Killing Kennedy; Rasputin; Thomas Becket; A Dangerous Inheritance; Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone; The ABCs of Gold Investing

"Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly was pretty good. Not a whole lot of new information, even for me (I don't read a lot about the Kennedy assassination, for all my true crime loving tendencies, this one never really appealed to me, but when I went to Dallas several years ago I did visit the Texas Book Depository and the JFK museum there). It was a quick read that definitely wasn't boring.

"Rasputin" by Joseph T. Fuhrmann was a very interesting account of the Mad Monk of Russia that tried to dispel myths built up around him, and I think he did an excellent job of doing that. He explained how his influence over Tsar Nicholas II ultimately helped lead to the downfall of the aristocracy. Russia has always fascinated me, I hope to be able to read more about it in the future.

"Thomas Becket" by John Guy was sort of disappointing. I enjoy reading about Becket, and his relationship with King Henry II, but this one couldn't hold my attention.

"A Dangerous Inheritance" by Alison Weir follows the dual stories of Katherine Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of King Richard III, and a hundred years later, Katherine Grey, sister to doomed Queen Jane and cousin to Elizabeth I. Both died young, and in Grey's case rather tragically (not one of Elizabeth's shining moments, the way she treated poor Katherine). I enjoyed it, even if I don't agree with Weir that Richard murdered his nephews in the Tower.

"Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone" by Stefan Kiesbye was a disturbing and very creepy fictional book about a village in Germany where everyone is really horrendous to each other. A group of boys murder their friend by convincing him to dive into a frozen lake, another girl blames her friend for a mistake she made, causing her friend a much needed scholarship, etc. It was pretty good, but damn, these people are cold-hearted.

And finally, "The ABCs of Gold Investing" by Michael J. Kosares. I read so many books for fun, I thought it would be a good idea if I started educating myself about important things, like investing, real estate, and finance, so I'm making an effort to read more of those sort of books. This was a good introductory guide to investing in precious metals that wasn't too far over my head.