Books & Short Stories I’ve Read Fairly Recently…

I don’t recall if I have started this list elsewhere, but am doing it here to make sure it gets done. *Oh, and I consider myself a slow reader. I’ve always been a slow reader, but on the other hand, I remember a great deal of what I read. When you realize that I have read 28 of the Michael Connelly novels between November 2023 and July 2024 (approximately 9 months) and that most of those novels were about 385 pages each – The Overlook being the shortest at less than 300 pages, and originally published as a serial in a newspaper.

I make this list because after many years of not reading anything for pleasure but technical computer manuals and most of those online, I started reading again from the book resources I had incurred from my interactions with the Little Lending Libraries. I had not originally intended to read any of these books but to just act like a “book bee” moving a few from one lending library to another, within town and between towns as I visited elsewhere. Those other towns began to include Raleigh, Bennettsville, and Benson.

It may have been in Benson where I found, at the only Little Lending Library listed for the town, “Fig Pudding” by Ralph Fletcher. There were multiple copies of this little booklet, and I surmised that they might have been purchased for some group reading project, either for children, youth or adults. This was an enjoyable and quick read. I guess I would term it a “family” oriented novel, without being a Christian tome.

“Fig Pudding” primed the reading pump, and then the following “hinkey” event happened. It was late October of 2023, the 23rd I think. I had stopped at the Little Lending Library located nearest to where I lived. I think I left a book or two, but then I noticed the face of Matthew Perry (comic actor from the TV show “Friends”) filling the cover of his “memoir,” “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” I had no desire to read this book, but I thought that someone else would recognize him and want to read it. So, I took the book.

A few days later I was sitting in my easy chair, watching TV and browsing online on my Windows laptop. I happened to be on one of those web sites that memorializes celebrities that have died in the past year. I normally do not look at these until they start appearing near the end of the year, but as I started to scroll down the site, I happened to see a picture of Matthew Perry about the third celeb from the top. I thought to myself, “I didn’t know he was dead.” I hadn’t taken his memoir from the LLL because of him being dead, but because I knew he was famous. But I quickly determined that the actor Matthew Perry had died just three days after I had snagged his book from the LLL. That is what I called “hinkey.” And I said to myself, “I guess I’ll have to read his book.”

I started to read his book and within the first few pages he says, “I should be dead by now.” And then he goes on to explain that the “Big Terrible Thing” was his long time drug problem. He made a lot of money, and he also spent a lot of money. And, whether he could have stayed “on the wagon,” is now moot. One interesting aside is that Keith Morrison married Matthew Perry’s mother, and MP said that Morrison was a good guy.

I am now reading “The Men We Became” by Robert Littel who was a long time best friend of John F. Kennedy, Jr. The interesting aside from this story is that Christiane “Kissy” Amanpour of PBS fame (for me) was one of several roommates that JFK, Jr. and Rob Littel shared an apartment/house with during John’s last couple of years at Brown University.

So, once I finished the Matthew Perry memoir, I was stoked to read more. I had a bunch of Michael Connelly (Bosch) novels that I had collected to disperse via the LLLs. I had already said I had no plan to read any of those novels, and repeatedly said I wasn’t going to read any more of them once I had read several… and finally I finished all of the Bosch novels and included three others, “the Poet,” “Blood Work,” and “the Late Show.” “The Poet” was a Jack McAvoy novel. “Blood Work” was a Terry McCaleb tome, and “The Late Show” features Renee Ballard. *I did not read the Bosch novels in their published order. I learned to hate Harry Bosch from the novels. This was something I had not noted from the TV series.

I never had any desire to become familiar with Los Angeles, California, but because Michael Connelly puts his fictional characters in “real” settings and I recognized this first in the Original Amazon Bosch Series. If you pause these videos the street signs are perfectly readable. They are not blurred out as most TV shows and movies usually are. So, I started pulling up these streets or street corners on Google Maps and did Street View which gave me an even deeper understanding of the settings. Bosch liked Chicken Pot Pie on Wednesdays at Frank and Musso Restaurant. And, this restaurant after 100+ years actually does have this as a special on Wednesday. And as I began to read the Bosch novels, I saw this Michael Connelly influence. Avalon is the only incorporated town on Catalina Island. The large cargo ships loading & unloading their containers at the Port of Los Angeles all night probably does annoy nearby residents (even those trying to sleep on their boats at a nearby marina). City Hall, LAPD HQ, the LA Times, Bradbury Building, Grand Central Market and Angels Flight. In the opposite direction the CCB, China Town, and over to Union Station. Also on 1st Street is Mariachi Plaza. I already knew of High Tower Apartments from a favorite movie, “The Long Goodbye,” but I didn’t know how close the Hollywood Bowl was located to them. And now when I rewatch that movie I note the small garages down below those apartments. And, the iconic Chateau Marmont in “the Drop.”

I’ve always been a “cat person” so watching Marlowe (Elliott Gould) deal with his finicky cat has always been pleasing. Somewhere in the last 30 years it seems that everyone else got on the “cat loving” bandwagon and now are endlessly entertained by Cat Videos on YouTube.

So, here is the list (not necessarily in the order in which I read them, but I read them):

Who Goes There? – John W. Campbell, Jr.
Fig Pudding – Ralph Fletcher
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing – Matthew Perry
The Black Echo – Michael Connelly
The Black Ice – Michael Connelly
The Concrete Blonde – Michael Connelly
The Last Coyote – Michael Connelly
Trunk Music – Michael Connelly
Angels Flight – Michael Connelly
A Darkness More Than Night – Michael Connelly
City of Bones – Michael Connelly
Lost Light – Michael Connelly
The Narrows – Michael Connelly
The Closers – Michael Connelly
Echo Park – Michael Connelly
The Overlook – Michael Connelly
Nine Dragons – Michael Connelly
The Drop – Michael Connelly
The Black Box – Michael Connelly
The Burning Room – Michael Connelly
The Crossing – Michael Connelly
Two Kinds of Truth – Michael Connelly
Dark Sacred Night – Michael Connelly
The Night Fire – Michael Connelly
The Dark Hours – Michael Connelly
Desert Star – Michael Connelly
The Poet – Michael Connelly
Blood Work – Michael Connelly
The Late Show – Michael Connelly
Resurrection Walk – Michael Connelly
The Wrong Side of Goodbye – Michael Connelly *The last Bosch novel I read.
The Men We Became – Robert Littel
Highest Duty | My Search for What Really Matters – Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, III – 08/06/24
Fair Warning – Michael Connelly
The Little Black Bag – C. M. Kornbluth
Toys!: Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions – Don L. Wulffson
Tim Russert, We Heartily Knew Ye: Wonderful Stories from Friends Celebrating a Great Life – Rich Wolfe

[NOTE 08/09/24]: I think the first version of “The Little Black Bag” that I watched had Burgess Meredith and Chill Wills in it, and it was an episode of “The Night Gallery.” Meredith was a disgraced former doctor, turned drunken street bum, who finds the little black bag and proceeds to recover some of his former life as a practicing physician aided by the bag’s futuristic healing instruments, tools and potions. The bag comes from the far future which explains its miraculous contents. Meredith’s character finds redemption by using the contents to heal, the until now unhealable. But, Will’s character sees dollar signs and a way to a vast wealth. Wills ends up killing Meredith with a scalpel from the bag, and the future monitor revokes the bag’s useful contents. But, this revocation isn’t obvious to Wills, who is about to show the current medical professionals and example. Unfortunately for Wills, the scalpel he now plunges into his neck, as a demonstration, has lost it’s miraculous powers for healing and instead kills the surprised Wills.

It was sometime later that I saw another version of “the Bag” from an episode of “Tales of Tomorrow,” a 1952 Sci Fi anthology show. In this version, the disgraced, alcoholic doctor has a nagging wife and she wants the monetary reward from his use of the tricks from the little black bag. The wife ends up stabbing her husband in the back, killing him, and then finding the revoked bag’s contents reduced to straw and putrid liquids. And now I’ve read “The Little Black Bag,” and I cannot tell you the twists and turns from this reading. I like the Night Gallery version because of the “just desserts” ending that the Wills character receives.

I like the 1951 Howard Hawk’s version of “The THING from another world.” I watch it and think of how “cutting edge” this movie must have been for it’s time. I liked the 1980s version of “the THING” and it’s remake, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but for different reasons. But, after enjoying these movies through out the years, the thought finally came to me, “why not read the original short story”? And, I found that the 1951 movie left out the most important element of the “Who Goes There” story. The alien could fool humans by it’s appearance. Thus the natural response by a soldier standing guard and being approached by someone unknown, “Halt. Who goes there?” *The two later versions of the story focused on this shape-shifting element.

I prefer the 1945 adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery, “And Then There Were None,” but a close second is the 2015 version which may come closer to the original written story. Several characters from the 1945 movie were deserving of sympathy, much less in the 2015 version where Vera Claypool has been responsible for the death of a young boy under her “nannyship.” The choice of endings for the various versions of this acted story are myriad. In 1945 the story should have been re-titled as “Then There Were Two.” And, the Hugh O’Brien and Shirley Eaton version would also become, “And Then There Were Two.” And then there was one, in the 2015 version. Which was a surprise for me when Vera shoots and kills Phillip Lombard. And it was this version that prompted me to actually read the Agatha Christie short story just to see who, if anyone, actually survived to the end.

I found the story online and copied the text to my laptop. As I read through the story, I realized that Christie must have originally written it with the idea and intent that it would eventually be “acted out,” either as a play or a radio drama. And so, I started reformatting the text to make it more readable as a “script.”

[end NOTE]

I went to the Friends of the Cumberland County Library yesterday (08/16/24). I bought nine books, one of which was “Tim Russert, We Heartily Knew Ye: Wonderful Stories from Friends Celebrating a Great Life” by Rich Wolfe. This was the last book choice I made there because I was looking for something to read “next” after the book about toys I was reading. I bought one cookbook by Martin Yan (Several years ago I enjoyed watching him on TV, but haven’t seen him recently.) and the rest were current fiction (fodder for the Little Lending Libraries). *Russert has been dead since 2008, but I recall enjoying watching Meet the Press on Sunday mornings when he was hosting the show. A sharp and personable guy. Oh, the hardback books were only $1 each and I think I left a $1 donation to round out the $10 bill I gave them for payment. **I had talked briefly with a woman (two women standing behind me in the line waiting to get into the Library book sale) and for some reason we had been discussing how police forensics (my term) had changed drastically through the years. DNA only because really important during the 1990s and computers, on detective’s desks, were also slow to appear. I had picked up a copy of “Fair Warning” to buy and when I saw her I thought I would give her a gift of this book. I fished around for a dollar and stopped her searching, temporarily, to give her the book and the dollar to pay for it. I also told her as I was walking away, “You can read it, or give it away, if you want.” Later, I thought of this book’s content and mildly regretted giving her this to possibly read. The reason? The book starts off with the bad guy, the Shrike, breaking a woman’s neck (killing her) and in the end, the killer gets killed in an automobile accident.

After the Library Book Sale, I drove around, went to the bank, and eventually rode over to BJ’s Used Books before returning home. I bought 6 or 7 cookbooks @$1, and I bought another copy of “The Narrows,” another Bosch novel. I may have this confused, but I did give the copy of “Fair Warning” to the woman while still in the Cumberland County Library. And I did buy a Bosch novel while at BJ’s and I think it was “The Narrows,” because this would be one of a set that I might put together as a gift for someone who likes police fiction. *I’m not sure how accurate Connelly portrays police procedure.

“The Narrows” has Harry Bosch and Rachael Walling (FBI) and Harry is looking into the suspicious death of Terry McCaleb. I would add “The Poet” (Jack McEvoy & Rachael Walling) and “Fair Warning” (also those two fictional characters some years later), and also in there I would add “Blood Work” which was about Terry McCaleb (FBI agent that has a heart transplant). And, “The Narrows” has the Poet returning from the supposed dead.

As another “side note,” I think I have been healthier, regarding the common cold and Flu, since COVID. I didn’t have any colds or the Flu during the two serious COVID quarantine years, because of wearing a mask while out, and not eating at buffet food bars. And because I don’t eat buffets any more (many have closed shop permanently) I think that has severely cut the possibility of the cold and Flu bugs being spread (to me). Before COVID I might eat at Golden Corral twice a week, and Ryans also had a buffet.

I don’t recall if it is the first episode of Tales of Tomorrow, or another early Sci FI anthology series but the basic story is that a woman from the future has come to the present time and asked a man to “acquire” (steal) certain items (paintings & other items of artistic value) for her. She gives him a special device that stops time, except for people in his immediate vicinity. She gives him a specific period of time in which to make all of his acquisitions. He completes his tasks and then she reveals that the Earth will shortly be destroyed by a special bomb (atomic, I don’t recall) and she has been acquiring these art works to preserve them. Now, I don’t recall but I guess the world won’t be completely destroyed but just all life. I also don’t recall how human life continues into the future from which she has come. *It was episode 37 of season 1 of Tales of Tomorrow, called “All the Time in the World.” Not to confused with the Twilight Zone episode called “Time Enough at Last.”

The man who has stolen all the items asks the woman if he can keep the time control device. She lets him keep it, but basically tells him he only has a minute left and he can choose to stop time, exist alone for as long as he would like, or let time run out. She leaves.

But, I immediately thought there could be hope. Stop time, and make a plan. She had told him not to get too near other people or they would be drawn into his “stopped time” environment. I think I would approach the problem from this perceived weakness. He would need to research who or what might be done to stop the end of the world. I don’t recall if automobiles & other equipment worked for him in his “stopped time” environment, but I think they did. And he could bring others into his STE (stopped time environment) that could assist him. Maybe he could bring a brilliant scientist into his STE, and they could go to wherever they needed to go to control/stop the bomb from going off. Or they could bring another bomb to destroy the doomsday bomb. But the flaw with this story was that he could bring others into his STE, and if you could do that, even a few seconds could be an eternity to work on & possibly solve this problem.

[04/24/25]: Some time ago, I was playing with an AI, either Gemini or ChatGPT and I started going through the logic for an alternative successful ending to the above SciFi story, and according to the AI, I came up with a valid solution where the World and myself were saved. The basic logic was that I had an endless amount of time to research a solution, and then I could go to where one or more people might have the knowledge or skills to help me stop the bomb. If you get to within a certain distance of a person they come into your endless “time bubble.” So, I go somewhere and ask knowledgeable people who might be able to help me. I then go to the suggested person or persons and get them in my bubble and ask if it is possible to stop the bomb. If they think it is, we go to the bomb mechanism and I let them try. I guess you can walk away from a person to remove them from the time bubble. So, if more than one person is needed, I could get them in the bubble and walk them to the bomb location, and then go to get as many other persons they need.

Still, I guess the paradox is that the woman that came from the future had to come from somewhere in the past, and if the bomb goes off and kills everyone, then where did she come from. And if my quest is successful, then there wouldn’t even be a need for her to come back to try and salvage all the art works. That’s the problem with the time travel, change the past scenarios. [end]