FOR YOUR PLEASURE; AT JACKSWON PUBLIC LIBRARY

The "iffy" weather needn't make you cross. Check out one of these, enjoy and forget the weather: One of the most popular authorities has set his latest work partially in post-Civil War Missouri. "Boone's Lick," by Larry McMurtry gives us a view of a thriving town with several saloons, at least one dry goods store, and possibly a traveling dentist. The story revolves around Mary Margaret Cecil who is getting ready to move her family west in search of her errant husband, a freighter, Dick Cecil. Dick.

Cecil shows up every couple of years for a few days. His visits usually result in a new baby for Mary Margaret to care for. She is going to find him to tell him she's leaving him but cannot bring herself to send him this message.

Along the way the family is joined by a Shoshone brave and a barefoot priest who is making his way to Siberia to hold services. They were prepared for hardships, but nothing could have prepared them for the surprises that Dick Cecil had not intended them to know. Ever. Whether describing family life before the trip, dealing with the neighbors, or the trip itself, McMurtry has given us a book full of chuckles and a wonderful portrayal of frontier life. Possibly his best book.

John LeCarre has written another masterpiece in "The Constant Gardner."

Set in Africa, it begins with the horrible death of Tessa Quayle, and we are sure that nothing can make us feel any worse. We are wrong. Not only was Tessa beautiful, but as the wife of Justin Quayle, a minor official in the British Foreign Service, she concerned herself deeply with the plight of the poorest of African people. Justin seems to be interested only with his flowers and plants of various kinds, but Tessa investigates and is close to bringing to light some horrors perpetrated on the natives by an enormous drug conglomerate. This leads to her murder. Justin sheds his born-rich persona and begins the fight to bring Tessa's killers to justice and to complete her work of disclosure. Of course, he faces terrible odds, but we are unable to stop hoping for him as he makes his way through dangers, many caused by his own people, to the story's powerful, bitter end.

In "Code to Zero," Ken Follett takes us back to a very important era in our country's history: The space race. Luke wakes up in Union Station in Washington, D.C., with what he thinks is a terrible hangover. Then he discovers that his memory is gone; he does not know at this point that he is "Luke." He will learn later that he is really Dr. Claude Lucas, well-known, well-liked and very respected member of the space team getting ready for the launch that will put America at least on an equal footing with Russia. The drug that has erased Luke's memory has not affected his ability to think, and he soon realizes that he is being shadowed and that his life is in danger, probably more so if he regains his memory. Alone, with no money and no idea who he can trust to help rather than harm him he struggles to unravel the puzzle. He is in for some very bad shocks (along with the reader) and the book ends with the suspense that has made Follett famous.

It may be impossible to say enough about such a national icon, but in "Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life," Richard Ben Cramer does his best. From DiMaggio's early life through his rise to glory Cramer gives us a detailed account of his friends and the events that shaped his career.

Cramer covers it all, from Joe's fondness of money, his charm and real inner greatness, his love for Marilyn Monroe, and his painful death.

Don't skip the author's note and acknowledgments at the end of the book.

"A Day Late and a Dollar Short" is how Viola Price is inclined to describe her family members in Terry McMillans' latest novel of the same name. Now-absent husband, Cecil, daughters Paris, Charlotte, and Janelle, and son, Lewis, give Viola no end of worry and grief, causing her to make some acid-coated and very amusing remarks about their lives and problems, including the way they feel about Vi. The characters become very real as the story goes from hilarious to sad and back again.

Readers should be warned that the language is not gentle and polite.