Quit Listening: "The Rare Coin Score" by Richard Stark

Quit Listening: The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark, Overdrive download, 2008 copyright for Introduction.

Why would a Parker fan like myself quit listening? Because Parker is given a voice. I cannot describe how I would expect Parker's voice to sound but the narrator did not get it right. I'll have to pick up one of the University of Chicago reprints.

Listened: "AC/DC: the savage tale of the first standards war" by Tom McNichol

Listened: AC/DC: the savage tale of the first standards war by Tom McNichol, 2006, Overdrive audio download. 

 No, not really. Not so savage at all. 

 Edison had a booster for his DC system who called names, produced fake stats, and sent out press releases but "savage" does not fit. 

As a book about competing standards this is kinda boring. As a quick book about early the early electrical industry and it's pioneers this is pretty neat. McNichol covers some electrical history with various pioneers in experimentation. He then does a brief(ish) biography of Edison. Throws in some bio bits on Tesla. Stirs in some George Westinghouse info. Then scours the library for information on the electrical business, news reports, and industry papers regarding the fight to get either alternating or direct current adopted.

Comments: 

1. AC won and I still don't know jack crap about electricity, and I am still scared of it. 

2. Edison was born to gas lamps and when he died the whole damn country was electrified (mostly). There was a proposal to turn off all lights for a couple of minutes in memoriam to Edison but electricity was so vital the idea was quickly nixed. 

3. Tesla died owing money and turning insane. 

4. Westinghouse sounded like a good dude. 

5. A lot of time is spent on DC Booster's (forgot his name) pseudo-scientific experiments testing the deadliness of AC power by electrocuting stray dogs.

DNF: "Metamorphosis of a Criminal" by Ed Edwards

DNF: Metamorphosis of a Criminal by Ed Edwards, 1972, LC 72-78412 (no ISBN).

Fucking scumbag. Edwards is most recently known as being a small time serial killer. He was finally caught in 2009 by Jefferson County detectives who were following leads from the 1980 murders Edwards was eventually convicted of. (Edwards had a fondness for murdering young male-female couples.) Edwards subsequently confessed to three other killings, including the murder of his own foster son.

This 1972 biography got some press after Edwards's arrest. I wonder how the press heard of the book. Did the cops tell them? Did Edwards tell them? Did they dig it up on their own? Edwards's name is so common.

Anyway. I gave up after a few pages. I was reading his self-serving load of bullshit and could no longer take it. Edwards claimed a string of crimes across the country while he was a fugitive and on the FBI's most wanted list. He probably raped or killed some more people too. He was suspected of a 1960 double murder in Portland. Fucking dirtbag. After parole he became a motivational speaker and did this book. Then he killed a young couple in Ohio in 1977.

Edwards was convicted of the 1980 double murders in Wisconsin in 2010. In March, 2011 he was convicted of double murder in Ohio plus the murder of his foster son. He died of natural causes in April, 2011.

Addendum, January 22, 2016.
This post is getting a lot of traffic. I presume that is because a guy has been in the new trying to link Edwards to the Avery case recently publicized in Making a Murderer. Keep in mind that Edwards was quite old and in very poor health when he was arrested for the Jefferson County murders.

Edwards was 76-years-old during 2010's pre-trial phase. Edwards was on oxygen, in a wheelchair, and had video arraignments because he was jailed at a prison hospital in Waupun (an hour North of Jefferson, WI). (According to Wikipedia Avery is also at one of the prisons in Waupun.) I don't know about Edwards in 2005 but doubt he was in shape to kidnap and murder a woman and then plant blood and bodily remains on someone's property.

One of the Waupun prisons is across the street from the public library. One of the prison's officers was a history buff (Civil War, I think) and the Library Director used to be able to walk across the street, yell up to the guard tower, and ask the officer for help on reference questions.

Addendum, January 18, 2018
Looks like Edwards is in the news again after a profile in PEOPLE magazine and a television episode of PEOPLE MAGAZINE INVESTIGATES.

Done: "I, the Jury" by Mickey Spillane

Done: I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane, 1947, 0451203526 (2011 compilation).

Mike Hammer could be a real asshole. Quick to slug someone and quick to take insult.

My knowledge of the Hammer books and Spillane is very scant. I do know I, the Jury was a sensation when it came out. Max Allan Collins has an essay in the beginning of this compilation but I don't know if I will get toit. I used to watch the Keach tv show. I really liked the Armand Assante movie because it was filled with nudity and gunplay.

What's more, should I read the recent Spillane/Collins collaboration that Spillane intended as the second Hammer novel? Or, should I just read the other two novels in this compilation? Ahh, who cares. I'll read them in whatever order I feel like.

Hammer gets a call that his long-time friend and war buddy, Jack Williams, was murdered. Hammer swears revenge. Hammer goes hunting with plan to catch killer before Pat Chambers the cop does. Hammer starts shaking down the people who were at a party Jack hosted the night of his death.

Hammer threatens. Hammer punches. Hammer drinks. Hammer lusts. Hammer hints at his tough guy history. More people die as the killer ties up loose ends. Hammer has hots for gal psychiatrist. Hammer dislikes poofs. Hammer drives a heap. Hammer finds links to dope and prostitution. Hammer bangs a nympho. Hammer drinks more. Hammer figures it all out. Hammer kills the killer.

Comments:

1. A fun read. One that makes me think if differences between today and 65 years ago. Not just about cars, and phones and mores but also about an idealized hero of the time.

2. This copy only went ~150 pages.

3. Several things in the book stretched my disbelief. Like the guy wooing co-eds and then pimping them out.

Quit: "Pound For Pound" by F.X. O'Toole

Quit: Pound For Pound F.X. O'Toole, some year, some ISBN.

I loved O'Toole's short story collection from several years ago. I recall nabbing a withdrawn copy from work because, apparently, no one else liked the book.

This had an intro by James Ellroy who mentions how O'Toole's manuscript was hundreds of pages long when he died. O'Toole's son and an editor went through and cleaned it up. That was a real turn-off. O'Toole's short stories were short. He worked on them and turned out some really neat stuff. When this did not grab me after 15 pages or so I never got back to it and returned it to the library.

I may try it again sometime.

Done: "Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Family Album" by Kurt Busiek

Done: Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Family Album by Kurt Busiek, 1998, 1563895528.

I found this in the Fitchburg library. More personal drama among the superheroes of Astro City. I read that Busiek will be at Murder and Mayhem in Muskego this fall. Maybe I'll try to go for the evening event. By the time the pancake breakfast is over I'm not sure it is worth the drive over there. Although Gischler and Abbott, Jr. are also scheduled to attend.

Five characters in this compilation.

1- First story has a newly divorced dad moving to Astro City. Their first night there is a massive battle with all the heroes against a Zeus-like weather guy.

2- Astra is a 10 year old kid of superheroes with powers of her own. She fights evil with her family but has no friends, is home-schooled by a computer, and has a lonely life. She decides to have an adventure of her own and learn to play hopscotch. She leaves home without telling her family and enrolls in school. Her family interrogates the universe's bad guys thinking she was kidnapped.

3. Junkman is a technological bad guy whose recent bank robbery left no clues. He is proud of his accomplishment. So proud he cannot stand no one knowing what he did and how. He heads back to Astro City to get caught and get credit.

4. Jack-in-the-Box has to come to grips with his impending fatherhood. Jack-in-the-Box is attacked alternate-future versions of his son. Two if the versions are super evil. Jack-in-the-Box worries more about the future.

5. Leo is a cartoon figure who was brought to life in '47. He has a highs and lows and tells his story to an adman.

Comments:

1. I like the artwork. Crappy artwork kills any story, no matter how good the writing.

2. The Leo and Astra stories were the best. Busiek took the space to tell their stories in depth. Astra is a lonely kid wanting to be a normal kid. Leo was brought to life by chance and left to navigate a new, real-life world.

Read: "Raylan" by Elmore Leonard

Read: Raylan by Elmore Leonard, 2012, 9780062119469.

It had been a long time since I read a Leonard novel. This was okay but so much of what was in the novel has already been done in Justified. The novel's and show's storylines are not identical but close enough to spoil any suspense of surprise.

To me this was more an opportunity to compare the two formats. Abbott Jr. wrote upa brief interview with Leonard for LA Times Magazine and Leonard said Boyd Crowder is not very smart but thinks he is. The television Crowder is smart. TV Crowder is a schemer and planner and figures people out.

I was watching the most recent Justified episode earlier today and got to thinking that maybe Raylan is not just stubborn and falsely obtuse. Maybe he is a bit thick.

Anyway. Plot: Raylan gets involved in kidney thievery and kills the gal mastermind. Raylan gets involved protecting a mouthpiece for the mining company. Mouthpiece later killed by widow of mminer mouthpiece shot. Raylan is assigned to look for a gal who skipped bail in Indianapolis and is suspected of bank robbery. Raylan bangs the gal instead.

Comments:

1. I had difficulty following the dialogue. I cannot recall if this happened to me when reading past Leonard books.

2. Gratuitous reference to Valdez is Coming.