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2024

Missive #407 Published 14 December 2024

A rumor campaign threatens to thwart London barrister Leo Davies's hope of election to that rarefied strata of the British legal hierarchy, the Queen's Counsel. The rumors are based on truth, for Leo's sex life is hardly conventional. In a typical mystery novel, such a scenario would lead to blackmail or murder…or both. But Caro Fraser's new novel is neither typical nor a mystery. All of the drama in this character study of a fascinating protagonist comes from Leo's interior struggle with issues of sex, love, class, and ambition. The real mystery is how erroneously this book has been cast as a legal thriller.

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Missive #406 Published 13 December 2024

65. Bags of Loot

Nasruddin’s wife woke him in the middle of the night. “I heard burglars!” she whispered. “I saw them leaving their bags of loot in the garden, and then I heard them come into our house. It sounds like they’re in the kitchen.”

Nasruddin leaped out of bed, pulled on his clothes, and began to climb out of the bedroom window into the garden.

“What are you doing?” his wife asked.

“I’m going to sneak outside,” Nasruddin whispered, “and steal the loot from other people’s houses while the thieves waste their time looking for something worth stealing here inside our house.”

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Missive #405 Published 11 December 2024

The Customer review that I have quoted got it right; it is hard to keep track and I was tempted to give up. The story progresses from character to character then returns to each one of them to pick up their part of the story; very hard to keep track. The author did this in his other alternative history books but this is even more difficult because it is fantasy.

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Missive #404 Published 9 December 2024

Not much of a book promo and very few customer reviews. I thought it was a decent history of the Rocky Mountain  area and deserved more. This is the second book by this author that I have read and since I enjoy history I'll be reading more of his.

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Missive #403 Published 8 December 2024

Continuing The Anti-Federalist Papers

Brutus V (pt. 1)
by Robert Yates

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Missive #402 Published 6 December 2024

64. The Burglar in the Dark

Nasruddin awoke to the sound of a burglar in his house. He got up, crept downstairs, and found the burglar stuffing all kinds of household objects into his sack.

“Excuse me,” said Nasruddin, startling the burglar, who stared at Nasruddin in surprise.

“It’s dark now, of course,” continued Nasruddin, “so it’s entirely possible you don’t realize what you’re doing. You seem to think these objects have some kind of value. But the fact is that they don’t have any value at all. I’ve seen these objects in broad daylight, and I can assure you that everything here is completely worthless.”

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Missive #401 Published 2 December 2024

I read this book as a substitute for Golden Gate Country that is the sixth in the American Folkways series which I think was written especially for the series since the author was more of a novelist versus a non fiction writer. If you read The Californians for its history it is not a bad book; somewhat historical fiction mixed with what I think was some autobiography. I have included below the book promo for Golden Gate Country which describes what was in the book that I could not find to borrow.

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Missive #400 Published 1 December 2024

Continuing The Federalist Papers.

Federalist No. 35
The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the General Power of Taxation
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of the State of New York:

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Missive #399 Published 29 November 2024

63. Nasruddin in the Cupboard

During the night, Nasruddin heard robbers ransacking his house, so he quietly crept downstairs and hid in the cupboard. He then listened as the robbers worked their way through the house, cursing and swearing. They were not able to find anything worth stealing, and Nasruddin could tell they were getting more and more angry.

Finally, one of the robbers opened the cupboard door and discovered Nasruddin there, cowering in his nightshirt.

“What are you doing in this cupboard?” the robber yelled at him.

“I’m hiding here in shame,” said Nasruddin apologetically, “because there is nothing worth stealing in my house.”

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Missive #398 Published 28 November 2024

This was the third book that Dos Passos wrote that is included as #8 in the Mainstream of America Series with all of them being easy reading history. I read his first book in the series which was #5 then read #18 in the series not knowing it was part of it. I like his non fiction much more than his novels.

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