Bøger af Jim Lynch

Birddog Charlie tells the stories of horses that made a substantial contribution to the authors life beginning at age 11 by revealing the wisdom and secrets of the natural world.

When an idealistic young journalist gets pulled into a disgusting political campaign, lives and attitudes suffer greatly in the end. All that's left is a sense of humor

A sexy fast-moving cult novel, "The 2020 Players" was written in 2010 but amazingly it accurately predicts numerous future events. These include the rise of an Islamic caliphate; electronic interference in a Presidential election; a female Presidential candidate in 2016; a gay candidate in 2020; terrorism in France; extraterrestrial ambiguities; a crisis on the Mexican border; a new trade cooperative with China, the renegotiation of NAFTA, Media Madness, a Celebrity Presidency several more absolutely prescient predictions. Even with a few wild guesses thrown in, the author is astoundingly clairvoyant.The fast-moving plot presents many colorful characters including Presidential candidate Josh Struben and his wife, singer/activist Gina Struben; Chinese industrialist, Sun Feng; CIA Operative, Catherine Cauley; Islamic terrorist, Faraq Hussein; and Kenneth Brady, the bi-sexual host of the network news talk show, "The Brady Focus." Other vibrant supporting characters invigorate the plot that covers the 12 months of January through December 2020. There is also a rich back-story that deals credibly with the intervening years between 2011 and 2020.The Twenty-Twenty Players are the characters who each undergo a major personal transformation during the title year. Not only do these four-dimensional characters jump out of the text to illuminate the storyline, but they also permit thoughtful access to their individual spirituality as they cope with conflict or accept opportunity. The final 6 months of 2020 are fast paced, and unpredictable. However when the story ends on New Years' Eve, 2020, the reader feels hopeful and invigorated about the stretch of years yet to unfold.The Twenty-Twenty Players has appeal to anyone who has ever felt, love, sorrow, fear, regret, lust, hatred, or hope. But there are several more specific audiences who will find additional meaning as the plot unfolds. Political junkies will sink their teeth into debates about Globalism, American Exceptionalism and the ongoing erosion of the middle class.Questions are asked and answers are proffered. Some of these questions include: Will there be a female president anytime soon? Is the US ready for its first gay president since James Buchanan? Will Dictator Dominoes lead to theocratic unification and sovereignty? When will the USA become energy independent? Can a third-party candidate have a fair shot at becoming President? Will Puerto Rico become the 51st State? How will the Hispanic Vote impact the 2020 election? When, if ever, will Americans be able to cast their vote via the Internet? How will the USA/China relationship evolve? Does the media's role in the political process expand or contract? What is the role of the US military in the Twenty First Century? What is the USA's new Manifest Destiny? What impact will space exploration have on globalization? Embodied in the back-story of the novel are assumptions about what transpired between 2011 and 2020. Some specifics include another US based terrorist attack which takes place in 2017; the US military occupation of northern Mexico in 2015; the passing of the 29th Amendment to the US Constitution that has a fascinating and positive impact on the American political process. There are many more surprises, but all of them are plausible; some might even seem probable.However, first and foremost, The Twenty-Twenty Players is a novel about people. What keeps the reader turning the pages at an enjoyable pace is the primitive curiosity at how the lives of the characters will unfold. Will sexy pop icon Gina Alvarez-Struben help or hurt her husband's chances at election? Why doesn't incumbent President Elder want to run for a second term? What impact will political pundit Kenneth Brady and "The Brady Focus" have on the election? Who will cause the most chaos in 2020, American terrorist, Robert Day or Islamic terrorist Zafar bin Zahid? And finally, what difference can 12 months make on history

Patch Munson is feeling queasy. He has killed Aaron Fein, the owner-operator of the Fein Center for Women, in Tampa, Florida. He confessed his sin to a Catholic priest, only to find that the priest is a sinner also. Father Tim Hanlon is leaving the priesthood after learning that he has fathered a child with a black supermodel, Carol Mays. Perplexed, paranoid and petrified, Munson kidnaps Mays and stows her away a bomb shelter on his family's Alabama farm, while he tries to solve his mounting problems. While authorities in Florida and Alabama tighten down the focus of their investigation to Munson's home city of Mobile, Alabama, Munson attempts to work out a resolution with his prisoner. As the police and FBI come closer and closer to the Munson family farm, the Alabama coast is battered by a Category 5 Hurricane, colloquially known as Hurricane Jesus. Munson, Mays, Hanlon and two Florida State police officers all end up in the bomb shelter, during the pass over of Hurricane Jesus. Emotions run high, as the ensemble of Seekers, Sinners and Simpletons are threatened by terrifying wind above them and the rising flood waters that seep into the bomb shelter. Throughout the story the characters are faced with extraordinary choices in their own spiritual explorations for meaning in their lives. Some do it with humor and some do it with angst, but they are all forced to come to grips with their own humanity along the way.

Communists, Capitalists & CokeheadsThe second novel in The Generations Series is entitled: Communists, Capitalists & Cokeheads: The Connected Generation. It picks up where the first novel Boomers, Bastards & Boneheads left off and covers the period of the 1980's. It introduces the next generation of Babcocks and Johnsons, while dealing with residual issues of infidelity, sexual torment and manslaughter, which the previous generation had left unresolved. Once again Shenandoah High School, baseball, politics, spirituality and music provide a structural context. Fox Babcock and his half-sister Maureen "Mo" Babcock play prominent roles. Vietnam War hero Mickey Johnson remarries (his first wife died in the earlier novel, BB&B.) and his new wife Sydney (A/K/A 'Syd') delivers three children into their family. Syd Johnson has an Italian father and an African American mother.The plot deals with a new premeditated murder and an intensifying family animosity between the Babcocks and the Johnsons. It also details Simone's 18 month sabbatical in the squalor of Calcutta on the Indian subcontinent. Simone attempts to discover her own spirituality while working with Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa's charity. Meanwhile 13 year old Maureen Babcock runs away from one of America's wealthiest family households and the consequences are tragic. Fox Babcock finally becomes aware of his authentic pedigree and wrestles with this truth during his high school days at Shenandoah; through his college years at Harvard and onto his first year at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Major social issues of the 80's also punctuate the plot. AIDS; cocaine addiction; racial tensions and gender (in)equality are central to the plot. Also the progression of the nascent personal computer industry foretells the insidious influence of these machines on the global future as well as on the lives of the Babcocks and the Johnsons. Likewise, the earliest cell phones emerge and begin to impact the lives and livelihoods of the two families.Racially polarizing events such as the Bernhard Goetz Subway Shootings and the Central Park Jogger case cause developing disharmony between multiracial members of the Johnson family. Meanwhile Mickey Johnson's career has brought him a new prosperity, even while his outlook on life becomes more rigidly rooted in working class values. The Johnsons and the Babcocks continue to deal with their ever-escalating hostility. In addition, parts of each family have moved to California to participate in the stimulating atmosphere of Silicon Valley. Simone rejoins this capitalistic development after she returns from India. This second novel climaxes in 1989 with the main characters assembled in an attempted rapprochement at the home of the woman who has been a part of both families. However, the Loma Prieta earthquake intervenes and alters the intentions of Simone Muirchant. The near-death experiences of the primary members of the Babcock/Johnson Feud provide for some relief in the rancor. However it offers no real closure to the conflict. As the USSR and the USA begin to wind down their Cold War, a frigid wall is erected for the next generation of the Babcocks and the Johnsons. This section of that saga ends on the doorstep on the Internet Age. Book three of the Generation Series, Techies, Trials & Terrorists: The Transient Generation (scheduled for release in April 2020) will take the Johnsons and the Babcocks through that doorway.

A hilarious romp through the 70's as the hippies meet Animal House.

The Rhapsody Players is a fictional story of the phenomenal success of an intriguing group of business men and women who build one of the world's largest and most successful international enterprises. The story line captures real life issues as it follows an intriguing plot that spans the last two years ... and two years yet to unfold, 2008-2012. The author masterfully intersperses the real life concerns about healthcare, and the challenges of today's global financial markets in a remarkable chronicle that allows us to question the direction of our collective global future.The narrative addresses the longevity needs of today's global society. The rich and diverse group of characters includes a sexy pop icon, a young hedge fund hunk and twin sisters who are on a mission to renovate the way health and wellness services are offered throughout the world. Membership in the Rhapsody Lifestyle allows the amazing array of characters to pursue health and wellness fulfillment around the clock and around the world. Doctors and patients; evil doers and philanthropists; heroes and villains ... they each have twenty-four hours in their day. This is an account of the rich and famous Rhapsody Players ... how they spend their days as well as how they view their sexuality, their spirituality and their health/wellness as critical elements of their aspiration to lead a longer, better life. This novel is a fascinating account of their attempt to reach that dream.

The book describes the adventures of Zeb Clancy, the author's avatar. Zeb moved to Kentucky to purchase a farm big enough to establish a simmental cattle breeding operation. Once there Zeb meets some legendary Mountain Men and goes on many adventures. They include gunfights, robberies, poker games, and tall tales from men who were living legends.

Even a billion dollars can't liberate Frank Babcock. He knows that his jealousy has contributed to the murder of Wayne Johnson, the man he once believed had illegitimately fathered his own heir, Fox Babcock. The wrong Johnson was murdered. Mickey Johnson not Wayne Johnson was Fox Babcock's biological father. The Babcock/Johnson Feud persists in the third volume of the "Generation Series" as the two Long Island families battle through another iteration of generational loathing. The animosity between the Babcocks and the Johnsons escalates against a new backdrop of global instability - a product of racial unrest; radical religious extremism and the technological breakthrough of the World Wide Web. The final decade of the twentieth century brings the Babcock/Johnson Feud into a New York courtroom, even as global economic inequities bring the United States into a global kangaroo court replete with terrorist judges. "Techies, Trials & Terrorists" takes the feuding Long Island families through a decade of desperation and distrust that culminates in the long awaited murder trial of Frank Babcock. The trial itself rehashes a 25 year old love quadrangle that resulted in the ambiguous parentage of Dr. Fox Babcock. Fox Babcock is now married and has children of his own. But just like his mother, Fox Babcock has not remained faithful to his spouse. In fact Fox has parented an illegitimate child of his own. New familial discord lurks in the background as the murder trial unfolds. And while carnal revelations, during seamy trial testimony, recount old erotic discord between the Babcocks and the Johnsons, the more recent sexual liaisons further undermine any possibility of rapprochement. Meanwhile, Frank Babcock has a new Jewish bride, a new Christian son and a new Saudi Arabian mistress. His business takes him throughout the Middle East even as his young wife remains in New York parenting her sister's child. Life becomes ever more intriguing for the billionaire as the existence of his varied business and personal relationships are compromised by his compelled cooperation with American Intelligence agencies. These agencies are investigating the ties of a certain Saudi Arabian family to the rise of terrorist attacks against the United States. As the twentieth century hurdles toward a close and the dawning of the new millennium awaits, the lives of several generations of Johnsons and Babcocks become ever-more entwined. As the internet age unfolds on a global stage, the financial prosperity of the feuding families blossoms along with the burgeoning technology. The saga of sex, money, murder and mayhem follows the family fortunes from the dunes of Saudi Arabia to the white waters of West Virginia and back again to the shores of Long Island. This third book of the "Generations Series" highlights the transient decade that sets up the new Millennium and the challenges that await all of the characters as they embark on 21st Century and the advent of the Social Media. This in turn will be the subject matter of Book 4 in the Generation Series: "Madmen, Millennials & Malcontents: The Social Media Generation." (Due for Publication in the Fall of 2020)

Flunking Chemistry Class is a parody of the steroid era in Major League Baseball. The novel lampoons the sport as it chronicles some of MLB's absurd attempts to abort the PEDs abuse scandal, which made a mockery of the national pastime over the last 20 years. The author creates a mythical MBL or Multinational Baseball League that includes domestic franchises such as the Bronx Bloomers, the Hollywood Hedgers and the Metropolitan Mutts. It also introduces some international franchises such as the Sydney Kangaroos and the Seoul Searchers and a global commissioner, Buzz Selout.None of the known cheaters get spared in the book. From Corky Samuels, (the "so so outfielder" for the Chicago Gumballers, ) and Popeye Maloney (the crybaby of the St Louis Scarlets) to A Dork, the sleazy third baseman of the Bronx Bloomers and Barney Bombs the massive leftfielder of the Bay City Mammoths, the characters all have a familiar feel to the avid baseball fan. The author follows the logic that the cover-up is as bad as the crime and ensures that the baseball establishment is appropriately satirized (sodomized?) as well. Bass Sledgehammer the owner of the Bloomers and Buzz Selout the MBL commissioner are the face of that establishment and they take their lumps along with the "floats" who do their work on the diamond. **********Three separate plot lines weave together in this baseball tapestry. The most sympathetic plot line follows the hilarious travails of pitcher Sam Crockett, a five tool prospect from Texas as he winds his way through the minor league systems of several MBL teams. Crockett spends the better part of ten years trying to make it to The Show, with stop offs in towns such as Moose Butt, Montana and Beaufort North Carolina. He even does a gig in the backwater towns of Japan. Along the way his progress is frequently blocked by players who get ahead by cheating through the use of performance enhancing drugs. This plot line also details the "26th man," multi-billion dollar class action law suit, which threatens the antitrust exemption of the Multinational Baseball League and eventually reinvigorates Crockett's career. A parallel plot line follows the misadventures of Lester Postal, a sportswriter for the tabloid paper The New York Roast, as he looks to expose the soft underbelly of the conspiracy between the MBL and the players association, the MBLPA. Postal generates tabloid worthy headline stories as he embarks on a mission to ensure that steroid cheaters (a/k/a Floats) never make it to the Corridor of Conceit. He takes on all comers in his relentless attack on steroid abuse and eventually helps his fifth wife - lawyer, Georgette Postal - as she prepares an eleven figure anti-trust suit. The third storyline covers the activities of the many Floats in the MBL during a twenty year period between 1998 and 2018 as they pass through events such as the Earth Series; congressional hearings; The Witchell-Hunt Report and an absurd talk-radio interview, which follows an arbitration hearing. This storyline loosely follows an historical perspective on the game of baseball and the players who do their work on the diamond. Every year seems to bring about a new scandal that exposes still more players to the scrutiny of the fans who want an honest game. The parallel plot lines finally intersect in a surprising ending that allows the reader to speculate about the future of chemistry in the game of baseball.

Which of her three lovers will beautiful twenty-three year old Simone Muirchant chose? Will it be her wealthy blue-blooded fiancé? Could she choose the high school senior who is her passionate secret lover? Will she succumb to the earthy insensitivity of the mysterious third man in her love life? Or will she simply sustain all three lovers?The above encapsulation is the central anchoring plot dilemma for Boomers Bastards & Boneheads: The Wasted Generation, the first of four novels in a fictional quartet entitled The Generations Series. This first book is set on Long Island during the years of 1965 through 1980. The chapters of Boomers Bastards & Boneheads unfold during some of more intriguing events of the period including the Vietnam War; the Moon Landings; Chappaquiddick; Woodstock; Watergate and even the long lines at gas stations during the 1973 Oil Embargo.**********Collectively the four novels that comprise The Generations Series depict the sequential story of two Long Island families throughout multiple generations of intriguing characters. The Babcocks and the Johnsons share more than just a persistent hatred of one another. The ongoing plotline revolves around a carnal reality that there had been a blending of the families back in 1965. That was when the beautiful but enigmatic Simone Muirchant managed to become part of both families. The hatred and hostility between the Babcocks and the Johnsons leads to misogamy, mislaid blame, murder and mayhem. **********One early reader has described the milieu of the 4 volume epic as "Jay Gatsby versus Forrest Gump." Set on Long Island in suburban New York, the epic saga is illuminated by the evolution of thoughts, behaviors and mores in the United States from 1965 through 2016. The fictional all-male Catholic high school - Shenandoah - also plays an essential role in centering the progression of changes that take place for the principal characters over a fifty year period. The bitter hatred between the Babcocks and the Johnsons transcends the timeworn topics of War; Spirituality; Morality and Politics. It also utilizes a fifty year chronology to depict the development of Music; Baseball; Drug Abuse; Sexual Liberation; Political Evolution; Racial Unrest; Feminism and Information Technology across five decades of change in the United States and on Long Island. By the end of the fourth novel the reader will have relived a half century of Americana that may very well serve as a gateway to the exciting future ahead.**********

A sexy fast-moving cult novel, "The 2020 Players" was written in 2010 but amazingly it accurately predicts numerous future events. These include the rise of an Islamic caliphate; electronic interference in a Presidential election; a female Presidential candidate in 2016; a gay candidate in 2020; terrorism in France; extraterrestrial ambiguities; a crisis on the Mexican border; a new trade cooperative with China, the renegotiation of NAFTA, Media Madness, a Celebrity Presidency several more absolutely prescient predictions. Even with a few wild guesses thrown in, the author is astoundingly clairvoyant.The fast-moving plot presents many colorful characters including Presidential candidate Josh Struben and his wife, singer/activist Gina Struben; Chinese industrialist, Sun Feng; CIA Operative, Catherine Cauley; Islamic terrorist, Faraq Hussein; and Kenneth Brady, the bi-sexual host of the network news talk show, "The Brady Focus." Other vibrant supporting characters invigorate the plot that covers the 12 months of January through December 2020. There is also a rich back-story that deals credibly with the intervening years between 2011 and 2020.The Twenty-Twenty Players are the characters who each undergo a major personal transformation during the title year. Not only do these four-dimensional characters jump out of the text to illuminate the storyline, but they also permit thoughtful access to their individual spirituality as they cope with conflict or accept opportunity. The final 6 months of 2020 are fast paced, and unpredictable. However when the story ends on New Years' Eve, 2020, the reader feels hopeful and invigorated about the stretch of years yet to unfold.The Twenty-Twenty Players has appeal to anyone who has ever felt, love, sorrow, fear, regret, lust, hatred, or hope. But there are several more specific audiences who will find additional meaning as the plot unfolds. Political junkies will sink their teeth into debates about Globalism, American Exceptionalism and the ongoing erosion of the middle class.Questions are asked and answers are proffered. Some of these questions include: Will there be a female president anytime soon? Is the US ready for its first gay president since James Buchanan? Will Dictator Dominoes lead to theocratic unification and sovereignty? When will the USA become energy independent? Can a third-party candidate have a fair shot at becoming President? Will Puerto Rico become the 51st State? How will the Hispanic Vote impact the 2020 election? When, if ever, will Americans be able to cast their vote via the Internet? How will the USA/China relationship evolve? Does the media's role in the political process expand or contract? What is the role of the US military in the Twenty First Century? What is the USA's new Manifest Destiny? What impact will space exploration have on globalization? Embodied in the back-story of the novel are assumptions about what transpired between 2011 and 2020. Some specifics include another US based terrorist attack which takes place in 2017; the US military occupation of northern Mexico in 2015; the passing of the 29th Amendment to the US Constitution that has a fascinating and positive impact on the American political process. There are many more surprises, but all of them are plausible; some might even seem probable.However, first and foremost, The Twenty-Twenty Players is a novel about people. What keeps the reader turning the pages at an enjoyable pace is the primitive curiosity at how the lives of the characters will unfold. Will sexy pop icon Gina Alvarez-Struben help or hurt her husband's chances at election? Why doesn't incumbent President Elder want to run for a second term? What impact will political pundit Kenneth Brady and "The Brady Focus" have on the election? Who will cause the most chaos in 2020, American terrorist, Robert Day or Islamic terrorist Zafar bin Zahid? And finally, what difference can 12 months make on history

One moonlit night, thirteen-year-old Miles O'Malley, a speed-reading, Rachel Carson-obsessed insomniac out looking for tidal specimens in Puget Sound, discovers a giant squid stranded on the beach. As the first person to see a giant squid alive, he finds himself hailed as a prophet. But Miles is really just a kid on the verge of growing up, infatuated with the girl next door, worried that his bickering parents will divorce, and fearful that everything, even the bay he loves, is shifting away from him. As the sea continues to offer up discoveries from its mysterious depths, Miles struggles to deal with the difficulties that attend the equally mysterious process of growing up. "In stunning prose, author Jim Lynch puts sea life into a kaleidoscope where swirling shapes burst and reconfigure in continuous life-affirming wonder...The balance of elegance, groundedness and style is remarkable."-San Francisco Chronicle "An irresistible coming-of-age fable, dappled with lyricism, briny honesty and good humor. It's as if Carson herself (or, say, John McPhee) had turned to fiction, bringing an exacting sense of the ebb and flow of nature to the story of one largely unsupervised boy and the exploration of his surroundings."-Los Angeles Times "Unforgettable...[A] classic coming-of-age story, told with wry wit and quirky mating-marine-life facts."-Seattle Times "In his superb first novel, Olympia's Jim Lynch has achieved a unique literary Triple Crown: 1) best coming-of-age novel set in the Pacific Northwest in recent memory; 2) best novel to resurrect the writing of the visionary Rachel Carson; 3) best novel to educate people about that mysteriously awesome place where freshwater meets the sea."-Oregonian "The fertile strangeness of marine tidal life becomes a subtly executed metaphor for the bewilderments of adolescence in this tender and authentic coming-of-age novel."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Nerdy, vulnerable,

Democracy by its very nature is a difficult form of government to administer. It is messy. There are many conflicting ideas of how to do things. In order to enact any programs, you must build consensus. There is a lot of give-and-take in the process. In the end few people get everything they want. The democratic process is further complicated by the elected officials who are supposed to administer it. They are not perfect people. They wrestle with the same foibles as all of us. They are easily distracted, are inconsistent, lack the proper knowledge, and in some cases are just downright incompetent. Plus, they possess some of our common moral weaknesses: pride, envy, jealousy, laziness, just to name a few. So in the end American democracy will never be perfect. The best we can hope for is that we can make it better. This should be our ambition and our goal. This is the story of one individual who entered the political arena. It tells what he tried to accomplish, and what he learned.

Following The Highest Tide, Border Songs, and Truth Like the Sun, Jim Lynch now gives us a grand and idiosyncratic family saga that will stand alongside Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion.Joshua Johannssen has spent all of his life surrounded by sailboats. His grandfather designed them, his father built and raced them, his Einstein-obsessed mother knows why and how they work (or not). For Josh and his two siblings, their backyard was the Puget Sound and sailing their DNA. But both his sister and brother fled many years ago: Ruby to Africa and elsewhere to do good works on land, and Bernard to god-knows-where at sea, a fugitive and pirate. Suddenly thirty-one, Joshwho repairs boats of all kinds in a Steinbeckian marina south of Seattleis pained and confused by whatever the hell went wrong with his volatile family. His parents are barely speaking, his mystified grandfather is drinking harder, and he himselfdespite an endless and comic flurry of online dateshasn't even come close to finding a girlfriend. But when the Johannssens unexpectedly reunite for the most important race in these watersall of them together on a classic vessel they made decades agothey will be carried to destinies both individual and collective, and to a heart-shattering revelation. Past and present merge seamlessly and collide surprisingly as Jim Lynch reveals a family unlike any other, with the grace and humor and magic of a master storyteller.

Brandon Vanderkool thinks in pictures. Six-foot-eight and dyslexic, he is not an obvious candidate for the Border Patrol, which polices the frontier between the United States and Canada, but somehow, as he ambles round the forest bird-watching, he seems to stumble upon every illegal immigrant and drug trafficker in the area.

A poignant coming-of-age story and a gripping novel of natural wonder, rejacketed to coincide with the publication of Jim Lynch's new novel, Border Songs