Spytime **

** Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton, William F Buckley Jr, 2001

Being a big fan of Buckley's Blackford Oaks spy novels, I decided to give this book a whirl. Angleton was the head of CIA counterintelligence from 1954 to 1975 and Spytime is a novel based on Angleton's career. It's been almost two decades since I read a Blackford Oaks novel so I could be wrong, but I recall them as being more engaging than Spytime. It's a decent enough read, but not something I found myself dying to get back to.

Halfway through the book a b-story starts, featuring one of Angleton's operatives and almost nothing of Angleton, and goes on for 120 pages (over a third of the book) before it is rather abruptly cut off 40 pages from the end of the book. I found that a little annoying.

But if you're a fan of spy novels, or of history, this might be the book for you.

Yo, ho, ho, it's a writer's life for me!

Once, asked about his writing routine, Doctorow said: "Here's how it goes: I'm up at the stroke of 10 or 10:30. I have breakfast and read the papers, and then it's lunchtime. Then maybe a little nap after lunch and out to the gym, and before I know it, it's time to have a drink."

Jimmie Neel on Welcome to Fred

The current paster in Fred, Texas reviews Welcome to Fred.

If by whiskey

A 1952 speech by Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr., a young lawmaker from Mississippi, on the subject of whether Mississippi should continue to prohibit (which it did until 1966) or finally legalize alcoholic beverages:

My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

What Would Jesus Drink? ****

**** What Would Jesus Drink?, Brad Whittington, 2011

In 1996 I did a study of all the verses in the Bible that referred to wine and strong drink and it found its way to the Internet under a pseudonym. That essay was quoted in The Year of Living Biblically, was evidently the primary source material of a Relevant Magazine article, was credited by Michael Spencer (RIP) aka The Internet Monk in a 2005 posting, and referenced by dozens of other sites on the internet.

I recently decided to update the essay and released it as What Would Jesus Drink? I released it in digital form as a 99-cent ebook (the lowest price allowed) on Amazon and other outlets. I also made it available in paperback for those don't do ebooks, also priced as low as the system would allow, which comes out to $7.49. Amazing what going from electrons to paper can do to the price!

You can see the table of contents and read a chapter or so on Amazon. I have to say a big thanks to Hilary Combs for the beautiful front cover and Tosh McIntosh for the designing the rest of the cover and the interior of the book, a huge undertaking.

As I worked on this project, I read some of the books that surfaced in the intervening fifteen years. Most of these were not available when I did the original study, otherwise I probably would not have written my own.

In the next several weeks I'll review the books I read. I'll give you a little hint about what is to come. Most of them are against any kind of drinking, and the best book in that category was published in 1871. The anti-drinking book guys who have published in the last two decades could have learned a few things from Rev. William Patton.

Russo on Writing

"Novelists — especially novelists who paint on a broad canvas — are generally not given to undue anxiety, I think. The task is so enormous that if we ever really thought about what we were letting ourselves in for, we'd never begin. Early on we learn to worry only about what we do today. If I get my two or three pages written on Monday my day's work is done. It's useless to worry about Friday or four years from Friday. Pages need our attention; books take care of themselves." -Richard Russo

Muffin Man tribute

Norm, technical consultant on the poker scenes in Muffin Man, brought me this gift on New Year's Eve. In case you can't tell, that shiny dark thing is a muffin in plastic wrap.

Status report on Muffin Man: Second draft will begin in two weeks. I'm shooting for an April Fool's Day release. We shall see if I make it.

BradNotes subscribers get an exclusive sneak peek at Muffin Man: Day 1, the first 75 pages of the first draft, and an email notice when the book comes out. Sign up by sending an email to BradNotes@BradWhittington.com.

You can catch the first page here.

UPDATE 1-5-2012: I ate the muffin. It was more like a mini chocolate cake, very moist and quite good with medium roast Columbian coffee made strong. Num!

2011 Reading List

1. **** The Art of Fiction, John Gardner, 1983
2. *** Angels Flight, Michael Connelly, 1999
3. *** Void Moon, Michael Connelly, 2000
4. *** That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo, 2009
5. ** John Gardner: Literary Outlaw, Barry Silesky, 2004
6. *** A Darkness More Than Night, Michael Connelly, 2001
7. *** City of Bones, Michael Connelly, 2002
8. *** Lost Light, Michael Connelly, 2003
9. *** The Narrows, Michael Connelly, 2004
10. *** The Closers, Michael Connelly, 2005
11. *** The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly, 2005
12. *** Echo Park, Michael Connelly, 2006
13. *** The Overlook, Michael Connelly, 2007
14. *** The Brass Verdict, Michael Connelly, 2008
15. *** The Scarecrow, Michael Connelly, 2009
16. *** 9 Dragons, Michael Connelly, 2009
17. *** The Reversal, Michael Connelly, 2010
18. *** The Fifth Witness, Michael Connelly, 2011
19. The All-New Real Estate Foreclosure Short-Selling Underwater Property Auction Positive Cash Flow Book, Chantal Howell Carey and Bill Carey, 2009
20. Buying Real Estate Foreclosures, Melissa S. Kollen-Rice, 2003
21. How to Buy Foreclosed Real Estate for a Fraction of its Value, Theodore J. Dallow, Don Ayer and Dick Pas, 2008
22. The Complete Guide to Locating, Negotiating, and Buying Real Estate Foreclosures, Frankie Orlando and Marsha Ford, 2007
23. Foreclosure Investing for Dummies, Ralph R. Roberts with Joe Kraynak, 2007
24. The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor's Kit, Thomas J Lucier, 2005
25. ** American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson, 2009
26. ** Little Green Men, Christopher Buckley, 1999
27. *** The Mystery of Children, Mike Mason, 2001
28. *** We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver, 2003
29. *** A Fine Dark Line, Joe R. Lansdale, 2003
30. *** The Portable Landsdale: Sanctified and Chicken Fried, Joe R. Lansdale, 2009
31. The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King, 2006
32. A Grave Talent, Laurie R. King, 1993
33. *** The Career Novelist, Donald Maass, 1996
34. * The Hawkline Monster, Richard Brautigan, 1974
35. ** No Way to Treat a First Lady, Christopher Buckley, 2003
36. ** American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson, 2009
37. ** The Art of War, Sun Tzu, 512 B.C.
38. *** The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan, 2011
39. *** Resurrection in May, Lisa Samson, 2010
40. **** The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley, 2010
41. *** Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire, 2005
42. **** Back On Murder, J. Mark Bertrand, 2010
43. *** The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Kate DiCamillo, 2006
44. *** Savage Season, Joe R. Lansdsale, 1990
45. *** A Monstrous Regiment of Women, Laurie R King, 1995
46. *** The Two-Bear Mambo, Joe R Lansdale, 1995
47. *** A Letter of Mary, Laurie R King, 1997
48. *** Bad Chili, Joe R Lansdale, 1997
49. *** The Moor, Laurie R King, 1998
50. *** The Wayward Bus, John Steinbeck, 1947
51. *** Rumble Tumble, Joe R. Lansdale, 1998
52. *** O Jerusalem, Laurie R King, 1999
53. *** The Girl with the Long Green Heart, Lawrence Block, 1994
54. *** Captains Outrageous, Joe R Lansdale, 2001
55. *** Pattern of Wounds, J Mark Bertrand, 2011
56. *** Justice Hall, Laurie R King, 2002
57. *** Pilot Error, Tosh McIntosh, 2011
58. *** Vanilla Ride, Joe R Lansdale, 2009
59. *** A Hole in the Apple, Harley Carnes, 2011
60. *** The Game, Laurie R King, 2004
61. *** Kim, Rudyard Kipling, 1901
62. *** Devil Red, Joe R Lansdale, 2011
63. ** Cannibal Nights: Pacific Stories, Volume II, Kiana Davenport, 2011
64. *** Locked Rooms, Laurie R King, 2005
65. *** The Language of Bees, Laurie R King, 2009
66. *** The God of the Hive, Laurie R King, 2010
67. ** Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton, William F Buckley Jr, 2001
68. ** Wine in the Bible, Samuele Bacchiocchi, 2001
69. **** The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, Alan Bradley, 2010
70. ** A Toast to the Holy Ghost?, Kelly Libatique, 2010
71. *** A History of the World in Six Glasses, Tom Standage, 2005, ***
72. Should Christians Drink?: The Case for Abstinence, Peter Masters, 1992
73. * The Biblical Approach to Alcohol, Stephen M. Reynolds and Calel Butler, 2003
74. *** Bible Wines or the Laws of Fermentation and Wines of the Ancients, Rev. William Patton, 1871
75. * Cracking the Wine Case: Unlocking Ancient Secrets in the Christian and Drinking Controversy, Scott E. Smith, 2010
76. *** Drinking With Calvin and Luther!: A History of Alcohol in the Church, Jim West, 2003
77. *** Diary of a Part-Time Monk, J. Wilson, 2011
78. *** Bipolar Disorder Demystified, Lana R Castle, 2003
79. *** An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Key Redfield Jamison, 1996

The God of the Hive ***

*** The God of the Hive, Laurie R King, 2010

King really hit it out of the park with this one. Like Michael Connelly, King has the knack of keeping a series alive with a book that is as good or better than the last one every time.

This one picks up where The Lanugage of Bees leaves off, like the next minute. I found it interesting that King never picks back up the whole abandonded bee hive issue that consumed much of the first hundred pages of The Language of Bees. Which was fine with me. It was starting to pale for me before the real spine of the story kicked in.

In The God of the Hive, King takes the multiple POV even further, as the story requires it, but the majority of the story remains from Russells POV. There was one small thing that annoyed me, a little dirty trick of misdirection done by pairing two scenes but (unknown to the reader) putting them out of chronological sequence. It created a lot of suspense for several dozen pages, but when the reveal happened, it felt like one of those scenes where you're all drawn in and then discover it was only a dream. But a minor quibble on what is an excellent book.

Waiting for my copy of Pirate King to arrive.

The Language of Bees ***

*** The Language of Bees, Laurie R King, 2009

In The Language of Bees, King accomplished a difficult task - to write a cliff hanger with a satisfying ending. I didn't realize this story was continued in The God of the Hive, and when I got to the end, that didn't bother me at all. The ending felt like an ending. The important points were wrapped up and the loose threads felt like they would take care of themselves.

In this novel, King continues the use of mutiple viewpoints she started in the last novel, but instead of the large sections in the POV of either Russell or Holmes (omniscient) as in Locked Rooms, The Language of Bees is primarily in Russell's POV with the occasional scene of Holmes and Damien rendered largely as dialog with little POV orientation.

But that's all the technical stuff. As a reading experience this started out a bit slow, taking close to a hundred pages before Russell really gets engaged in the investigation. However, it makes up for lost time and pretty quickly turns into a nail biter. This is vintage King/Russell and should not be missed.