Books I've Read
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McNally's Caper
Archy McNally, #4. Some one is stealing stuff from the Forsythes, and it might be someone who lives there.
Quote:
I mean how can you, with a clear conscience, patronize a bar willing to serve drinks topped with little paper parasols?Quote:
I stopped at the first public telephone kiosk I could find -- I thought he got a cell phone in the last book. Read:
5/2025
McNally's Chance
Archy McNally, #10.
Author is Vincent Lardo.
Super famous romance author Sabrina Wright hires Archy to find her missing husband. Who disappeared while looking for Sabrina's missing (adult) daughter. Who ran off (with her muckraker journalist boyfriend) to look for her birth father.
Quote:
"Make that two orders of fries."
"What about your waistline?" she challenged.
"I'm not going to eat them. I just want to look at them and remember when I could."Read:
6/2025
McNally's Dare
Archy McNally, #12. Written by Vincent Lardo. Some guy drowns in a shallow pool.
Quote:
Father, nibbling on a piece dry toast, looked somber and morose. -- Page 104. Quote:
Father, scooping up his scrambled eggs, looked somber and morose. -- Page 104. Quote:
Father, sipping his coffee, looked somber and morose. -- page 105. Read:
6/2025
McNally's Dilemma
Actual author is Victor Lardo. For continuity I am filing under Lawrence Sanders, the original author of the series. Supposedly.
Archy McNally, #8.
Someone threatens to expose someone's grandfather as a Titanic fraud. Also, someone else is murdered by their spouse. Are they related?
Quote:
lunching with my fiancé, Consuela Garcia. -- Wait, what?Quote:
"Thank you, but I'm a soap-and-water girl."Quote:
And something Hattie said had struck me as odd at the time. -- Noisy "getaway" car? Quote:
Mar-A-Lago is now owned by a New York realtor. -- That is FUNNY!! Book published in 1999. Quote:
convertible ears -- I think he meant convertible cars, referring to his Miata. Read:
6/2025
McNally's Folly
Archy McNally, #9. Actual author is Vincent Lardo.
Archy investigates whether a psychic is real or fake. Also, Archy directs a play.
Quote:
...I lit an English Oval without having to hear one of them say, "I thought you gave up smoking." Quote:
In conclusion, my motives in courting the lady were not purely prurient--which is even harder to pronounce than believe.Quote:
"I'm on my cell phone, outside the police station." -- Lolly Spindrift at least has a cell phone!! Read:
6/2025
McNally's Gamble
Archy McNally, #7.
A pair of conmen are trying to get a rich woman in Florida to buy a Fabrege Egg. Dad asks Archy to determine if the conmen are conmen. Is that a spoiler?
Quote:
"Go along and make your phone call," she commanded. "I have some private things to say to my plants."Read:
6/2025
McNally's Luck
Archy McNally, #2. Archy gets mixed up with spiritualists.
Quote:
I treated myself to a dram of marc and lighted an English Oval--my first cigarette of the day!Quote:
"Carrot juice, Archy?" Meg asked.
I fought nausea valiantly. "Thank you, no,"Read:
5/2025
McNally's Puzzle
Archy McNally, #6.
The owner of a parrot store, called Parrots Unlimited (imagine that), thinks someone wants to harm him. Well, he was right. But who did it?
Quote:
"Thanks you so much, Professor," he said. "I learn a lot when I talk to you. It takes weeks of hard work to forget it."Quote:
I took along my cellular phone -- See, he DOES have one!!! Quote:
The schlub stared at him. "You got a search warrant?" he demanded.
"No," Al said, "I haven't got a search warrant. You got an operating sprinkler system? You got working smoke alarms? You got emergency exits clearly marked and lighted? You got garbage cans tightly lidded? You got rodents and vermin on the premises? I don't have a search warrant. How much you got?"
The super turned wordlessly and unlocked the inner door for us.Read:
6/2025
McNally's Risk
Archy McNally, #3. Archy meets a woman with a butterfly tattoo. Also, he has new (his first?) cellular phone now.
Quote:
Why, the man was a veritable polymath, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if my next interviewee claimed that Hector was a master bialy maker. -- Sure could use him in THIS burg! Quote:
I had never been tempted to visit since the idea of sipping an overpriced aperitif while a naked young woman gyrated on my table seemed to me a betrayal of Western Civilization.Quote:
a jeroboam of annelids -- What an unpleasant image. Quote:
When I saw the muzzle I realized it wasn't a .38; it was the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.Read:
5/2025
McNally's Secret
Archy McNally, #1. Archy works for his lawyer father in the "discreet inquiries" department. A client had her rare stamps stolen. Archy figures out what's what and just who is who. Good story, I MUST have these back in the 90s, before I started keeping track.
Quote:
A Palm Beach music critic wrote of one of our recitals, "Words fail me." You couldn't ask for a better review than that.Quote:
Lady Cynthia had two built-in saunas, dry and wet (if you're going to do it, do it right),Read:
5/2025
McNally's Trial
Archy McNally, #5.
An awful lot of caskets are being shipped north from Florida. And it takes Archy an awful long time to figure out what is in them.
Quote:
I had many sharp, jagged impressions of that MTV evening -- What does that even mean? Quote:
No f&g with Sunny Fogarty on Friday night. No f&g with Connie Garcia on Saturday night. -- What does THAT even mean?? Quote:
"Kissy," she said. -- I may have teared up a little here. Quote:
"Yeah," she said determinedly. "I've got to keep thinking better times are coming. Thanks, Arky." -- Yeah, she's gonna die--in 41 pages. Quote:
"You must eat your oatmeal," I admonished.Read:
6/2025
The Case Of The Missing Books
A Mobile Library Mystery. I wasn't much interested in this book, except for the library stuff, but as things proceeded to an end I found myself pleased with the ending. Rather witty in parts. I shall have to find the next book.
Quote:
Sometimes it felt good to be a librarian.Read:
9/2007
Miles From Nowhere
One of my favorite books, I actually PURCHASED after reading twice from the library so I could share it with others. Barbara and her husband bicycle around the world. Read--several times and more to come.
Read:
No dateRead:
5/2006Read:
10/2016
The Moon Bridge
Ruthie makes a new friend at school. They become best friends, then Mitzi and her family are sent away because it's World War II and they are Japanese-American. A really good story, I liked it very much.
Read:
10/2014
Roller Skates
Lucinda is a ten-year-old living in "orphanage" with her aunts while her parents are in Italy for a year because of her mother's health issues. Lucinda is quite outgoing, and reminded me much of Anne Shirley. She loves to meet people, and is totally unconscious of "class". I thought this would be a "nice" story, but there were two deaths that came as quite a shock. Awarded the Newbery in 1937.
Words I Had To Look Up:
story of Diamond (pg. 21) -- the quote in the book is from At The Back Of The North Wind, by George MacDonald, a children's book published in 1871.
Anton Seidl (pg. 92) -- Hugarian-born conductor who became conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1891. He died in 1898.
Robert Ingersoll (pg. 92) -- Lucinda notes that Aunt Emily said he didn't believe in God. Lucinda wonders "a great deal" why, but never finds out. A very interesting Wikipedia article I perused said he was a great orator and spoke on many topics, including agnosticism.
guimp (pg. 142) -- A narrow flat braid used for trimming. Also spelled gimp.
Cornelius Nepos (pg. 131) -- A Roman biographer.
gertrude (pg. 178) -- A type of clothing for infants. More information is online in The Care Of The Baby, by J. P. Crozer Griffith, published 1900.
Smoke Quote:
The princess brought out a lacquered box, and out of this some cigarettes. She lighted one, lay back on the cushions, and smoked. Lucinda had never seen, had never dreamed it even possible that a woman could smoke. It only made the whole ending of that day appear more unbelievable. (pg. 100)
Read:
3/2009
Agent to the stars
An alien race of Jello-like creatures decide they need an agent to fix up their image before revealing themselves to humans. Very good.
Read:
3/2006Factoid:
This book is available on the author's website as a free download.
Fuzzy Nation
I'm sure I read H. Beam Piper's book back in the 60s, but I don't remember it. I'll have to find it! This one was pretty good, I liked it much more than Redshirts, even though I didn't weep at this one.
Read:
7/2014Read Again:
9/2017Read:
5/2021
Head On
Very readable, I couldn't put it down. A sequel to Lock In. Lots of snappy repartee.
Quote:
"But then again I self-medicate." -- pg. 57Read:
5/2018
Lock In
A new FBI agent's first day on the job. I really enjoyed this one!
Read:
11/2014
Old man's war
A 75 year old man joins the Colonial Defense Force, gets a new body. I was in tears by the top of the third page. I really enjoyed this book, very Heinelinesque, couldn't put it down. EDIT 20016: This time around I cried a lot more.
Read:
3/2006Read Again:
3/2016
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Addison] [Addison - Alexander] [Alexander - Anderson] [Anderson - Asimov] [Asimov - Bacigalupi] [Backman - Baldree] [Baldree - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnes - Barr] [Barr - Beanton] [Beanton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Belzer] [Bender - Block] [Block - Block] [Block - Bodett] [Bohjalian - Bova] [Bova - Brink] [Briody - Bryson] [Buchanan - Bujold] [Bujold - Bythell] [Cain - Card] [Card - Carey] [Carlson editor - Chambers] [Chambers - Choldenko] [Choldenko - Clarke] [Clarke - Cody] [Cody - Colfer] [Colfer - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Constantine] [Constantine - Corbett] [Corcoran - Cornwell] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Crichton] [Crichton - Curry] [Curry - Cussler] [Cussler - Davis] [Davis - Dilloway] [Dionne - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Dowell] [Dowell - Duncan] [Duncan - Elkins] [Elkins - Evanovich] [Evanovich - Fairstein] [Fairstein - Ferris] [Ferris - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flint - Foster] [Fournier - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Freedman] [Freedman - Gaiman] [Gaiman - Gash] [Gash - Goffard] [Going - Grady] [Grafton - Grant] [Grant - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grimes] [Grimes - Gruwell] [Gutman - Haldeman] [Haldeman - Hall] [Hallett - Hannigan] [Hard - Heat-Moon] [Heat-Moon - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Hemingway - Herrera] [Herriot - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hobb] [Hobb - Holt] [Hoose - Hudgens] [Hudson - Jackson] [Jackson - Johnson] [Johnson - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Keating] [Keene - Kienzle] [Kienzle - Kingsolver] [Kingsolver - Koontz] [Korman - Kurson] [Kushner - Larsson] [Lasky - Leckie] [Leckie - Leitch] [Leitch - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Linsdau] [Linville - Lovegrove] [Lovegrove - Luttrell] [Lutz - Macleod] [Macleod - Manley] [Marcinko - Martine] [Martini - Matas] [Matthews - McCall Smith] [McCall Smith - McCrumb] [McCrumb - McSwigan] [Meader - Mikaelsen] [Miles - Moon] [Moon - Morressy] [Morris - Myers] [Myers - Nimmo] [Nimmo - Norton] [Norton - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Nan] [O'Nan - Palmer] [Palmer - Paretsky] [Pargin - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Patterson] [Patterson - Pavesi] [Peacock - Perez-Reverte] [Perkins - Piper] [Piper - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Quinn] [Quinn - Reeve] [Reeve - Ringo] [Ringo - Robinson] [Robinson - Rowling] [Rowling - Russo] [Russo - Sanders] [Sanders - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schmidt] [Schmidt - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Seranella] [Setterfield - Shusterman] [Shusterman - Smith] [Smith - Soto] [Sparks - Stark] [Stark - Stephenson] [Stephenson - Stroke] [Stroke - Stroud] [Stroud - Tappy] [Tappyly - Towles] [Townsend - Twain] [Twain - Van Draanen] [Van Dyne, pseud. - Walker] [Waller - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westerfeld] [Westerfeld - Westlake] [Westlake - Wiles] [Wilks - Wodehouse] [Wodehouse - Wouk] [Wrede - Zevin] [Zimmerman - Zusak]