THE LITTLE YELLOW DOG

THE LITTLE YELLOW DOG                       WALTER MOSLEY
Posted: Sept. 17, 2013

84549November 1963: Easy's settled into a steady gig as a school custodian. It's a quiet, simple existence -- but a few moments of ecstasy with a sexy teacher will change all that. When the lady vanishes, Easy's stuck with a couple of corpses, the cops on his back, and a little yellow dog who's nobody's best friend. With his not-so-simple past snapping at his heels, and with enemies old and new looking to get even, Easy must kiss his careful little life good-bye -- and step closer to the edge....

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This was a real good book. In this story Easy has a real paying job but trouble still finds him. He now must find the the answers to get himself off instead of someone else. There is a lot of twists in this story and I liked this one very much. The dog does have a part in the story and Easy for a while thinks it might help him. The characters for the most part are the same a few different and some from the first book come into play to help him out. But it is still up to him to find the killer or killers so he does not go to jail. I am glad that I am taking the time to read these books from the beginning, for the stories are very good and I can't wait for the next one.

THE AMAZING JIMMI MAYES SIDEMAN TO THE STARS

THE AMAZING JIMMI MAYES                JIMMI MAYES & V C SPEEK


17783340For more than fifty years, Chicago drummer Jimmi Mayes served as a sideman behind some of the greatest musicians and musical groups in history. He began his career playing the blues in the juke joints of Mississippi, sharpened his trade under the mentor ship of drum legends Sam Lay and Fred Below in the steamy nightclubs of south Chicago, and hit it big in New York City behind such music legends as Tommy Hunt from the Flamingos, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown.

Mayes played his drums behind blues giants Little Walter Jacobs, Jimmy Reed, Robert Junior Lockwood, Earl Hooker, Junior Wells, Pinetop Perkins, and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. He lived for a while with Motown sensation Martha Reeves and her family and traveled with the Shirelles and the Motown Review. Jimi Hendrix was one of Mayes's best friends, and they traveled together with Joey Dee and the Starliters in the mid-1960s.

Mayes lived through racial segregation, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the integration of rock bands, and the emergence of Motown. He personally experienced the sexual and moral revolutions of the sixties, was robbed of his musical royalties, and survived a musical drought. He's been a pimp and a drug pusher--and lived to tell the tale when so many musicians have not. This sideman to the stars witnessed music history from the best seat in the house--behind the drum set.



HUBBY'S REVIEW:

A good book about a drummer that I did not know that I had been listening to for some time now. When I read the bio and it said he played with Pinetop Perkins, Big Eyes Willie Smith, Honey Boy Edwards. I have been listening to these men for years. Now to have some stories to go with them is great. He does go into his life and how he started out and who he has worked with over the years. H does talk about Jimmi Hendrix and how they were friends and played in some clubs together before he got famous. He also talks about working on some of the last record but not getting credit. This I believe just because he had passed away and they rushed to get the record out. Also the two songs are more of a blues feel and that is what he mostly plays. Enjoyed the book and the stories and now the music will be a little better when I listen to it. I got this book off Net Galley.

UNSUNG EAGLES

UNSUNG EAGLES                                        JAY STOUT
Posted: Sept. 17, 2013

Unsung Eagles: True Stories of America S Citizen Airmen in the Skies of World War IIThe nearly half-million American air crewmen who served during World War II have almost disappeared. And so have their stories. Award-winning writer and former fighter pilot Jay A. Stout uses Unsung Eagles to save an exciting collection of those accounts from oblivion. These are not rehashed tales from the hoary icons of the war. Rather, they are stories from the masses of largely unrecognized men who in the aggregate actually won it. They are the recollections of your Uncle Frank who shared them only after having enjoyed a beer or nine, and of your old girlfriend s grandfather who passed away about the same time she dumped you. And of the craggy guy who ran the town s salvage yard; a dusty, fly-specked B-24 model hung over the counter. These are everyman accounts that are important but fast disappearing. Ray Crandall describes how he was nearly knocked into the Pacific by a heavy cruiser s main battery during the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. Jesse Barker a displaced dive-bomber pilot tells of dodging naval bombardments in the stinking mud of Guadalcanal. Bob Popeney relates how his friend and fellow A-20 pilot was blown out of formation by German antiaircraft fire: I could see the inside of the airplane and I could see Nordstrom's eyes. He looked confused and then immediately he flipped up and went tumbling down. The combat careers of 22 different pilots from all the services are captured in this crisply written book which captivates the reader not only as an engaging oral history, but also puts personal context into the great air battles of World War II. Lt. Colonel (Ret.) Jay Stout is a former Marine Corps fighter pilot who flew F-4 Phantoms and F/A-18 Hornets during a military career from 1981 to 2001. A graduate of Purdue University, he has also written Fortress Ploesti, Hornets Over Kuwait, and Slaughter at Goliad.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

A great book about men that wanted to fly and fight during World War II. This book starts out with a story of a young man who goes to fly with the RAF. What I did not know is that they came to the states looking for pilots. Of all of the history books that I have read this was the first one that even talked about that. Each chapter is a different story and a different part of the war. Some of these men went on to do great things even though at the time they thought all they were doing was escorting bombers. You could feel their frustration of not being a fighter pilot looking for other fighters. This book does give you the feeling that everyone had at that time of wanting to fight and if one branch did not take them they would go to the other one so they could get into the war. My father was the same way except he was with the 82nd airborne. This is a very good World War II. book and gives you a lot of information about the war and about the way we were as a country, was able to produce planes and pilots at a huge number that neither the Germans or the Japanese. This was a book I got off of Net Galley

The Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap

THE SUGAR COOKIE SWEETHEART SWAP   KAUFFMAN, ANGELL, KINCAID
Posted: Sept. 17, 2013

For friends Clara, Abby and Lily, only one thing is more delicious than the Pine Mountain holiday cookie exchange – finding the right man before they ring in the New Year!

Where There's Smoke. . .
USA Today bestselling author Donna Kauffman


When flames from a recipe gone disastrously wrong send hunky firefighter Will Mason to pretty Clara Parker's rescue, the sparks really begin to fly! And once Will gets a taste of Clara, he aches for more than just a little sugar from the famously single food columnist. . ..


The Gingerbread Man
National bestselling author Kate Angell


Folks have always told fun-loving Abby Denton that her anatomically correct Gingerbread cookies are. . .impressive. But those erotic cookies have nothing on the sexy stranger Abby saves from a snowy country road. Could Lander Reynolds be the Christmas treat she's truly been longing for?


Sugar And Spice
Kimberly Kincaid


When caterer Lily Callahan goes up against hotshot pastry chef Pete Mancuso in the bake-off of the season, the stakes are high--and scandalously passionate. Will the gorgeous gourmand steal Lily's heart--and the top prize in the Christmas cookie competition?


MY REVIEW:


     This book is a great holiday book to cuddle under the covers with hot chocolate and get into these three stories in one with three authors, new to me, all of them, but so good at what they do.  I had a fun time reading their work.

     I have to say that the first and third stories were much more believable to me only because of the shortness of time span for which all of them take place.  Yet, if it could happen oh what a wonderful way to go.  These are three childhood girlfriends who are not good in the relationship departments but great with the friendships, community, and families. Two can bake not so much and the things these three can get themselves into are just too funny.

     As time had passed and those they loved had started to pass on.  The three were left with a bigger hole to fill.  The losses of grandparents for two, of the girls, Carla Parker and Abby Denton their grandmothers raised them and it left them feeling the wholes of being totally alone.  Lily Callahan came from a meager background and wanted to make something of herself so worked all the time.  Which is lonely when your apartment is a two by four.  Although they supported each other it did not give them comfort like a warm man would.

     In the spirit of Christmas Carla reconnects with an old school mate who lights her fire, Abby rescues the gingerbread man, and Lily finds a chef under her nose.  It all happens over a cookie and it comes with recipes too.
Provided by netgalley.com

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