Two For the Ladies

"Sissy Spacek - My Extraordinary Ordinary Life" with Maryanne Vollers   Hyperion   271 pages   $26.99

I suppose a man who is an admirer of Sissy Spacek might enjoy it - she was a tomboy from childhood on - but basically it's "How I got here, where I came from (small town in East Texas,) how I found my soulmate and now we have two daughters and live in Virginia." 

Spacek is a great admirer of the kind of life one lives in a small town.  Everyone knows everyone else; the lack of stifling supervision that city kids get - "Put your shoes on!"  "Do not leave this front yard" while Spacek and her two older brothers roamed the fields, piney woods and town alike. 

Having had exactly that kind of freewheeling childhood - we'd make leaf boats and sail them in the gutters when it rained; rake the leaves into a bonfire and roast potatoes - reality was: cold, raw, ash-covered potatoes that even a rat wouldn't eat.

Well written, just enough "country bumpkin vs. city slicker" to amuse. 

"So Damn Lucky" by Deborah Coonts   A Tom Doherty Associates Book   381 pages   $24.99

This is the third volume in the Lucky O'Toole series.  She's the head of Customer Relations at the Babylon Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas.  Her mother, Mona, owns and runs a brothel in Pahrump where Lucky was raised until age 15, when she was sent to work at the Babylon as an executive trainee.  Lucky didn't know it then but the Babylon "Big Boss" is actually her father.    As this story begins, Lucky is still madly in love with Teddy, "the greatest female impersonaor in Las Vegas!"  (She rues the fact that he's got a better wardrobe than she does.)

Each book begins with a murder.  A woman is pushed out of a helicopter flying over the Strip..a magician with a 40 year career that is dragging to a close decides to go out in glory, doing a Houdini trick that kills him.  Was the box rigged or was he just inept? 

The lead characters are outrageous and their adventures interesting. 
1st book "Wanna Get Lucky?"    2nd book "Lucky Stiff"