The Crown Companion Volume 2; The Other Windsor Girl; Darkly Dreaming Dexter; Dearly Devoted Dexter

I was disappointed by the second volume of the companion to the Netflix series "The Crown" (much like season 3...ugh). The first volume was lovely: beautiful full color photographs and clear descriptions of each episode of season 1 and which parts of the story were myth and which were real. This volume, which covered seasons 2 and 3, felt very rushed and haphazard. Hardly any photos, and most were black and white. The recaps of each episode weren't nearly as concise as in the first volume, either. 

I checked Georgie Blalock's "The Other Windsor Girl" out on a whim, and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. The book starts in 1949 with Vera Strathmore, dreaming of writing "real" fiction one day instead of the romance novels she churns out under the pen name of Lavish. Vera's fiance died in the war, and she's saving her money to go to New York and leave drab, decaying Britain behind. Her cousin introduces her to Princess Margaret one evening, and the Princess takes a liking to the unconventional Vera, who quickly becomes one of her "set". Vera is caught up in the whirlwind that is Princess Margaret: drinking and dancing all hours of the night, meeting all the best people. When the Queen asks Vera to be Margaret's second lady in waiting, Vera has a tough decision to make. It will mean giving up her own hopes and dreams to be available for Margaret 24/7. It was a fun book, a quick read, and despite some questionable slang (at one point Margaret uses the word "crap", which just struck me as absurd, especially in the 1950s) it was entertaining.

Sigh. So I happened upon Dexter reruns on Showtime the other day, and started rewatching them. Which led to me picking up the first Dexter book, "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", and rereading it. Despite the fact that I have a million library books checked out with due dates, and a million more books I own that I haven't read yet. Oh well. I know better than to fight it.
We meet Dexter, a serial killer who works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Homicide department. His foster sister, Deb, is a cop who is looking to make detective. When a series of hookers are murdered and drained of their blood, Deb begs Dexter for help catching the killer. The show dubbed him the Ice Truck Killer and had poor Deb actually date and get engaged to him, but in the book he's just Brian, Dexter's homicidal older brother. On the show Dexter killed him to save Deb, but in the book he let him run to show up and pester Dexter another day.

And then, once again ignoring all the library books, I reread the second Dexter book (I checked the third one out this morning from the library, since I only own the first two, so clearly we can see where this is headed...). Dexter accidentally becomes engaged to Rita. Doakes is following him night and day, making it very difficult for Dexter to cut people up. There is a killer on the loose who is cutting appendages off of people but leaving them alive and basically insane from the torture. Kyle shows up from Washington to handle the situation, and tells Dexter the killer's name is Dr. Danco, and he was involved with some shady stuff back in the day. So was Doakes. Deb and Kyle start a relationship, and then Dr. Danko kidnaps Kyle, so Deb turns to trusty Dexter to save him from a terrible fate.

Voyager

Diana Gabaldon's third Outlander book, "Voyager", was pretty good (so glad the Jacobite rebellion stuff is over and done with--I don't know why it bored me so much). Roger Wakefield helps Claire track Jamie's whereabouts after Culloden. There's a possibility that Claire could go through the stones again and find him. It would mean leaving their daughter, Brianna, behind in 1968, but Claire has to take that chance. She does make the trip back in time to the 1760s successfully, and even finds Jamie with very little effort. But of course that's where the easy part ends. For many reasons, the Frasers are again forced to flee Scotland, this time bound for the West Indies. It was very exciting, and a lot of it takes place on the sea, and since I started sailing last year I actually understand what all the nautical terms mean, so that was nice.

Twisted Twenty-Six

Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum was actually pretty good. Grandma Mazur is recently widowed after her husband of 45 minutes, Jimmy, dropped dead. Jimmy's previous wives, sisters, and kids are all enraged at the thought of Grandma inheriting Jimmy's fortune. And because Jimmy was in the mob, his fellow mobsters think Jimmy gave Grandma the "keys". No one will say what the keys unlock or what they look like, but everyone assumes Grandma has them, so half of New Jersey is after her. Stephanie is burnt out on her job, but she actually seems to be improving, which is a relief, honestly. I sometimes feel like the series get a little ridiculous: I mean, after working for how long at this and she *still* can't get it right? Evanovich poked a little fun at how old Stephanie would be now if she had aged her along (the first book was published 25 years ago!). It looks like the next book is breaking away from the numbering naming convention, which is interesting.

Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers

I enjoyed this short but exciting book by Brian Kilmeade. We all know the ultimate outcome of the Alamo, but how the brave defenders were avenged was something I wasn't familiar with.
Mexican General Santa Anna brutally refused to give quarter and take prisoners, executing everyone at the Alamo and later, Goliad, despite them surrendering. The Texas Army rallied behind Sam Houston and his rousing battle cry of "Remember the Alamo!" and ended up crushing the much bigger Mexican Army at San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured and the Republic of Texas was recognized as an independent country.

Janis

I was looking forward to this biography about Janis Joplin. The majority of the book was really good: Holly George-Warren meticulously researched and recounted Janis's early days in Port Arthur, Texas: her family life, her high school and friends, and then moved on to talk about San Francisco and the start of her time singing with Big Brother and the Holding Company. But the last bit of the book felt really thin: she got to the last two years of Janis's life and then basically sketched them out without much substance. I don't know if she thought that the stories of Janis's success and sudden early death had been told so many times already they weren't worth repeating, but it was a little disappointing, since the book had been so good up to that point. I still enjoyed it, I just wish the ending wouldn't have felt so rushed.

Dragonfly in Amber

Book two of the "Outlander" series starts 20 years after "Outlander" ended--it's 1968, and Claire is in Scotland with her daughter, Brianna, to finally tell her the truth: Frank Randall was not her biological father, Jamie Fraser was. After telling Brianna, the story flashes back to 1744, and Claire and Jamie are in France, trying to stop Bonnie Prince Charlie's planned 1745 rebellion that wipes out the Highland Clans. Their plans are thwarted, though, and they return to Scotland to see what they can do to help the Highlanders win the battle. In the end, Claire returns through the stones to her own time, two years after she disappeared, and pregnant. I enjoyed most of it, but I'm glad the Jacobite rebellion bit is (hopefully) over in the third book, that part didn't interest me very much (I know it should, but it didn't).

Case of the Careless Kitten

I'm quite sure I read this Perry Mason mystery at some point during the last 20+ years, I just didn't remember it, and it was reissued, so I took the opportunity to read it again. Helen gets a call from someone who says he is her Uncle Franklin, who disappeared 10 years earlier. He asks her to go to Perry Mason. No sooner does Helen get off the phone when her kitten, Amber Eyes, goes into convulsions. Helen rushes the kitten off to the vet, who determines the little guy was poisoned. That was just the beginning of this caper, which saw Della arrested and on trial for witness tampering. It was a bit confusing, but I think I probably wasn't paying as good attention as I should have been, due to everything that's going on in my life.

Chaos; Outlander

My father passed away suddenly at the end of October. He wasn't a big reader, but he would call me up and ask what I was doing, and I'd tell him: "Reading" (almost always) and he'd say: "What are you reading?". He was always interested in whatever book I was reading, even if he didn't know much about the subject he always had something to say. I'm really going to miss that. He wasn't just my father, but my best friend. I'll miss you, Dad.

Suffice it to say, I haven't been reading much over the past few weeks, but I did manage to finish "Chaos" by Tom O'Neill, which was super interesting. He's been working on this book for over 20 years now. He never bought the official motive in the Manson murders ("Helter Skelter", trying to start a race war) and went looking more deeply into the case. I admit, the motive always seemed a little weird to me, as much as I enjoyed Vincent Bugliosi's book. O'Neill found pretty compelling evidence that links Manson and his followers to a top secret CIA mind control experiment involving LSD and hypnosis. It's hard to know what to believe at this point, but brainwashing and LSD make as much sense as anything else, I guess.

I started watching the Outlander TV series, and I read the first book about 7 or 8 years ago, but didn't remember much. I know I didn't get any further than part of the second book before life got in the way, but I did want to read them, so I went back and reread the first one. There were parts that were a little boring, but overall not too bad. Claire is a nurse in the 1940s, and she and her husband, Frank, travel to Scotland for a second honeymoon after being apart during the war. She falls through a wormhole in time and ends up in the 1740s and ends up getting dangerously involved in the Jacobite rebellion that ultimately ended up destroying the clans forever. She marries a Highlander named Jamie Fraser to protect herself from the English soldiers who think she's a spy.

A Field Guide to Jewish People

Normally I really enjoy Dave Barry, but this book wasn't great. I was disappointed. At least it was a quick read, so I didn't waste too much time.

Lazarus Files; Second Chance Supper Club

I read a lot of true crime, and this one was pretty damn disturbing. Back in 1986, newlywed Sherri, who worked as a critical care nurse in Glendale, was brutally murdered in her home in Van Nuys. Detectives theorized that it was a botched burglary attempt, but Sherri's parents were adamant that it was Sherri's husband's ex-girlfriend, an LAPD cop named Stephanie Lazarus. The lead detective assigned to Sherri's case dismissed the theory out of hand, never even speaking to Stephanie about it. In 2009, the case was reopened due to advances in DNA technology. Whoever killed Sherri viciously bit her arm and left behind enough saliva to type, and it was female DNA. Sherri's killer was a woman. The new detectives started looking into Stephanie, and were able to get a DNA sample, which matched. Stephanie went on trial and was convicted in 2012. About 3/4 of the way through the book, McGough introduced another murder: in 1988, a young woman named Cathy. I thought "My God, did this dirty cop kill *another* woman?!". No, but the reason he mentioned Cathy's case is because the last person to see her alive was an LAPD cop, and the lead detective on Cathy's case was the same one who was on Sherri's. A truly heartbreaking turn of events all the way around. It was a little redundant in places, with better editing it could have been 50 pages shorter, I thought. But it definitely kept my attention, I couldn't put it down.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Nichole Meier's "Second Chance Supper Club". Julia is a high profile news anchor on a popular New York morning show who makes a bad blunder on a live broadcast one morning, accusing the mayor of corruption without any actual facts to back it up. Her bosses at the network are less than thrilled and tell her to take some time off while they try to fix the mess she got them into. Julia slinks to Arizona to her older sister Ginny's house. They've been estranged for the last several years, after their parents died, but Julia doesn't have anywhere else to go. Ginny was a famous chef in New York before she had to move back to Arizona to take care of their parents' estate, and now she's running a semi-illegal underground supper club out of her house (I got serious house envy reading her descriptions of it. My dream house!). Unfortunately, the supper club isn't really profitable and Ginny is on the verge of losing everything when Julia shows up on her doorstep. The ending was a little too neatly tied up in a bow for my taste, but I still enjoyed it.

Lock Every Door; People v Ferlinghetti

Two very different books, but both were good. "Lock Every Door" by Riley Sager is his third book, and it did not disappoint. Jules has recently been laid off from her crappy job and came home to find her boyfriend with another woman, so she moved out. Crashing on her friend Chloe's couch, she scours the want ads looking for another job and responds to one for an apartment sitter. She ends up at an exclusive New York City apartment building known as the Bartholomew. For Jules, it's the chance of a lifetime: not only will she have a beautiful place to live for three months, she'll be paid $1,000 a week to do so. Sure, the rules are a little disturbing and draconian, but she's desperate.
Right after she moves in, Jules realizes the Bartholomew isn't what it seems. For one thing, apartment sitters disappear at an alarming rate, never to be heard from again. And they're all people like her: young, single, without families, not likely to be missed right away if they disappear. Sager is great at placing red herrings, I really thought I had it figured out. I was wrong, of course, but the ending was so much worse (and so much more believable) than I had guessed.

Back in 1955, Allen Ginsberg wrote "Howl", and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, agreed to publish it under his imprint. "Howl" was unlike anything published before, and Ferlinghetti, along with one of the clerks in his store, was arrested by the police for selling obscene material. The book told the story of the publication and arrest and trial. It was very short (barely 100 pages), but interesting. The rest of the book was the judge's written decision in the case (I didn't read it, it was too full of legalese and I couldn't understand it) and a published transcript of an interview Ferlinghetti did on the 50th anniversary of the case back in 2007. The radio station wanted to play a recording of Ginsberg reading his epic poem (since Ginsberg died in 1990 he wasn't around to read it in person), but the FCC wouldn't allow it. I did read the interview, in which Ferlinghetti lamented how as a society we seemed to moving backwards instead of forwards when it comes to free speech.

I will leave you with a quote from Ginsberg: "Whoever controls the media, controls the culture".

Queen of the World

Not a traditional chronological biography of the longest reigning monarch in the world, but rather a look at different aspects of her reign: the trips she's made, the world leaders she's entertained at Buckingham Palace, the family who have supported her along the way, and the role of the monarchy in an ever changing world. It was a bit dull in places, to be honest (I should care more about certain things, but I just don't), but otherwise pretty good. 

Man with the Candy; Garden of Shadows; Mycroft and Sherlock: the Empty Birdcage; Forbidden Hollywood

I had never heard of Dean Corll until I watched "Mindhunter" on Netflix and they mentioned him. It's amazing there is really nothing written about him, I ended up buying this book off Amazon, and it wasn't terribly good, but better than nothing, I guess. Corll lived in Houston and murdered at least 30 young boys before one of his victims killed him. He owned his own candy manufacturing business (hence the name of the book), and he lured a lot of kids that way. 

After reading the atrocity of "Beneath the Attic", I wanted to reread the real thing. There were still some glaring inconsistencies, since the ghostwriter had taken over at this point, but it wasn't nearly as bad.

I loved the third installment in Abdul-Jabbar's Mycroft and Sherlock series. Mycroft goes to Vienna to have his heart repaired, and upon arriving back to England he is visited by Deshi Hai Lin, father to Ai Lin, the Chinese woman Mycroft developed feelings for in the second book. Lin asks Mycroft a big favor: his future son in law, the man who is marrying Ai Lin, has been arrested by the Chinese government and charged with treason. Lin would like Mycroft's help rescuing him. Mycroft agrees to do what he can. Meanwhile, Sherlock has gotten himself expelled from school so he can investigate a string of murders committed by the Fire Four Eleven killer. Mycroft puts his foot down when his brother tells him he doesn't want to return to school, but when the Queen herself asks him to look into them, he reluctantly agrees to allow his younger brother to play detective. It was super clever and tons of fun, and I love the developing sibling rivalry between Mycroft and Sherlock. 

"Forbidden Hollywood" was a fun look at pre-Code movies and how risque they were. It had a lot of gorgeous black and white stills of major stars from the 1920s and 30s.

Bookish Life of Nina Hill; Beneath the Attic

I really wanted to like this one. It sounded right up my alley: introvert Nina works in a cute indie bookstore and has a core group of friends she plays trivia with. They compete at bars on trivia nights, and Nina starts noticing Tom, a player on another team. After a few false starts, they start dating. But Nina also finds out she's named in the will of the father she never knew, and also has a bunch of relatives she's never met who aren't any too happy to have her taking a chunk out of the inheritance pie. Nina feels overwhelmed, like her life is spinning out of control. The story itself was all right, if not really contrived and totally predictable, but her tone killed me. It was entirely too cutesy (she described the neighborhood Nina lives in on page 2 as being "hella cute" and I knew I should have closed the book then and there. I was not wrong). Adults don't talk like that, unless they're being ironic. It made me feel old and out of touch and unhappy with my own pathetic life, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted. Where are the books about nice introvert girls who never end up with a man because all she meets are commitment phobic assholes? I'd read that.
Anyway. Moving on.

"Beneath the Attic" was atrociously awful. Just...ugh. Corrine Dixon is a 16 year old flirt who thinks she's wise beyond her years and can tangle with a grown man and come out ahead. Wrong. So very wrong. She meets Garland Foxworth at a party and they are instantly attracted to each other. Corrine visits an elderly relative who lives near Foxworth Hall and ends up being raped by Garland and falls pregnant (I'm not spoiling anything: it's on the dust jacket, not to mention it was totally predictable). The book ended on the eve of their rushed wedding.
Okay, let's break this down. As an avid reader of the original "Flowers in the Attic" series, anyone who has read and paid the *slightest* bit of attention to "Garden of Shadows" knows Garland was a NICE guy. MALCOLM was the jerk who was obsessed with his mother and liked to force himself on women. It was like the author (whoever is churning this trash out now, I don't think it's still Andrew Neiderman) was merging Malcolm and Garland into the same person. It would have been so much better to see how Garland was truly in love with Corrine and spoiled her and how she treated him like garbage and finally left him when Malcolm was five. You know, like how V.C. ANDREWS wrote it. I'm mad, in case you couldn't tell :) It's not like these books have been great lately, but still. Come on. This was just terrible.

Phantom Prince; Drive Thru Dreams

Elizabeth Kendall, who is actually Elizabeth Kloepfer, first published her account of her life with serial killer Ted Bundy in the early 1980s. Apparently she is updating it, with the book slated to come out next year. She told a compelling story of falling in love with the charming Bundy and how she ended up coming to discover he was actually a very bad man. It was interesting to hear her side of their relationship.

I was disappointed with "Drive Thru Dreams". A couple of my coworkers read it and raved about it, but I thought it was just okay. Chandler gives a brief overview of fast food restaurants as a whole and how they started and their impact on so many different aspects of modern society. I very, very rarely eat fast food (I'm vegan, so my options are pretty limited, although it is nice that more places are offering meat alternatives), but I can understand the appeal. I remember when I was a kid my Dad tried to convince his parents that we could eat at fast food places for less money than it cost to buy food and prepare it at home. Even as a kid I knew that was ridiculous, but he gave it a good shot.

For the Love of Books; Bright Lights, Big City

"For the Love of Books" was such a fun, quick read, just little snippets of book history neatly packaged up. 

I've been meaning to read "Bright Lights, Big City" forever, it always appears on those lists of books for Gen Xers to read (along with Bret Easton Ellis and Douglas Coupland, two authors I also enjoy). This one was pretty good, it was very short and went quick. It was also written in the second person, and I don't think I've read an adult book written in the second person before, so that was interesting. The unnamed protagonist spends his days drudging along in a fact checking section of a magazine and his nights snorting cocaine and drinking with his friend. It was written in the 1980s, but it really didn't feel dated (unless you count the lack of cell phones). 

Rosie Result; American Predator

The third Rosie and Don Tillman book was pretty good, it made me laugh. Don and Rosie have moved back to Australia with their ten year old son Hudson, so Rosie can have the chance at her dream job. Hudson is a lot like Don and is having trouble fitting in at school. Don decides to make it his mission to help Hudson, with hilarious results.

I have to admit, I was disappointed with "American Predator". I wanted to like it, and it got better, but I almost didn't finish it. Israel Keyes was arrested and charged with murdering a young woman in Alaska. During the course of his interrogation, the police and FBI discovered he may have killed more. How many more is impossible to say. Keyes had very specific demands: he wanted to be executed as quickly as possible, and he wanted his name kept out of the press, mostly for his daughter's sake. They were able to keep his name out of the ongoing investigations into some of the murders they thought he might have committed, but they took too long to execute him: he committed suicide. He stopped talking to investigators, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. There isn't a lot of information about him: his parents had him and his siblings off the grid and lived a nomadic life. He was a very creepy guy, though.

Rusty Puppy; Jack Rabbit Smile; God'll Cut You Down; Lost Gutenberg; The Stranger Beside Me

I finished up the last two book length Hap and Leonard stories while I was on vacation last week. "Rusty Puppy" was about a young black woman who was being harassed by the police. Her brother took exception to how they treated her, and then he turned up dead. It was pretty sad but it had a good ending.

I wasn't as impressed with "Jack Rabbit Smile", unfortunately. Hap and Leonard are hired by a couple of white supremacists to track down their missing relative.
So, let me pause here to say: when you own your own business (I know Hap and Leonard don't own it, but Hap's wife Brett does), shouldn't you be able to decide which cases you will take on? Leonard, being black, should have been able to say "no thanks". And why on Earth would two white supremacists even *want* a black man working for them? Clearly Lansdale wanted to make a point (and a good one), but it felt really contrived.
The ending was really, really sad, too.

Speaking of white supremacists, I enjoyed this true crime from first time Australian author and documentary filmmaker Safran. He has an interesting self-deprecating writing style. While filming a documentary on race, he traveled to Mississippi and inserted himself into a white supremacists' annual banquet for white high school athletes. He traveled back home to Australia, and a couple of years later he learned the man (of course I use the word "man" loosely) had been murdered by a young black man. Safran traveled back to Mississippi in hopes of witnessing the young man's trial and writing about it. It was very fascinating to see an American issue through the eyes of an Australian, and Safran frankly admitted he wanted the case to be all about race, but it was much more nuanced than that. 

"The Lost Gutenberg" made me cry. Estelle Doheny, widow of wealthy oilman Edward Doheny, spent decades carefully curating a priceless collection of books, paintings, and autographs. The jewel of her collection was a Gutenberg Bible, purchased after many years of trying in 1950 for over $100,000. Estelle was a devout Catholic, and when she passed away she left her collection to a seminary for research, along with a wealthy trust to care for and maintain the collection. Proving once again that I am right in hating organized religion, the literal minute the church was able to legally sell the items in her collection they did, breaking up the beautiful library and netting close to $40 million in profits (most of which is still unaccounted for, naturally). Her beautiful, nearly flawless Gutenberg was sold to Japan, where it now sits locked in a vault in a university, and even qualified scholars aren't allowed to see it. It's the exact opposite of what Estelle wanted, and it's heartbreaking. Before the collection was sold, the librarian in charge did allow it to be scientifically examined, and discovered many interesting things about the ink and paper Gutenberg used, so at least there was that.

And finally, I read "The Stranger Beside Me" by Ann Rule many years ago, and decided to read it again after watching the Ted Bundy tapes on Netflix. I've tried reading other books by Rule, and none are quite as good as this one. Ann was friends with Ted Bundy, worked with him at a Crisis Call Center in Washington state. They kept in touch over the years, and Ann was horrified when he was arrested for kidnapping in Colorado. Ted assured her he was innocent, then broke out of jail and escaped, not once but twice. The second time he made it all the way to Florida, where he murdered several young woman and was arrested and put on trial, sentenced to death. He was electrocuted in 1989. I've read other books about Ted Bundy, but this one really is the best.

Devil Red; Honky Tonk Samurai

So I went back to read the books I missed in the Hap and Leonard series in between "Vanilla Ride" and "The Elephant of Surprise". In "Devil Red", Hap and Leonard are now working as private investigators for their friend Marvin. A wealthy older woman wants someone to look into the cold case murder of her grandson. Hap and Leonard start poking around and find a clan of people who think they're vampires, really sadistic people. There's a pair of deadly assassins behind the whole thing who are known as Devil Red. Vanilla makes an appearance and helps Hap get revenge on some folks. It was pretty good.

"Honky Tonk Samurai" finds Hap and Leonard hired by a feisty old lady (lots of feisty old ladies in Lansdale's books) to find out what happened to her granddaughter, who disappeared five years earlier. Hap and Leonard discover she was working for a car lot that is a front for a high end prostitution ring. Of course with Hap and Leonard it's never that simple: a family of inbred assassins is featured, Vanilla makes another appearance, as does Jim Bob Luke.

This Storm; The Elephant of Surprise

I wish I could succinctly and beautifully sum up the genius that is James Ellroy, but I can't. The sequel to "Perfida" picks up where it left off: New Year's 1942. L.A. is gripped by war fever. There's all the usual Ellroy tropes: police corruptions and cover-ups, scandals, and unsolved murders with a few more things thrown in: hunt for stolen gold, war profiteering, and arson. It was gritty and dark and lots of fun.

I heard Lansdale was coming out with a new Hap and Leonard book a few months ago and put it on hold, even though there were four others I haven't read yet since "Vanilla Ride". I thought "no problem, I'll whip through those four before the new one comes in".
I, of course, did not. It's not really necessary to read these in order, but I think it helps, since they build on each other.
Hap and Leonard are driving home when they get caught in a bad storm. They rescue a young woman who is out in the middle of the road. Bad guys are after her and tried to cut out her tongue. As soon as they get her loaded in the car, the bad guys show up. They manage to escape and take her to the hospital, where the bad guys show up, kill the cop protecting her, and have a shoot out with Hap and Leonard. They take her to a police station. Safe, right? Well, it's Hap and Leonard, so...no. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it.

Merci Suarez Changes Gears; The Castle on Sunset; Darkness on the Edge of Town

I don't normally read children's books, but this one was recommended to me by a children's librarian I work with, and I enjoyed it. Merci lives in Florida with her extended family: her parents, older brother, her grandparents, her aunt, and her cousins. She's particularly close to her grandfather, but he's changing: getting angry for no reason, forgetting things, wandering off. She's having a hard time fitting in at her fancy private school (she's on a scholarship), and entering puberty, so it all hits the poor girl at once. It was nicely done. 

I really enjoyed "The Castle on Sunset". The Chateau Marmont in Hollywood was always known for being a place where celebrities could go and not be bothered by anyone. It was a low key kind of place until John Belushi overdosed and died in one of the bungalows. It's gained in popularity in recent years, getting a reputation as the cool place to hang out, but it took awhile to get there. 

I enjoyed this Stranger Things novel more than the last one, although there were some elements that just didn't work. It tells some of Hopper's backstory: it's 1977, and he's living and working as a detective in New York City. The City is in bad shape: facing bankruptcy, and getting worse by the day. A new gang shows up on the radar called the Vipers, led by a man who calls himself Saint John. Hop agrees to work with the Feds and go undercover to find out what mischief the Vipers are planning.

You Couldn't Ignore Me if You Tried; Iron, Fire, and Ice; State of the Union

After reading "The Ultimate History of the 80s Teen Movie" a few weeks ago, I was keen to read something a little more fun about the same topic. I've had this book on my "to read" list for years, so I finally just read it. I enjoyed it, she interviewed a lot of the main actors and actresses from a few iconic 80s movies. Mostly John Hughes films, but she also talked about "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Say Anything". It did get a little repetitive at times, but it wasn't bad.

I don't know why I couldn't get into this book. It seemed right up my alley: the real life history behind the events that inspired George R. R. Martin's "Game of Thrones". I love "GoT", I love British history (especially anything to do with the War of the Roses), and his writing style was pretty good: slightly sarcastic without overdoing it. Yet I had to renew this book twice, so I had it out for 9 weeks, and slogged through it a tiny bit at a time, it just didn't hold my attention. I think it was probably because he covered so much history in such short snippets, and of course all the names start to get confusing, since there were like, three male names in all of Europe at the time. I really wanted to enjoy it more than I actually did.

I watched "State of the Union" on Sundance and enjoyed it, so I checked out the book. I was a little disappointed, it literally was exactly like the show, almost word for word, with nothing extra. It was a quick read, which was nice, but I was hoping for a little more. Tom and Louise meet up in a pub every week before their marriage counseling to discuss what went wrong with their marriage. I found it very realistic, the conversations descend into silliness and mundane, like conversations do when you've known someone a very long time.

Lessons from Lucy

I love Dave Barry. I can't believe he's 70! I remember reading "Dave Barry Turns 40", and it makes me feel very old (it's not the only thing that makes me feel old, by the way. Pretty much everything does these days). Dave and his wife and daughter have a sweet dog named Lucy. As you can see by her picture, Lucy is getting up in years but Lucy is still a very happy dog. Dave came to a point in his life where he realized he wasn't very happy anymore, and decided to see if he could be more like Lucy. Cherishing and finding the joy in everyday things, like walks and meeting new people. Staying in touch with his friends and trying to have fun. Appreciating all that he has. They were very sweet lessons with just enough touch of humor to keep them from being maudlin. We as humans don't deserve dogs. Like Dave, I will try to be more like Lucy, too.

50 Things That Aren't My Fault

I grew up reading the "Cathy" comic strip, I was obsessed with it in grade school and junior high, and bought all the books and read them over and over. I could totally identify with Cathy: even at 11, I hated my own body in a bathing suit (which, I just realized, is super sad. Oh well). Cathy stopped writing her iconic comics in order to focus on her daughter. I enjoyed her book of essays very much. I was expecting to laugh a lot (which I did) but I also cried, too. She talks a lot about taking care of her parents, who were in their nineties (her father passed, I don't know if her mother is still alive, she didn't say), and a lot of the things she's dealing with I am too with my own parents, who are a little younger but definitely getting to that stage in life. I don't have a college aged daughter to worry about, but I can empathize. It was touching and real and exactly what I needed right now :)

The Plaza

I've never been to New York, so I've never seen the iconic Plaza Hotel, but I've certainly heard about it. The Plaza as it stands now was built in 1907 and the facade is a historical landmark that can't be changed. Most of the interior, however, is up for grabs. The first half of the book was very interesting, about the eccentric characters who lived in the Plaza (it was more like an apartment complex to a lot of people than a hotel), like Kay Thompson, who created "Eloise", and the 39 widows: wealthy dowagers who haunted the lobby every day, people watching. The second half of the book wasn't nearly as interesting, it descended into mind numbing details over complicated financial deals as the hotels switched owners like most people switch underwear. It was still worth the read.

Shaker

I started reading the book and the next day Southern California experienced its worst earthquake in decades. Coincidence? No doubt. Creepy? Definitely.
Roy is a hit man from New York who is sent to Los Angeles to kill a man. He arrives a few days after L.A. experiences a 8+ earthquake which has wreaked havoc on the city. Roy is able to carry out his assignment, but then gets lost trying to find where he parked his rental car and happens upon a group of gang bangers harassing a jogger. He steps in to attempt to help, and the whole thing is captured on video by a neighbor on his phone. Even though Roy is injured during the altercation, the press and public are lauding him as a hero. His face is splashed all over the news, not the best thing for a hit man trying to keep a low profile. The bangers are after him for making them look foolish, and they aren't the only ones looking to settle the score with Roy. It was a darkly humorous, really fun book. I enjoyed it.