So, I managed to actually read a few books since September’s What I’ve Been Reading. That was while listening, yet again, to Tony Hillerman’s fantastic Navajo Tribal Police series. I never tire of those. And I’m now listening to The Caine Mutiny – great novel, movie, and even play. Gotta do a major piece on that some day.

I tried to listen to my current Malazan Book of the Fallen, but it’s 44 hours long! I simply couldn’t make myself tune in on something that long. I may try again, or just read it (I’d read all the prior books).

PORT OF SHADOWS – Glen Cook

I’m a huge Glen Cook fan. Hopefully you saw my Q&A with him earlier this year. While it was focused on his fantastic Garrett, PI, series, I did work in a little The Black Company. Last year, I listened to the entire series; except for Port of Shadows. I had bought the hardback when it came out in 2018, but had not read it yet. I wanted to read it, rather than listen.

Ala Raymond Chandler, this was created out of three short stories, published in 2010, 2011, and 2014. It takes place between the first two in the series: The Black Company, and Shadows Linger. There are two stories going on set in different times, and I didn’t see the link-up until about two-thirds of the way through the book. You’ll probably get it a lot sooner.

It was good to read about this incarnation of the Company, and I enjoyed it. Recommended for Black Company Fans. If you’re new to the series, I would definitely start with the first volume, and you could read this second.

If you read my Q&A (you DID, right???), you know that the next three volumes are completed, with a fourth in progress. Still hoping they get published soon.

RICKEY & ROBINSON – Roger Kuhn

I watched more baseball this post-season than I have in decades. Every year, I want a repeat of the 1920 World Series, with the Dodgers vs. Cleveland (who were the Indians then, of course. The Dodgers actually went by the Robins, for beloved manager Wilbert Robinson). With LA winning their second World Series in five seasons, I remained in baseball mode. I have four shelves of Dodgers-related books; many of which I haven’t read yet. Of course, excited with the win, I promptly got on Amazon and ordered more. But I DID read a few I already had.

Jackie Robinson is my idol and I have a pretty good Robinson/Rickey library. Those two men changed America. Maybe even the world. This is the best of three books I have with this same title. It’s a re-read, and Kuhn wrote two of my other Dodger favorites: The Era, and The Boys of Summer. The latter qualifies as literature.

When I get asked where someone newly interested in Jackie Robinson should start, this is one of the five books I recommend. It’s even Top Three, I think. It’s a terrific look, which delves into Jackie’s life, as well as the Rickey-O’Malley dynamic. Kuhn was an excellent writer.

FOREVER BLUE – Michael D’Antonio.

Still basking in the Dodgers’ World Series, I grabbed another one from the shelf. This is one of three I have about Walter O’Malley’s moving of the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Everyone has their own slants on this topic. There’s a lot of detail in this book, which is rather pro-O’Malley. I’m always intrigued by Robert Moses’ role in the whole thing. I have a huge bio of Moses I really need to read.

This one took a long time to get through. It’s well-written, but reads ‘dense.’ It doesn’t flow by, page after page. But it was a good book and I learned a lot. Recommended for anyone interested about Brooklyn for Los Angeles.

MISC

I’ve also been digging into Klyne Snodgrass’ THE NIV APPLICATION COMMENTARY: EPHESIANS, for a study guide I’ve been irregularly working on for years.

I also started another Dodgers book, THE ROARING REDHEAD: Larry MacPhail, Baseball’s Great Innovator, by Don Warfield.

I read a couple more of the HEROIC LEGENDS ebook series, featuring Robert E. Howard’s characters. I don’t care for Bran Mak Morn, and the new pastiche didn’t change that.

Other What I’ve Been Reading

What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024 (Harold Lamb, Hugh Ashton, Scott Oden)

What I’ve Been Reading: November, 2023 (Holmes on the Range, The Caine Mutiny, Jules De Granden)

What I’ve Been Reading: September 2022 (Columbo, Douglas Adams, Cleveland Torso Murderer)

What I’ve Been Reading: May, 2021 (Cole & Hitch, Dortmunder, and Parker, and Tony Hillerman)

What I’ve Been Reading: September 2020 (Jo Gar, Sherlock Holmes, Casablanca the movie, more)

What I’ve Been Reading: January, 2020 (Glen Cook, John D. MacDonald, Howard Andrew Jones, more)

What I’ve Been Reading: December, 2019 (Scott Oden, Norbert Davis, David Dickinson)

What I’ve Been Reading: July, 2019 (Clive Cussler, Gabriel Hunt, Max Latin)

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.