Spare Change by Robert B. Parker

I did read the Sunny Randall book, as promised. It was as reliable, or predictable, as expected. The climax strained the willing suspension of disbelief to the breaking point, and yet was moving. Go figure. Parker has his strengths and/or I'm a sap. ***

I also read The Dark Knight Returns the ten-year-old Batman graphic novel by the now super-hot Frank Miller (Sin City, The 300) *** also.

New Avengers Civil War

I probably would have liked this even better if I knew what came just before and just after, though I know Captain America soon ends up dead. When I was in my teens Captain America was my favorite comic book. I also collected about the first twenty issues of Luke Cage, so it was cool to see him again. This book contains the stories from the "magazines" New Avengers #21-25. ***

High Profile by Robert B. Parker

I can't kick my Robert B. Parker addiction. I just raced through High Profile; easy to do because he only puts enough plot for a short story (in this case two) into each novel. The rest is just literary gymnastics. ***
Jesse Stone, with Sunny Randall in the side plot for good measure. I should have an entry on a Sunny Randall book in a couple days.

Empire of Blue Water by Stephen Talty

The story of Henry Morgan, Port Royal, Jamaica, and how they impacted the weakening of Spain's New World empire. Very well done ****

Some Books I Neglected to Log

Last month I finally finished The Book Thief. I had trouble getting into it because of the device of having death narrate it, describing things using extravagant similes, because of the interjections of odd fonts and drawings; I'm a little put off by such attention-distracting affectations. Also, given its setting in WWII Germany, you know right from the start that it can't have a totally happy ending. Eventually I did get past all that, and I was absorbed by the last 2/3 of it. I'll give it ***, though if the above doesn't bother you, if you like having your emotions jolted, you might rate it as ****.
I finished it during a road trip to Cleveland. On that trip we also listened to a fantasy book set in Venice called The Water Mirror *** Be warned: it's the first in a series. And some kind of prequel to the Peter Pan story, featuring the schoolboy who would become Hook. It was awful: * at best, we didn't quite finish it, and I was glad. I wouldn't have listened past two chapters if I had free choice.