I’ll wait until tomorrow to post the Tom Wolfe obits. I think it’s better to give these things a chance to shake out, at least overnight. And I expect some thoughtful retrospectives and corrections to the initial press coverage.
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Bonfire of the obituaries.
Tuesday, May 15th, 2018Random notes toward an after action report: Dallas.
Tuesday, May 8th, 2018Obit watch: April 24, 2018.
Tuesday, April 24th, 2018Speaking of the use of the US Mail to commit crimes, I meant to note this the other day, but it got past me:
Walter Leroy Moody Jr. descended into Hell Thursday night.
Some of you may recall the crime, but not the name. Mr. Moody was a crank who had a grudge against the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. So he sent a bomb to the home of one of the judges, Robert Vance Sr. The bomb killed Vance and seriously injured his wife. To cover his tracks, Mr. Moody sent out more bombs: one of them killed Robert E. Robinson, a lawyer. Others directed at the NAACP and the offices of the 11th Circuit were intercepted.
Law enforcement eventually tracked the bombs back to Mr. Moody, who was convicted of a whole host of federal charges. He was sentenced federally to seven life terms, plus 400 years. However, the state of Alabama prosecuted Mr. Moody for the murder of judge Vance: he was convicted at that level, resulting in his death sentence.
There are two books about the case, neither of which I’ve read: I used to see Priority Mail regularly at Half-Price, but I haven’t seen a copy in a while. Blind Vengeance: The Roy Moody Mail Bomb Murders is the one I wasn’t aware of, but stumbled across while trying to find Priority Mail. Blind Vengence seems to have been published by a university press (which probably explains its obscurity), and both are available used from Amazon relatively cheap. I may have to bend my “one true-crime book per case” policy.
Updates.
Thursday, April 19th, 2018Melina Roberge has been sentenced to eight years in an Australian prison. I missed this previously, but her co-conspirator, Isabelle Lagace, received a seven and a half year sentence.
You may recall Ms. Lagace and Ms. Roberge as the two women who posted photos of their travels to exotic locations on Instagram…right up to the point where they were busted trying to smuggle 95 kilos of cocaine into Australia.
The third member of the conspiracy, Andre Tamin, is supposed to be sentenced in October.
In other news, Alex Malarkey is suing the Christian publisher Tyndale House.
I’ve written about this before, but it was brief, inside a TMQ Watch, and the related TMQ (and all the other ones that were on ESPN) has been deleted. So:
In 2004, when Alex was six, he and his father Kevin were involved in a serious car accident. Alex was in a coma for two months, and is a quadriplegic as a result of the accident.
In 2010, Alex and Kevin wrote, and Tyndale House published, a book called The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World. (Link provided for informational purposes only, and should not be interpreted as endorsement of the book.) In the book, Alex and Kevin claimed that Alex had visited heaven and encountered both Jesus and Satan. The book was a bestseller.
In 2015, Alex Malarkey publicly renounced the book:
Tyndale House took the book off the market after Alex’s admission.
In the current lawsuit, Alex is asking for a financial accounting from Tyndale House. Additionally:
The suit says identifying Alex as a co-author of the book violates Illinois’ Right of Publicity Act, and he is entitled to profits from the unauthorized use of his name, along with punitive damages. Malarkey also seeks an injunction requiring Tyndale House to disassociate his name from the book, which lists his father as a co-author.
The suit also alleges the publisher violated Alex Malarkey’s right to privacy, cast him in a false light, intruded on his seclusion, defamed him, violated Illinois law barring deceptive trade practices, and financially exploited him in violation of an Illinois law barring the exploitation of people with disabilities.
Obit watch II.
Wednesday, April 18th, 2018Bill Nack, noted sportwriter who specialized in horse racing.
That Bob Kalsu story is a great piece of work.
Mr. Nack also wrote the book on Secretariat.
And:
Obit watch: April 2, 2018.
Monday, April 2nd, 2018Man, it’s been a really busy couple of days.
Deborah Carrington, actress. Among her credits: Thumbelina in the original “Total Recall”, Valerie Vomit in “The Garbage Pail Kids Movie”, various Ewoks, and the “Bride of Chucky”.
Stéphane Audran, Babette in “Babette’s Feast”.
Delores Taylor, also an actress. She appeared in a bunch of her husband, Tom Laughlin’s, films, including “Billy Jack” and the two sequels.
Anita Shreve, noted novelist.
Separated at birth?
Former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt
INS reporter Carl Kolchak.
Finally, noted TV producer Steven Bochco. (“Hill Street Blues”, “LA Law”, “NYPD Blue”, “Doogie Howser MD”. And where’s my damn “Hooperman” box set? I’m not kidding: I remember that being a kind of fun show.)
Let’s go out with a bang, shall we?
Obit watch: March 29, 2018.
Thursday, March 29th, 2018Philip Kerr, noted author.
I read A Philosophical Investigation based on someone’s recommendation: I wish I could remember who it was. (I feel pretty strongly that it was either Andy Watson or Pat Cadigan, but I’m getting old. It could have been an entirely different person.)
Anyway, I liked it well enough that I intended to read more of Kerr’s work. The Bernie Gunther stuff in particular intrigues me, but too many books, too little time. Also, I’m thinking I got tangled up somewhere with chronology issues in the Gunther books. I’m kind of sad that there won’t be any more – except for the forthcoming Gunther origin story mentioned in the obit – but, at the same time, this settles the chronology issue pretty thoroughly.
Obit watch: March 19, 2018.
Monday, March 19th, 2018Noted SF writer Kate Wilhelm passed away on March 8th.
I genuinely wish I had more to say about this, but I don’t right now.
He shoots, he scores!
Sunday, March 18th, 2018This week was another Half-Price Books coupon week. And I picked up a few things. Most of the books I bought were firearms related, so I thought I’d pull a Lawrence and document some of them here.
Small Arms Profile 17: Smith and Wesson Tip-Up Revolvers. This is a thin little pamphlet dated January 1973, and published by Profile Publications Ltd. in the UK. Profile had at least 17 other books on various types of small arms (including one specifically on ammunition). It also looks like they had separate series for aircraft, cars, and warships: I think they catered, at least in part, to model makers. This had a cover price of $2 US/40p UK in 1973 dollars: sources tell me that’s closer to $20 in 2018 money.
I was a little hesitant to shell out $6 for an 18 page British handgun publication, until I opened the front cover and saw “By Roy G. Jinks”. That’s pretty much a “must buy” flag.
Defensive Pistol Fundamentals by Grant Cunningham. This isn’t particularly rare or hard to find, but I note it here because it is one of KR Training‘s recommended books. $10 with no coupon discount (because I used the coupon for other things), which is inline with Amazon’s new price, but this is pretty much “like new” as well. I don’t feel rooked.
And I’ve written before about how much I like picking up those Firearms Classics books at a steep discount. I added a few more to the collection:
Not from the Firearms Classics library, but a limited edition reprint (#1383 of 1500) from “Wolfe Library Classics”: Big Game Rifles and Cartridges by Elmer Keith. (Originally published by Thomas G. Samworth, much like so many of these other books in my library.) $12 after 40% off coupon.
(Damn. I really ought to pick that up.)
Firearms Curiosa by Lewis Winant. I’ve only had a chance to flip quickly through this since I bought it on Friday, but it looks like a whole lot of fun: there’s an entire chapter, for example, on “Knife Pistols and Cane Guns”. Not a Samworth book, oddly. $6 after 40% off coupon.
Actual Firearms Classics Library reprints of actual Samworth books: With British Snipers to the Reich by “Captain C. Shore” (“a classic hands-on, nuts and bolts, how to sniping book” according to the intro), and Shots Fired In Anger by Lt. Col. John B. George. What I didn’t know, until I flipped through the introduction to Shots, is that these two books complete my quartet of Samworth “war” books (the other two being McBride’s A Rifleman Went to War and Dunlap’s Ordnance Went Up Front). Together, the two of these with one coupon were $22.50: I probably could have gotten away with making three trips instead of just two, but I didn’t want to push my luck. And I’d been looking for a copy of With British Snipers for several months now.
Finally, this is in the Firearms Classics Library, but I think this copy may be a true first (I’m having trouble tracking down bibliographic information):
Experiments of a Handgunner by Walter F. Roper. Roper was a somewhat famous gun guy: among other accomplishments, he designed the N-frame “Target” grip for Smith and Wesson revolvers. Yeah, the dust jacket is pretty badly worn (it has a plastic cover protector). But I’ve never seen a copy of this before – Firearms Classics or otherwise – and it was $12.50 after coupon.
Obit watch: March 14, 2018.
Wednesday, March 14th, 2018I don’t feel like I need to say much more than that, but I like this quote:
Obit watch: February 14, 2018.
Wednesday, February 14th, 2018A little late on this, but here’s your obit for Vic Damone.
After winning on the radio show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” in 1947, he recorded some 2,500 songs over 54 years. He had his own radio and television programs, made movies, survived rock ′n’ roll and its noisy offspring and became a mainstay of the Las Vegas Strip, and nightclubs where audiences were so close he could almost reach out and touch them with his voice.
Along the way, he made millions, entertained presidents and royalty, refused a part in “The Godfather,” married five times, had four children and underwent analysis. He also survived a brush with the mob, four divorces, a custody fight over his only son and the suicides of two former wives. And he was still working as the millennium turned, with a voice that critics said had not lost its mellow subtleties.
Marty Allen is dead at the age of 95. He was most famous as half of the comedy team Allen and Rossi, who were big in the post Martin/Lewis era. (Steve Rossi apparently died in 2014: I don’t seem to have noted his passing here.)
Victor Milan, SF and fantasy author. I read Cybernetic Samurai not long after it came out, and kind of liked it.
Jarndyce v Jarndyce.
Monday, February 5th, 2018Charles Dickens, call your office, please:
It seems fair to say, 11 years after James Brown’s death, that his estate planning has failed in its major mission: to distribute his wealth efficiently.
Not a penny has gone to any of the beneficiaries of his will, who include underprivileged children in Georgia and South Carolina, to whom Mr. Brown sought to donate millions, perhaps tens of millions, of dollars.