I hope everyone had the chance to read Rosemary Kaye’s “Favorites of 2021” yesterday. As Jeff said, it’s always fun to read about books I haven’t heard of, or don’t know. There was only one book on Rosemary’s list that I’ve read, but I laughed all the way through her comments about that one. You might want to check it out.

So, if you’re around my age (64), do you remember where you were in January 1978? This is the week of the blizzard of ’78 in northern Ohio. It wasn’t always the amount of snow. I was in college at the time, and Monday classes were cancelled for the first five weeks of the year because of the storms, the snow and the winds. Sometimes, it was the wind that made the snow and cold worse. There have been many times and places that had more snow, but those of us who had to dig out cars, go to classes, try to stay warm, remember that year. “The massive winter storm hit the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Jan. 25-27. The blizzard dumped vast amounts of snow with near-hurricane-strength wind gusts, heaping snow into enormous drifts up to 15 feet tall. In the end, 70 people died during the storm — 51 of them in Ohio alone.”

The Great Blizzard of 1978 was a historic winter storm that struck the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes regions from Wednesday, January 25 through Friday, January 27, 1978. It is often cited as one of the most severe blizzards in US history.”

There was a blizzard in 1977 as well. “National Weather Service forecasters called for a blizzard warning across Ohio early on Friday, January 28, 1977. The cold wave and high winds swept across the state at dawn. Temperatures fell from 20 degrees to 5 to 10 degrees below zero during the day.”

So, enough about weather history. I hope you’re all enjoying whatever weather you’re getting.

On to the real reason we’re all here. What are you reading this week?

I have never read one of Dean Koontz’ books. I hope Quicksilver turns out to be as good as the first chapter because that just made me laugh. Here’s the online summary, since I haven’t had time to get far into this yet. It is set in Arizona, though, one more reason I was interested in reading it.

Quinn Quicksilver was born a mystery―abandoned at three days old on a desert highway in Arizona. Raised in an orphanage, never knowing his parents, Quinn had a happy if unexceptional life. Until the day of “strange magnetism.” It compelled him to drive out to the middle of nowhere. It helped him find a coin worth a lot of money. And it practically saved his life when two government agents showed up in the diner in pursuit of him. Now Quinn is on the run from those agents and who knows what else, fleeing for his life.

During a shoot-out at a forlorn dude ranch, he finally meets his destined companions: Bridget Rainking, a beauty as gifted in foresight as she is with firearms, and her grandpa Sparky, a romance novelist with an unusual past. Bridget knows what it’s like to be Quinn. She’s hunted, too. The only way to stay alive is to keep moving.

Barreling through the Sonoran Desert, the formidable trio is impelled by that same inexplicable magnetism toward the inevitable. With every deeply disturbing mile, something sinister is in the rearview―an enemy that is more than a match for Quinn. Even as he discovers within himself resources that are every bit as scary.


What about you? What are you doing this week? What books are you listening to or reading?