Books
A ridiculously short summary of White Boy Blues:
After a traumatic childhood in rural Missouri, Ned Pentecost becomes a young minister with a wife and a safe future. But his life is upended in 1969 when he is exposed to free love and illegal drugs and heeds the call of the counterculture.
Ned soon is entangled in drug deals, steamy affairs, untimely deaths, and painful betrayals, a web that takes him from communes to seedy motels, from Bogotá to Paris, and from classrooms to jail cells. Women loom large throughout the journey – good women, bad women, dangerous women.
Anchored in the tumultuous decades of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the coming-of-age novel explores themes of violence, betrayal, and redemption, while Ned undergoes numerous transformations in his search for love and purpose. In the end, Ned’s story, like a good blues song, ultimately strikes a chord of hope.
Some quotes from White Boy Blues:
“Women can just take more than men, I guess.” Leona Pentecost, Chapter 1.
“Well, lying’s better than being beat on,” Linda said. Linda Mercer, Chapter 2.
“Sometimes I think if nobody believed I existed, I’d just disappear.” PJ, Chapter 5.
“Making love [after a funeral] is like spitting in death’s eye.” Ned, Chapter 25.
White Boy Blues Trivia:
The character Nicole (1975-76) is based on a woman whom Rolling Stone magazine would later name Female Rock Artist of The Year.
A ridiculously short summary of CLAWS:
When twenty-three lions, tigers, and ligers – a giant, hybrid cat – escape in rural Idaho, town officials decide to hold the first safari in America. Only police chief Jackson Hobbs, a man haunted by memories of a tragedy, and Katy Osborne, the sole white female hunting guide in Africa, seem to realize the danger of this decision. With the town desperate for money, the mayor, who also is Jackson’s ex-wife, and her current boyfriend, a banker, are adamant that the Idaho Lion Hunt go forward even after people are killed. As the deaths mount and his own family is put at risk, Jackson must cope with a town doubled in population, deal with the dangerous cats, uncover the mystery of who engineered their escape, and investigate the activity of a local, anti-government militia. A willful teenage daughter, an animal rescue group, a missing little boy, a dead State Trooper, and Katy’s desire to save a rare liger named Kali all add to the complications. Betrayal blossoms alongside romance as the story drives to the final showdown. Read the Opening >
Some quotes from Claws:
“Ligers,” Pamela told him [Jackson]. “That’s what Ted and Dolly are trying to raise. Devil cats. God didn’t make them and man shouldn’t.”
“In truth, lions see people as only one thing – food. The question isn’t why they kill us, it’s why they don’t kill more of us.” Katy Osborne
“Nobody walks through life without leaving a footprint,” Jackson said. “Not even if we want to.”
Claws Trivia:
There is not a single known occurrence of lions and tigers in the wild mating. They are enemies.