So, What Have I Been Reading Lately?

I am saddened to say that the twenty-fifth and penultimate book in Sue Grafton's series about private investigator Kinsey Milhone proved to be a big disappointment.

The crux of this story involves a ten year old crime that involved a videotaped sexual assault, and left one teen aged girl dead, and sent two teen aged boys to prison.  Ten years after the fact, the young man has been released from prison, but the tape has resurfaced and the young man's family is being blackmailed. There is also a secondary story that picks up a loose thread from the prior Milhone novel.

The story of the ten year old assault and murder is told in flashbacks, and that is a pretty neat technique, but it takes way to long to tell it (the book is 480 pages long), and when you combine the secondary storyline, it really takes too long to tell it.

I love this series, and am saddened to know that it will end when "Z is for_____" will be released in 2019, but if "Y" is any indication, perhaps it is time for Kinsey to call it quits.   

It pains me to do this, but only one star from The Grandstander on this one, but that won't stop me from buying "Z" the moment it becomes available.

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This book consists of series of essays by Pulitzer Prize winning Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry wherein, as the title suggests, he "defends his homeland", the state of Florida.  The essays include ones on various Florida attractions that are not part of Massive Corporate Theme Parks.  Things like Gatorland, a town whose main business is psychics, and a park that features mermaids, among others.  Perhaps the best essays, though, are ones describing the town of Key West, and another that describes The Villages, the enormous senior living community.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

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Through the magic of Facebook, I have gotten to "meet" a number of interesting folks, including author Lou Sabini, a teacher and author who administers a terrific classic movie site on Facebook called "My Reel Life".  Lou has authored the above book that catalogs over 100 films from Hollywood's "Pre-Code" era, before the notorious "Production Code" was put into effect, a code that had all married couples in the movies sleeping in twin beds, if you know what I mean.  The book includes listings of cast and crew, as well as a synopsis of each film, and photographs from each movie. 

If you are a fan of movies, and classic movies in particular, this book belongs on your movie reference shelf.  You  just might discover, as I already have, that that unfamiliar title you see on Turner Classic Movies some night, just might be an unknown gem from the Pre-Code era.  

"Sex In The Cinema" is available through amazon.com and also from bearmanormedia.com.

Four stars from The Grandstander.