Not finished yet - a very long book, but one of the better novels I've read this year.

When Wolf died, I decided I would read another of his, (had enjoyed Man in Full) years ago.

Liked them all, actually. I read quite a few back in 80s - 90s. I should read some of the more recent ones.

From Steve Israel, the congressman-turned-novelist who writes “in the full-tilt style of Carl Hiaasen” ( The Washington Post), comes a comic tale about the mighty firearm industry, a small Long Island town, and Washington politics.

When Chicago’s Mayor Michael Rodriguez starts a national campaign to ban handguns from America’s cities, towns, and villages, Otis Cogsworth, the wealthy chairman and CEO of Cogsworth International Arms worries about the effects on his company. In response he and lobbyist Sunny McCarthy convince an Arkansas congressman to introduce federal legislation mandating that every American must own a firearm. Events soon escalate.

Asabogue’s Mayor Lois Leibowitz passes an ordinance to ban guns in the town—right in Otis Cogsworth’s backyard. Otis retaliates by orchestrating a recall election against Lois and Jack Steele, a rich town resident, runs against her. Even though the election is for the mayor of a village on Long Island, Steele brings in the big guns of American politics to defeat Lois: political consultants, Super PACs, and celebrities. Soon, thousands of pro-gun and anti-gun partisans descend on Asabogue, along with an assortment of heavily armed rightwing militias and the national news media. Bucolic Asabogue becomes a tinderbox. Meanwhile, Washington politicians in both parties are caught between a mighty gun lobby whose support they need for reelection and the absurdity of requiring that every American with waivers for children under age four carry a gun. What ensues is a discomfiting, hilarious indictment of the state of American politics.

Former Long Island Congressman, Steve Israel has firsthand knowledge of the cynicism and corruption at the heart of our political system. Big Guns will make you laugh, will make you angry, and will make you think as you flip the pages faster and faster to find out what happens next.

So I def want to read this one. Sounds hilarious.

by Walter Mosley.

It is book number fourteen in the Easy Rawlins series. Easy Rawlins is a black man, a WWII veteran who lives in L.A. He has held a variety of jobs, and now has a detective agency.

This book is set in the late 1960's. Easy describes what it is like to be walking while black, driving while black, sitting on his own porch while black.....

Mosley was President Clinton's favorite author.

I enjoy these books and recommend them highly.

Also recommend.

Napoleonic wars naval fic -- one of the better series still being extended. For nonfiction reading: The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World, by Lincoln Paine. I do seem to be on a maritime vector this summer.

I admire the cut of your jib.

4th in the Red Rising- Sci-Fi series.

Always glad to hear of new Sci-Fi series.

The life and times of a lesser goddess. My summer read is a bio of Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin. Tomalin has a light touch and sets a lively pace. At 500 pages it schleps easily.

Late Show by Michael Connelly is an excellent read.

What will a mother sacrifice to have it all?

Meet Silicon Valley executive Tessa Callahan, a woman passionate about the power of technology to transform women’s lives. Her company’s latest invention, the Seahorse Solution, includes a breakthrough procedure that safely accelerates human pregnancy from nine months to nine weeks, along with other major upgrades to a woman’s experience of early maternity.

The inaugural human trial of Seahorse will change the future of motherhood—and it’s Tessa’s job to monitor the first volunteer mothers-to-be. She’ll be their advocate and confidante. She’ll allay their doubts and soothe their anxieties. But when Tessa discovers disturbing truths behind the transformative technology she’s championed, her own fear begins to rock her faith in the Seahorse Solution. With each new secret Tessa uncovers, she realizes that the endgame is too inconceivable to imagine.

Caeli Wolfson Widger’s bold and timely novel examines the fraught sacrifices that women make to succeed in both career and family against a backdrop of technological innovation. It’s a story of friendship, risk, betrayal, and redemption—and an unnerving interrogation of a future in which women can engineer their lives as never before.