Nancie Clare had a good idea for a book: to explain how celebrities like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks used their influence to keep their home town of Beverly Hills from being annexed by Los Angeles, but unfortunately, there just wasn't enough of a story there to make a book. She does explain why Beverly Hills considered being annexed (water, of course. What else in So Cal?), and how the people who worked in the new motion picture industry were figuring out how to use their celebrity status to exert influence. It's strange to imagine a time when movie picture stars *weren't* political, isn't it? While the book itself was well written, it wasn't much about BH, more about Pickford, Fairbanks, and their desire to live scandal free (I wish more modern day celebrities felt the same way). The citizens of BH voted not to be annexed, they weren't, end of story. Moving on!
What else is left to be said about King Richard III? Plenty, apparently, books keep coming out and I keep reading them. I did enjoy this one, I've read other books by Skidmore and appreciated how well written they were, and this one was no exception. He doesn't render his opinion on Richard, only gives the facts as best he can from contemporary sources at the time. One thing even Richard's detractors agreed on was that he was brave and fought valiantly at the end for his crown: he might have been able to escape to freedom, but he refused to leave the battlefield and put up a fight to the end. I don't think we'll ever know the truth about his nephews, though.
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