Brother; In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash

"Brother" by Ania Ahlborn was really good, creepy as hell and that ending! Michael Morrow has grown up in a remote farmhouse in a family of killers. His older brother, Rebel, regularly picks up hitchhikers and brings them back to the house for their mother to kill, although the whole family gets in on the fun. Michael is disgusted by it, but isn't sure how to get out. He knows the Morrows adopted him, that his real family abandoned him, and he feels guilty for not being more grateful to them. Then Rebel introduces him to a girl named Alice, and Michael dreams of running away with her and starting a new, normal life. Then Rebel's vicious plan is revealed. I sort of figured part of it out, but it was still brutal. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"A Christmas Story" has become one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time, and I kept meaning to read the book by Jean Shepherd that it was based on "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash". It was cute, Jean reminisces about what it was like, growing up in Indiana during the Depression. It was funny and light. On a side note, I found out yesterday my mother has never seen "A Christmas Story"! I turned it on and she didn't know it. I didn't think there was a way to avoid it during this time of year, but she's somehow managed.

Mrs. Bennet Has Her Say; Woody; 50 Years 50 Moments

I was disappointed by Jane Juska's take on "Pride and Prejudice". It started out promisingly enough, but just descended into ridiculousness and silliness, and not Jane Austen silliness. It's too bad, because I think hearing from Mrs. Bennet would be fun, if done well.

I am a die hard Woody Allen fan, I have been ever since I was a kid, watching all his movies, reading all the bios of him I could get my hands on. I enjoyed this one by David Evanier. He writes gushingly of Allen's genius and didn't gloss over the ugliness with Mia Farrow. It made me want to rewatch all of my favorite Allen movies, so after I finished it I watched "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" (because "Play it Again, Sam" wasn't On Demand). So much fun.

There are a lot of books out or coming out right now commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl, and yes, I'm probably going to read them all. They're obviously a little repetitive, but it's still fun, reliving the best moments from my favorite games. Go Packers! :)

I Feel Like Going On; Twain's End

"I Feel Like Going On" by Ray Lewis was a quick read. He comes off as very arrogant, but most professional athletes are, I think, it's that fierce competitiveness that makes them great. I always enjoyed watching Ray Lewis play for the Ravens (unless, of course, they were playing my Packers). Clay Matthews reminds me of him, just super passionate about making plays and always after the ball. He had a rough start in life for sure and he's definitely had his trials, but he's had a lot of good things happen to him too, and he seems grateful, which is always nice to see.

I do so love Mark Twain. I'll finish those big bricks of his autobiography someday, I swear :) In this fictionalized account of the last years of his life, Lynn Cullen examines Twain's relationship with his secretary, Isabel Lyon. She seemed closer to him than anyone else, and after his beloved wife, Livy, passed away there were rumors the two of them were going to wed. Isabel abruptly married Ralph Ashcroft, a business associate of Twain's (or, more correctly, Clemens'). Twain gave his blessing on the union...and then a month later fired both of them and he and his daughter, Clara, set out on a nasty campaign to ruin their reputations, taking away the house he had bought for her and publishing terrible things about her. Cullen imagines, based on research and Lyon's diary, that she and Twain were indeed having an affair and Lyon married Ashcroft to save Twain's reputation, but in the process injured the older man's pride, causing him to lash out. It was well written and engaging, I enjoyed it.

Sinatra: the Chairman; Super Bowl: the first 50 Years of America's Greatest Game

So back in November of 2010 I read Kaplan's "Frank: the Voice" and loved it. I did however wonder at the odd stopping point. Now I know! He was planning a sequel! Hurray!
And what a splendid sequel it was. It was 900 pages, but I didn't want to put it down. The last twenty years of his life did feel a bit rushed, but I suppose that's to be expected, since he stopped making films and pretty much stopped recording in the studios, just played concerts when he was able. What an amazing life, an amazing man. Kaplan did an excellent job, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Since this is the 100 anniversary of his birth, I'm expecting to indulge in a lot more Sinatra in the next few weeks.

From one passion to the next: football! I do love this time of year.
"The Super Bowl" by David Fischer took a look at some of the more memorable match ups, highlighted the ones who never seem to lose as well as the ones who haven't yet won. He mentions outstanding performances and crushing defeats. It was exciting and fun, especially reliving some of my favorite games.

X Files FAQs; Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

I think I found someone who's a bigger X Files fan than I am :) John Kenneth Muir strenuously defends the series' later seasons and second film, which critics universally panned. I personally liked the second film (Mulder and Scully in bed together!! That kiss!!!) and enjoy many episodes from the last two seasons after David Duchovny cut back on his appearances, but not many people do. Muir went over some of the better episodes from each season (it's so hard to pick, there are so many good ones) along with discussing some of the backstories and personalities involved with the show. It was great fun and I'm DEFINITELY ready for January 24th :)

Three novellas set 100 years before the events in the "Song of Ice and Fire" series, all featuring a hedge knight named Dunk and his squire, Egg. Egg is of course Aegon Targaryen, nephew to the King, but he keeps his silver and gold hair shaved off so no one can guess his true identity. Dunk and Egg have some fun adventures, coupled with beautiful illustrations, made this a nice, quick read while I wait (impatiently, I might add) for the next installment. I do hope we get more of Dunk. Later, though. Like after Ice and Fire is finished :)

Walking Dead: Invasion

I feel kind of bad, I really don't pay very good attention to these books, they're just the type that I feel I can read while watching TV or something, and as a result I'm constantly asking "wait, who is this person again?". They aren't bad, but much like the TV show I wonder why I keep up with them, since they're clearly not that engaging. Oh well. In this one, the former residents of Woodbury are hiding out in the underground tunnels when Jeremiah, the preacher from the past (no recollection of him whatsoever) returns intent on revenge. Lilly (her I remember) is hellbent on cleaning the walkers out of Woodbury so she and what's left of the residents can return. I got into it by the end, but not enough to truly care about the characters anymore.

Early Stories of Truman Capote

I love Truman Capote, and this was a fun, quick read of some of his early works. They were all pretty good, considering he was in his teens and early twenties when he wrote them. I really liked one, I think it was "Kindred Spirits", about a girl who lives in her own fantasy world, imagining herself as a spy or a movie star while doing everyday mundane things. I thought "that's so me!" :)

Frank & Ava: In Love and War

I was a bit disappointed by John Brady's "Frank & Ava: In Love and War". I was hoping for something as brilliant as "Furious Love", about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Of course there isn't as much to work with: Burton and Taylor were together much longer, married twice, etc., but it just felt very much like a biography of each of them that mentioned their courtship and marriage very briefly and moved on. Oh well.

Brady vs. Manning; Ghostly

Football books! Whoo hoo.
I don't like Tom Brady. I don't like Peyton Manning. I used to, until he started crushing all of my Brett's records. Jerk.
Anyway.
Still, Myers makes an interesting argument that neither one of them would probably be as good as they are if it hadn't been for their intense rivalry spurring them on. I can see that. I can also point out that Brett didn't need a rival to make him great :)
And Brady is a misogynistic pig. Early on in the book he's talking about a night when he and his wife Giselle were hanging out with Peyton and his wife Ashley, and Brady says they're "talking about whatever wives talk about..." and goes on to say, basically, that their lives pretty much revolve around their husbands and they have nothing else going on.
I would love to know what his supermodel wife thinks about *that*. Ashley Manning for that matter, too.
It was an interesting book all the way around and I enjoyed it.
Go Packers!! :)

I love ghost stories, and this collected edited by Audrey Niffenegger was really great. There were some old classics in here by Poe and Kipling, as well as some I'd never heard before. I really loved Neil Gaiman's "Click Clack the Rattlebag". That one was particularly brilliant.

Little Sister Death; Velva Jean Learns to Drive; Essential Horror Movies

The reviews for this book said it was like "If the Shining had been written by William Faulkner".
Sold.
I liked it, I could definitely see how Gay was influenced by Faulkner (he passed away a few years ago, sadly). In "Little Sister Death", David Binder is a struggling novelist who needs to come up with a second book after the mild success of his first. He moves his pregnant wife, Corrie, and their young daughter to a haunted farm in order to investigate the claims of a ghost and see if he can get a book out of it. The farm is definitely creepy, and Corrie doesn't like it, but David thinks it's wonderful. The manuscript was discovered in Gay's papers after his death, and I can't help but feel like it wasn't quite done somehow, like he was planning on adding to it. I enjoyed it, and I want to read more of his work, I just wish there had been *a little* more to this one.

"Velva Jean Learns to Drive" by Jennifer Niven is the first of the Velva Jean series. It was nice to get some of her backstory. It starts off with her as a ten year old girl, being saved, and then her mother dies and her father runs off form home, leaving Velva Jean and her older brothers in the care of their oldest sister, Sweet Fern. Velva Jean and her brother Johnny Clay run a bit wild but they're good kids deep down. The years pass and Velva Jean dreams of singing at the Grand Ole Opry, and saves money. When she's sixteen she marries a preacher named Harley Bright. They survive some rough times together, but Velva Jean eventually starts to feel like Harley is trying to put out her light by forbidding her from learning to drive or singing. At almost nineteen, Velva Jean packs up her things and hits the road, headed for Nashville. It was nicely written, I enjoyed it, although it was a bit long.

I don't watch a lot of movies (in case you couldn't tell, I spend the majority of my free time reading) but when I do watch movies I've always liked horror movies, I just think they're fun. "Essential Horror Movies" by Michael Mallory was a nice collection of some of the best horror movies of all time, along with some interesting information about how they were made and how some of the grizzlier special effects were accomplished. It was interesting.

Nightmares! the Sleepwalker Tonic; American Blonde

"Nightmares! the Sleepwalker Tonic" by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller is the sequel to the first "Nightmares" book by them, which I read and enjoyed. I liked this one, too. I was wondering how they'd write a sequel, since the first one seemed pretty final. Charlie Laird and his friends are worried about the nearby town of Orville Falls--they've recently gotten a new store that sells a Tranquility Tonic guaranteed to stop nightmares, but it looks like one of the side effects is being turned into a mindless zombie. As a result the residents aren't dreaming at all, and the nightmare and dream worlds are both suffering because of it. It's up to Charlie, his brother Jake, and their stepmom Charlotte to figure out how the tonic is being smuggled out of the nightmare world and stop it from taking over their town of Cypress Creek. It was cute, and apparently there's a third in the works.

After "All the Bright Places" I was eager to read some more Jennifer Niven. This is an adult title, apparently she's written a few starring Velva Jean, the main character. I haven't read the others, but it didn't detract from this one any, she did a good job giving enough of Velva Jean's backstory so I didn't feel too lost. World War II has just ended, and Velva Jean, a hero who flew for the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots), has been offered a chance to come to Hollywood and take a screen test. She signs with MGM and her name is changed to Kit Rogers, her hair is dyed, her backstory is changed, and she quickly finds out how things work in Tinseltown. When her good friend Barbara Fanning dies under mysterious circumstances during a house party, the studio rushes in to make it look like an accident, but Velva Jean is determined to get to the bottom of things. She begins investigating, trying to fight her way through the web of lies the studio has woven around Barbara and her life, until she finally uncovers the truth. It was good, not "All the Bright Places" good, but still pretty decent. I'll have to read more of Velva Jean's books, my library doesn't own any of the others.

The Secrets She Keeps; Undermajordomo Minor; The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray

I've liked all of Deb Caletti's YA novels that I read, and I enjoyed this adult title, too. Callie is convinced her husband, Thomas, is having an affair so when her mother calls, worried about Callie's Aunt Nash in Nevada, Callie is glad for the distraction and hops in the car to go check on her. Nash lives on a ranch that used to be a divorce ranch back in the 1950s: a destination for women seeking a divorce who needed to establish Nevada residency in order to do so. The book alternates between Callie's present day and Nash in the 50s, when the ranch had a rather interesting group of women staying there. The storyline about the wild Mustangs seemed rather unnecessary, but it didn't distract much from the rest of the plot.

I really loved Patrick DeWitt's "The Sisters Brothers". I'm a big fan of black humor done well, and I think he does an excellent job. "Undermajordomo Minor" was pretty good. Lucien (Lucy) leaves home after his father dies and takes a job in a castle as an assistant to the undermajor domo. The Baron of the castle is mysteriously missing, and his Baroness has run off from home. Every morning Lucy takes a letter to the train and passes it off to the conductor from the Baron to his wife, even though he never gets a reply. Lucy meets and falls in love with a local village girl named Klara, and bold in his happiness, writes a letter to the Baroness detailing the Baron's ill state of mind and begging her to return home to her husband, which she does. The book is littered with absurdities, but it's done very well, I enjoyed it.

I wouldn't say I'm a big Bill Murray fan. I loved "Ghostbusters" as a kid and had a bit of a fleeting crush on Dr. Venkman, but that's about it. I haven't actually seen most of his defining movies, like "Caddyshack" or "Meatballs". This book was quite well done, it's alphabetical instead of chronological, which made perfect sense given the quirky subject matter. He sounds like quite an interesting, if not difficult, person. I think really big Bill Murray fans would get a kick out of it.

Gamelife; Mycroft Holmes

"Gamelife" by Micheal W. Clune wasn't quite what I was expecting. He played computer games as a kid and looks down on video games. Hey, I think Nintendo is awesome. So it wasn't really what I was expecting, and since he played games I've never even heard of, it wasn't all that interesting to me.

I've always been a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, and I always wondered, reading the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, what Mycroft's story was. Doyle has Holmes describe his older brother as being far more brilliant than he is, but refusing to put his talents to good use. I thought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did a good job giving Mycroft an interesting backstory. This book takes place in the early 1870s, and Mycroft is still quite young. He's engaged to a lovely girl named Georgiana, who grew up on a sugar plantation in Trinidad. Mycroft hears of some troubling news from that area of the world: of young children dying, and when he tells Georgiana she immediately drops everything and takes off to go see what's going on. Mycroft and his friend Cyrus Douglas, who is also from Trinidad, follow her and uncover a rather ugly slavery ring. It was well written and very fascinating, I enjoyed it.

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined; Rustication

Ten years since "Twilight" was first published! I can't believe it. Even though I didn't start reading them until 2007, it still doesn't seem like it was that long ago.
So for the tenth anniversary, instead of finishing "Midnight Sun" (it's okay, Stephenie, I forgive you), Stephenie Meyer decided to flip Twilight around a bit and published "Life and Death", in which the frail human is a boy named Beau and the vampire is a girl named Edythe. She contends that it works just as well with the gender switch, and while I don't totally agree, it was still a fun read. Beau is quite likeable and Edythe...well, she's Edythe. I wasn't expecting her to change *everyone's* genders (Jacob is now Julie, Esme is now Dr. Cullen, etc. The only ones who stayed the same were Charlie, Renee, and Phil), but hey, they're her characters and she can do what she likes.

I was expecting "Rustication" by Charles Palliser to be spookier than it was. Set in Victorian England, Richard is sent home from Cambridge, "rusticated", as it was called, for his behavior. Even though he doesn't come out and say it until 2/3 of the way through, it was easy to guess he was smoking opium. His good friend Edmund committed suicide with a letter Richard wrote him nearby, making it look like he might have had something to do with Edmund's death. So Richard joins his mother and older sister Effie in the house they had to move to after his father's death. It's a ramshackle affair, and they are so poor they can't even hire decent help.
Strange things are happening in the town: people are getting obscene letters threatening violence, then animals are being maimed. Richard suspects his sister is having an affair with the earl's nephew, who stands to inherit all his money, but when the nephew announces his engagement to another girl Effie is devastated. Richard threatens him at a Ball, and then the man turns up dead the next day. Richard manages to puzzle out that his mom and sister actually framed him for the letters, maimings, and murder to save his sister's reputation and manages to escape before the police can arrest him. I think Palliser wanted us to doubt Richard and think maybe he really *did* do it, but if that's what he wanted us to think it didn't really play out that way.

West Newport Blues; Fables Vol. 22; Yes, My Accent is Real

"West Newport Blues" by P.S. Foley is a love letter to time and place that doesn't exist anymore: Newport Beach in the 1970s. Scotty and Bobby are high school seniors, best friends who love to surf. Bobby is also a football star, Scotty prefers writing but he's popular just because he's Bobby's best friend. It was fun to read about how Newport used to be back then, and Foley captured the spirit of the place well, I think. I enjoyed the tale of teenage friendship, even if it seemed a little too sentimental to be realistic. It's a rare teen boy who is that self-aware.

And so ends "Fables" by Bill Willingham, after a dozen years and 150 issues. It was a great run and I enjoyed it. On the eve of their big battle, Rose Red meets with Snow White to discuss a treaty. Rose feels their family curse must be broken, after all, according to legend their family can only bear daughters and Snow White has sons with Bigby. They decide to never inhabit the same world and hope for the best, and send their armies home without bloodshed. It seems to have worked: there is a scene set many years in the future of their reunion after being apart for so long. It was a fitting ending to this series.

I'm a big fan of "The Big Bang Theory", and Kunal Nayyar, who plays Raj, seems like a nice guy. His autobiography was fun and sweet: growing up in India, coming to America to go to school and getting bit by the acting bug, deciding to pursue his dream and getting his big break by landing the job on "The Big Bang Theory". It was a fun, quick read.

All the Bright Places

"All the Bright Places" was written by the same Jennifer Niven who wrote "The Aqua Net Diaries", which I read years ago and enjoyed. I loved the heck out of "All the Bright Places", even though Finch struck me as unrealistic. Violet is mourning the death of her older sister, Eleanor, when she gets to know Theodore Finch, the school freak. Finch is larger than life (literally, Niven describes him as being tall and lanky with huge feet, he hit a growth spurt and just kept going), does crazy things, lives and loves hard, but also feels the dark times hard, too. I guessed he was bipolar right away. I did like him, and Violet, too, and it made me cry at the end even though I was determined not to. Why are all the best YA books the sad ones? At any rate, it was a really great book and I enjoyed it.

Dryland

I forgot about this one earlier, because honestly, it didn't leave that much of an impression on me. I didn't hate it. I didn't particularly love it. It was just sort of meh. Julie is a confused teen, living in Portland in 1992. Her older brother, Jordan, was a big time swim star who's now living overseas. Julie develops a fascination with a girl named Alexis, who talks her into joining the swim team. Julie isn't really any good at it, and she doesn't enjoy it, but she likes the attention from Alexis so she keeps at it. Sara Jaffe's voice is definitely great, she's got the teen thing nailed, especially in the early '90s, it felt very authentic. It just didn't do much for me.

Nightmares; Little Pretty Things; The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes

Yes, it's a children's book, but it was fun and well written. A quick read for sure. HIMYM's Jason Segel has teamed up with Kirsten Miller to write these books (there is at least one more). Charlie's mom passed away a few years earlier, and he's convinced his new stepmom is a witch. His family has had to move to her family's creepy ancestral mansion, and Charlie is having issues with insomnia and nightmares. He soon learns that his fear has opened a portal between the nightmare world and the waking world, and as a result nightmares are able to pass through to his side even when he's awake and torture him and his classmates. Charlie has to be brave and face his fears in order to close the portal and save his friends.

This is one of those books that made me sad to finish it, because it was really good, and it's one of those books no one will ever read. So I'm going to promote the heck out of it at work :) Juliet is stuck in the same small town she grew up in, in a dead end job cleaning rooms at a crappy motel. Once, she'd dreamed of escaping, of a bigger life, not living hand to mouth, but those dreams seem old and stale now. Then her old friend and rival from her high school track days, Maddy Bell, walks in the door at the motel. She wants to talk to Juliet, but Juliet feels snubbed by her expensive airs and dismisses her. She regrets it and vows to talk to her the next morning, but before she can, Maddy is found murdered. Now Juliet is determined to find out who killed her and why, and see if she can determine where her own life went so wrong. It was truly a page turner, I couldn't put it down. A great book that deserves more recognition.

Lawrence Block's latest, "The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes", kind of surprised me. Doak is a retired from the NYPD and living in Florida, occasionally doing private detective work. The local sheriff asks him to go undercover: he's gotten a report that the young wife of a wealthy local businessman has been asking around about how to knock off her husband. Doak poses as a hitman and tells the sheriff that Lisa has changed her mind and called it off. What really happened, though, is that Doak fell for Lisa, tipped her off, and the two of them conspire together to get rid of her husband and run away together. But now that Lisa is on the sheriff's radar, any accident that befalls her husband will throw suspicion directly on her, so Doak has to come up with an ingenious plan so they can get away with murder.

A Week at the Lake; Laughter in the Dark; The Orange County Fair: A History of Celebration

I'm not a huge chick-lit fan, but I like Wendy Wax, I've read others by her. This one was pretty good: after a five year estrangement from her best friends Serena and Mackenzie, Emma is finally ready to come clean about her long held secret that could rip the three of them apart for good. She invites them to spend a week at her family's lake house, a tradition they've had for years. On the day they're supposed to leave, however, Emma is struck by a car and ends up in the hospital in a coma. Mackenzie and Serena stay with her, taking care of her and her teenage daughter, Zoe. Emma finally emerges from her coma and once she's well enough to leave the hospital, the four of them travel to the lake house so Emma can recuperate (a side note: how nice would it be to have the type of job where you can just take a month off to help your sick friend recover? Who has a job like that?). While at the lake house old wounds finally begin to heal and secrets are of course revealed. I saw the major secret coming a mile away (yay me!) but it was still a good journey to get there.

I love, love, love Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita", and while rewatching the movie (the good one, with Jeremy Irons) a few weeks ago, it occurred to me that "Lolita" is the only book of his I've ever read. So I picked up "Laughter in the Dark". It was pretty good: Albert is a middle aged man with a mousy wife and a daughter. He's pretty mousy himself, until he starts an affair with a much younger woman. He ruins his happy family life by moving in with this girl, who quickly tires of her much older lover and takes a young boyfriend on the side, staying with Albert for his money. While on a trip Albert is in a car accident and blinded. Margot takes him to a secluded cabin in Switzerland to help him recover, and her boyfriend Rex also moves in. The two of them have much fun at the poor blind man's expense. I loved the tragic ending, it was so fitting.

I love the Orange County fair and the L.A. County fair. I just think fairs are so much fun. I enjoyed this brief history of the 125 years of the Orange County fair by Chris Epting. It had some great pictures from fairs of the past (historical photos are always so much fun to look at, I think) and told about how the fair started and how it's evolved over the years to the three week celebration it is today.

Life is Short; After the Red Rain; Water to the Angels

I love watching "The Little Couple" on TLC. Jen Arnold and Bill Klein are such positive role models, for people of all sizes, not just little people. This book mostly focused on their childhoods, overcoming the obstacles involved with being little and having to have multiple surgeries. How they met and fell in love was super sweet, and the book touched a little bit on what the show has covered: their move to Texas, their struggles to conceive, finally adopting Will and Zoey. It was very upbeat and happy. I love how they're able to stay so positive even when faced with adversity, it's very inspiring.

I loved Barry Lyga's Jasper Dent series, so I was eager to read this new one by him, along with Peter Facinelli (seriously? he writes?) and Robert DeFranco. It's a pretty good YA dystopian novel set in a future where nature has pretty much been destroyed by people. Everything is paved over, there are no more trees or flowers or animals, all food is genetically engineered in a lab. Deedra is out scavenging one day when she meets a teenage boy named Rose. He's clearly different, she's just not sure how. As they get to know each other, we learn that Rose is a plant/human hybrid: he can make vines grow from his body, he takes nutrients from the sun, not by eating. Rose is convinced that the workshop Deedra is slaving away in isn't making air cleaners, but rather a human killing machine. Rose is arrested for a murder he didn't commit, but Deedra is able to help him escape (sort of, it's a long story) and they go on the run. I'm guessing there will be a sequel.

Southern California was never meant to support the number of people who live here. Even 100 years ago, Los Angeles was scrambling for water. William Mulholland, either a saint or a demon, depending on your view, came up with the idea to build an aqueduct and have water come down from the Owens Valley. Standiford is very sympathetic to Mulholland, portrays him as a visionary and a conscientious man who only wanted the best for the people of his adopted city, a view I'd like to believe in as well. He was certainly a self-taught, hardworking man, that much can't be disputed.

Best of Enemies; LAPD '53; Vengeance is Mine

I love Jen Lancaster. This latest work of fiction by her was so much fun. Kitty and Jack (short for Jacqueline) have hated each other ever since they roomed together in college. What started out as a promising friendship turned into bitter rivalry after a series of misunderstandings. The two could not be more different: Jack is a reporter who thrives on danger and Kitty is raising her three kids in a tony Chicago suburb while running a popular lifestyle blog. Now the only thing these two ladies can agree on is their mutual friend, Sarabeth ("Sars" to Jack, "Betsy" to Kitty). Sarabeth's husband, Trip, has been killed in a plane crash and the two put their differences aside to be there for Sarabeth. Reporter Jack smells a rat though: Trip was about to be indicted by the SEC for fraudulent practices, and the timing of his plane crash is awfully convenient. After Jack discovers Kitty despised Trip, she enlists her help in getting to the bottom of his disappearance. It was lots of fun, I loved the flashbacks to the ladies in college. I just hope women my age don't actually ever use phrases like "totes adorbs" except in an ironic way. Otherwise, that's just sad.

James Ellroy collected a bunch of the LAPD's crime scene photos from 1953 and published them alongside his sardonic wit and unique Ellroy slang, which made for interesting reading. I don't want to say it was fun, since it was, after all, a collection of horrific crimes, but it was definitely illuminating and different. I also learned that the LAPD has a museum! How neat is that? I'll have to make a trip up there and check it out.

Another Mickey Spillane reread, "Vengeance is Mine". Mike wakes up drunk in a hotel room with the dead body of an old buddy of his. He can't remember the night before, and the D.A. is itching to pin the murder on him. He takes away his P.I. License and his gun. Mike is able, with much help from Velda and Pat, to start to piece together the events leading up to his friend's murder. This book has one of the best closing sentences in the history of books, the first time I read it I literally gasped out loud. Did not see it coming a mile away.

My Gun is Quick; Devil's Bridge; The Little Brother

Some more Mickey Spillane rereads! "My Gun is Quick" finds Mike down and out one night in a dive hash joint when he meets a red headed gal also down on her luck. Mike sees a glimmer of good beneath the hardened surface and gives her some money, tells her to get her act cleaned up. The next day, the red head is dead: an accident, the police determine, hit by a car. Very unfortunate, but Mike knows a murder when he sees one and starts investigating, wanting to give the girl a name and some dignity in her death. It was a great story, I enjoyed it.

Linda Fairstein's latest was really good. Early on in the book, Alex is kidnapped and the POV of the story switches, for the first time ever, to Detective Mike Chapman. Fairstein doesn't do a fantastic job writing from a male point of view, honestly, but it was still a fun change, and with Mike busy hunting for his best gal there wasn't any of the nasty repartee that Fairstein thinks of as flirtatious but I just find cringe worthy. It was nice to get some more background on Mike, too, he's quite likeable. I hope she pops into his head in some of her future books.

When I read the reviews for Victoria Patterson's latest, "The Little Brother", I knew I wanted to read it. Gabe and Even's parents get divorced, and Gabe stays behind with their mother in Rancho Cucamonga ("Rancho" for short, Victoria, never "Cucamonga". No one calls it that. "The IE" or "The 909" are also acceptable) while Even moves with their dad to Newport Beach (what are the odds?). Even is pretty happy in Newport (it helps that his dad is pretty wealthy, trust me, you're a lot happier in NB with money than without it) but he is concerned for his big brother Gabe. Whenever Gabe visits, he seems off, unhappy, complaining about being stuck with their needy, dependent mother. Then one fourth of July holiday Gabe comes to visit with some Rancho friends. Even leaves to go to a party with his friends. Later, one of his friends calls him: she has Gabe's video camera and is horrified by what's on there. She doesn't know what to do. When Even sees it, he doesn't know what to do either. He does know his brother could get in big trouble. Feeling sick and guilty, he turns the camera over anonymously to the police. It was a pretty good story, even if I winced every time I read the word "Cucamonga" by itself :)

The Taming of the Queen; Wind/Pinball; So Nude, So Dead

I was disappointed by Philippa Gregory's latest, "The Taming of the Queen". I think Kathryn Parr is a fascinating woman, and I've read lots of fiction and nonfiction about her remarkable life at court, but most of this book is just religious debate. I understand that was a huge part of life for the time and place, but after about 200 pages of it, it's just repetitious and boring. I was also hoping for Gregory to touch on Kathryn's life after Henry died, but she didn't. If you enjoy reading the same theme over and over again for several hundred pages, then you'll like this one. Otherwise, skip it.

Two early novellas from the 70s, republished in one volume by Haruki Murakami. I enjoyed both of these stories very much, but what really stuck with me was the introduction. He talked about how he wrote the first one, and he was unhappy with it, so he wrote it all over again English. Since English isn't his native language, he was forced to write it very simply and straightforwardly, and he was pleased with the results. "Wind" is about a young man during his summer break from college who spends most of his free time hanging out in J's Bar, drinking with a slightly older man named Rat. The second story, "Pinball", features Rat's business partner and his obsession with a certain pinball machine.

"So Nude, So Dead" by Ed McBain was apparently his first published book, and Hard Case Crime has reprinted it (an aside: I love Hard Case Crime books. That is all). The reviews weren't very good, but I enjoyed it. Ray is a heroin junkie who wakes up one morning next to a dead blonde. He partied with Elaine the night before, both of them getting higher than kites, and now it's morning and Elaine has been shot to death and the sixteen ounces of heroin she had is gone. Ray is desperate for a fix, but the cops are after him, figuring he killed Elaine and took the heroin. Ray tries to figure out who killed her so he can clear his name, all while trying to locate some money and some heroin so he can fix. I thought McBain did a great job of getting his desperation through, and the ending made sense. Not bad. I wish someone would find a long lost 87th Precinct novel somewhere, I really miss those.