Jess Walter.  I Started with Citizen Vince and passed it on to my son, who agreed with my rave.  Over Tumbled Graves is  straight ahead mystery thriller, but well done.  Ruby Ridge  is meticulously crafted account of that true dystopian horror. Land of the Blind is dark and less effective than Financial Lives..which is funny with lots of heart and Beautiful Ruins drifts into sentimentality at times but still quite affecting.

As Elmore Leonard advised, and I paraphrase: ...round up some interesting characters, introduce them to each other, then get the hell out of the way. Jess Walter does that well enough for me, and I'm grateful. 

Online and exploring... all kinds of woodworking related  and hand carving info, and recently came across this.  Consists entirely of found driftwood! Not much other info provided, so I'm left wondering how many pieces it took to finally have enough of the right pieces, or did luck play a role, or was there some carving involved? Doesn't look like it. And is it all fitted together naturally or somehow attached or secured...invisibly? Whatever...
...astonishing.

Diamond District drama. Usually  walk this street on my way to evening train.  Rarely fail to witness something lively.  One night last week one of the street hustlers  was in full boil shouting match with a cabbie who he claimed had clipped him (with his side view mirror? --not sure of the details)   Within seconds a half dozen partisans are taking sides in the ruckus, and all enjoying the sport of it. In multiple languages (English, Yiddish, Spanish, Turkish?, Afro-American Urban street)  words were flying and frustrated pent-up rage was getting channeled into a shout-down free-for-all.  But for all the saber rattling it  never once looked to turn physical or violent.  And when the cabbie finally got back in his cab and drove off, it cooled down with a back slapping, high-fiving, kvetching to the heavens post game reverie with people continuing to debate the fine points while reenacting their eyewitness view of the events.  While watching I was thinking...now these people know how to make DRAMA.  Nothin on the Broadway stages just a few blocks away even comes close.

It's Opening Day at CitiField...and hoping this (from Mark Ulriksen in this Week's New Yorker) isn't an illustration of things to come...