First Quarter 2021 Round up

Blogging continues, though it isn’t clear if anyone is even looking at what I post.

Hits are wa-a-y down.  Where is everybody?

Obviously, the posts are better than ever ( : – ) ), so what’s going on?

Is this pandemic related?  Is this something to do with global politics, e.g., blocking in China or EU? Or maybe changes in WordPress reporting.  I dunno.

Band Names

As always, I noted some Dave Barry tribute band names, taken from real scientific and technical publictions.

Stochastic Parrots
Neanderthal ears
The Laschamps Excursion (Pronounced Las Champs, or in SoCal, LA’s Champs)
The Chicxulub Impactors  (Or just Impactor)

Books Reviewed

Fiction

Smoke by Joe Ide
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
Trio by William Boyd
Outlawed by Anna North
Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams
Tropic of Stupid by Tim Dorsey
The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter
Aphasia by Mauro Javier Cárdenas
The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem
Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino by Julián Herbert

Non-fiction

The Light Ages by Seb Falk
Kindred by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
The Last Million by David Nasaw
New Money by Lana Swartz
Extraterrestrial by Avi Loeb

Book Review: “Tropic of Stupid” by Tim Dorsey

Tropic of Stupid by Tim Dorsey

If it’s February, there must be another Tim Dorsey book out!

This year Serge and Coleman continue their 24 some year road trip up and down and all around Florida.

Serge has another bee in his bonnet, or more specifically he has a new Florida State Parks passport, so he is obsessively revisiting every park in Florida to collect his stamps.  I have to say, Florida has a lot of state parks, and many are amazing.

Serge also discovered the Sermon on the Mount, and took away the notion that the meaning of life is to make other people happy.  This is a wonderful way to live, though Serge’s tendency to overdo things makes it a bit of a crap shoot.  At least one guy insisted that what would make him happy is for Serge to go away.  (And, amazingly enough, Serge did go away!)

Serge also sent his DNA into a service, and has begun constructing his family tree.  By coincidence, a police agency has submitted DNA from a cold case, and seems to have got the same hits as Serge.  Does this mean that Serge is the serial killer they are looking for?

This story actually has relatively little of the ‘Florida Man’ whacko stuff, and almost no explicit violence.  Oh, there are plenty of scumbags, and several get their comeuppance.  But nothing like some of the earlier stories.

So:  lots of cool state parks to go with the state history.  Some nice people.  Do unto others.  Not so much violence.

All in all, it was a nice read.

Not necessarily what you expect from Serge. : – )

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1. Tim Dorsey, Tropic of Stupid, New York, William Morrow, 2021.

 

Sunday Book Reviews