Week Fourteen - 38 To Go

Thriller. Harlan Coben is one of today’s best in this genre. If you only have time to read one book in 2014, make sure this is the one you read.

Read 52 in 52 Weeks 2014

Week Thirteen - 39 To Go

Within the genre of crime fiction, this third addition in Ace Atkins’ Quinn Colson series would finish high in the rankings. Atkins is extremely sensitive to his characters.

Read 52 in 52 Weeks 2014

Gazebo Project

Eagle Scout Kyle Wilmot of Union Springs constructed a gazebo

next to Mill Pond in downtown Union Springs.

While driving by this afternoon, Joan and I stopped to admire Kyle’s handiwork.

Mill Pond is located on the west side of State Route 90
north of Green Street.

This pond was created in 1789 by the
damming of the underground springs that surfaced in this area.

The creation of the pond was needed for power
generation of the mill. The original mill was abandoned, but
subsequent mills were built.

The mill pond is no longer being used
for mill operations and has become a haven for waterfowl.
The warmer temperatures of the underground springs that
feed it attract birds, including diving ducks, to the open water
year round.

Week Twelve - 40 To Go

Borrowing from Janet Evanovich, Brad Park walks the line between being funny and deadly serious. In Carter Ross, Park has created a likable protagonist.

Read 52 in 52 Weeks 2014

Screwball Comedy

Mr. & Mrs. Smith - Loan from Seymour Library

Alfred Hitchcock’s sole screwball comedy, from 1941, reels of erotic horror. The handsome and prosperous Smiths, David (Robert Montgomery) and Ann (Carole Lombard), lock themselves in a bedroom for three days to try to solve a squabble. The sex seems to have gone out of their three-year marriage, but, when David learns that a legal loophole has rendered their union null and void, he becomes aroused by the prospect of reseducing the newly coy and virginal Miss Ann. Instead, she puts him through the hell of another courtship. Latent erotic frenzy emerges in diabolical details --- the phallic neck of a champagne bottle that David points at his prey, hte childless Ann’s new job at a department store’s layette counter. Meanwhile, David spirals downward into degradation as Ann sparks his jealousy by dating his gallant, athletic law partner (Gene Raymond). All ends up artificially well, but the comedy foreshadows the sexual gamesmanship of “Vertigo” as well as the metaphysical terror of “The Wrong Man” and “North by Northwest,” in which a person is expelled from his own life by a hiccup of fate. (The New Yorker, March 3, 2014)

Week Eleven - 41 To Go

A superb addition to the Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery series. Here, Todd, the mother-and-son writing team, have penned a first-class novel. Providing a fluid description of Fen country, the writers allow their ethical detective to battle with his own judgment as Hamish sits on the rear bench seat.

Read 52 in 52 Weeks 2014

Week Ten - 42 To Go

In her thirteenth addition to the Dorothy Martin series, Jeanne Dams almost brings the pace of the old-fashioned British cozy to a halt. Scores of pub meals, constant requests for tea, and frequent visits to the loo do not make this work a page burner. Dams’ last line in this book may be for her readers.

Read 52 in 52 Weeks 2014