Fletch by Gregory McDonald, Book 1 in the Fletch Series

I've gotten behind here, with my computer Linux hobbies and paint preparation for the house interior, and haven't done much reading or posting my readings at BookLikes, Goodreads and here on Blogger so this will catch me up.  It won't be a long review, it's an old book and Irresponsible Reader gave it a good review a few months ago.  I want to read this series because it sort of reminds me of the old M.A.S.H. series with the second book being M.A.S.H. Goes to Maine, by Richard Hooker with the light-hearted banter.

Fletch is Irving (I.V.) call me Fletch Fletcher (not Jane Doe like the movie).  Fletch is on a story trying to solve the mystery of where are the drugs coming from on the Beach and is under a lot of pressure to turn in his book from his editor's assistant, a woman that hates Fletch and the feeling is mutually returned.  While looking like a strung-out druggie (he does  smoke a little pot, heck it's the 70's in California) he is approached by Alan Stanwyck, a man that married his bosses daughter and then started running the father's aviation parts company so the father could put all his efforts into running his tennis club and setting up tournaments.  Stanwyck wants Fletch to murder him.

Fletch the book is a light read, 254 pages, about the investigation of the drugs on the Beach and also into Alan Stanwyck.  There are humor, murder and mayhem and all in all it's a decent book.  Like IR, I also did the audiobook, narrated by Dan John Miller and it really made the book better.

I'm rating this 6 out of 10.  Even though it's written in the 70's it's not really dated and enjoyable to read.

Fletch by Gregory McDonald,

Book 1 in the Fletch Series

Rattling the Heat in Deadwood By Ann Charles, Book 8 in the Deadwood Mysteries

Short review.  In keeping in the Violet Parker fashion of the paranormal, we find our Scharfrichter, trying to learn about becoming an executioner and being a Time Keeper in her own, reluctant way.  Between being a single mother of twins, her job, being chased and hounded by the local police version of Rockford, and fantasizing and actually having coitus with her boyfriend, Violet actually does chase some ghosts and demons.

This is a fun little series, it's easy to read, and Ann Charles has proven that she can be unpredictable as the story keeps stretching out to what will be the 11th book coming out around Christmas 2019.

Now it's on to book 9.  Why, because it's there.

I rate this 6 out of 10, it's a good series.

Rattling the Heat in Deadwood By Ann Charles
Book 8 in the Deadwood Mysteries

No Country For Old Gnomes by Delilah S Dawson and Kevin Hearne, Book 2 in the Tales of Pell Series.

There's a big difference in this book and the first book.  No Country for Old Gnomes is more of a fantasy than humor, where the first book was more humorous.  Dawson and Hearne must have one heck of an editor, intertwining the writings of two very good writers into a magnificent story.  Put the great writing along with Luke Daniels voice acting and you get a very great product.  Please don't get me wrong, this book is really a fun book to read, the imagination of these two writers and where they get their ideas are second to none.  

The main characters are 2 gnomes (one acting as his twin brother), a halfling, an ovitaur (think a satyr, but more sheep-y), a dwarf, and a gryphon.  Just like the first book they must start a quest, with this quest being to save the gnomes from extinction.

Be warned tho, the dwarf swears a lot, like "Oh, my angry asparagus!", "Oh, piglet pants!" and other really bad swearing.

Dawson and Hearne gave us a really fun book to read.  Hearne says the first is not required to be read first but it is one of the funniest fantasy books you'll ever read, so read them both, in order.

I rate this an 8 of 10, a great fantasy that needs reading.  Also one of the best book covers this year.

No Country For Old Gnomes by Delilah S Dawson and Kevin Hearne

Book 2 in the Tales of Pell series.

Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearne and Delilah Dawson, 1st book in the Tales of Pell Series.

If you want a fun fantasy to read, then this is it.  If you want the full power of the book then listen to the audiobook.  Luke Daniels is the greatest.  He did all the urban fantasy Iron Druid series, which is completed and Luke Daniels did the audiobooks on these, using his voice to do the cast of dozens.  If you listened to any of these, you'll pick up Oberon in Kill the Farm Boy.  What is Kill the Farm Boy about?  This was in the acknowledgments of the book.

Unlike perhaps all other humans in history, we are thankful for airport barbecue. Not because the barbecue was good but because the joint inside the Dallas–Fort Worth airport was strangely open at 10 a.m. in February 2016 and we could sit down and chat for an hour before we had to catch our flights home. It was during that discussion that we thought it was high time someone killed the farm boy. And by that we meant it was time to make fun of white male power fantasies, the formula for which almost always involves some kid in a rural area rising to power in the empire after he loses his parents, usually because somebody comes along and tells him not to worry, he’s special. (For the record, we do not have anything against farmers of any gender.)

The book main characters are a poo boy farm boy, a talking goat, a woman cursed to be half rabbit, a terrifying warrior in a chain mail bikini, a sand witch, and a Dark Lord and his rogue (both afraid of chickens).  Each has their own quest but join to create a mighty party and a single quest.

This was the second time I've read/listened to the book and even though the Kill the Farm Boy is not that old of a book I must have been multi-tasking when I read it the first time, just remembering small parts of the book.  The reason was to read the next in the series, No Country For Old Gnomes, which Hearne says you don't have to read Kill the Farm Boy before reading the second.

I rate the book 9 of 10, a great read, but I rate the audiobook a perfect 10.

Kill the Farm Bou by Kevin Hearne and Delilah Dawson

1st book in the Tales of Pell series.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett, Discworld Book 1

I guess this would, or should be 'The Colour of Magic', but us Americans are stingy with our "U's". No review from me on this book. I imagine anything that could be said about this book has been said many times and many languages, so I leave us with 2 quotes that I loved.

Magic never dies. It merely fades away.

Then there's my favorite quote of the whole book.

“You’ll fight us both together?” said Liartes, a tall, wiry man with long black hair. 

“Yah.” 

“That’s pretty uneven odds, isn’t it?” 

“Yah. I outnumber you one to two.”

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Discworld book 1

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

First the book . . .

This story is about Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) meeting a man on a castle tour and the man knew everything about the castle. Later, Twain meets the man and they talk a while about how this man, Hank Morgan new so much about the castle. Hank didn’t tell a story, but left Twain with a book, or better yet a diary of Hank falling asleep and waking thirteen hundred years earlier.

Hank Morgan’s father was a blacksmith and his uncle a horse doctor. Hank ran a gun factory, starting at the bottom and learning everything, to quote:

“ I could make anything a body wanted- anything in the world, it didn’t make a difference what; and if there wasn’t any quick newfangled way to make a thing, I could invent one – and do it as easy as rolling off a log.”

So Hanks diary becomes the book “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court”.

Well if you’ve read the book, Clemens attacks a lot of issues of his day, our day too. Religion, not really religion but when it is organized so well that it attacks the way a person lives his life. Slavery. He hated it and it even haunted him. Most of what he wrote about slavery were his own feelings. Other things like monarchy, nepotism, politics, and poverty. He even made fun of ad campaigns like soap ads. He brought up some things that even strikes today, which is when he came across was people that would take things as fact if it was said. No evidence of proof, and if evidence was there, it was forgotten as soon as the words were spoken. He made fun of himself.

With the inventiveness of Morgan, he tells a story about how he overcomes these obstacles or at least the obstacles he chooses with modern tools and skillfulness he can create. And then he told of he destructing every advancement he made.

About the narrator . . .

Nick Offerman has this mid-western accent that does well with the book. It’s probably not easy to perform, being as dated as it is but he does a good job of it. To me, he started off slow, not very into it but this could have been by design. By the end of the book, he was really going strong. This could also be to Twain having modernized the language of the book as Hank modernized the culture. Maybe not award worthy but Offerman did a good narrative.

My thoughts on the book . . .

As I said before I started the book, the biggest reason I choose this was the narrator. The book is good, but dated and sometimes hard to keep up with the dated sayings of that time. I am reading the book along with the audio-book and it does give me footnotes to help and some insight on what Clemons/Twain was thinking, or at least what somebody else thought what he was thinking. I would love to see what Clemons would write if he were alive today. I would think he would have a field day mocking both sides of the aisle. With that said, please don’t take this as something I am trying to politicize. I do not participate in political debates of today. It’s like teaching a pig to sing. You will only annoy the pig.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court