Josie's sixteenth birthday is coming up, but since she was born on February 29th it is only her fourth birthday. This was a very excellent book which I enjoyed very very much.
A sequel of this is being published soon so I thought I had better read the first one. Very good story of four twelve-year-olds competing in a candy making contest.
Rei, a Japanese-American, is living in Japan. She is taking a ikebana class with her aunt. One of the teachers is murdered, and the aunt is suspect. Very interesting, learned a lot about Japanese culture.
Subtitle: How politics is placed told by one who knows the game. A fascinating insider's look at political maneuvering up to 1988, but mostly in the 60s through the 80s. One anecdote I had just read in an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, here was presented a lot of background information. Great stuff!
Fat Ollie of the 88th taps the regulars of the 87th to find the killer of a politician AND who stole the only manuscript of Fat Ollie's book. Very enjoyable!
QUOTE:
"Yes, but I have to watch my weight," Patricia said. "Oh, me, too," Ollie agreed. "I try not to have more than five meals a day. The Rule of Five. Otherwise it can get out of hand." --pg. 108
87th Precinct series. Who would want to murder a nun?
QUOTE:
And the other nun says, "It must be the cobblestones."
BONUS QUOTE:
"He sometimes watched old ladies plodding heavily across city streets where buses threatened, and knew for certain that inside those shrunken bodies were the shining faces of fourteen-year-olds."
"She doesnt know I still smoke," he explained, letting out a self-satisfied poisonous cloud. "Her brother had his larynx removed last month, she thinks everybody in the worlds gonna get throat cancer now. Ive been smoking since I was sixteen, I dont even cough."