The Reluctant King

"The Reluctant King" by Sarah Bradford was very touching and sad. Bertie was the second son of King George V and never expected to be king, since he had an older brother. But when their father died and David took the throne, becoming King Edward VIII, it didn't take long for things to fall apart. David was more interested in partying and was determined to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American. He had to abdicate and turn the throne over to the Duke of York. Bertie reluctantly became King George VI (I really don't know why they change their names, it makes everything so confusing. Why not be King Albert? Oh well). By all account, Bertie was well loved by his people and an excellent king who led the country through the horrors of World War II. The stress of the role took its toll on him, and poor Bertie died very young, leaving twenty-five year old Princess Elizabeth to ascend the throne. It was very lovely and it made me cry. But anything about dads dying makes me cry these days, so there's that.

Hot Lead, Cold Justice

"Hot Lead, Cold Justice" is the fifth (how is this the fifth book already?!) Caleb York Western by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (really, it's all Collins at this point, but that's okay, I like him, too). A terrible blizzard descends upon the unsuspecting residents of Trinidad, New Mexico. York's deputy, Tulley, is shot and nearly killed while wearing the Sheriff's duster and hat in the snowstorm, leading York to believe he was actually the target. A group of bad men have come to town, taking advantage of the inclement weather. It was pretty fun, I enjoyed it.

Blues in the Dark

I was a little disappointed by "Blues in the Dark". It seemed like it would be right up my alley: a crime noir, partially set in 1940s Hollywood. Karissa and her film production company partner Marcello stumble across a real Hollywood mystery: in the 1940s, up and coming actress Blair Kendrick died under suspicious circumstances. Her movies have never been re-released, and she has lapsed into obscurity. Karissa and Marcello decide to research her story for a potential film, but they are thwarted and threatened at every turn, making them even more determined to get to the bottom of what really happened. Every other chapter went back to Blair's point of view, telling her story. She fell in love with an African American jazz pianist named Hank Marley. I quickly guess the big twist, it was pretty cliche. I guess Benson's writing style just didn't appeal to me, he was very, very repetitive (I've noticed that about many books lately...) and he used quotation marks where he really didn't need to. It was just odd and threw me off. 

The New Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction; Cults

"The New Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction" is one of those books of short stories I keep on my nightstand and read from for years, a few stories here and there every so often. I normally don't finish these books, they just languish until I get tired of looking at them and move them onto the shelf, but I finished this one (not quite sure what got into me). I'm always so excited to read these books when I buy them, but then I never finish them.
At any rate, it was a pretty decent selection of short stories. Some were duds, but there were a lot of good ones too, and some of my favorite authors, like Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins.

I was disappointed in this book. Cawthorne's definition of "cult" seemed pretty fast and loose, and each cult only got 3-5 pages, so he didn't really get to explain why he was including them. After awhile they all got pretty repetitive anyway: charismatic leader, usually religious, hoodwinks a group of people and brainwashes them into turning over all their worldly possessions, usually through some combination of sex and drugs, and gets them to do stupid things, like commit mass suicide or murder people.

The Jane Austen Society; Promised; Bubble in the Sun

I was a little disappointed in "The Jane Austen Society" by Natalie Jenner. I almost gave up on it a few times in the first 50 pages, but it got better, so I hung in there. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't terribly good, either. After WW2, a group of Austen devotees decide to try to save the cottage in Chawton where Austen lived and turn it into a museum honoring the author. It was just a little bit ridiculous and then ending was too perfectly tied up in a bow for my taste. It does however make me want to read some of Austen's other works. I've read "Pride and Prejudice", of course, and like it a lot more than I used to, and I read "Emma" once (don't really remember it, to be honest, but I've seen "Clueless" more times than I can count, so that's practically the same thing). Excuse me while I go hide from all the Austen fans who are now coming after me with pitchforks :)

I wanted to like "Promised" by Leah Garriott, too. I put it on hold a few months ago when I was going through my Regency Romance phase. Like "The Jane Austen Society", it wasn't bad, just not great. Margaret is still stinging from a broken engagement: her intended was cheating on her with multiple other women. For some teeth gnashing reason, Margaret's reputation is destroyed, not his. She's determined to marry for convenience, and quickly, to stop the gossip, and chooses a man who she will never fall in love with, a notorious rake named Mr. Northam.
Mr. Northam's cousin, Lord Williams, is just as determined that Margaret not throw herself away on his worthless cousin and contrives to become engaged to her himself, throwing a large wrench in Margaret's perfect plans. The book went on, with the inevitable and predictable twists, overly long, before finally coming to the conclusion anyone with two brain cells to rub together would have seen a mile off. I think if it had been shorter and not so needlessly complicated, it would have been a better book.

And finally, "Bubble in the Sun" by Christopher Knowlton, in which he makes the claim that the Florida land boom of the 1920s led to the Great Depression. I'm not sure how much he succeeded in his claim, that part of the book was mostly over my head (I did not fair well in Economics in college), but I could see how it might have been a contributing factor. Seems like everyone who was anyone was migrating to Florida during those boom years, and making money hand over fist, putting up grand mansions and hotels and tearing down the Everglades to build highways. All those insanely wealthy developers, architects, and interior decorators ended up dead broke and for the most part, died early deaths. It was a cautionary tale as old as time: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.