Desert Law

Stories of a Deputy Sheriff in
1970s Southern California

by Barry L. Pennings

Independently published via Ingram
Content Group 2023

129 pages

1/31

Where Water Is King

The Colorado Desert Becomes
the Imperial Valley
An Improvisational History

by Kevin Eugene Kelley

Sunbelt Publications, Inc. 2022

127 pages

Cover and chapter illustrations by Pat Waters

The Imperial Valley of California During World War Two

Agriculture, Demographics,
Security, and the Military
on the Mexican Border

by Benjamin R. Williams

Independently published
    November 15, 2022
Print-on-demand fulfilled
     December 13, 2022

64 pages

The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company

Black Pioneers in the Vehicle
Building Industry 1865-1939

by Christopher Nelson

Hurricane Creek Publishing 2022
2nd Edition

181 pages

The Shepherd

Novella originally published 1975

by Frederick Forsyth

Ebook version by Open Road Media
    October 30, 2012

Cover art is from the ebook version
(Library loan ebook)

123 pages

The Makeshift Rocket

Originally titled Bicycle Built for Brew

by Poul Anderson

Ace first edition January 1, 1962
Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy ebook
    version December 30, 2014

Cover art is from the ebook version
(Library loan ebook via Hoopla)

114 pages

The original cover art is far better since it
portrays both of the rockets as they were
actually described in the book

Pillar to the Sky

by William R. Forstchen                                    

Tor Books, 2014
(Library loan)

400 pages

The Blizzard of 88

by Mary Cable

New Word City Inc., October 6, 2017            
(Library loan ebook)

146 pages

I first read this when this ebook version came out in 2017 and decided to pick it up again after reading The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin. As [will be] mentioned in the previous post, I thought the storms had been the same one, with the books telling the story as it took place in two different parts of the country—only to discover that there were two separate storms two months apart.

While Mary Cable’s blizzard treatment does not have the technical and scientific explanations that David Laskin provides in his, hers is just as good a read, and she refrains from inventing dialog. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read, given the subject matter, and while she relied heavily on contemporary news accounts (as did other authors), she has a unique talent to animate the written word. The narrative of the plight of the harbor pilots is extremely poignant, and in fact gave me a glimpse of a bygone industry—and yes, I know that there are still harbor pilots but how they go about their job was drastically changed as a result of this event. Overall this is a great look at life in 1888 New York and New England, albeit one that is seen through tragedy.

Mary Cable (1920 – 2013) wrote over a dozen books (not to mention her time at American Heritage magazine) including one I’m looking forward to reading later, Black Odyssey: The Case of the Slave Ship ‘Amistad’ which she wrote long before nearly anyone else took up the topic (Viking Press 1971). What bothers me about this ebook edition is that the cover art is NOT from Cable’s book, but rather it is from yet another work on the subject titled The Blizzard of’88 (because of course it is) by Irving Werstein published by Thomas Y. Crowell Company 1960. I bought a copy and will describe that version in about twelve or so posts from here. Meanwhile, here is the original cover:

by Mary Cable

Atheneum, 1988            

198 pages

The Children’s Blizzard

In three minutes, the front subtracted
eighteen degrees from the air's temperature.
Then evening gathered in and temperatures
kept dropping in the northwest gale. By
morning on Friday, Jnuary 13, 1888, more
than a hundred children lay dead on the
Dakota-Nebraske prairie.

by David Laskin

HarperCollins 2004

271 pages

2023

I'll backfill after I get 2024 up to date.

I'm back. Yet again

I'll be doing some house cleaning for a bit as I fix or remove links that have broken since I was here last, then I need to remove the errant transportation posts from here and repost them over on SERVISIDE.

I'm also removing the nontransportation posts and moving them to Not The Sharpest Crayon In The Blogs as On The Nightstand will henceforth will be dedicated solely to books (although any transportation books I read will be mentioned on SERVISIDE as well).

Then I’ll post a partial list here of what I read in 2023, and after that regularly post books as I finish them.

And I need to get this done before I have pizza with Jesse on Friday.