Author Howard Weiner

Look Alive Twenty-Five by Janet Evanovich My rating: 5 of 5 stars Stephanie Plum, By the Numbers At my age, I shouldn’t have to confess to guilty pleasures, but I have two in the literary realm. One of those is reading each new Stephanie Plum novel immediately upon publication. Look Alive Twenty-Five by Janet Evanovich is the latest. I could say the Stephanie Plum novels are formulaic. Each features a predictable set of recurring core and supporting characters. In each novel, Evanovich manages to add a quirky collection of Trenton, NJ citizens who’ve run afoul of the law. They fail to appear for a scheduled court date in violation of their bail. Formally known as FTAs (Failure To Appear), Plum is assigned to hunt them down, deliver them to the Trenton PD, and Plum’s employer issues a new bond to guarantee future court appearances.  There are some things we know to be true of Ms. Plum. First, despite her college education, she cannot secure conventional employment

Past Tense by Lee Child My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wendy and I saw Child at an interview hosted by the NY Times Magazine at the Time Warner Center in 2009 (I think). We had just moved into the Upper West Side. We awoke very early on a Saturday and made our way to the Time-Warner Center for a 9 am start. There are few authors for whom I would stand in line at an ungodly hour on a Saturday. This was especially true in NYC. By 9 am, the Dept of Sanitation hasn't hauled away the debris from a Friday night's revelry. The November morning was cold. Our line outside the Time Warner Center, then an unpleasant construction site, was not the garden spot of NYC--far from it. Several years later, I learned that Child also lived on the Upper West Side. I think we also took the occasional weekend morning meal at the same French place near 86th Street. So, we had at least that in common. :-) I'm currently reading Past Tense, the most recent Jack Reacher novel. I've read all of t