Crippled Kira is lucky she has a valuable skill, else she would have been tossed on the trash heap, as it were, when her mother dies. Good story of a cruel world.
An old woman tell about the events of a year when she was a young girl and the tragedy that ensued. Very good story. I like it when a charactor is a reader and the books she likes are mentioned, I become interested in reading those books too.
A parody of all those too-sweet orphan books. A splendidly useful glossary of words such as odious, obsequious, glutinous, and lugubrious is included, along with summaries of novels about "pitious but appealing orphans."
Quote:
"They are dolts indeed," Nanny said. She stared at the postcard and murmured, "I myself am Presbyterian."
Alice Vega #3. Alice is hired to find a football player who disappeared some thirty years ago. Once again I must say I admire the relationship of Cap and his daughter Nell.
Quote:
"Still," said Ameyo, shrugging a muscular shoulder, "that's a touch creepy."...
"I'm somewhat creepy," said Vega, not at all trying to be cute.
Alice Vega #2, I believe. Alice calls Cap to partner up on an investigation into two unidentified bodies in the Salton Sea area of California. OK story, I'm reading #1 now.
Quote:
Don't look at the saw on the table, Cap told himself.
Quote:
And there they were: twenty-four-inch, steel-jawed bolt cutters. -- Steel-jawed, that's the best kind!
I can never remember all the amazing things I was going to mention... This is Alice Vega #1. She comes out from California all the way to Pennsylvania, I think, to find two missing/kidnapped young girls. Pretty good story, some very disturbing images, some very funny lines.
Quote:
Machs nix
Quote:
"Ah hell, Lyssie, looks like I peed," he said, shifting around. -- We are all getting older.
Quote:
"Hey--" started McKie.
"Don't speak unless you're spoken to, please. You're a moron, and it grates on me," said the Fed, getting angrier.
Quote:
"You remind me of my late wife," he said thoughtfully. -- Funniest line in the book!
Second book in the series. Lots of footnotes! Izzy investigates a suspiciously-acting new neighbor, among other things.
Words I Had To Look Up:
I defenestrated myself (pg. 250) -- The act of throwing someone or something out of a window. Still. My sister's hyperbolic response...(pg. 332) -- Seems not the curve, but using hyperbole, that is, overstatement.
Book three finds Isabel in court-ordered therapy, someone is blackmailing her, her parked car keeps moving around, and Rai is accused of cheating on the PSAT.
Words I Had To Look Up:
Erased de Kooning Drawing (pg. 284) -- Those wacky artist types!
Spellman Document #6. I laughed and I cried, then laughed some more. This one was better than #5. But it might be the last! Be sure to read them in order.
On page 263 I might have caught an spellcheck error. The character says "Once I coded a logarithm that made your computer run at the pace of the J train." I think that should have been "...coded an algorithm that made..."
Isabel has all SORTS of family problems, and they with her. I enjoyed reading it very much. Oh, this is Document #5, as Isabel puts it. OH, and I like Morgan Freeman, too. And, bannana!