I spent New Year’s Eve day with a good book. At one point, the phone rang and I had to suspend reading, and I was near the end of the book. At the end of the phone call I absent-mindedly turned on the TV and TCN was playing “That’s Entertainment”, one of my favorite films. But then I thought of the story and my book. I turned off the TV because I had to find out the story’s end…and I did.

The book in question is Fool’s Errand by Jeffery S. Stephens. It’s a story about a letter written to a son. The letter was delivered five years after the father’s death and hints at a big inheritance, somewhere. The father was not always involved in “legitimate” businesses, so the son wonders if the inheritance exists. The book is the son’s journey to find the inheritance.

The journey takes the son to a number of cities and countries including Las Vegas, and one of the book’s pleasures is the description of each destination.

To me, the book is a perfect size: 237 pages — short enough that the reader does know the end is in sight. The binding makes page-turning easy, and I only found a couple of proofreading errors. (I love to find them in other folks’ work; makes my own errors seem less humiliating.) $28.00 on Amazon.com.

Yes, the story is also a family history, a mystery and a love story, but it’s not so complex that it’s difficult to follow. For me, on New Year’s Eve day, the book was just pure pleasure, and as readers of this column know, I am typically NOT drawn to novels…but Fool’s Errand is definitely an exception.

Now a P.S. New Year’s Day started off rather ho-hum until my brother called. He’s a fan of singer/composer Michael Franti and he said I MUST see Franti’s New Year’s Eve show which he had viewed the night before. My brother had paid to see the show, but he had access for 24 hours and allowed me to use some of those hours.

I, too, loved the Michael Franti’s New Year’s Eve show. Franti, broadcasting from Bali, is a “soul rocker” whose reggae style makes a listener want to wave arms, move and dance. His lyrics are about life, love, faith and hope. The kids can hear those lyrics and parents needn’t worry; in fact, the kids can lead the dancing as they did during the New Year’s Eve show.

If you are already a Michael Franti fan, I’m now with you. If you are yet to discover him, here’s his site. I loved hearing Michael Franti’s happy songs all morning on New Year’s Day 2021.