I’m Howard Thompson; I live with my wife in the Portland (Oregon) area. The four primary themes of my blog are photography, cooking, reading, and traveling; but there is often more.
My favorite photography subject is trains. When I was young we would go to Winslow Arizona to visit my grandparents. My grandpa would take me down to the train station is was (and still is) on the Santa Fe transcontinental line. Passenger trains like the Super Chief and El Capitan would stop for refueling and crew changes. It was all just so wonderful. Our drive from southern California to Winslow would be over Route 66; that is one of our favorite travel spots. We’ve driven parts in California and Arizona many times. Carla and I plan to drive the entire Mother Road from Santa Monica to Chicago some day soon.
Thanks for dropping by; if you like my postings I invite you to follow me by clicking the button on the right side of the postings.
I found your blog because I was looking on Amazon for the order in which PG Wodehouse wrote the Jeeves & Wooster stories and your list of the stories came up as part of my search. I am working with many Chinese at the moment and thought the stories might be a good way to explain the eccentricities of the British (I am British). On more careful consideration I have concluded that the stories may sow further confusion rather than clarification among the Chinese. My wife, who is from Beijing, finds the stories hilarious and uses them as a guide as to why I sometimes behave in a peculiar manner.
As a student at university in London I was fortunate to spend two months at UCLA in 1970 on a summer course. At the end of that summer I drove with an American classmate from Los Angeles to New York, our journey as far as St Louis on Route 66. Your writing of your childhood and your journeys to visit your granpa brought back vivid memories of some of the towns in Arizona I visited on that trip.
I was touched by your granpa’s hard life in the first half of the 20th century. However, those difficult emotional and physical trials clearly forged the character that you admired and grew close to in your early life; so good came out of difficulty.
Your blog is most interesting. Keep up the good work! (I have even decided to re-read Moby Dick that my father read to me as a child!)
Wow! Thank you so much for your kind words. I am so touched that you found it interesting and useful.
I love Wodehouse’s use of language and the eccentricities but agree it could be confusing to non English speakers in this day and age
I’m delighted you found my posts interesting. Thank you for letting me know
Hello Howard Actually I was hoping to discuss with you sometime in the future your comments on Amazon regarding Crossan’s book. I found them fascinating. I’m going away for a bit now, so, if you are on facebook, you can friend me if you like by my name, or email me.
TY
Philip Bourdon
bumblebeemoi@msn.com
Dear Howard Thompson,
I found you through your Amazon customer review for an author I admire, Richard Russo. Would you like to review my book, Roller Rink Starlight, on Amazon—and elsewhere if you wish?
My true coming of age memoir, about a coed roller racing team loaded with champions, recounts poignantly the ecstasies and perils of 1960s high school sexual romance against a backdrop of flat-out athletic competition.
“Vividly recollected.” Midwest Book Review
“Affecting…Hart’s prose is often inspired.” Kirkus Reviews
“Compelling.” Seattle Book Review
Book Data:
Title: Roller Rink Starlight: A Memoir
Author: William Hart
Genre: Coming of Age Memoir; Sports Memoir; Romance Memoir
Paperback ISBN: 978-1951937782
ebook ASIN: B0914XKXB3
Publication Date: March 25, 2021
Pages: 255
Price: Paperback $16.95; eBook $7.99
Publisher: Epigraph Books
This link takes you to my memoir on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Roller-Rink-Starlight-William-Hart/dp/1951937783/
If you are interested in reviewing Starlight, please choose your preferred format (paperback, pdf, ePub, or Mobi).
Thanks for your attention,
William Hart
The Kirkus Reviews write up and Amazon reviews are very positive. So, it’s tempting; but I make a practice of not reviewing books as a response to a solicitation. The timeframe is similar to my own coming of age and I may add it to my bookshelf.