'Wicked Bugs' - all those not-so-nice insects

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - The shelves at the Richmond Public Library's Westside branch on Washington Street are filled with plenty of thrilling mysteries penned by familiar authors like Nelson DeMille, Tom Clancy, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich and local mystery writer, Christine Volker.
    But among the books is a non-fiction, science-based tome that will make your skin crawl.
    Or at least itch a bit if what you read makes wonder if some many-legged critter is about to bite.
    Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects is a well-documented compendium of tales about bugs of every shape and size.
    There are lots of familiar names: Brown Recluse, Cockroach, Deer Tick, Scorpion and Sand Fly.
     But chapters talking about the lesser-known - the Formosan Subterranean Termite, the Death Watch Beetle and the Assassin Bug - could keep you awake at night, too.
    The Formosan Subterranean Termite is one of the culprits behind the massive levee failures in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit.
    The termites love to munch nearly everything. That includes the walls that were supposed to protect the city. The walls are partly made of sugar cane waste, a termite snack. And officials had been warned five years before Katrina that the termites had weakened the flood barriers.
    Another fun fact for New Orleans residents? The Formosan Subterranean Termite can live for up to 25 years.
    Wicked Bugs was written by Amy Stewart, whose other writing includes the book, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities.
   Wicked Bugs was published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and is on the shelf at the Richmond Public Library's Westside branch.
    Below is the first page of the introduction.

(Review by Michael J. Fitzgerald)

'Wind River' - a dramatic must-see film

   POINT RICHMOND - The film Wind River is so gripping a tale, it's unlikely most in-theater viewers will even glance at their watches at any juncture in this fast-moving, one hour and 47-minute film.

Jeremy Renner

    And this is a must-see-in-the-theater movie.
    The full-screen winter Wyoming scenery is haunting. Plus, the grittiness of life on the Indian reservation is best viewed on the big screen - large enough for it to hit hard.
    It's not pretty.
 
   But that not-prettiness helps highlight the resilience of the residents of the reservation, reeling from the murder of an 18-year-old girl. The Native Americans are the descendants of great warriors. And it shows.
   Jeremy Renner - as a veteran game tracker - does a steady job as the film's hero. Underneath a classically western steely persona, Renner's character is a man tortured by the earlier loss of his own child and a divorce.

Elizabeth Olsen and Graham Green

   After he discovers the body of the murdered girl, he ends up paired with a Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based FBI agent (played by a doe-eyed Elizabeth Olsen) to solve the crime. At first they are as unlikely a pair as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison. But that resolves itself quickly.
 
 One of the best supporting roles in the film is played by Graham Greene as the tribal police chief. His ability to convey complex emotions with just his facial expressions is amazing.

   Wind River is fast-paced and directed nearly to perfection.
   It also offers several moral/ethical questions to ponder in post-movie hours.
  And it's a film of details and nuance - which is why taking yours eyes off the screen for even a moment is a bad idea.
   If you only see one movie this fall, watch Wind River.
   Really.

Running for her life - barefoot 

Cafe Society presents reading by novelist Margaret Wilkerson Sexton Friday, Sept. 1

Sexton

   POINT RICHMOND - Novelist Margaret Wilkerson Sexton will be reading from her new novel, A Kind of Freedom, Friday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. at Kaleidoscope Coffee 109 Park Place in Point Richmond.

     Her presentation is sponsored by Cafe Society.

     Cafe Society is a group of Bay Area writers, storytellers and artists who are dedicated to presenting the work of others.

     Sexton's novel has been praised by Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar, as "A book for our time."

    The reading is open to the public. Food, beer and wine are available for purchase.

Mystery & intrigue flow in 'Venetian Blood'

   Point Richmond, Calif. - Christine Evelyn Volker's novel Venetian Blood fairly drips with intrigue and mystery in a complicated plot that unfolds gradually in the city of Venice, Italy.
     And there are enough words and phrases in Italian to keep anyone in love with Italy and Italian culture happy for a long time.

     The subtitle of Venetian Blood - Murder in a Sensuous City - gives an excellent clue about much of the focus of the book. As strong as the characters are, the city of Venice is probably as major a player as any of the various people who move in and out of the chapters seamlessly. Anyone who has been in Venice will recognize a lot of the landscape, history and descriptions of the boats that ply the famous canals.

     The plot involves murder, love affairs, money, art and in some spots international intrigue on the level of an Ian Fleming novel.
     Oh, there is a journalist character, too, whose sources provide a lot of their own intrigue and interest as the main character, an American woman named Anna - lurches from an illicit affair into danger.

Christine Evelyn Volker

     Venetian Blood occasionally bogs down slightly in the author's carefully ornate descriptions of art, architecture and the many drawing room scenes. But those well-written passages might well turn out to be the favorites of some readers patient enough to wait for the next plot developments.
     Throughout Venetian Blood, there is an undercurrent that hints at a surprise ending.
     And hoo-boy, it certainly is a good one!
      
     The author keeps the surprise wrapped up tightly until nearly the last page of the book.
     Venetian Blood should leave any reader smiling as they finish it.
     Venetian Blood is a publication of She Writes Press and is available in August from Amazon.com and book retailers.

Reviewed by Michael J. Fitzgerald

Haunting notes in 'Song of the Plains' memoir

   VALOIS, New York - The president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers has just published her second memoir, Song of the Plains (She Writes Press, Berkeley, June 2017). It's an intriguing book full of self-disclosure and surprises that pop up very early.

    Linda Joy Myers has produced a book rich in detail that at times will make readers want to weep - or openly weep. At others, Myers middle name takes precedence as she talks about her life from childhood to today where she leads the vanguard of a national memoir movement that is continually growing in strength and recognition.
     
   The subtitle of the book, "a memoir of family, secrets and silence," is a good clue that the book has an ample share of darkness. Maybe more than ample.
    Not far into Song of the Plains this sentence jumps out: "The stories that have the most juice are those no one will tell you."
    It's at that point readers realize they will accompany the author very closely on her journey to uncover the backgrounds of those stories.
    That journey includes a dark undercurrent of abuse and molestation, but explained more than dwelled on. Myers does an excellent job of telling the story through her youthful eyes as a child, then teen, then continuing to adulthood.
     
   It would be unfair to say much beyond that - the tales she recounts so skillfully are best left to be said in the author's own words.
    And the words flow easily, sometimes in an aphoristic style, at other times more poetry than prose, reminiscent of the descriptive phrasing of American author James Lee Burke.

    This sentence fairly jumped off the page as it described a tense scene between Myers' grandmother and grandfather:
    "Behind the masks of smiles, the weight of the past seemed to rise up like a thick white curtain of fog."
    A few sentences later she writes:
    "The fog of history hovered around them near the colorful hollyhocks, plants that were nearly as tall as grandpa."
     
   Song of the Plains is not paced like a novel. It's a book that requires some quiet reflection almost every few chapters. It would seem a excellent work for any book club to take on as it it would likely provoke plenty of discussion and emotion.
    Plenty.
    Song of the Plains is available for purchase online through Amazon and at book retailers around the San Francisco Bay area, including Book Passage.

  --- Reviewed by Michael J. Fitzgerald

Actor Michael Parks passes away at 77

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - I have television and film actor Michael Parks to thank for my moving to California in 1970.
     No, he didn't offer me a job, cash, or even talk me into to fleeing the Rust Belt Village of Lakewood, NY.
     What he did do was star in a television program called Then Came Bronson that probably launched thousands of guys like me on wandering trips around the country.
     I just happened to land in California.

     The opening episode actually begins in San Francisco - not that far from where I am writing this today.
     His character was emblematic of a generation of young men who were convinced that something out on the road was calling them. It certainly grabbed my attention from the first episode.
     But at the time the program was getting underway, so was my young family.
     Married with a three-month-old infant son, a motorcycle like the one driven by Michael Park's character was an unlikely vehicle for the three of us.

    So the compromise was another icon of the era - a beat up VW microbus, complete with a peace symbol painted on the front in place of the metal VW symbol. That peace symbol was painted over just before we left NY for points west.
    Watching the iconic film Easy Rider convinced me a slightly less 'in-your-face' vehicle might get me through some of places that sported signs in those days that said things like "NO HIPPIES ALLOWED" and "YOU WANT EAT HERE? GET A HAIRCUT."
     The details of that sojourn will take an entire book to tell.
 
     Michael Parks died earlier this week. He was 77 and had a fabulous film and television career acting in many great roles.
     But for me, he will always be Bronson on his motorcycle.
     In the video clip below (at about 1:12), a tired commuter driving a station wagon pulls alongside at a stoplight and asks Bronson where he's going.
     "Oh, I don't know," Bronson says. "Wherever I end up, I guess."
     The commuter responds, "Man, I wish I was you."
     "Really?" Bronson says. "Well, hang in there."
     Well, hang in there, Michael Parks, wherever your celestial motorcycle is taking you.
     I'll hang in here.
     Maybe someday we'll meet up going down that Long Lonesome Highway.

'The Battle for Veterans' Health Care' subject of talk Friday night at Kaleidoscope Coffee

   POINT RICHMOND - Health care journalist - and Richmond author - Suzanne Gordon will be unveiling her book, The Battle for Veterans' Health Care, Friday at Kaleidoscope Coffee.
     The event is open to the public and runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.  Refreshments are available to purchase.
     Gordon will be leading a discussion of veterans and caregivers at the book party, focusing in good part on why Donald Trump's plan to outsource medical treatment for veterans is a manifestly bad idea.
     The book was published by Cornell University this year.