Cemetery John

I read everything I can get my hands on about the Lindbergh kidnapping. "Cemetery John" by Robert E. Zorn is a new one that has an interesting take on the crime. Zorn's father, Eugene, grew up in the Bronx, and as a child he knew a man named John Knoll, who he believed he saw conspiring with Bruno Richard Hauptmann one day. Eugene passed away, but his son was determined to continue his father's search for the truth. He researched Knoll, and discusses his theory on how he and his brother and Hauptmann worked together to kidnap Charles Lindbergh Jr. In the beginning, everyone thought the crime was the work of a gang, and only after the authorities arrested Hauptmann did they decide it was a one man operation. Zorn makes a lot of good points, like how John Condon (Jafsie) first identified the man who took the ransom money in the cemetery as having an odd growth near his left thumb. Hauptmann had no such mark, but Knoll did. While I'd like to believe Hauptmann was innocent, Zorn makes a strong case for him at least having a part in the crime. I still think the ladder coming from a piece of wood from Hauptmann's attic is ridiculous, though.

Family Fang

"Family Fang" by Kevin Wilson was pretty interesting. Annie and Buster, known as Children A and B, have been part of their parents' performance art since they were born. As adults, they are less inclined to want to have anything to do with their parents' unique way of creating art out of chaos, until Caleb and Camille go missing and are presumed dead. Annie and Buster know their parents must have set it up, planning on making some grand reentry into the world, and they try to think like them and figure out what to do next in order to force their parents to reveal themselves. It was definitely different.

Notorious Nineteen; The Casual Vacancy

Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum book, "Notorious Nineteen", was pretty good. Ranger hires Stephanie to be a bodyguard for the fiancee of a friends of his from when he was in the war in Afghanistan. It looks like one of the guys in their group faked his own death and is bent of revenge, coming after Ranger and his friend. Meanwhile, Steph is also trying to catch a skip and ends up in a nasty body harvesting ring.

I must admit, I had mixed feelings about J.K. Rowling's latest, "The Casual Vacancy". I read some reviews that said it was good, some said it was bad, some were in between. I felt that it was in between. I admit, I was probably harder on her because she *is* J.K. freakin' Rowling after all. If it had been published anonymously, I might have enjoyed it more. The main problem I had was the sheer number of characters she introduced. I spent at least 2/3 of the book wondering who these people were because I couldn't keep them straight. The plot was interesting, about what happens in a small village when one of the council members die and his seat is up for election. Everyone in town seemed to have an agenda they wanted to push. Mostly, this book made me want to reread Harry Potter.

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.