Originally published in the 1970s, this funny look at sports and sports fans is still relevant today. It is very nicely illustrated by Bob Clarke. It has more than 10 chapters and includes sections like "The Pro Football Alphabet Book", "You Know Your Playing Days Are Numbered", and "Ten Years In The Life Of An Athlete".
Here is a sample, from the chapter "If Sportscasters Said What They'd Like To Say":
There is a kidnapper in southern Louisiana. He has taken several young girls who were never found again.
After being away from her home in rural southern Louisiana for nearly a decade, Olivia has returned with her eight-year-old daughter, Sara. But her arrival is viewed by some as a bad thing and by others as a good thing. She is convinced to stay awhile and her daughter gets to know a girl about her age who is also living there, Chloe.
Olivia finds that she is developing feelings for Chloe's dad, Seth. Olivia and Seth didn't get along very well when she was a rebellious teen. But now that she has grown up a bit, she and Seth are getting along a lot better, despite the fact that Seth in engaged to be married in a few months. Added to that, Chloe, Seth's daughter, doesn't like Seth's fiancée and friction has been building up between the two.
Meanwhile, there is the unresolved disappearances of several little girls about the same ages as Chloe and Sara. And Olivia's memory gaps relating to the time when she was a little girl and lost her mother who died by drowning.
This was an OK story. I really didn't like the whole child murder part though. It was a gruesome frame for the story. But the author needed a traumatic event to give the child version of Olivia amnesia about the happenings of the night her mom died, I guess.
Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.
A big wedding is going to be held at Shrewsbury Abbey. It's a bit of a disgrace, though, as the bride is in love with someone else. And the groom is forty years older than the bride and is really only interested in her vast fortune and holdings. The bride, Lady Iveta is in love with one of the groom's attendants, Joscelin, a handsome young man in his early twenties. They have a plan to run away but then Joscelin is framed for theft. He escapes capture and goes and hides in the local leper hospital, Saint Giles.
Lady Iveta loses hope and the wedding is still on. But the morning of the wedding, the groom fails to show. He is found dead, subject of a trip wire that unhorsed him and he was then strangled by his attacker. Since Joscelin is on the loose, naturally everyone assumes he the killer. Unknown to the authorities, Joscelin was in the leper hospital the whole time where he is still hiding with the connivance of the lepers. Fortunately, the murderer was wearing a ring that poked his victim in the neck, leaving a clear mark. All they have to do is find the man who was wearing the ring that matches the mark. Of course, that man has removed his ring. But that is not going to save him. Because sooner or later, someone is bound to notice he has stopped wearing this rather distinctive ring.
Joscelin has not given up his plan to wed the woman he loves. He manages to get a message to her and she comes to join him. But someone either she or he has confided in has betrayed them and Joscelin is again captured. Lucky for them Cadfael has pretty much figured out who the killer really is and will step in to save the day for the lovers.
I enjoyed the story quite a bit even though the killer turns out to be the most logical choice and not much of a surprise. But Cadfael is just a fun character to read about, no matter the mystery he has to solve.
Lord Peter Wimsey, famous amateur detective, ends up in Fenchurch St. Paul when his car suffers a broken axle. While there, he gets to know the locals and even partakes in a bell ringing event. Bell ringing is a big deal in parts of Britain and the title of this book refers to a bell being rung nine times to announce the death of a man (not a woman or a child). While there, a local woman, Lady Thorpe, dies. Wimsey also hears about a robbery of an expensive necklace that caused the Thorn family much distress when it was revealed that their butler, Deacon, was involved. Deacon went to prison, along with his accomplice, Cranton and the Thorpes had to pay the woman whose necklace was stolen because she carried no insurance on it. The necklace was never recovered and it is assumed it was hidden in Fenchurch St. Paul by Cranton and/or Deacon.
Wimsey's car is soon fixed and he is once again on his way. But a few months later Lord Thorpe also passes away. He had requested to buried in his wife's grave and when the dirt was removed from the grave, the body of a man was discovered to be in it on top of Lady Thorpe's coffin. The body's face is mashed in and the hands cut off and missing. Due to his passing acquaintance with the Thorpes, Wimsey is back in Fenchurch St. Paul to attend the funeral. But this unexpected body of course needs to be investigated and Wimsey is welcome by the local officials to help. He soon figures out that the dead man was held captive in the church bell tower.
Such care was taken to hid the dead man's identity. But discovering who he was is key to figuring out why he died. And it also may lead to tracking down the missing necklace. Which would be good news to the remaining Thorpe, a teenage girl, whose family finances were devastated by having to reimburse the owner of the necklace for its loss.
This was an OK story. The main problem is the bells. The author really liked writing about those bells and how they are rung in a mathematical progression. For example:
"'The ninth lead should bring Queen's change—let me see, let me see—51732468, 15734286—that's the first thirds and fourths all right—51372468, 15374286—and that's the first fourths and thirds—13547826—ah! here is the trouble! The eighth should be at home. What has happened?—To be sure! What a beetle-headed cuckoo I am! He has forgotten to make the bob. She can't come home till she's called.' He ran a red-ink line down the page and started to write figures furiously. 'There! 51372468, 15374286—and now she comes home like a bird!—13572468. That's better. Now it should come round at the second repeat. I will just check it. Second to fifth, third to second—yes, yes—that brings 15263748, with Tittums at the end of the second course, and repeated once again brings it round. I will just jot down the lead-ends for him to check it by. Second to third, third to fifth, fourth to second, fifth to seventh, sixth to fourth, seventh to eighth, eighth to sixth for the plain lead. Then the bob. Plain, bob, bob, three plain and a bob.'"
This is just nuts. And annoying to read. Especially for those of us who don't know what change-ringing is. But Sayers did and I guess she loved it.
Another thing that I didn't care for was how she [spoiler] brings a dead person back to life, in effect. We are told over and over that this person is dead, proven to be dead, in fact, no question about it. Dead, dead, dead. Not so dead, it turns out.
Daily strips from Doonesbury, dating from about 1973 to 1974. A fun look back at an era that is now ancient history for most people today.
Well, it's not ancient history for me because I was a young married woman back in the early 1970s. This is my long-gone youth. I enjoyed Doonesbury back then and I am enjoying revisiting Doonesbury fifty years later.
