C is for Coprse by Sue Grafton ****

C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton is an early case for Kinsey Millhone, the private detective from Santa Teresa (aka Santa Barbara, CA). This case starts when the spoiled-rich, but sympathetic, Bobby Callahan hires her because he believes someone is trying to murder him. He believes he was run off the road nine months ago in an accident that left him with partial amnesia and paralysis. No one believes him, especially the parents of his best friend, Rick Bergen, who died in the accident.

Bobby has little support beyond Kinsey. His mother, a rich socialite, doesn’t buy the murder story. His step-father Derek, and his stoned, anorexic step-sister Kitty, are antagonistic. The police have closed the investigation as an accident. Ultimately, Kinsey solves the case.

Kinsey is a low-key PI with a dry sense of humor.

“I’d rather talk to you,” I said. He seemed surprised by that, as though no one ever preferred to talk to him.

Kinsey Millhone differs from other mystery detectives.  While Hercule Poirot see suspects and clues everywhere, Kinsey sees dead ends. Rather than this list of suspects growing, her list shrinks. It seems as each time she formulates a direction for the investigation, that possibility is closed. Eventually, the case is solved by accident, as when one of Bobby’s friends volunteers Bobby’s address book, or Kinsey has a unexpected flash of insight.

Observations from the 1980s include lots of pay phones and drinking. Practically everyone offers Kinsey a drink at all hours, and she always accepts.

Since this is a major publisher, I must note that shade is not spelled stade, and unload is not spelled unloaad.

This series continues to Y is for Yesterday The author died at the end of 2017 without leaving a manuscript for Z. She will be missed, but Kinsey Millhone will live on in the 25 mystery novels in this well-loved series.

Contact by Carl Sagan *****

Contact by Carl Sagan is hard Science Fiction with lots of real science, information theory, physics, mathematics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, etc. The story concerns a message from Vega (26 light-years distant) that includes instructions to build The Machine, which five scientists use to tour the galaxy. The main plot lines are SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence), and the nature of faith. The beginning emphasizes SETI and the conclusion is about faith.

The protagonist is Ellie Arroway, a brilliant scientist. The President of the United States is also female. A secondary theme is women’s rights. In addition to advocating for women, the book also supports individual scientists over institutions.

[School-age Ellie asked,] “How could anybody know that decimals go on and on forever?”
“That’s just the way it is,” said the teacher with some asperity.
“But why? How do you know? How can you count decimals forever?”
“Miss Arroway” – he was consulting his class list – “this is a stupid question. You’re wasting the class’s time.”

Thus, early in the book, Sagan established the dichotomy between this smart woman and an ignorant, but powerful, man.

Ellie chooses Harvard over MIT for college, maybe her only lapse in good judgment.

The first information decoded within the message from Vega is a sequential list of prime numbers. Echoing the earlier classroom incident, when Secretary of Defense Michael Kitz suggests that he will classify the message, Dr. Ellie Arroway, responds,

“You want to classify the prime numbers?” she asked, her eyes wide in mock credulity.

The author notes that all space flight is subversive. Viewed from space, the earth is small and political boundaries are invisible. This book, in favor of scientists of all genders and ethnicities, also intends to be subversive laughing at political and religious institutions of power.

If you are interested in science, especially SETI, along with the philosophy of religion, this is the book for you. The writing, science, and philosophy are all excellent.

The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith *****

For those not familiar with the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, it is in Gaborone Botswana. These books are the coziest cozy mysteries. For instance, in The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith, the lady detectives investigate four suitors perusing a rich lady entrepreneur, while also dealing with an incompetent auto repair shop and a high-pressure charity fundraiser. Note that these description sound more dangerous than the actual events.

Mma Precious Ramotswe, a “traditionally built” woman, owns the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Mma Makutsi, who received a 97% at Botswana Secretarial College, the highest ever, is her assistant. The office is adjacent to Rra J. L. B. Maketoni’s business: Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. He is soft hearted and a great mechanic, as well as Mma Ramotswe’s fiancé. Mma Holonga fills out the list of major players. She runs the local orphan farm.

The book is full of folksy humor and advice.

“The more books that Botswana had…the better. It would be on books that the future would be based; books and the people who knew how to use them."

“…and there was nothing better than a cake to facilitate agreement.”

“It is good just to sit sometimes. I like to do that, if I get a chance. I just sit.”

The most serious situation in the book, aside from the time Mma Ramotswe was not offered tea, is the treatment and rehabilitation of teen girls who ran away from the countryside to the big city, Gaborone, and became “bad girls.”

As a cozy mystery, the resolutions are always non-violent in the extreme. For example, when the owner of the incompetent auto repair shop confronts Rra J. L. B. Maketoni to “sort him out” for disclosing his shoddy work, the bully is put in his place when Mma Holonga threatens to tell his mother.

If you are looking for a pleasant sojourn away from the stress and challenges of the world, I can highly recommend a delightful vacation to Botswana where the biggest concern is finding the next cup of bush tea.

Happiness by Heather Harpham *****

Early in Happiness by Heather Harpham, the author is in an ambulance rushing over the Golden Gate Bridge, sirens screaming, to the UCSF Medical Center. Her newborn daughter cannot make red blood cells, a condition which has no name, but which can kill in a variety of horrible ways. The father, who has no interest in being a father, remains in New York,

Nurses are often the heroes. During the months in the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit, one nurse (Bobbie Caraher) is singled out for understanding both the small patients and their frightened parents. In so many ways she eased the lives of children and families on the brink of death with humor and expertise. One in ten children dies.

Early in the saga, still in San Francisco, the author wondered how to care for her tiny child. In this case, another nurse came to the rescue.

"The thing the babies like best is to be tucked into your clothes, naked. Skin-to-skin contact"
"Won't she get cold?" I asked.
"Not as long as you're not dead," the Irish nurse said, and winked.

The author throughout drew strength from her friends and made new friends wherever she went.

I thought of the Auden quote, "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common dominator, but among those whom I love, I can; all of them make me laugh."

The author had medical insurance, so the life-saving transplant only required an additional $85,000. A co-pay of $85,000! Friends and friends of friends raised the money.

Life in the transplant unit was both intimate and distant. Many people urged parents to not make friends with the other families to not be traumatized by the inevitable deaths.

"She smiled at us with both warmth and distance. A don't-talk-to-me smile, a welcome-to-hell smile."

Throughout the book, the death of a child is constant.

"If when you've been a mother or a father and your child is now gone, there is no word for who you are. If you lose a spouse, you're a widow or a widower. But if you lose a child, you go on being a mother or a father. There is no word..."

As is so often the case, a parent's job is "to start seeing [our child] as a regular kid again, to try not to confound our fears with hers."

This memoir could have been sad, frightening, pathetic, but it was not. Throughout it all, the author finds details of wonder, friendship, and hope. This is a beautiful story of compassion and science.

Since this is released by a major publisher, I feel obligated to note typos. "Though all this he'd been holding his boy..." Through.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher *****

Imagine Star Wars in the 16th century…not the setting for the story, but the setting for the production…no 20th-century special effects. Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher successful uses the production techniques of Tudor times. The result is a play which could and should be staged.

The obvious Shakespearean techniques of iambic pentameter free verse and clever wordplay are just the beginning of adapting Star Wars to the stage.

When Luke asks to leave Tatooine, his father replies, “Wilt thou here in the desert yet desert?”

Leia denigrates Han with, “A mercenary with no mercy, he.”

The author makes use of asides to forwarding the plot, remembering that many believe that Shakespearean actors just stood on the stage and recited their lines. A few of many asides…

R2-D2 explains: “If I go not with him, my foolishness / Shall render no one service. Thus, I beep.”

Later C3-PO explains, “Now if I can convince the human here / To purchase R2 too, along with me, / So shall I win the day!”

Luke evaluates C3-PO, “This droid, I see, is wont to prattle on, / Belike his mouth is faster than his mind.”

The chorus handles many of the films long cinematic shots and special effects…

“The fast landspeeder o’er the desert flies— / They go to find the errant droid R2.”

“Now mark thee well, good viewer, what you see, / Such varied characters are on display! / For never hath there been such company / As in Mos Eisley gathers day be day. / The creatures gather ‘round the central bar / While hammerheads and horned monsters talk, / A band compos’d of aliens bizarre: / This is the great cantina—thou may’st gawk!”

The transition to light speed... “Han grapseth quick the console in his hand, / Then suddenly the ship is bath’d in light. / With a roar of the engine—noise profound and grand— / The great Millenn’um Falcon takes her flight.”

Another fun part is Greedo speaking his alien pidgin in iambic pentameter, “Na Jabba w’nin chee kosthpa mutishan’ / Turying ye wanya yoshah. Heh heh heh!”

If you wonder about the scenes which pit spaceships against each other, an illustration shows stick puppets of the Millenium Falcon, Tie Fighters, and X-Wings.

If you like Elizabethan drama, this is the script for you with the dazzling special effects of the time, including asides, choruses, and puppets.