Giant Love

 

I love the movie "Giant". What's not to love? Texas and horses and cattle and oil and James Dean. It's a great story. I read the book when I was a teenager (I have it around the house somewhere). I bought it at a used bookstore, and I was so excited to find it. My local library didn't have it, and none of the bookstores I went to had it, either. 

Which brings us to one of Gilbert's questions: why has everyone forgotten about Edna Ferber? She was an extraordinarily popular writer in her day. She won a Pulitzer for one of her first books. So what happened? It's hard to say. "Giant" is the only book of hers I've ever read, and while I really enjoyed it, I doubt I would have sought it out if I hadn't seen the movie first. 

"Giant Love" was divided into two sections: the book and the movie. Gilbert also sprinkled in lots of biographical details about her great-aunt. It was entertaining and fascinating, and I really wish I knew why her books aren't still popular today. 

Billy the Kid

 

A coworker saw this book on my desk and asked "Haven't you already read that?" and I said "No, I've read many books about Billy the Kid, but not *this* book". Honestly, I don't remember reading a fiction book about Billy before, it's all been biographies. (**checked my blog and I did read one fictional account back in 2017, so there you go). 

So it was fun! Coleman saw "Young Guns" around the same age I did, and he was (like me) inspired by Billy the Kid's story. I checked out and bought every used book I could find about him. Did Pat Garrett really kill him, or did he live on anonymously? That's a tough question. When I was younger, I was firmly in the "no way did Garrett kill him" camp, but now that I'm older, I think it's most likely that he did. I can't imagine Billy, barely twenty-two, going on to live a life of quiet solitude and never again causing any problems. From all accounts he killed recklessly and often without thinking. Coleman did a great job of humanizing Billy while also showing his more ruthless side. He did find himself in a lot of terrible situations where killing was the only way to survive, but he also killed because it was convenient. I really liked it, I couldn't put it down. 

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls; The Bookshop; The Sopranos Sessions; Blood and Ink

I was able to finish a few books this weekend that I was mostly done with, but this one I started reading on Friday and finished Saturday, because hey, it's Grady Hendrix and I love him. 

The book takes place in 1970 in Florida, at a home for teenage girls who are pregnant. They stay, have their babies, who are put up for adoption, and then go back home with the story of having visited a relative for a few months. Fairly common back then. 

Neva shows up at Wellwood House and is immediately renamed Fern and instructed not to talk about her former life with the other girls, they are all supposed to remain anonymous. Life at Wellwood House is monotonous: cleaning, lessons, eating, and watching TV (honestly, his descriptions of the food were some of the grossest things about this book, and there are graphic descriptions of childbirth). 

Then the bookmobile comes. Fern's a huge reader and she's very excited. The librarian gives her a special book and cautions her to keep it a secret: How to Be a Groovy Witch. Fern's intrigued, as are a few of the other girls. When the spell they try works, they start to dig deeper into the book, hoping it can fix some of their problems. 

It was fun and I enjoyed it, but if you're at all squeamish about pregnancy, spaghetti and tuna casserole, or projectile vomiting, this one probably isn't for you. 

A much less gross book, "The Bookshop", celebrates the American bookstore. He went back to the beginning of the nation and the various shops that sold books, to the current day and the juggernaut that is Amazon. Brick & mortar bookstores are making a comeback, though, because customers have discovered the community aspect isn't something they want to lose. 

I worked at a bookstore for five and half years when I was in college. Working there is how I decided to become a librarian: I loved being around books and the people who enjoyed them, but I hated the retail aspect of it. I sent so many customers to the library so they wouldn't waste money buying books for their school reports. I'm sure my bosses would have hated that if they'd known, but I just couldn't do it. I prefer buying from an actual bookstore when I do occasionally buy books rather than borrow them. I like browsing. It was an interesting look at how bookshops have survived and thrived.

Speaking of books I actually own--I finished one! Every year I try to read some of the books I've bought, but they always get shoved to the side by books with due dates. I was so excited to buy this book a few years ago, and then put it on the shelf and forgot about it until recently. 

The authors analyzed each episode and interviewed David Chase. They also included newspaper articles written about the show while it was on the air, and at the end they paid tribute to James Gandolfini. I still remember being stunned when I heard that he'd died so suddenly. 

I love "The Sopranos". I've watched it numerous times (it was HBO a few weekends ago and I sat and watched for hours). I own all of them on DVD (back when that was still a thing). It was wonderful to get a behind the scenes look at the show and to hear what Chase had to say. Very interesting. 

And finally, "Blood & Ink", a book about an unsolved murder in New Jersey (no connection to the Sopranos). 

In 1922, the Reverend Edward Hall and his mistress, choir member Eleanor Mills, were found murdered on an abandoned farm. Hall was married to a wealthy heiress, Frances. Frances was shocked and refused to believe her husband would be unfaithful. Eleanor's husband was less shocked. Their marriage was pretty unhappy. 

The crime scene was trampled on by curious onlookers, evidence was taken, and the police had no leads and no suspects. At one point they looked at Frances and her brother, Willy, but their case was flimsy. 

Interwoven with the tale of the murders was the rise of tabloid journalism. It was an interesting book, and I can honestly say I have no idea who killed them. There just wasn't enough evidence to point to anyone. 

 

 

If Something Happens to Me

 

This was a fun, twisty one that played with time, making you think everything was happening chronologically when it wasn't. 

Senior year, Ryan and Ali were dating when Ali is kidnapped one night from the local Lover's Lane and vanishes without a trace. Even though there's no evidence pointing to Ryan, suspicion lands squarely on him and he's convicted in the court of public opinion. After graduating, Ryan changes his last name and hopes to start over, attending law school after college. He's in Europe on a trip with some of his fellow law students when the news comes in from Kansas: Ali's father's car was found in a lake with two dead men inside, but no sign of Ali. Only a note in her bag, in a waterproof case labeled: if something happens to me. Inside is a coded message. Deputy Sheriff Poppy thinks Ryan might know how to break the code and help her find out what really happened to Ali. She just has to find him. 

Hero of the Realm

 

Young Winston Churchill was kind of a badass, a real life James Bond type, which I wasn't expecting. 

During the Boer War, he was a correspondent. As such, he wasn't allowed to be armed, and he was caught with a gun and thrown in prison. He protested all the while about being a journalist and how dare they and did they know who he was?! No, no they did not. Nor did they care. 

Churchill pulled off a daring escape and hid out in the mines nearby, and was able to enlist the help of fellow Englishman John Howard, who hid him in a shipment of wool and was able to smuggle Churchill out on the train. Churchill was hailed as a hero and won a seat in Parliament on his return to England. The rest, as they say, is history. No one would ever need to be told who he was ever again. It was a thrilling tale of real life heroism and an interesting read.  

Gone at Midnight; The Hitchcock Hotel

 

I watched the Netflix documentary about the Cecil Hotel in downtown L.A. and the tragic death of Elisa Lam. She was reported missing and her body was found days later in one of the water towers on the roof after residents reported the water being discolored and tasting funny. I shudder to think how awful that must have been, for everyone involved. 

The footage released of Elisa in the elevator on the 14th floor is very disturbing and I had a hard time watching it, but I don't know why. I can't articulate it. Anderson suggests that the footage was slowed down to allow it to be edited: a chunk is missing. If you run the footage at a higher speed, it's not as strange or disturbing. I didn't try it myself, but it makes sense. 

He tried really hard to make the case that there's more to it than just poor Elisa being off her medication and having some sort of manic episode and ending up in the tank. I'll admit there are some oddities in the case (whether or not the hatch was closed is just one of many: the first employee on the scene who searched the roof said it was, but apparently he's disappeared and hasn't been heard from since). I just don't know if I'm willing to make that leap that he did. No matter what happened, it's a terrible, heartbreaking event. 

I really enjoyed "The Hitchcock Hotel". Alfred opened up a hotel near his old college with a Hitchcock theme. He's invited his five best friends from college for a free weekend, where he plans to get his revenge. As we (eventually) discover, Alfred was running an essay writing business and was found out and expelled. Of course there's more to it than that, but that was the basic premise. 

When Alfred is killed halfway through, that throws a wrench in it. There was a great twist at the end. 

Now or Never; Beautiful Little Fools

 

The latest Janet Evanovich book about Stephanie Plum was pretty good, even if she did marry the wrong guy in the end. 

At the end of the last book, Stephanie finds herself in quite the quandary: both Joe and Ranger have proposed, and she said yes to both. Now she has to figure out what to do. How to choose? Oh, and she might be pregnant, too. What a mess!

There was the usual round of trying to do her actual job, with a lot of disasters sprinkled in. According to the last page of the book, it's not the end of Stephanie's story, so we'll see how married life treats her. 

A few weeks ago, one of my colleagues came by and asked me if there were any writers I thought were overrated. Without hesitating, I responded: "F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway". Part of my lack of enthusiasm stems from the fact that they are often lumped in with William Faulkner, based on the time they wrote. I had to read "The Great Gatsby" three times as an undergrad, and I hated it more each time I read it. Seriously, just despised it. 

This one seemed interesting, though. I wondered what a different writer would do with Fitzgerald's characters, and how the story would look told from their point of view. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would.