Venetia

I was in the mood for something light and romantic and sparkly, so of course I thought immediately of Georgette Heyer. I love her books. "Venetia" was completely charming. Venetia has been stuck in the country her whole life, her father, an eccentric recluse after the death of her mother, never wanted her out in society. He passed away a few years earlier, and Venetia's brother, Conway, inherited the lands and the title, but he's been in the Army for years and trusts Venetia to look after the estate and their youngest brother, Aubrey, who is a brilliant boy with a lame leg. Venetia has two suitors calling on her, neither of whom she has much affection for, Edward and Oswald. Edward is dull, Oswald is very young and acts like a twit. Then Lord Damerel returns to his neighboring estate. Lord Damerel is a rake, who ran off at twenty-two with a married woman, ruining forever his reputation. When he first meets Venetia, collecting blackberries on his land, he's utterly enchanted by her quick wit and gorgeous looks. Venetia is less charmed by him at first, but after Damerel rescues Aubrey after he falls from his horse, and she sees how kind he is to her younger brother, and how much affection her brother has for him, she softens and the two become friends.  Damerel knows nothing can come of their friendship, he doesn't want her to throw away her chances for a good, respectable marriage. Then one day Conway sends home his pregnant bride and her mother, and without warning Aubrey and Venetia's happy household is thrown into turmoil by the overbearing mother in law. Venetia's aunt and uncle in London implore her to come stay with them, so they can properly introduce her into society, and after securing a place for Aubrey with Damerel, she goes to London. Damerel is torn: sad to see her go and missing her dreadfully, but knowing he can't marry her.
While in London Venetia learns the truth: her mother did not die when she was a little girl, she ran off from her father, divorced him, and married another man, abandoning the children she never wanted in the first place. After seeing how happy her mother is, even after she destroyed her reputation, Venetia makes a bold decision to go after Lord Damerel come hell or high water. Oh, it was such good fun! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Walking Dead Vol. 22; The Last American Vampire; Moriarty

So it's finally getting interesting again in the "Walking Dead" series by Robert Kirkman. The survivors have been settled for a few years now (Carl is about 16, I think) and they are rebuilding civilization, making bread, all sorts of wonderful things. Carl wants to move to their other location to apprentice with the blacksmith, and Rick reluctantly lets him go, realizing he's not a little boy and he shouldn't hold him back. At the end we find out a new horror: survivors, dressed in zombie skins. Why? I guess we'll find out in the next issue.

Seth Grahame-Smith's latest, "The Last American Vampire", was very good. The vampire who turned Abraham Lincoln, Henry Sturges, is telling his life story, starting with how he was turned at Roanoke. One of the first English settlers to the new land, Henry's party included a vampire named Crowley. One night Crowley is discovered feeding and he ends up killing the entire Roanoke colony, except for Henry, because he admired his bravery, and little Virginia Dare (as interesting an explanation as to what happened to the Roanoke colony as any, I guess). Henry and Virginia escape Crowley, believing him to be dead, and go to live with the natives. Henry eventually turns Virginia, against his will, and they lose each other. Henry goes on to fight Jack the Ripper, who is actually Crowley, having escaped, and hunts for a mysterious killer targeting vampires. It was a fun read.

"Moriarty" by Anthony Horowitz was amazingly good. There was a fantastic twist I didn't see coming that literally made me gasp out loud. Scotland Yard inspector Jones shows up at Reichenbach Falls after Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes supposedly plunged to their deaths. We know Sherlock faked his death, but did Moriarty truly die? Jones meets a Pinkerton agent from the States, Chase, who has followed a criminal named Clarence Devereaux. Devereaux came at Moriarty's invitation, and Chase wants to nab him bad. They spend a good deal of time trying to track him down and catch him, and when they finally do---I can't spoil it, but it was good.

Four Feet Tall and Rising

What a fun book! I'm sorry I missed Shorty's show "Pit Boss", when it aired on Animal Planet. Shorty is a little person who spent ten years in prison for attempted murder. He grew up in the Projects in L.A., ran with the Bloods. Prison straightened him out, he decided he needed to change his life and he came out and started rescuing pit bulls while building a successful entertainment business.

Marriage Game; Watch Me

Okay, I've been super lazy lately and haven't been reading, I've been watching both "The Shield" and "Justified" on DVD, trying to finish both series. I'm a bit ashamed of myself, especially with all the good books I have waiting for me :(
At any rate: another Elizabeth I fiction by Alison Weir "The Marriage Game". It was pretty good, I cried when Dudley died. I felt so bad for him, wanting to marry her for so long, and how she kept promising him they would and then screwing him over. In case you can't tell, I know *exactly* how Dudley feels.

Anjelica Huston continues her memoir in "Watch Me". After leaving Ireland and moving to Los Angeles, she hooks up with Jack Nicholson for a tumultuous relationship that finally ends when he impregnates another woman. Anjelica does end up marrying, an artist named Bob, and they spend many years together before he passes away. It was quite sad, but hey, life is often sad.

Quarry's Choice

I love these hard case crime books, they're always so much fun. Max Allan Collins' hitman, Quarry, is back. The Broker has lent Quarry out to a man in Biloxi, part of the Dixie Mafia. One of the head guys wants one of the other head guys taken out, and Quarry has been chosen to get close to Killan and remove him, which he does. It was fun and gritty and sleazy and highly entertaining.

Monogram Murders

I love Agatha Christie, I read them all as a teenager, and I was pretty excited when I heard Sophie Hannah was publishing a new Hercule Poirot story in the same vane as Christie's. "The Monogram Murders" was pretty good, and it did remind me of Christie in the same sense that I had no idea what the heck was going on, even at the end, when Poirot explained it all, I was left scratching my head, wondering what I'd missed. Again, typical, I love reading mysteries but damn if I can make heads or tails out of most of them.

The Sound and the Fury; When the Women Come Out to Dance; Riding the Rap; Christopher's Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger; Skin Tight

I reread "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner for the umpteenth time. I do love this book, so much. There is absolutely nothing I could say about it that hasn't been said a million times before. It's one of my go to books when I need to read something brilliant.

I started watching "Justified", and saw it was based on the short story/novella "Fire in the Hole" by Elmore Leonard. The story first appeared in this collection of short stories by him, "When the Women Come Out to Dance". "Fire in the Hole" was by far the best story in the collection, but I'm glad they didn't kill Boyd Crowder on the show because then I would have been deprived of enjoying the amazing Walton Goggins as Boyd in later episodes. The rest of the stories in this collection were actually pretty good, too, and I'm not a big short story person.

Since I read "Raylan", and "Pronto", and "Fire in the Hole", I finished up the last Raylan book by Leonard, "Riding the Rap". Before I read it I didn't realize that was the last of the Raylan books, I had thought there would be quite a few, and I was so sad to discover Leonard didn't write more. "Riding the Rap" was really good though: Harry, the bookie from "Pronto", is kidnapped by a bunch of knuckleheads who don't really know what they're doing. Luckily Raylan does and he's able to rescue him.

Ah, V. C. Andrews (or whoever is ghostwriting for her these days) is one of my guiltiest guilty pleasures. I stopped reading the stuff the ghostwriter churned out after the Ruby series, but this new series is about the original and great "Flowers in the Attic", so it got my attention. The writing is godawful terrible, and most of it is rechurned stuff from "FITA", but I'm still reading it anyway. Kristin's boyfriend, Kane, discovers Christopher's diary that Kristin has been hiding and wants to finish reading it with her. Up in Kristin's attic. While he wears a blond wig. And asks her to call him "Christopher". Kristin finds none of this odd (hmm...) and they proceed to finish reading the diary. All stuff we know from the original book, only at the end Kristin and Kane figure out that the mysterious wealthy investor rebuilding Foxworth Hall is a wheelchair bound man named William Anderson, and they take the diary to him. He turns out to be---CORY!! Cory didn't die from pneumonia after all, Corrine just dropped him off at the Emergency room and took off, and luckily he was saved. Wow, didn't see that coming.

Carl Hiaasen's always good for some dark humor, and "Skin Tight" was pretty hilarious. Retired PI Mick Stranahan is minding his own business, living out in Biscayne Bay, when a hit man tries to off him. He figures out Dr. Rudy Graveline, a butcher posing as a plastic surgeon, is trying to kill him before he figures out what really happened to Victoria Barletta, a girl he killed during a nose job a few years earlier. Mick doesn't give up easily, and Graveline finds a real nutjob of a killer to go after him. It was really good.