Fiction

I believe, dear Poppets, that it is rapidly approaching my favorite time of the year -- heat, iced tea, sitting in the sun, walking the dog in the cool evenings, and, once in awhile, indulging in my wonderful Neiman-Marcus Hot Fudge Sauce recipe on Blue Bell ice cream! Also, Texas, around these parts, has marvelous peaches that you hold in your hand to eat and lean over so the peach juice drips in the grass!

How's it going with y'all? Weather turning, for the most part, warm and sunny? (Golfers love that kind of weather, including my daughter-in-law, Andy ( who, although little hits a mighty swing and is never satisfied with what she does on the putting green!) and my sorely-missed neighbors, Dennis (he who has half-mine Manny, the Shepherd) and the O'Kane's, Mike and Helen. Tell them all I said "Hit the ball far and hard for me!"

K.U. is out of the Final 4 but how great that a team that had to really grit its teeth and fight to get there -- got there. I mean VCU, of course, and having gone to school in Virginia, I know a lot of those people are elated.

I, personally, have about seven books "going" at the moment -- meaning I read a bit out of each one, every so often, and although our main topic, this column, is Fiction, I plan to lead off,very briefly, with a Non-Fiction book that is really flying off shelves, but, I must interject, only with and for those people who are really "readers" as it is about the Faulkners of Mississippi -- yes, as in William and his family in the South.

The title is on order with our library and it's "Every Day by the Sun: A Memoir of the Faulkners of Mississippi", by Dean Faulkner Wells, William's niece who called him "Pappy" "with whom she shared colorful, sometimes utterly frank, sometimes whimsical, conversation and experiences." It was William ("Pappy") Faulkner who gave his youngest brother, Dean, an airplane that he crashed and died as a result of and, perhaps from a strong sense of guilt/responsibility, paid for Dean's education, watched over her and gave her away at her wedding. A fascinating, delightful "family" treasure of memories.

Let's look at our fiction choices, beginning with "The Matchmaker of Kenmare", by Frank Delaney, who wrote "Ireland." Miss Kate Begley is the matchmaker and the enigmatic woman Ben McCarthy meets in the Summer of 1943. Ben "is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his wife, the actress Venetia Kelly" and gets involved -- and searched for a purpose in his life -- by collecting Irish stories for the Irish Folklore Commission and, in doing so, travels "to a remote seaside cottage to profile the Matchmaker of Kenmare." He and Kate undertake a journey to help a man, and do some spying along the way and this story has lots of heart, Irish history and humor, and reads easily. You'll enjoy the characters and it will "take you out of yourself" for awhile.

This next book, "Wench", by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is not -- I say, not -- easy reading but once you start it, you keep on reading. We are all aware of slaves, masters, misery, hope -- all in this country years ago but never forgotten. The emotional lives -- fears, hopes, despair -- of four slave women are the base of the story. "Situated in Ohio, a free territory before the Civil War, Tawawa House is an idyllic retreat for Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their enslaved mistresses. It's their open secret." Lizzie, Reenie and Sweet are "regulars" there and feel they have built strong "friendships" over the years -- and then along comes Mawu -- and she is not content to "go along with the set ways" and begins talking of running away and "being free." See, when you "run away so you can be free", everything will change but the biggest change will be to escape from the emotional and physical bonds of the men they're enslaved to. A fire happens and what they learn of "love" is that it exists even in the most inhuman conditions -- even an end to life as they knew it.

Who can they trust at the hotel they stay at, after one of them sets the fire? The human ties between these women, with each other, their agonies, fears, indecision, scars, keeping in mind always -- always -- what to say and how to behave around their white masters -- well, I had to force myself to stop reading and go take Rufus Cooper for a walk, which was a respite none of those women could have. Read -- read -- this book and let it affect you as it did me.

Don't you love this title for a mystery -- "Got No Friend Anyhow", by Peggy Ehrhart? Perfect! The lady who is a blues musician, Maxximum Blues (real name, of course is not that but "Elizabeth") has almost finished a CD for her label of choice, Prowling Rooster Records, when she learns that her flame and the producer, Rick Schneider, has disappeared. What's worse -- yes, Virginia, there is a "worse" -- she finds, in her search for the master copy of the CD, a bloodstain -- and then later has to identify Rick's body. In her quest for what happened, "this leads her into the orbit of the temperamental Brenda Honeycut and the complicated live of Rick's peculiar business partners." Then, at some point, the author introduced a testy rooster and brings back, into the mix, the ex-boyfriend, Sandy -- and more inclusions into her blues-babe wardrobe. This book is a hoot! Come get it for a "diversion to everyday living" read.

And who hasn't heard of or read, with genuine enjoyment, Clive Cussler? Well, Poppets, his new one is out, "The Jungle; A Novel of the Oregon Files", and it's running up the Best Seller List and flying off bookstore shelves -- those bookstores that are still in business and have anything on their shelves. Juan Cabrillo and his merry band of men and women head into another adventure in a "jungle of mystery and danger." As the authors (Jack du Brul is his co-author on 6 other books) state, "Jungles come in many forms. There are the steamy rain forests of the Burmese highlands, there are the lies and betrayals of the world of covert operations, and then there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination." (I can also conjure up big -- major -- unmoving traffic tie-ups in cities!) Several major events will all come together i.e. a new weapon unleashed in 13th century China -- a daring rescue in the snow-bound mountains along the Pakistan border -- a woman gone missing in the jungles of Thailand -- all coming together to post a major threat to the world. Along with genuine adventure in this book, there's humor, the plot is peopled by believable people and, all in all, it's a good "guy's book" to get a hold of.

Well, that's the fiction column for this time, so, if there's no honest-to-goodness work you should be doing right away, go out and take a 30 min. walk -- can't hurt, could help -- start the grill and roast big beef hot dogs, put some Cole Slaw in the bun along with the dog, and that's a Southern dish called "Slaw Dog", according to my Georgia friends. Give your pets fresh water -- check it at night to see if they need some fresh water -- and please remember to go in and use your library and get acquainted with the staff. I miss everyone there and am always so pleased at how well they know and perform their jobs -- I shall be back "in person" in May! Three cheers and a tiger! See ya -- bye!