Alaska Employment Law

Patricia Cornwell, Book of the Dead - This is Cornwell’s 15th book in the Kay Scarpetta series, which, I am sorry to say, has steadily declined in quality.  Scarpetta books used to be really good.  But now I say:  please give it a rest, Patricia.  Kill Scarpetta.  Do something, please, to put us out of our misery.  Book of the Dead opens with a scene that is intensely horrifying (and thus compulsively readable) and then slides into a lousy detective story in which the personal relationships between and among a tired gang of characters already well known to readers of the Scarpetta series dominate the plot, or try to.  Where’s the mystery story?  At the end, who cares? AVOID

Robert Crais, L.A. Requiem- Mr. Crais is right up there with James Lee Burke and Michael Connelly, and his Elvis Cole/Joe Pike books are generally fine.  What makes this book so great is that to be true to his beliefs Cole has to lose something he loves, and Crais makes his pain very real.  Not many police procedurals end with the protagonist feeling miserable.  Joe Pike is a man of astoundingly few words who is nonetheless completely affecting.  This is one of the older Crais books, and I loved it.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

David Sedaris, Boston Symphony Hall, last Sunday night - Sedaris is a humorist, as opposed to a stand-up comic.  True, he stands up, typically at a podium, but once there he quietly and thoughtfully reads something he has written.  At first it feels as though James Thurber (1894-1961) has come back from the dead, but eventually Sedaris hits some outrageously sensitive nerve (without changing his face or inflection) and his audience, in this case his sold-out audience, is collapsing in laughter.  The man is extremely clever, and extremely funny, an absurdist who skewers our sensibilities with a very keen wit indeed.  His timing is magnificent.  His books include Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames.  If you can see him in person, go. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul- Many successful rock and roll bands have featured brothers.  Greg and Duane, Ray and Dave, and in this case, Noel and Liam, the brawling Gallagher brothers.  I am a huge fan of Britpop, and while the heyday of Britpop is long gone, its echoes persist.  Sure, Damon Albarn was probably the smartest of the Britpop artists, but Blur is pretty much done, and we are still waiting for the next Gorillaz album.  Meanwhile, every two or three years Oasis puts out a new album that races to #1 in the UK.  To my shock, Dig Out Your Soul debuted at #5 on the Billboard charts here in the good old USA.  And why not?  The first single, “The Shock of the Lightning,” is a monster rock and roll song with that inevitable sonic cascade found in the very best Oasis songs.  (The guitars remind me a bit of the Sex Pistols’ version of the Stooges’ anthem “No Fun.”)  A psychedelic tone prevails, guitars dominate, Liam snarls.  It all sounds great.  In some ways, it would have been the perfect Oasis album in 1997, when instead we got the cocaine-fueled mess called Be Here Now.  This is better.  The Gallaghers survived, and they’re matter-of-fact about it all.  They’re snotty, unapologetic, and seasoned just right.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.