Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith****

This is a very good crime novel, set in Siberia in the 1980's. It's a sequel to Gorky Park, another Russian novel by Martin Cruz Smith. The investigator is Arkady Renko, a very unhappy man. I've read a bunch of novels by this author, and these two are my favorites.

Today I received The Loney from Amazon. Sounds spooky.

Mercury Mariner

Jed came over Tuesday of this week, and on Wednesday a nice lady from Atlanta delivered my car. So I have to get used to having wheels again. It's a very dark blue, almost black. 2008 vintage, but it looks and feels like a new car.

*

To Be or Not To Be, by Ryan North***

I finished jumping around in this amusing and interesting book, probably about Feb. tenth.

Lifesaver

Every once in a while, my sister Ramey visits the Daylight Donut shop and brings me a selection of the goodies.

The Whole Town's Talking, by Fannie Flagg***

Highlights:


The name of a town, Elmwood Springs. Being Fannie Flagg, she probably named it after Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham. Which, in an odd way, was appropriate.

A bored Indian who heard people talking. He thought they were birds squawking, and he went back to sleep.

A very evil pig named Sweet Potato, whose ultimate fate was never revealed.

An exploding bathroom commode.


The Heroine:

To me, a girl/woman/other named Elner was the real hero of this book. She was present, almost from the beginning of the story until 'way past the end, and she reminded me in some ways of my sister Susan.

I give this book four stars out of five. **** There.

***

"Fannie Flagg" was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944, and grew up in Irondale. Her birth name was Patricia Neal. She changed it to Fannie Flagg as author- and stage-name because the actress Patricia Neal was already famous. -- Wikipedia