Saint-Exupery

You can read Wind, Sand and Stars to understand what a beginning pilot has to deal with flying from a small airfield in France in the 1930’s. You can also read the book to find out what flying in North Africa was like. Mostly you’ll find that the translated French is poetic and thought provoking.

You’ll see what a tribal king thinks of himself as a slave. A slave that the pilot who is telling this story is bound to free and return to his home.

An almost off the cuff flight from France to Vietnam tells the story of a crash and survival of the pilot and his mechanic as they strive to find a way out of the barren stretch of desert they are trapped in.

The last part of the story gives you an insight into the Civil War in Spain during the last years of the thirties. The pilot compares the war to a plague (and that brings thoughts of Camus’ “The Plague” to mind). The men who are fighting either for or against the regime are only differentiated by how they view the same principles.

The language in the book is poetic and there is more than a bit of philosophy in the passages that describe the pilot’s reaction to his friends, the environment and the people therein.

The book is not a page turner, but it is quite interesting and worth the time to peruse.

West

Nathaniel West is a pen name for Nathan Weinstein, an award winning novelist. He was in New York City at the same time as Dashiell Hammett and they had a peculiar friendship. West extended credit to Hammett so that he could use a room in the hotel that West was managing. Hammett tolerated West but only saw him as a second rate Jew.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Hammett

Finished reading an interesting biography of Dashiell Hammett that my son Thomas gave me for Christmas. Never knew he was a Pinkerton detective. And some of the anecdotes the author attributes to Hammett are really amusing. Hammett was also involved in the Fatty Arbuckle case when that scandal broke. Rather than being on the side of the prosecution he was trying to gather information that would provide the defense more ammo.

Reading about his breaking into writing with all the pulp stories in The Black Mask (later Black Mask) reminded me of the difficulties of getting the words right as well as the characters and the plot, if any. His first stories were vignettes and as well written as a beginner could hope to expect. Later his work achieved some degree of polish until he finally crossed somewhat of a literary milestone when The Maltese Falcon was published.

Reading about how a writer constructed his work as told through the lens of another writer is very difficult for me and I tend to skim that part of the story. What I find interesting is all the ins and outs of his life when not writing. He was the kind of man who wanted to have as much money as he could get (hiring two agents to try to maximize his earnings in both books and movies). The ironic thing about the money part was that he couldn’t or wouldn’t hang on to the cash once he got it.

And when he didn’t have the dough he would skip out on hotel bills or any other IOU that he’d signed.

Hammett was a boozer of the first class and evidently women found him irresistible. One of the females who dumped her husband and became one of Hammett’s best friends was Lillian Hellman. They had a frantic relationship and the rest of the story is interesting but somewhat depressing so it’s not the kind of biography you read for inspiration.

Value Added Tax

This message is for all British and European buyers. The VAT will devolve to the buyer on Jan 1, 2015. Before that date the VAT was calculated on the seller’s place of business. For some this will increase the price of a book by 20%, for others not quite so much. So if you want to buy any of my books, either paper or digital, now is the time to do so to avoid the extra cost.

Probe: The Movie

If you're a movie buff, you won't want to miss this script. Reads like a novel and with a bit of imagination gets you through the cut-to's and scene changes. Here's the blurb from the back cover:

• Los Angeles and its nemesis, the San Andreas fault provide the setting for this sci-fi adventure.  
• A probe lands in 2500 B.C. The alien occupant is trapped until the San Andreas fault rumbles to life. 
• Angelinos wonder whether their usual way of life will be destroyed by the determined and dangerous alien. Only a desperate gamble can eliminate the threat.

It's available from Createspace, Amazon and Kindle. You can read more by clicking on the image of the cover below:

Free books

For all who have Amazon Prime:  You can borrow one book per month free and those free Kindle books can be read on iPad, iPhone, and Android devices with free Kindle reading apps, as well as Kindle devices. So I've provided many hours of enjoyable and stimulating reading and I hope you agree.

Composting

Back in the day composting meant a trip to the chicken coop for their leavings and some hay or rice hulls to layer the manure in a 3 by 3-foot wire cage. The smell was enough to gag a maggot. Today, however, there’s a better way to compost. This tumbling compost container is one of many designs. It keeps the odor to a minimum, the flies at bay and effort to a once a day spin of the device. The recommended load is one part leaves or dry sawdust to two parts grass clippings or kitchen waste. With that and six trowels of a compost mix it’s a matter of spin and wait. After 19 days the compost in one side was ready. It’s definitely worth doing, not only to save money on buying compost but being smart about using kitchen waste and grass clippings.