Books I've Read

Poke is trying to adopt Miaow but vicious criminals cause problems.

Poke gets offered the opportunity to write a biography. He also gets threatened if he writes that biography. What to do? Good story!

A drug-addled former child star signs to do a porn film, not quite realizing what she is doing. Junior Bender is hired to find out who is sabotaging the film. Things get complicated.

Junior is "offered" a job investigating shoplifting at a decrepit mall. Pretty darn good, and it's a "Christmas" story, too.

Well, Junior needs to track down who is offing the members of a "chain". Some more nifty characters are met, relationships strengthened, and some touching philosophy expounded. I hope that's a real word.

Junior goes after a rare stamp.

Junior Bender finds out why the 1960s rock'n'roll scene in Philadelphia is getting people killed in 2012ish L.A., among other things. I really enjoyed this book. The characters are great, the plot is good enough to confuse me, and there is some witty dialogue.

Junior has to get a doll from an old house. Very good story. VU/Nico mention on pg. 199.

Some mob guys put on a nostalgic rock music tour partly financed by Irwin, but try to rip him off. Not a good move.

Junior Bender investigates an investigation from a long long time ago at the behest of Irwin Dressler. Very good story.

Poke has a surprise reunions, trouble with the Secret Service, complicated by North Korean counterfeiters.

Alfonso finds his heritage on a trek to the not so mythical land of Dormia.

The Continental Op, #1. The Op goes to Personville, nicknamed Poisonville, an awful little berg of corruption.

Political and criminal machinations in a small town. The word "mien" is used seven times.

Mother and kids travel from Texas to a miserable existence in California picking cotton during the Dust Bowl era. Not bad, but no Steinbeck, as someone said to me.

A dysfunctional family whose dad has a violent abusive streak move to the wilds of Alaska in 1971. Pretty good.

Coronado girl Frankie joins the U.S. Army as a nurse and goes to Vietnam. Pretty graphic war stuff. I didn't care for the romance stuff. Much tears in the last quarter of so of the story.

A young Wisconsin farm girl deals with her mother's health problems and changes in her life. Very good.

Delly is always in trouble, at home and at school. She meets a strange girl named Ferris Boyd. Very good story!

The author tells of her life growing up in the are of San Marcos in San Diego County back in the early part of the twentieth century. A charming little book!