Tenure at the Rock Shop in Austin? More like 12 years, now?
Note the location:
4103 N IH-35 Service Road
Austin, TX 78722
11 AM – 4 PM
512.472.5015
RTFM?
It was another colonoscopy; not my first, won’t be my last. Clean bill of health. But, during the preparation? I think the obvious needs to be stated, clearly I am no longer full of it.
”The nurse said you might be a little loopy.”
Who could tell?
Preparation is everything.
“Film at 11.”
Didn’t look up until partway, almost halfway through. But this was a funny note, for me, professionally.
“Forbes tapped in a combination to open the phone. Stilwell caught the sequence—112392—and knew it was his birthday.” Page 144.
One? I damn sure don’t use my birthday for my lock screen. Too easy. And two? The crook is a November Sagittarius. Why make us the bad guys?
It is one of those books where I can stay up all night, reading.
Can an out-of-luck LA deputy find happiness, love, job satisfaction, and stay within the bounds of the law on Catalina Island?
From the land of the Lincoln Lawyer, Bosch, and Renee Ballard.
![](https://astrofish.net/aimages/ENBasse.jpeg")
Eagles Nest
Store phone: 210-354-7343
11 AM – 4 PM
Been a long-standing bookstore recommendation. No, I mean, one of those that had “Staff Recommendation “ done in handwriting. Something, too, about it being a “notable for 2024.” Or similar suggestions.
The frame is that the English government figured out time travel, and brought a couple of soon-to-be-deceased individuals forward to mostly current conditions. The frame belies the delicate interplay between characters, and the immigrant status of both the time travelers and the home-workers.
Still, as much as anything, I begin to think of it as a comedy of manners, as only the English can do.
When something changes you constitutionally, you say: “The earth moved.” But the earth stays the same. It’s your relationship with the ground that shifts. Page 211.
Bittersweet. Not mentioned but it’s the ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail, time travel mysteries.
Friday 13th
Eagles Nest
1235 Basse Rd
San Antonio, TX 78212
Store phone: 210-354-7343
11 AM – 4 PM
That didn’t take long.
There’s the notion that these books are a quick trip for me. Doesn’t take long, maybe a day, or a single evening, to read the novel. There will be action, adventure, a number of sexual trysts, and legal questions. Might be a cast of thousands, never can tell. Possible political intrigue, as well.
When I bought the book, the nice lady behind the register asked if read most of the others. Made a comment about Robert Parker’s oeuvre, most of which is now done by others. I allowed as how I liked Parker’s Spenser series, not much for the rest.
Before Stuart Woods passed away, what I liked best about his canon, his prose was transparent. Workmanlike, compact, and there was an absolute absence of style. No style as a style. That’s slipped up in the novels since then, as little stylistic elements have crept in. Doesn’t distract me, but I do miss the original version, so clean. I wonder if it is a good editor, or just a good writer?
I still buy the books, and devour them ravenously. Fun reading for me. Perfect beach reading.
One of my earliest mentions of a Stuart Woods book, Swimming to Catalina, in an older Two-Meat Tuesday post, circa 9/2004.