authors (or publishers) think aren’t interesting enough. Years ago I read his “A Prayer for the Dying” (FIC ONAN) and it has stuck with me ever since as being one of those compelling pageturners where black and white answers will never be an option. His writing style can’t be categorized–it changes with every book.
Major Ernest Pettigrew is retired and lives a quiet life in a small village in the English countryside. He values all things British - tea time, great literature, and, above all, proper decorum. His son, Roger, flies into town from London every once in a while - just long enough to upset the quiet life-style the Major has come to enjoy but not long enough to form a bond with his father.