Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good

After watching "The Long, Hot Summer" the other night for the umpteenth time (I love that movie--Paul Newman and William Faulkner, what more could you ever want?) I was reminded of this book that Newman and his partner, A. E. Hotchner, wrote about their business, Newman's Own. It's been on my "to read" list since 2009, and I thought it was high time to finally get around to it. It started of course as a lark: Paul used to bottle his homemade salad dressing for friends and he decided to try his hand at selling it and turning the profits over to charity. It was a fun, quick read and I enjoyed it. Just for the heck of it, when I went to the grocery store today I looked at the bottles of Newman's Own salad dressing and was saddened to see how many preservatives and chemicals were in it, after he and Hotchner fought so hard to keep their products all natural and chemical free for so long. I'm sure it's much more expensive and time consuming, and the company must have made the decision to go the cheaper, easier route, it's just sad they couldn't stick with the vision the way Newman wanted it. Oh well.
Fun fact apropos of nothing: the character of Aaron Hotchner on "Criminal Minds" was named for A. E. Hotchner.

Innocent Killer; Choose Your Own Misery: the Holidays

Since I read Michael Griesbach's second book, "Indefensible", a few weeks ago, I wanted to read his first book about Steven Avery. He repeated a lot of this book in the second one, like literally complete pages, but hey, it's his own book so I guess he can do that. This one focused more on the wrongful conviction for assaulting Penny Beernsten whereas "Indefensible" was more about the murder of Teresa Halbach. I really need to finish watching "Making of a Murderer".

I read Mike MacDonald's first "Choose Your Own Misery" book, about life at the office, and found it amusing, so I checked out his Holiday version. The main character is actually looking forward to Christmas in the beginning of the book: his family all have plans and he hasn't been dating his girlfriend long enough to be at the "meet the parents" stage yet, so he and a friend have tickets for a vacation on a tropical island. At the airport, he hears that a hurricane has hit the island and his vacation is abruptly cancelled. What to do? He has a few choices: go somewhere else on a whim, go back home and spend Christmas alone, force himself on his relatives, or call his girlfriend. No matter which option he chooses, nothing good comes of it.

The Academy

I haven't read anything by Bentley Little in a few years, and we got a bunch of his paperbacks at work recently, so I checked this one out. Bentley is all about gore, sex, violence, and generally grossing you out, and this book was true to form. It actually reminded me of an earlier book of his, "The University", about a college. This was pretty similar: a high school in a fictional Orange County, CA town votes to leave the district and become a charter school. Then weird things start happening: the principal is drunk with power, half the students are terrified and the other half are eagerly participating in the "Scouts", which sounds a lot like Hitler Youth. The thing I found so funny was their names: for kids who were supposedly born in the 1990s (the book was first published in 2008), they had names like Ed, Brad, Cheryl, Richard. Not really popular names at the time. That's okay, it was still gross, gory fun.

Fractured

I put this one on hold and then when it came in I was surprised (this happens a lot). I'm not sure *why* I put it on hold, I don't remember putting it on hold, but I'm glad I read it, it was pretty good. Julie, her husband Daniel, and their six year old twins move to Cincinnati from Seattle for one major reason: Julie has a stalker, a woman she went to law school with named Heather. After the phenomenal success of her first novel, Heather reconnects with Julie and starts an online smear campaign, claiming Julie's book is based on a real murder Julie actually committed. Julie befriends a neighbor, John, but the weird stalking behavior continues and Cindy, the local neighborhood watch lady, is making her life miserable with her rules and meddling. There was a horrible accident and someone is dead (we don't find out until the end of the book). It was suspenseful and interesting.

Billy the Kid

So I'm on a Billy the Kid kick now. Better than not wanting to read at all! I checked this one out from work, read about half of it, then noticed a brand new copy on my bookshelf. So I bought it at some point, but I don't think I read it, it didn't seem overly familiar. I read a lot of books about Billy the Kid when I was a teenager, though, so maybe I did. At any rate, it was well written and nicely researched, Wallis worked very hard to dispel myths surrounding the Kid. So much of his early life is unverifiable, sources are called into question. What was interesting was that Wallis very casually mentions near the end of the book that Paulita Maxwell may have been pregnant with Billy's child, which is why he stuck around Old Fort Sumner instead of skinning out for Old Mexico like any smart person would have done after he escaped from prison. No one seems to know for sure, though, I went online and the birthdate given for her first daughter was 1884, so clearly not his, since he died in 1881. Ah, history's mysteries.

The Kid; Indefensible; Four to Score; The Knife Slipped

I really enjoyed Ron Hansen's "The Kid", a fictionalized account of the short, tragic life of Billy the Kid. I've always been fascinated by Billy the Kid, ever since I saw "Young Guns 2" when I was a teenager, and I've read everything I can get my hands on about him. Hansen's book was a great blend of fiction and nonfiction. I'd love to believe that Billy did escape Pat Garrett's bullet and lived a long life afterwards, but the older I get and the more I read the more I'm forced to admit Garrett probably did get him.

I think I'm the only person who hasn't seen the "Making of a Murderer" yet (although I have watched half of it), but I was interested to see what Griesbach had to say about what the documentary left out. It was very eye opening. I'll have to finish watching the show to see what I think, but the way it looks now Steven Avery did indeed kill Teresa Halbach. Very tragic situation all the way around.

A Janet Evanovich reread, "Four to Score". I've read this one a bunch, so I remembered it pretty well, but it was still good lighthearted entertainment. Stephanie is looking for Maxine, who skipped town after stealing her boyfriend's car. After meeting her boyfriend, Stephanie doesn't blame her much, but she still has a job to do. Maxine is taunting the boyfriend, leaving him clues that Stephanie has to get help deciphering. Enter Sally Sweets, a transvestite who is good at puzzles and all around a lot of fun. There are some great moments in this one.

And finally, a Cool and Lam mystery from the late great Erle Stanley Gardner, published for the first time by Hard Case Crime. I love Erle Stanley Gardner. I love Perry Mason. This one is a Cool and Lam mystery: private eyes Bertha Cool and her right hand man, Donald Lam. What starts out as a simple divorce case when a wife hires Bertha and Donald to trail her philandering husband quickly turns into more when Donald notices how many members of the police and fire department visit Mr. Cunner at his various apartments. Turns out Cunner has quite a racket going, selling supplies to help cheat on the civil service exams, and rather than bring him down Bertha wants a piece of the action. It was great fun. I had no idea there were so many Cool and Lam mysteries out there, I'm going to have to do some investigating to see if I can get my hands on some of the ones that were published back in the day.

Emblem of a Faith Untouched

Boy, here's hoping I snap out of this book slump soon. It took me nearly three weeks to read this one, and it was barely 150 pages and it wasn't a slog, either, it was pretty brisk. I enjoyed it. Cranmer was a simple man who was forced to become one of King Henry's advisers when he came up with the notion that Henry shouldn't have to answer to the Pope. That was exactly what the megalomaniac wanted to hear, and while Henry was alive Cranmer did well. After Edward died, Queen Mary went after him, since he'd after all declared her mother's marriage to her father null and void and her illegitimate. Mary tried to get Cranmer to recant and declare himself a Catholic before he was burned at the stake, but he refused, bravely thrusting his hand into the fire and watching it burn before the fire consumed the rest of him.