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A departure and new direction for Billie Letts
Certainly not the best by Billie Letts
(Really 3.5 stars) Under the moon, in a week...
Bummer
Billie Letts tries to shoot the moon, instead traumatizes her readers

Shoot the Moon
Billie Letts
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0446695068

Book Description

From one of America's best-loved storytellers-the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Where the Heart Is-comes her latest national bestseller, a tale of a small Oklahoma town and the mystery that has haunted its residents for years. In 1972, the tiny windswept town of DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the terrifying disappearance of Nicky Jack Harjo. When he was no more than a baby, his pajama bottoms were found on the banks of Willow Creek. Nearly 30 years later, Nicky mysteriously returns in this intriguing and delightfully hypnotic tale, full of the authentic heartland characters that Billie Letts writes about so beautifully.

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In 1972, the town of DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the terrifying murder of Gaylene Harjo and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack. When the child's pajama bottoms were found on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared Nicky Jack was dead, although his body was never found. Nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare. His sudden reappearance will stun the people of DeClare and stir up long-buried emotions and memories. But what Nicky Jack discovers among the people who remember the night he vanished is far more than he, or anyone, bargains for. Piece by piece emerges a story of dashed hopes, desperate love, and a shocking act with repercussions that will cry out for justice...and redemption.

Full of the authentic heartland characters that Billie Letts writes about so beautifully, SHOOT THE MOON is a hypnotic tale filled with suspense and emotional truth. It further establishes Billie Letts as an American writer to be reckoned withâan original storyteller whose words go straight to our heart.

Customer Reviews:

A departure and new direction for Billie Letts.......2007-04-23

I've read several of Ms Letts' novels and have loved each and every one of them. Her characters were a tad on the eccentric side and her writing made me care about all of them.

Her newest novel, though, is somewhat different. In the first place, though it doesn't quite fall in the genre, it could easily be termed a mystery - something I wasn't prepared for when I picked up this book. In the second place, at least one, possibly two, of the characters in "Shoot the Moon" is a definite SOB - O Boy Daniels, the local sheriff; and Arthur McFadden, his half-brother and owner of the local radio station.

The plot in and of itself is nothing to write home about. Mark Albright, a Hollywood veterinarian, discovers after his parents deaths that he was adopted and manages to trace his roots back to DeClare, Oklahoma. He travels to DeClare to find out about his biological parents and winds up in the middle of a small-town drama. Turns out his mother was killed when he was a baby, and until he showed up the town thought he was dead too.

The rest of the book concerns Mark's search for himself (as Mark Albright and as Nicky Jack Harjo, the name he was born with), for his parents, and for the killer of his mother. Along the way we meet and get to know several interesting characters, on both sides of the moral fence - the aforementioned sheriff and radio station owner; Teeve Harjo, owner of the local mom-and-pop store and her pregnant daughter Ivy; and Hap Duchamp, local lawyer and Matt Donaldson, the local fire chief - the unlikeliest couple, gay or straight, that you will ever run across.

The only fault I can find with this story is that Letts didn't give full descriptions of her characters until the story was well under way. It took me a while to realize that Mark and his biological mother were Native Americans, which turns out to be central to the plot. But once that confusion was cleared up it turns out that "Shoot the Moon" is a wonderful small-town mystery by someone who, it seems, could write another one if she wanted to.

Certainly not the best by Billie Letts.......2006-10-11

While I couldn't seem to put the book down, I believe it was mainly to see if it all turned out the way I predicted. It did. I couldn't pin down the "who done it" but thought it was someone connected to O Boy. I loved "Where the Heart Is" and truly expected more from this author. The book read like a bad Lifetime movie.

(Really 3.5 stars) Under the moon, in a week..........2006-08-22

This was a great after-work, getaway book. The story line was unique and interesting to me (Veterinarian, my father; adopted, me).
Dr. Mark Albright, Hollywood Veterinarian complete with fancy car and uptight clothing, mourns the loss of his parents and soon discovers he has a 'past' that he can not remember. He was adopted at 10 months old, never being told, and he begins his search with the only piece of information he has... His original birth cert. listing Gaylene Hjaro as his birthmother.
Dr. Albright soon discovers he is really Nicky Jack Hjaro, who was thought dead at 10 mnths old after his mothers (sort of unresolved) murder 30 years before.
We meet some interesting folks along the way, but most charachters are not fully developed. The relationship between Mark (NickyJack) and Ivy, and even Ivy's mother would have been unforgettable if Mrs. Letts had dug a little deeper.
All in all.... Good plot, quick read, entertaining mini-twists.
3.5 stars. Would recommend for it's content and simpleness (every once in a while one just needs a little quirky, nonsensical romance with a twist, that may be read in a few days!), not for it's lasting ability.

Bummer.......2006-08-17

This was my first book by Ms. Letts. My mother has raved about her work forever. I saw the movie "Where the Heart is" and decided to give this booka try. I found the story to be slow and unbelievable. There were holes in the plot and the characters were not well developed. I kept telling my husband that I was gonna finish it just to find out if finding out the answer to the questions made it worth reading in the end. The answer to that is "NO."

Billie Letts tries to shoot the moon, instead traumatizes her readers.......2006-07-17

After previwing Billie Lettts' third novel, "Shoot the Moon," an editor with any kind of courage would have said, "Billie, don't publish this book. It is an embarrassment to have your name associated with something this bad. You established a reputation based on your compassionate treatment of people down on their luck and struggling to renew their lives. This novel not only lacks integrity; it is offensively stereotypic and predictable. If you insist on putting this book in the hands of the public, you'll trash your reputation as a serious writer and reinvent yourself as a purveyor of soap-opera, romantic pap."

Unfortunately, Ms. Letts has no such editor. Instead, she insults her reading audience and seriously damages her previously well-deserved reputation. Using every device a pot-boiling author could implement to advance her limping narrative, trotting out pathetically one-dimensional characters, and falsely imbuing her plot with overwrought serious issues, Letts doesn't fool anyone. By the time readers have trudged through some three hundred pages of treacle, they could care less about any of the questions the oh-so-sensitive-but-misunderstood protagonist brought with him to hicktown, USA...DeClare, Oklahoma.

Mark Albright (nee Nicky Jack Harjo) journeys to DeClare to discover his past. Presumed dead, Mark/Nicky Jack determines to discover his roots, and while so doing, discover the true identity of the individual(s) responsible for the murder of his birth-mother. Naturally enough, he wants to know about the man who impregnated the long-deceased (but of sainted memory) Gaylene Harjo. Imagine the shock the California golden boy discovers when he finds out that he is part Indian! Picture the delicious tidbits of knowledge he digests as he diligently ferrets out the information needed to satisfy his existential hunger! Feel the elation he experiences as he finds true love, at last!

But that's just the tip of the iceberg in this hackneyed, cliché-ridden novel. The evil perpetrators are so vile that one could conceive of them twirling their moustaches and gleefully rubbing their hands as they plot the downfall of the steadfast, earnest and squeaky clean protagonist. All the things that Letts did right in her earlier best seller, "Where The Heart Is," fail her here. Her once refreshing multi-cultural approach to literature is formulaic. For some reason, Letts feels an obligation to promote Wal-Mart. Where that community-destroying institution was beneficent in her first novel, it is nothing more than an example of "product placlement" in "Moon." Even more offensive is the author's obvious distaste for adoption...the clear message here is that adopted children invariably think something is missing in their lives and parents who give their children away are either misguided or downright demented.

Regional authors have an obligation to make the particular universal. Billie Letts has succeeded with earlier books. "Shoot the Moon," a phrase domino players use as the emotional equivalent of "Go For It!" flat out fails. Her novel lacks ambition, intensity and honesty. For an author of such demonstrable talents to foist this kind of writing on an admiring reading public is outrageous.

Average customer rating:

hack fiction
OK for the airplane or beach
Clever story premise. Interesting main character. Good read.
From Booklist , August 19, 1997
Kirkus Reviews

Shoot the Moon
Joseph T. Klempner
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0312154240

Amazon.com

There's so much death and gloom in the thriller world these days that a book daring to offer a relatively happy ending deserves special notice. It's not that nobody dies in former Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent Joseph T. Klempner's antic, upbeat new thriller--it's just that they're almost all bad guys. Aside from the fact that he's out of work, a recent widower, and the father of a 6-year-old daughter with mysterious, recurrent headaches, New York accountant Michael Goodman leads a charmed life. The spare tire on the car he rents while on a futile job hunt in Florida just happens to hold enough high-grade heroin to jump start anyone's life. When various law enforcement agencies ignore his attempts to turn it in, Goodman decides to unload it himself. Joseph Klempner's former employer probably won't find the dueling posses of bumbling drug agents as funny as other readers, but you can't please everybody. Klempner's last thriller, the bleaker but equally inventive Felony Murder, is available in paperback.

Customer Reviews:

hack fiction.......2001-06-11

Shoot the Moon is perhaps the worst novel I have ever read. It concerns a hapless Everyman who gets in over his head when he discovers a load of pure smack in the spare of his rental car. What follows is even less original. The central premise is this: will this Everyman ("Goodman"...!), who is driven to drug-dealing to pay for his daughter's medical bills (at least it's not a sick-mother-in-need-of-surgery), successfully unload his product on the mean streets of New York? Despite the author's alleged background as a narcotics agent, there isn't a single character or line of dialogue that rings true here. But most annoying is the design of our "hero", a pathetic milquetoast who spends more time with the stray cat he shelters than with his so-called "Angel", his sickly 6-year old daughter who's been dumped with an uncaring Grandma just a few short blocks away. The transliterated "street-jive" of the token hustlers and junkies is ridiculous, not to mention bigoted and insulting. Then there's the myriad of other stock-types who pop-up, then disappear just as quickly. Worst of all, the book is filled with typos and other errors -- a testament to the disinterest which St. Martin's editors and printers have shown toward their own product.

OK for the airplane or beach.......1999-07-24

Nice airplane or beach reading, this book is that sort of "witty" crime story featuring "characters" in both the underworld and law enforcement who all stumble their way through a big drug deal, providing lots of slang and "insider" info as they do. Like Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiassen, it's good fun, could make a good movie, but nothing that's going to stick with you. Actually Klempner does a pretty good job juggling the hero and his sidekicks with the NYCPD trying to take him down, the Bronx gangsters who are trying to rip him off, the Cuban gangsters trying to get even, and the mafia he's trying to deal with... In its zest to make everything work out and have all the lose ends tied up, the plot relies a little too much on police bumbling, and a crucial ally who betrays her past, but other than that it's fine.

Clever story premise. Interesting main character. Good read........1999-06-09

This book was fun. Great story that grabs you early on. Sympathetic main character that is an "everyman" one can easily identify with. Well-written. Author seems to have a knowledge of police procedures without needlessly "showing-off" that knowledge - information is only described as necessary for the story. Police are probably depicted as dumber than they are, but hey, what do I know? Maybe this *is* close to mark -- if so, we should be worried. Nice depiction of a father-daughter relationship that you dont always see in novels of this kind.

From Booklist , August 19, 1997.......1998-10-06

Following on the heels of his well-received first novel, Felony Murder (1995), Klempner has scored another success. Michael Goodman is an out-of-work accountant, trying to single-handedly support a seriously ill daughter after the death of his wife. On a journey from New York to Fort Lauderdale for a disastrous job interview, he discovers millions of dollars worth of drugs in the trunk of his rental car. Being a basically honest guy, he tries to turn them over to the police, but they keep rebuffing him. With mounting medical bills in mind, he succumbs to temptation and takes the drugs home. He is not any better selling the drugs than he was in his interview, and he rapidly falls under the scrutiny of multiple law-enforcement and criminal organizations. All of them see him as their chance for a big score. Klempner's style is both engaging and humorous, and he maintains a skillful level of suspense throughout the story. Big fun. Eric Robbins Copyright© 1997, American Library Association. All rights reserved

Kirkus Reviews.......1998-10-06

From Kirkus Reviews , June 15, 1997 Think it would be fun to be sitting on top of something worth a cool $5 million? Not when the something is primo heroin....Readers who root for the good guys will enjoy the special challenge posed by Goodman, too nice to do time for dealing (so he can't be caught) but too principled to make a killing from selling heroin (so he can't get away).-- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description

With all the negative forces in our culture that undermine a parent's efforts to raise a child into a successful adult, the job of parenting grows increasingly difficult. It is the hope of every loving parent that their children achieve success in their lives. Yet, many of us do not give them the proper tools to help them reach success.

The Kids on Prosperity Lane Reach for the Stars offers a solution. This charming collection of short stories will give you a means of introducing these traits to your child in a fun and entertaining way. Jump into the world of Annie, Marty, Luke, Ned, and the rest of their friends as they confront the difficulties of childhood. Through The Kids on Prosperity Lane Reach for the Stars, your children will learn about believing in oneself amidst negativity, decision making, organization, setting goals and following it through with planning and action. And by teaching these qualities at a young age, the chances of these traits becoming habits are much greater.

Success means different things to different people. Whatever your child's definition of success will be, give them the tools to achieve it!

Shoot at the Moon
Average customer rating:
Shoot at the Moon
William F. Temple
Manufacturer: Macfadden Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000H6MDNY

Average customer rating:
Shoot At The Moon
William F. TEMPLE
Manufacturer: Macfadden Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J0PQN2

Tallos De Luna: Moon Shoots
Average customer rating:
Tallos De Luna: Moon Shoots
Elba R. Sanchez
Manufacturer: Moving Parts Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0939952203

Book Description

poetry, US, bilingual

MCAS YUMA SHOOTS FOR THE MOON.(Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department at Yuma, Arizona, hosts run)(Abstract): An article from: Parks & Recreation

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MCAS YUMA SHOOTS FOR THE MOON.(Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department at Yuma, Arizona, hosts run)(Abstract): An article from: Parks & Recreation
Korie Baker
Manufacturer: National Recreation and Park Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00098JZT0
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Parks & Recreation, published by National Recreation and Park Association on December 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1474 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: The Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department at the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, AZ, hosts a run in the desert during the night and during the day. The run is not so much competitive, as it is about socializing.

Citation Details
Title: MCAS YUMA SHOOTS FOR THE MOON.(Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department at Yuma, Arizona, hosts run)(Abstract)
Author: Korie Baker
Publication: Parks & Recreation (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 1998
Publisher: National Recreation and Park Association
Volume: 33 Issue: 12 Page: 66(1)

Article Type: Abstract

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