"Run, Brother, Run" by David Berg is about the murder of his older brother, Alan, back in 1968. Alan wasn't perfect: he drank, gambled, wrote hot checks, but he was a good brother, son, husband, and father to his kids. David details his dissatisfaction with how poorly prosecuted the trial of Alan's accused killer, Charles Harrelson (yes, that Harrelson) went, allowing him to get away with it, essentially. David's story of uncaring cops, con artists stealing from a grieving family, and an ineffectual prosecutor are sad but probably all too common.
"My Beef with Meat" by Rip Esselstyn didn't have a whole lot of new information, since I've read his other book and his dad's books and Dr. Campbell's "The China Story", but it would be a good introduction for others who don't know much about how to start eating a plant strong diet. It was short and straight to the point.
"Boleyn King" by Laura Andersen was disappointing. It had a great premise: what if Anne Boleyn had given birth to healthy son after Elizabeth? Neat idea, I just wish Anderson would have done it differently. She skipped from Anne giving birth to William to the eve of William's 18th birthday, when he's taking over the monarchy, no longer under his counselor's thumbs, since he's reached his majority. I would have enjoyed more backstory: seeing Henry with his son, seeing how Henry interacted with Anne after she did her duty, etc. It's basically the same story as what really happened, only instead of Elizabeth trying to quash Catholic uprisings it's William. Eh, it's the first of a trilogy and I'm not too excited for the next two.
So last week the story broke that J.K. Rowling had published a book under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith called "The Cuckoo's Calling". Instantly hold lists at libraries swelled and bookstores sold out. I managed to get on the hold list at my library early and got the book Thursday. It was pretty good, I liked it, better than "The Casual Vacancy", that's for sure, but it's my type of book to begin with: Cormoran Strike is a down on his luck private investigator who is hired by wealthy John Bristow to investigate the death of his supermodel sister, Lula. Police ruled it a suicide, but John doesn't buy it. Strike is inclined to believe the cops, but he goes along with it because he needs the money. Along the way he discovers John was right. It was an interesting story and it seems like she was setting it up to be able to write more stories featuring Strike. I hope she does, I like him.
"Detroit: an American Autopsy" by Charlie LeDuff was so incredibly depressing. LeDuff grew up in Detroit and moved to New York to work for the Times. He and his wife and daughter return to Detroit in 2008, just in time to see what very well might be the final collapse. He details firefighters working with holes in their shoes, crack dens being lit on fire by residents who then block the fire trucks from coming through, homicide detectives taking the bus to crime scenes because they don't have a running car, a homeless man frozen in ice for over three months before anyone bothers to chainsaw him out, and many, many other atrocities. It's sad how a city once so full of promise and prosperity has fallen so low. I'm afraid the rest of the country might go the way of Detroit if we don't get things cleaned up here soon.
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