Missive #361 Published 7 October 2024

A very good Northwest America history. It has been written by a historian but not an academic although he was a teacher for a time during his very checkered carrier. He wrote 40 books about the American West which I hope to get around to reading.

Missive #358 Published 3 October 2024

This was the authors first published book. It is a very quick read which I enjoyed. He was one of the best known thriller writers of all time. The canon of Chase, comprising 90 titles, earned him a reputation as the king of thriller writers in Europe. He was also one of the internationally best-selling authors, and to date 50 of his books have been made into films.

Missive #357 Published 1 October 2024

Another brilliant slice of medieval crime fiction Thomas atte Bridge, a man no one likes, is found hanging from a tree near Cowleys Corner. All assume he has taken his own life, but Master Hugh and Kate find evidence that this may not be so. Many of the town had been harmed by Thomas, and Hugh is not eager to send one of them to the gallows. Then he discovers that the priest John Kellet, atte Bridge's partner in crime in A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel, was covertly in Bampton at the time atte Bridge died.

Missive #356 Published 30 September 2024

John Dos Passos, the distinguished American novelist and historian has been personally interested in Brazil for the last fifteen years. He first visited the country in 1948, and returned again in 1956 and 1962. This book, which is based on his experiences in Brazil, presents the people and landscapes of a young country on the move. Here you will find several extraordinary reports on Brasilia, first in the planning stage, second in the wildly frantic period when it was a half-finished group of buildings, and, finally, as it appeared to Mr. Dos Passos in the summer of 1962 when it was at last beginning to function as a city.<.p>

Missive #353 Published 25 September 2024

Note: There is a movie being made based on this novel. If it follows the book closely I would suggest that you do not go see it.

In the Kirkus Review it is said that McCarthy uses 'pretentious prose' he also avoids using any punctuation and when rendering dialog likes to do so using Spanish whenever possible. He does break up the 'gore and blazing sun' somewhat with some very descriptive writing about the landscape, flora and fauna that the scalp hunter are passing through. However, even there he can not help himself and loads the descriptions with pretentious adjectives — either ignore them or treat the book as a vocabulary builder.

Missive #352 Published 23 September 2024

Alternate Generals II is a collection of short alternate history stories, edited by Harry Turtledove.