SAN FRANCISCO SUMMER ‘69

By Annie Carroll

Rock ‘n Roll, Sex, Drugs, Nam

This is a well written story about a nice, beautiful young woman, Julia,  who with her girlfriend, Ali, move from Seattle down to San Francisco to get a more exciting taste of life, which they certainly do.  Julia had worked for a newspaper in Seattle doing layouts and both girls find work shortly, although not the best of pay.  In San Francisco, Julia again runs into a handsome rock ‘n roller song writer, guitarist and singer, Austen.  Previously in Seattle, she and Ali had run into him and a very inebriated party of a new band in Seattle and actually quickly vacate the party, but not before Julia feels that certain electrical sexual attraction for him, which intrigues her and yet dismays her.

The story centers around Julia and Austen and their many exciting, erotic love trysts.  It also includes many of the events of those times such as Nam, the drug scene, sensational music meets like Woodstock, but on the west coast in California.  Is Austen serious about the future or is he just playing her?  This tale, although centered around hot sex, is tastefully written and will spice up anyone’s life who reads it, especially those who lived through those times themselves. 

IMPERSONATION   

By Tamsin Kate Walker

Mystery and Puzzle

The first three or four chapters of this story had me totally confused.  It was if they weren’t connected in the story and then finally it suddenly came together.  A young thirtish woman, Ruth, had received a book “The Ruthlessness of One Man” by Tod Walden, which she received as a loyalty gift from a book club she joined years ago.  Ruth was a single woman and the only lover she had in her life was a man named Paul, who came to her house every Thursday night, had  some wine, sex for a couple of hours and then left.  He told her nothing about his private life and let it be known that this would never develop into anything further than sex in the form of an affair. She agreed to that.

But she read in this book she just received descriptions of a woman that could very well be her, along with her actions, including that of the visitations of Paul.  She brought this to Paul’s attention, but he thought she was just self-centered to believe that a total stranger would write a book using her as the protagonist.  The story then moves describing someone who is certainly spying on her, and the mystery deepens as she attempts to find out the truth of the book, who the author is and where is he and why is he concentrating on her?  It reaches almost a level of horror as certain scenes reveal themselves.  It is a good mystery and a page turner and the only criticism I have of it is that off and on there would partial sentences in italics with a number included and it never made sense to me.  Their purpose is revealed at the end of the story.  After the first chapters, I enjoyed this story and it became a page turner for me.