The Age of Will

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[Bill][author] and his wife are urbanites, or at least, suburbanites. They live in a small house in Yonkers, while Bill’s wife finishes medical school and residency. The author works with computers and admits he has no handyman skills, but he has learned some home fix-it skills out of necessity, fixing up their house, and making some improvements.
His wife will finish her residency soon, and they are looking to move. They both want to live somewhere more remote, they have two prerequisites: a Main Street and a local newspaper. They eventually purchase the *Big Brown House* in a small town. The house comes complete with unfinished floors, leaking roof, no kitchen, two rusting cars in the barn, and three acres of land. But, they both fall in love with it and decide to make it home. Soon Bill hears the call of fresh vegetables. Not ones to do anything small, they hire a designer to create their perfect kitchen garden.
The book is about Bill’s adventures in the garden, his battles with deer and a super-gopher, as well as pests, drought, grass and weeds. But this is much more then a gardening book, in fact, it is not a gardening book at all. The book shares Bill’s philosophies, his thoughts and desires, and where he believes he fits in the world. It is a funny and uplifting read.
[bookdetail]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/bookdetail/book_id/1696
[author]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/browsebook/pagenum/1/author/William%20Alexander

*I just posted this over at [www.williamestep.com](http://www.williamestep.com/2008/06/20/the-big-sleep-raymond-chandler/). Reposting here since it’s book related. *
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I just finished reading Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep”. Fun book. Fast paced, and I love the crime noir style. Here’s a clip from the movie with Bogart. The movie is great, but it’s really hard when reading the book to see Bogart as Marlowe. He just doesn’t seem right. But know one delivers the lines better.

[bookdetail]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/bookdetail/book_id/2558
[author]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/browsebook/pagenum/1/author/Raymond%20Chandler

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James Qwilleran stayed the compulsory five years in Pickax to complete the requirements placed on his inheritance. He is now officially a billionaire. Now it is time to decide what to do with the rest of his life. He intends to go somewhere—a quiet island with a beach or a mountain hideaway—someplace where he can have seclusion and quiet to sort out his options and make plans.
Qwill (as his friends call him) decides on a whim to spend three months in Spudsboro, a small town in the Potato Mountains. It was recommended highly by some friends who camped there recently. Finding a house to rent is always difficult with two Siamese cats as roommates. The only thing he can find is a huge house on the very top of Big Potato Mountain. It was originally built as an exclusive lodge for well-to-do tourists. More recently it was the home of the area’s most influential businessman—owner of the local newspaper. It didn’t take long for Qwill to discover the house he rented had been the scene of a ghastly murder a year earlier.
I do admire Jim Qwilleran’s ability to converse with everyone he meets. He is well practiced, of course, since he made his living for years as an investigative reporter for various newspapers. He knows just how to steer the conversation and just the right questions to ask. He makes people so comfortable that they usually tell him anything he wants to know. Of course, he has an uncanny ability to read people and know when he is being lied to. Within two days of arriving in town, he is sure that the wrong man is in prison for the murder.
[The author][author] does an amazing job of making us empathize with Qwill’s frustration with the situation he has gotten himself into. He came to the mountains for solitude and a time of reflection. He had no desire to get mixed up in the politics of the region—environmentalists vs. developers. He really had no desire to get mixed up in the mystery surrounding the murder. But…being a reporter for so many years (and truly caring about the innocent man in prison), he just could not resist finding the truth. It doesn’t take long. Qwill has learned to trust his instincts—and the instincts of his cat Koko. Together they follow the clues and confront the real murderer.
I highly recommend that you get acquainted with Jim Qwilleran through the [“Cat Who...”][bookdetail] mystery series. You will like him.
[bookdetail]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/bookdetail/book_id/1596
[author]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/browsebook/pagenum/1/author/Lilian%20Jackson%20Braun

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If you work in a large organization, you may be a [peacock in the land of penguins][bookdetail].
This is a fable, of a peacock who was brilliant. He was recruited by the penguins because of his brilliance, but once he was in the land of penguins, he did not fit in. He was not black and white, he was multi-hued. His bosses didn’t like him because he was not like them. His co-workers who were penguins did not like him because he was not a penguin.
In addition to the peacock, there are other exotic birds in the land of penguins, but they don’t fit in either. All of the penguins want all of the other birds to be just like them, and when they cannot be like penguins, they are disliked and dismissed.
For anyone who has ever felt that their contributions to an organization are dismissed because of who they are rather than the work they do, this book will hit a cord. For anyone who has felt that they are on the outside because they aren’t like the ruling class (the “penguins”), this book will hit a cord.
In addition to the fable, the third edition has strategies for peacock survival in the land of penguins. It is interesting to see the strategies and which ones could be used. Interestingly, this book was given to me by a woman who is fairly high in the chain, and might be described as a penguin.
[bookdetail]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/bookdetail/book_id/742

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[Lori Wick's][author] books are quite predictable. They are simple, pleasant love stories. You know by the end of the first chapter (sometimes by the end of the first page) who is going to marry whom. It is, however, sometimes entertaining to see how they arrive at the “happily ever after” point.
The first book in The Yellow Rose Trilogy introduces three brothers–Slate, Dakota, and Cash–all Texas Rangers. The first book tells the story of the eldest brother’s decision to leave the Texas Rangers.
[A Texas Sky][bookdetail], the second book in the series, tells the story of the middle brother’s adventures while recuperating from a gunshot wound. My guess is that the third book will find the third brother involved in a romance and some life or death situation.
Dakota Rawlings is the hero in [A Texas Sky][bookdetail]. He has been severely injured in a gun battle. After a few weeks he decides he is ready to return to work. His boss insists that he take another few weeks to recuperate. In fact, he asks him for a personal favor–to escort his niece to the nearest train station 50 miles away. Well . . . it probably would have been easier to chase outlaws all the way across Texas.
Darvi (the heroin) considers herself quite grown up and capable of riding a few miles on horseback without the need of an escort. Dakota is too proud to admit he is not strong enough yet from his injury to keep up with her. It’s easy enough to tell what lessons they both learn!!
Besides the obvious morals to the story, the hero and heroin both find answers to the questions they have about serving God. It seems they are both new Christians. Through the dilemmas faced by Dakota and Darvi, the author offers guidance in some situations common to all new Christians.
[bookdetail]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/bookdetail/book_id/38
[author]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/browsebook/pagenum/1/author/Lori%20Wick