Booked

Every work day I spend 2 to 4 hours in the car, mostly parked on Rte 128. To keep from becoming a road rage nutbag, I listen to books on CD. This has the added benefit of making up for the time I used to have for pleasure reading. I have listened to a number of good books lately that I recommend:

• Jasper Fforde, The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
The first in a series of "Nursery Crime" books. The premise is that characters from nursery rhymes are real and have their own lives in Reading, UK. They also have all the hardships of real life including crime. Detective Jack Spratt and Det Sgt Mary Mary investigate the murder of Humpty Dumpty (he did fall, but he was not pushed). Other characters that appear include Old Mother Hubbard, Wee Willy Winky, The Three Pigs (who off'ed the Wolf), and the Gingerbread Man (a psychotic serial killer). I will be reading the 2nd book in the series called The Fourth Bear soon.


• Linda Greenlaw, All Fishermen are Liars: True Tales from The Dry Dock Bar
I have read all but one of her books. You may know her as the swordfish captain from "The Perfect Storm" who ran the last boat to talk with the ill fated crew. This is a good collection of stories told during one night at a bar in Portsmouth. The book is non-fiction; the tales may or may not be! I especially remember the 'ghost' story about the day fishing vessel that sailed from Long Island in the 50's and sunk in a storm.


• Doug Stanton, In Harms Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
Everyone who has seen "Jaws" remembers the scene in Quint's boat where the men swap their sea stories until Quint talks about the USS Indianapolis. This book starts with the suicide of the ship's captain in 1968 and then goes back to follow the history of the ship and crew. The author has interviewed many of the survivors and the real stories are riveting. Capt. McVay remains the only officer in the history of the Navy court martialed for the loss of a ship as a result of enemy actions. The book makes a compelling case why this ruling should be overturned.


• Will Clarke, Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Story (Sort Of)
  
Soon to be a major motion picture, or so it states on the back cover. A fanciful story of an average guy with a small company in Texas, a wife and 2 year old son, nice house in suburbia, golf, cookouts and troubling visions of past, present, and future events. Found by a rogue branch of the CIA, he is recruited to join others with similar talents to locate missing people. Along the way he is taught by a Hindu god, troubled by visions of vampires, haunted by the ghost of a pink-haired woman, and counseled by a psychiatrist with a pronounced lisp. A dark comedy adventure.


• Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
  
The series started prior to Nursery Crimes. In a similar plot to the subsequent series, characters from classic literature are brought to life in the England of 1985. Special Ops officer Thursday Next is the main character who must track down the thief of a rare first edition novel before the thief can change literary history. Rich character development and a fanciful view of a different England make this more than a crime adventure book. The "Thursday Next" series includes "Something Rotten", "The Well of Lost Plots" (NY Times best seller), and soon "First Among Sequels".

And now for the pictures. These are some more swinging photos from Memorial Park in Reading plus a special Mick Jagger: