Lanier > Recent Status Updates

“Panic. Depression. Drought. Failure.” These are some of the things that caused many of the pioneers/Squatter Thieves to turn “Shack Wacky”, “Wandering Around From Pillar to Post” or
“Troubadours of the Prairie” 24-28% Meanwhile on the East Coast, thousands were becoming millionaires. https://www.blackhistory.com/2018/06/...

Kathryn Dance’s 1st appearance ~ such a great character!! Looking forward to Sach’s Lieutenant BadASS on her first solo case in another district, as well.

Wonderful accounts of life on the Prairies turns of the last century ~

Not surprisingly, Charles Ingalls was one of the Squatters allowed to steal land from The Osage while in Kansas. They left months before the abilities to buy 900 acres for $50 down on a total $330 (he’d already paid $35), yet hard to root for them?? In their defense, the Gub’MINT was saying it was awwww’rite, so technically they weren’t breaking any laws.

Pre-checking this out I realized I could read this without having read any of the other “Little House on the Prairie” books. Fascinating historical background to Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s “sugar-coated” Memoirs.

“Controversial” sexual habits of the late great king, commonplace throughout the globe just never read about it from Natan’s Scribe position; recording without judgment nor editorializing. Kind of like what journalists were 50 years ago?
“A Game of Thrones” made incest sexy?
Also, loving female perspectives, David’s 1st wife, which are less than non-existent in most religious historical texts.

I figured a shorter Nonfiction insight into Brooks’ worlds might illuminate her prolific body of work. Having grown up on an island, I’m right there with down her bittersweet memory lane.

While waiting for “Horse” and two others I started “The Secret Chord”. Not at all what I was expecting; fascinating view into Biblical characters.

“Shirley didn’t have a problem she’d only had a lifestyle.” ~
53%

A private tragedy not a public cataclysm.
Reflects Dr. Ellen Langer’s “A Tragedy or An Inconvenience” (on Mel Robbins’ Podcast)

Shirley Danglars reminds me of everything my favorite character, Katherine “Havisham” WAS 25 years prior!! I hope she survives!!
vs
57%
If I’d been incompetent I’d still have a job.

Even Smokes and mirror still have some traces of INTEL (22%)

Women were born Spooks.
and
Careless ability of falling into oblivion. 24% [The OB]

——
It could splinter you, such pressure. It could rob you of sleep, cheat you of dreams and surprise you into tears at your desk. (Lady Di) 43%

Very HILARIOUS ~ building nicely ~ equally intensifying!

I’m liking Jackson a bit more this time around ~ great opening set-up.

Not as good as “Down Cemetery Road”, but written with wit and humor; action has just begun so perhaps a redemptive ending?

“The yellows weren’t yellows; but white stained. The grays weren’t gray either, but black. Black with the stuffing knocked out of it.” Nothing is what it seems, and everything is blotched, blotted and broken.

Must read to better understand “Ironic Floss” ~ “Indifferent Unscapes” and the “Twilight World of Expedient Operations”. Getting better with every page!

Witty. Real. Love to hate characters. Hate to lose others.
So I saw Emma Thompson on The Graham Norton Show and immediately downloaded novel. The character she plays is only tangential in this 1st novel. PLUS “Slow Horses” since it’s by the same author. (Different Series)

I only had this for 14 days, I could’ve finished, but it was so depressing. Vitally important to know all the places globally where toxins are a daily part of many communities’ waking (and sleeping) lives. Fraser’s connections to this and the growing numbers of extremely violent people is not to be taken lightly. The saddest part, like micro-plastics, another man-made horror, there’s truly NO WHERE to hide.

Six Degrees of Separation from Evil Thomas Midgley, Jr.
“Sometimes bad things are engineered by engineers.” And they’re locking up petty Dime Bag Pushers? This FUCK created at least two of the most carcinogenic substances on earth; responsible for millions of ruined lives; killers, defective humans that otherwise could have contributed greatly to societies!
Fraser shows us how close we are to it all.

More than anything Chicago yearned…

14%
2:25.20
“There’s something incomplete about this city and its people, and it fascinates me. It seems to urge one on to completion. Everything, here still seems possible.

I love the air of newness, of expectation around me.
Yes, I want to stay.”
László Moholy-Nagy

These from previous days’ reads! I can’t find most recent notes?

Loved to live there one day?

"The illiterate of the Future will be the man who doesn’t understand photography,” Walter Benjamin - Moholy - in his 1931 Essay “A Short History of Photography”
&
2:45.35
Charles Morris' Letter of Intro to John Dewey - Progressivism Philosopher - with driving sense to: Experience, Experiment and Connections to Jane Addams [Hull House 1889] in her Academic Theory with Social Reform collaborating movements.

So much I’m learning about Chicago. Elizabeth Wood ~ Japanese American
who actually brought Pride to the Projects; gentrifying them for those who needed them the most.
She provided clean and safe homes with playgrounds and clinics on each property. - “Fear of tenants becoming snobbish.”
and
Gwendolyn Brooks’ 1944 “A Street in Brownsville” ~ “…challenging Langston Hughes as Premier Black Poet.”

A bit juvenile-HSy with all the in house jealousies reading more like a Soap Opera in many respects. Unless one of the Creepers ends up being a Perp in this or another subsequent mystery? Or perhaps even a victim? The actual Detective Work, historical and cultural fictions are intriguing so I hope it finishes firmly rooted in a Rankin Culmination.

The irony is that Richard — the child in Richard — still believed in the transforming power of television. "One hundred and twenty-seven million people watch television every night," he said at the time. "One week of truth on TV could just straighten out everything." (190)
Lily Tomlin’s 1973 “Opal and Jake” groundbreaking TV ~ far more than just that interracial kiss [peck].
Since “Laugh-In” she ROCKS!

“Riddle Me This!”
Siobhan Clarke’s cyber thriller, rising to the top. Less a Rebus book, though ALL the most witty lines and great investigative work lies within. And let’s not forget the sprinkling of sexual tensions. So far Rankin’s attempt to remain relevant with intrigue, realistic character development plus some colorfully quirky new ones is clicking on several cylinders.

Monologuing and The Birth of Stand-Up ~ Charlie Case. Dusty Fletcher’s Dick Gregory’s influences and more TRUTHS dealing with "fairly horrifying subjects: abject poverty, extreme alcoholism, spousal beating, homicide, and other rib ticklers.” - Critic Jake Austen noted. Think of today’s very best Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Tina Fey, Wanda Sykes (Esther Roll) and Ricky Gervais.

While Siobhan will be the star of this novel, I’m loving everything about Bev Dobbs “I was born in Bristol, spent more years than I care to remember in London. Divorce sent me scampering, and this is where I ran out of breath.”

Young Radicals
Artist Margaret Taylor ~ equal parts, Nina Simone and Frieda Kahlo, befriends Gwendolyn Brooks.

Mahalia’s Median Music:
The OG MJ epitomizes the marriage between South despair and desire with the new Dorsey sound.

Wildcard Wright:
RW’s biggest WIN; “Native Son”, ON HIS OWN, without the help of any of the handful of organizations usually associated with Black Artwork seeing the light of day.

Another potential gem left at the OneDerz Hostel (Phnom Penh) above the boxes where we keep our shit under the key.

Back Cover Blurb:
“When a student goes missing in Edinburgh…” that was all I needed to read to put it back down and know that once I’m done with two or three other books I can start this one.

“Furious Cool” Richard Pryor Bio will barely compete…AND WIN on nearly every gauge!!!

Swapped out outstanding “Go As a River” for this one in Onederz Hostel, Phnom Penh about eight hours ago. So funny, heartbreaking and LOUD from The Jump!!

We knew Richard as we did and felt not a racial but a human kinship to his fears and desires, triumphs and failures. Like Dizzy Gillespie said of Charlie Parker, "Bird's music was a gift, and if you could hear it you could have it." [Author’s Note]

The Clinton Blunder Years: Erasing The Gorbychev-Bush Accord

Afghan War was a major War Crime

NATO has not had any function after WWII ended.

US using NATO as a Force around the world.

Starvation as Weapon ~ The Purposes of Starvation: Historical and Contemporary Uses
Bridget Conley , Alex de Waal
Journal of International Criminal Justice, Volume 17, Issue 4, September 2019,
Pgs 699-722

Some things never change.