Missive #460 Published 11 March 2025

Tells the stories of explorers, mountain men, missionaries, thieves, settlers, naturalists, and writers associated with the Sierra Nevada Mountains and discusses the history of the region.
This is the ninth in the American Folkways Series and like most of them it has almost nothing on the web about it. It also has almost no readers at Amazon or goodreads.com.

Missive #458 Published 8 March 2025

A hallowed place it may be, but No 5 Caper Court in the Inner Temple is riddled with rumour and uncertainty. The head of chambers is dying; there is a move afoot to leave the Temple for Lincoln's Inn; and Leo Davies, the QC with the charmed and amoral life, is about to take one risk too many. Behind him lie a failed marriage, a string of lovers, and a habit of seductive cruelty which, until now, has left him unscathed. But at least two chickens are coming home to roost:..

Missive #456 Published 5 March 2025

Luther Eustis runs off with and then murders Beulah, his much younger girlfriend. The book starts with his murder trial and his guilt is not in dispute. What makes this book entertaining are the character studies and back stories of the people who tell the story of this crime in alternating chapters. These chapters gradually reveal all of the circumstances surrounding the murder. We hear from the murderer, his wife, the victim, the murderer's defense lawyer, a reporter and others. It was very well written and the narration of the audio book by Grover Gardner was very good.

Missive #455 Published 3 March 2025

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is an awful, awful book. I have to consciously restrain myself from judging those of you who believe the book has merit. Don’t worry, the fact that I’m part of a very small minority in this regard (only the smartest 3% of my fellow Goodreads bibliophiles also gave The Road a one-star review) has not escaped me. I am nevertheless convinced of the objective correctness of my position… Edited customer review @ goodreads.com

Missive #453 Published 1 March 2025

Whoever wrote the dust cover should have written the book. The copious quotations that he speaks of were mostly in French with only a few of them having English translations. I understood the dust cover but very little of the book. I provide one quote from the book, if you understand it then you will probably like the book. I didn't understand it.