Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

 

I sincerely hope I don't have to wait another 8 years before book 10. 

Spoilers ahead. Beware!

The 9th book of the Outlander series was terrific. Not nearly enough Lord John 🦊, but then she could write thousands of pages of just Lord John and I'd be okay with that (whenever I type "Lord John" on my phone, it automatically inserts the fox emoji now, because I've done it so often. David Berry is gorgeous, what can I say?). 

Brianna, Roger, Jem, and Mandy are back from 1980, fleeing Rob Cameron and his goons who were after the gold. Jamie and Claire are of course thrilled to have them back. Brianna brings books for everyone: the Merck Manual for Claire, the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Jamie, and one of Frank Randall's books for herself, about the Scottish contribution to the Revolutionary War. Jamie reads it and discovers the exact date he'll die.

Oh. That sucks.

Meanwhile, in Savannah, Lord John and his brother, Hal, are living with Hal's oldest son's Ben's widow and her son, Trevor, when William shows up with a man who claims Lord John is his natural father (he's not). There were some hysterical scenes with Lord John and baby Trevor. Good thing he's a soldier and not a nanny 😃 William is still trying to come to terms with the fact that he's Jamie Fraser's son while also trying to get to the bottom of Ben's death. He's also undeniably attracted to Ben's widow, Amaranthus. Brianna and William get to spend some quality brother/sister bonding time together when Brianna goes to Savannah to paint a portrait (Lord John and Jamie hatched the plan to get the two of them together. While their friendship still hasn't been completely mended after Lord John married and bedded Claire, I think it's on the road to recovery). We actually got a lot of William in this book, and it was nice. I like him. 

Ian finds out his first Mohawk wife, Emily, has been left a widow with three children and the oldest one might be his, so he sets out to see if she needs his help. His current wife, Rachel, their baby son, Oggy, and Ian's mother Jenny all go along for the ride (God, I love Jenny). Along the way they rescue the Quaker family that helped Jamie in book 8, the Hardmans, and when they return to Fraser's Ridge they have Mrs. Hardman and her three daughters, plus Ian's son with Emily in tow, as well as a Mohawk who has taken a shine to Jenny. I kind of really love the idea of Jenny having a Mohawk suitor. 

Brianna has another baby, a boy they name David (instead of John, like I suggested). Jamie nearly dies in a battle, on the date Frank mentioned, but Claire is able to miraculously save him. Mrs. Hardman, Silvia, marries Bobby Higgins, a widower on the Ridge who has a couple of little boys. Everyone is celebrating the wedding when a rider comes tearing up. It's William. Lord John has been kidnapped and is being held captive, and William needs Jamie's help to rescue him. 

And that's how the damn book ended and I was awake all night, scared to death for Lord John. I hope nothing bad happens to him, otherwise I'm going to light something on fire.

Dexter By Design

I know, I reread the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay all the time. I started at the beginning a while back and got through book three and then moved on. The Showtime reboot of the series started a few weeks ago, and while the first episode left me a little cold, the second one this past Sunday was better, so I'm cautiously optimistic. 

Of course what it *really* did was make me decide to re-watch the original series, so that's what I've done the last 10 days. Which led to wanting to read the books. Again. 

I picked up book four, "Dexter By Design". Dexter and Rita are back from their Paris honeymoon and Dexter is learning how to be a husband, step-father, and still keep up his nighttime activities when a killer targeting tourists pops up. As one might imagine, this does not go over well in Miami and Dexter has a personal stake in catching the killer after Debs gets stabbed. The killer is turning murder into performance art and wants to make a piece starring Dashing Dexter (I mentioned Ellroy's alliteration skills the other day, but man, Lindsay is amazing, too!). In the end it's Rita who saves the day and Dexter finds out he's going to be a daddy. Awwwwww :)
 

Man Who Ran Washington

 

James A. Baker III was, at one time, one of the most powerful men in Washington. He helped get Gerald Ford the Presidential nomination in 1976 (although Ford lost to Carter), then helped the Reagan campaign in 1980. He worked for Reagan and George H. W. Bush as Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and White House Chief of Staff. 

Baker was born into an influential family in Houston, Texas and grew up obeying his father's every command, even after he was married with children his father still dictated what type of car he should buy. "Never get into politics" his father lectured him, and Baker obeyed until his dad died. One of Baker's best friends, George Bush, asked for his help with his Senate campaign in 1970. Baker was known in Washington as a "fixer". He knew everyone and knew how to make things happen. He considered running for President himself after Bush lost in 1992. While it was interesting and I enjoyed it, I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see more of Baker as just a husband and a father. I know he's intensely careful about his public image, it was just unfortunate that he wasn't willing to open up more and share a personal side. 

I loved this quote, and think it applies today more than ever: "We in this country have been going through a long, dark night of self-criticism. We have been telling ourselves that America has tried to run the world, that it is corrupt, that many of our institutions have failed us and need to be “dismantled” under the guise of “reform”. Confession may be good for the soul, but there comes a time when too much confession makes us weaker rather than stronger. Sure we make mistakes, but who in this world doesn’t?". 

Slayers & Vampires

 

I saw a review for this book in a recent journal and thought it was new but it was actually published in 2017 (why was the journal just now reviewing it? I have no clue). Still, fairly new. The authors interviewed a ton of people involved with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", mostly writers and producers, but some cast and crew. There was, of course, a lot of navel gazing (Hollywood...or as James Ellroy calls it: "Hollyweird"), but I expected that. Everything they do is IMPORTANT, you guys. :)

There wasn't much gossip or anything like that. It was mostly about the struggles of trying to produce two high quality shows on small budgets. One of the writers/producers sounded like a real tool. He blamed Charisma Carpenter for getting pregnant at an inopportune time and apparently she also had the audacity to go and get a cross tattoo on her wrist that the makeup department had to cover up every day. How dare she! He brought it up twice, too, like it was some super egregious thing. He also had something snarky to say about Sarah Michelle Gellar daring to cut her hair. He literally said it was inconsiderate not to take the writers' hard work into account when they made these decisions. Okay, man. Get a grip? I mean, jeez, nearly 20 years later and he's still griping about it. I bet he's a ton of fun at parties.

Other than that guy, everyone else's memories were fun to read. Since I've never been on a TV show set it was interesting to hear about how they make it all happen. While it wasn't quite what I was expecting it was still entertaining. 

The Storyteller; Widespread Panic

 

I am, of course, a big Nirvana fan, and a moderate Foo Fighters fan, but I've always been a big Dave Grohl fan. He literally has the best life ever, and the nice thing is that he realizes it, appreciates it, and doesn't take anything for granted. This was a rock n' roll biography done right. I loved it.

He didn't spend a ton of time on Nirvana and Kurt, because that was only a few years out of his 50+ on this earth, but what he had to say was just wild to contemplate. The overnight fame. Going from living on a futon in a room to buying a (haunted) house. Watching the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" debut on MTV while in a motel room with Kurt, their elation and enthusiasm. How quickly it all fell apart. 

Dave grew up in Virginia, raised by his mother, who always encouraged him to follow his passion for music, even when it meant dropping out of high school when he was 17 to go on tour with the band he was in at the time, Scream. Dave was hard on his dad, who was against him leaving school and predicted a dire future of homelessness. Of course in hindsight Dad was 100% wrong, but I also thought that he really was just trying to give his wayward son the best advice he had. Dave didn't have a great relationship with his father, but they did reconcile and become friends before his Dad passed away. 

Scream took Dave all over the world, and when the band ended up broke and at a dead end in L.A., Dave got a call from a guy he'd met in Seattle, asking if he wanted to drum in his band, Nirvana. Dave considered it, then decided to go for it and moved up to the Pacific Northwest. The rest, as they say, is history. 

It was a lovely book, well told, full of fascinating stories and the amazing experiences he's had. His love for his family comes through loud and clear. I'm sure they realize how lucky they are to have him. I think we all are. 

I had another rock bio I'm in the middle of (John Mellencamp's), but after reading Dave's I couldn't do any more nonfiction (he's a tough act to follow), so I turned to James Ellroy's latest. It was published earlier this year, but because I was in such a slump I didn't pick it up and dive in. I'm glad I finally got around to it, it was brilliant. 

Freddy Otash is an LAPD officer on the take who gets kicked off the force and lands as the number 1 rat for an up and coming gossip rag called "Confidential". Freddy knows how to dig up ALL the dirt and he feeds it to the magazine while boozing and dropping bennies. I wish I could imitate Ellroy's amazing alliterative style, it's so much fun. And the cool 50s slang! Everyone who was around in Hollywood makes an appearance, from Senator John F. Kennedy to Marilyn Monroe to Liz Taylor and James Dean.  

Game On

 

Janet Evanovich's 28th (TWENTY-EIGTH?!) Stephanie Plum book, "Game On", was pretty good. Not her best but definitely not her worst, either. 

Diesel shows up one night, on the hunt for a hacker named Oswald Wednesday. Stephanie's also after him for skipping on his bail, and soon Morelli is after him for murder. Seems a group of amateur hackers who call themselves the Baked Potatoes managed to hack into Oswald's network and he's out for payback. He kills most of them, and Stephanie is able to get to the last two and hide them out at Ranger's place while she and Diesel try to track Oswald down. All the usual things happened: Stephanie manages to blow up a couple of cars and gets food all over herself while trying to keep a fugitive from escaping, Grandma Mazur disrupts a wake, etc. Vinnie made a short but memorable appearance (I like Vinnie, I wish he was in more of the stories). All in all it was pretty fun. 

A Line to Kill; Katharine Parr, the Sixth Wife

I actually finished a couple of books over the weekend! Yay for me!

I love Anthony Horowitz's books. "A Line to Kill" is one of his books where he's a character, along with the Detective Daniel Hawthorne. Tony and Hawthorne agree to go to a literary festival on the island of Alderney, which is part of the Channel islands, to promote the upcoming first book, "The Word is Murder". The festival is being hosted by Charles le Mesurier, who owns a profitable online gambling site. The rest of the authors are all a little shady, and Tony is suspicious of Hawthorne's motives for coming to the festival when he finds out a suspect he was accusing of pushing down a flight of stairs lives on the island. When le Mesurier is stabbed to death, the local police ask Hawthorne for help, since there has never been a murder on the island. With plenty of red herrings, the ending was a great twist and totally plausible. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait for the next one. 

I originally started reading Weir's sixth book about Katharine Parr when it was first published earlier this year but I just could not get into it (which tells you how bad my reading block was at the time, normally I can tear through these books in no time flat). Since it had holds I gave up and returned it, and finally came back around to it. It wasn't too bad, but honestly just felt so repetitive. I've read too many books (didn't know it was possible, but hey, there you go) on Henry VIII and his wives that I'm so burnt out. I'm glad I finished it, but it was very bland and not memorable.