Sugar Queen; Ronald Reagan: an Intellectual Biography

"The Sugar Queen" was recommended by Anne Bogel in her book "I'd Rather Be Reading", which I finished a few weeks ago and enjoyed. This book sounded really interesting: one of the main characters has books she needs show up when she needs them. That sounds like a fun superpower! This book was...different. I'm not sure what to make of it. It had some definite fantasy type elements: the books that show up, one character literally couldn't break a promise, so when he promised never to speak to another person he public he lost his power of speech around her, things like that. But I think it was supposed to be realistic. Josey lives a solitary life under her widowed mother's roof. She has a crush on the mailman and lives for the time each day when he comes to deliver their mail. One day a woman named Della shows up in Josey's closet (see, I told you it was different). It wasn't bad, but it wasn't terribly good, either.

I really enjoyed David T. Byrne's biography on Ronald Reagan. What I liked about it was that he was fair. He admitted Reagan's faults and pointed out what was good about other presidents, regardless of their party affiliations. I appreciate that sort of balance in books, since it is sorely lacking in most titles today. Byrne's examined Reagan's reading habits and explored how he came to his ideals and beliefs, what philosophers he learned from. I thought it was well done.

Paperback Crush; All That Heaven Allows; The Real Lolita

I grew up in the 80s and early 90s, and binged on trashy teen books produced by the bucketload. One of my biggest regrets is that one day in my early twenties I decided I was too old for my Sweet Valley Twins, Baby-Sitters Club, and Sweet Valley High books, and donated them all to my local library. Close to two hundred books, because I assumed I would never want to read them again. Boy, was I wrong! I actually had a friend purchase most of the Sweet Valley High books back for me as a birthday gift one year from a second hand bookstore, and I've hung onto those. So I was super excited to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane in "Paperback Crush". Instead I got a social justice commentary on how terrible these books were for their lack of realism, diversity, etc., etc. Duh. If I wanted realistic, I would read Maya Angelou, not "Kristy's Great Idea". She never did fully explain how the current president is responsible for the atrocities of 80s teen literature, but she tried to make a case for it. That left me scratching my head a bit, as well as wondering if every book contract signed after 2017 includes a clause that the author must insult Republicans. Snark against conservatives seems to pop up in every book I read lately, even though they (supposedly) don't have anything to do with politics. Oh well. I'm shouting to the wind. Moving on.

Poor Rock Hudson. He seemed like a nice man, hardworking, kind, generous. He had to live his life as a lie, always afraid of being outed as a homosexual and being ostracized from Hollywood. Everyone had really nice things to say about him, how much he loved meeting his fans and helping new actors find their way. I thought the author was a bit harsh on people who were afraid of being near Rock after his AIDS diagnosis, like he forgot how terrifying it was in the early 80s, before we knew how HIV was transmitted. Back then it was an instant death sentence, Rock lived a year after his diagnosis and wasted away to nothing before passing away. Then all the ex-boyfriends came out of the woodwork to fight over his estate. So sad. What a terrible way to honor him. I saw the movie this book is named after on TV a few days after I finished reading it, and it was really good. I'm looking forward to watching more of Rock's movies.

When I heard about this book I was really looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint. Nabokov denied that his blockbuster book "Lolita" was based on a real case, but Weinman makes a pretty good case that it was based on the story of Sally Horner. Nabokov's notecards with references to Sally, the New Jersey girl who was kidnapped and abused by Frank La Salle, were recently released to the public. Sally's story is eerily similar to Delores's: La Salle was a middle aged man like Humbert who posed as Sally's father and took her cross country, molesting her for almost two years, before Sally finally confided in a neighbor woman who called her sister in New Jersey who then notified the FBI. Sally was finally reunited with her mother and older sister, and Frank went to prison insisting he was Sally's real father. Poor Sally's life was just as tragic as Lolita's (I don't want to spoil it, but damn, it was just heartbreaking). Weinman argues that Sally's life was stolen twice: once by La Salle and again by Nabokov for not giving her proper recognition for inspiring his most famous creation.

Cult City; In Byron's Wake

I've been fascinated (and horrified) by Jim Jones and Jonestown ever since I read Jeff Guinn's book, "Road to Jonestown".  I also saw the Sundance documentary in December, and oh my God, it was disturbing. It's one thing to read about thousands of dead bodies, it's quite another to see footage of them.
At any rate, "Cult City" was about how San Francisco's mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were both caught up in Jones's wake of destruction. Milk fell for Jones's hook, line, and sinker (as did so many others). I enjoyed how Flynn laid the story out, alternating between Milk and Jones, showing how they intertwined. I didn't know much about Harvey Milk before this, but he sounds like a complicated and conflicted person.

I was surprised at how many people put this book on hold at my library after I ordered it. I thought I was the only one who would want to read about Lord Byron. I guess I was wrong! Byron was really a despicable man, he had an affair with his half-sister and had a child with her, he married Annabella Milbanke and they had a daughter, Augusta Ada (strangely enough, "Augusta" was also his half-sister's name) and Annabella left Byron just a few weeks afterwards, causing quite the scandal. Byron played the depressed, maligned husband while Annabella kept quiet as to what drove her away after just a year of marriage. Byron went on to have an affair with Mary Shelley's step-sister that produced another illegitimate child, one that he forcibly took away from her mother and put in a convent because (irony alert) he argued that her mother was immoral because she got pregnant out of wedlock. Yeah, okay, Byron. He died young and honestly, I had to stop myself from cheering. His wife led a quiet, scandal free life the rest of her days, and her daughter, Ada, grew up to become a math prodigy. It was interesting, but a very slow, tedious read.

The Last Time I Lied; I'd Rather Be Reading

I enjoyed Riley Sager's first book, "Final Girls", and this sophomore effort did not disappoint. When Emma was thirteen, she went to a summer camp called Camp Nightingale, and ended up bunking with three older girls. One night the three girls mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. Emma has been suffering from survivor's guilt for the last fifteen years, painting the missing girls over and over again. The wealthy patroness of the camp wants to reopen it, and she asks Emma to be a counselor. Despite her misgivings, Emma agrees and bunks in the same bunkhouse as before with three young girls. Who then go missing one night. Can we trust Emma? It sure doesn't feel like it. It was taunt and suspenseful, really good. 

Anne Bogel's "I'd Rather Be Reading" is a love letter to everyone who struggles with completing household chores rather than spending the day reading, for everyone who spent their birthday and Christmas money on books rather than clothes, for everyone who knows they will never live long enough to get to everything on their To Read List and yet keep adding to it. In short, people like me :) It was a sweet, short tribute to those of us who love books and reading, who live to recommend and share good books with others.

Mystery of the Three Quarters; Christmas Cake Murders; Room to Dream

I really like the way Hannah has taken over Christie's character of Hercule Poirot and made him her own. This was a good one. Poirot is contacted by several individuals he's never met. They have one thing in common: they have all received letters, signed by Poirot, accusing them of murdering an elderly man who purportedly drowned in his bathtub. Poirot is intrigued, since he didn't send any such letters and has never heard of the victim, so he starts investigating. It wasn't too complicated to figure out, which was nice. 

I was disappointed with Fluke's latest Hannah Swenson mystery. Rather than return to the mess she made with Hannah and Ross (TEAM NORMAN!!...ahem) she went back in time to when Hannah's father passed away and Hannah moved back to Lake Eden. The "mystery" (I use the term very, very loosely, as it was a marginal side plot at best) had to do with someone giving a baby up for adoption. Basically, Hannah was lucky enough to have a father who cared about her future and invested her college fund wisely, leaving Hannah enough money to open her own bake shop. Good for her, I guess? It feels like Fluke just wants to write cookbooks, since honestly, this book was mostly about what they ate and how Hannah learned to use her new appliances.

I love "Twin Peaks", which is actually the only David Lynch work I've ever seen. I'm super intrigued to watch some of his other movies after reading his autobiography "Room to Dream". This book was very fun, he came across as a great, down to earth sort of guy. Even his ex-wives (he has three, and is currently estranged from his fourth) have nothing but great things to say about him. All the actors and actresses who have worked with him (other than Anthony Hopkins) praised him and his methods.

The Long Take

I really enjoyed "The Long Take". I put it on hold because it was described as post World War II noir, which I love. The thing that really blew me away was the author is Scottish. He described L.A. in the 40s and 50s so vividly I felt like I was there. Places I know he got spot on, it was incredible. I thought for sure he grew up in Southern California. It's about a Canadian soldier who makes his way west after returning home from the war, damaged and unsure what to do with his life. He goes up and down the coast, spending most of his time in L.A. but also some time up in the Bay Area, doing odd jobs, trying to figure out what to do with his life. It was bleak and desperate and really, really well done.