Three narrow-looking white kids sat behind a glass display case that served as the sales counter. A bearded guy, a clean-shaven guy who was sporting a monocle, and a girl who looked like she had just stopped wearing light-up shoes a week ago.
Razorblade Tears, p. 51
Razorblade Tears Quote of the Day
August 31, 2021 at 8:40 pm (Books, Lists, Recommended)
Tags: COVID Reading, humor, mysteries, noir, novel, reading lists, summer
Outrageous! Hilarious! Outrageous AND Hilarious
August 31, 2021 at 6:43 am (Conversations)
Tags: COVID Reading, myteries, novel
Okay, okay, I’ll share a litte of the plot. Just a teensy morsel. If you don’t want to know the smallest detail, DO NOT READ THIS POST.
Ike, a black man who runs a landscaping service, and Buddy Lee, a white alcoholic (So nice to write WHITE alcoholic instead of black alcoholic or Native American alcoholic, the usual literary tropes), are thrown together when their sons who were living openly together, are murdered.
You can appreciate what a strain this puts on both men, who are just about as macho as can be.
The opening scene is at the funeral, so this isn’t much of a spoiler. Buddy Lee is able to persuade Ike to help him hunt for their son’s killers.
First stop: The Rainbow Review
“The Rainbox Review is on the third floor,” Ike said.
“Yeah, that sounds pretty gay,” Buddy Lee said. Ike cut his eyes sideways at him.
Razorblade Tears, p.45
Noir Sentence of the Day
August 30, 2021 at 7:09 pm (Books, Recommended)
Tags: COVID Reading, Mondays, mysteries, noir, novel, praise, reading lists, summer
His blonde hair was slicked back with so much product a fly would break its neck trying to land on it.
Razorblade Tears, p. 35
Now THAT’S noir.
Razorblade Tears: Noir with a Capital ‘N’
August 30, 2021 at 1:58 pm (Books, Recommended)
Tags: Black writers, COVID Reading, Mondays, mysteries, noir, novel, reading lists
Back to reading noir!
And Razorblade Tears is a most excellent example of the genre.
Self will not summarize, as it will be ever so much more fun if dear blog readers begin this book without having a clue.
Buddy Lee had it all wrong. Ike wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He wasn’t afraid to spill blood. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop.
Razorblade Tears, by S. A. Cosby, p. 29
Sentence of the Day, Last Saturday of August 2021
August 29, 2021 at 3:07 am (Books, Explorers, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: COVID Reading, Iceland, reading lists, Saturdays, science, summer
Nine of the twelve people who have ever walked on the moon came to Iceland first.
How Iceland Changed the World, p. 185
How Iceland Changed the World, pp. 139 – 140
August 28, 2021 at 7:00 am (Books, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: COVID Reading, history, humor, praise, reading lists, Saturdays, summer, World War II
Self is going deliciously slowly with this book. She does not know how the author does it. He’s managed to inject surprise, page after page. Nothing is inevitable, as those quirky Icelanders keep demonstrating. Bravo for nimble literary work, Author Egill Bjarnason!
World War II:
The Allies — Britain and France — had been ousted from Europe, and the Nazis occupied the entire coastline from Spain to Norwway. The only thing standing in the way of a Nazi invasion of the UK were twenty-one nautical miles, the width of the English Channel at its narrowest point. Knowing the German Kriegsmarine could not get past the Royal Navy, Hitler decided to use his sea forces strategically. Instead of attacking Britain directly, the plan was to strangle its cargo routes, depriving the island nation of everything from food and clothing to oil and iron.
Control of Iceland would help. Hitler — a villain who spent his political career yelling so much that he needed polyps removed from his vocal cords, twice — ordered his generals to put together a plan to snatch the foreign port.
No Words
August 26, 2021 at 11:18 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Afghanistan, grief, news
There are no words.
Jon Steingrimsson: Diary of an Eruption
August 26, 2021 at 1:06 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: COVID Reading, geology, Iceland, nonfiction, reading lists, summer
Self makes the acquaintance of Steingrimsson on p. 92 of How Iceland Changed the World. Indeed, she continues to find this “big history of a small island” by Egill Bjarnason (a graduate of UC Santa Cruz!) beguiling and captivating.
Jon published an autobiography called, simply, The Biography, “which is today considered a milestone description of one of the largest volcanic eruptions of modern times. This was the massive 1783 eruption that threw the Northern Hemisphere’s climate into chaos for years. Jon was so naive, sincere, and fatalistic that he stayed at his farm under the shadow of the spewing volcano from start to finish, while most others fled or died. He described what happened in honest diary entries, convinced in his heart that it was all because people of the area used tobacco and drank so heavily.”
When historians today say that the Laki eruption began on June 8, 1783, what they really mean is that in Jon Steingrimsson’s diary, June 8 is the day when “dust” first fell from the sky, as if someone were burning charcoal nearby. The following night, his bed shook from small earthquakes. Soon it was raining sand.
How Iceland Changed the World, pp. 92 – 93
Of course Jon survived! How else would we have known about his diary?
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
Life in Colour Challenge: August Red
August 25, 2021 at 7:56 pm (Artists and Writers, Flowers, Food and Drink, Links, Lists, postaday, Recommended)
Tags: art, exhibits, flower photography, Life in Colour, museums, Oakland, photo challenge, restaurants, San Francisco, summer
Oh, self had fun this morning, searching through her garden for any red blooms. There were a few choices, but the ones that photographed best were geraniums. In her archives, there was this sweet little mini-Cooper parked in front of Horn Barbecue in Oakland.
Self is throwing in a Calder from last spring’s Calder/Picasso at the de Young Museum.
Thanks so much to Life in Colour for hosting this challenge.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC) # 7: Central Coast
August 24, 2021 at 2:56 pm (destinations, Explorers, Flowers, Food and Drink, Links, Places, postaday, Recommended, Traveling, Weather)
Tags: California, Cambria, Cee Neuner, Gardens, inspirations, photo challenge, restaurants, road trip, summer
Self still playing catch-up on the Photographing Public Art Challenge, co-hosted by Cee Neuner and Marsha Ingrao, which she adores.
She just completed a road trip to the Central Coast. She loves doing road trips because it’s a break from the unrelenting heat in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Robin’s, 4095 Burton Drive, Cambria: Each Table Top is a unique patchwork of tiles. Mine had a plane.
Cambria Nursery, 2801 Eaton Road, Cambria
Fence as Art: Cambria Nursery, 2801 Eaton Road, Cambria
Kanlaon 