Vanilla Ride; Lady in Red; The Case for Jamie

"Vanilla Ride", Joe Landsdale's next Hap and Leonard book after "Captains Outrageous", was a good deal shorter, but still packed a punch. The premise is familiar: Marvin asks Hap and Leonard to help him rescue his granddaughter from an abusive drug dealer (remember how well it worked out when they rescued Brett's daughter Tillie from her abusive pimp? Yeah...) Hap and Leonard are able to get Gadget (yes, Gadget. I know) away but in the process piss off the Dixie Mafia. They send a hit woman out for them, known only as Vanilla Ride. Sure, okay. For the moment, Hap and Leonard are okay, but I think it will only be a matter of time before Vanilla Ride shows up again...

Sheila Tate was Mrs. Reagan's press secretary during the first four years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, and was able to give us an insider's look as to how official business is done in the East Wing. State dinners, her Just Say No campaign, Sheila helped manage all that. She wanted to share her good memories, since Nancy had a reputation of being a big overbearing and a "dragon lady". It was a sweet rememberance.

I *almost* didn't bother to read "The Case for Jamie", since I hated "Last of August" so much. But I did love the first one, "A Study in Charlotte", and I hoped the series would end on a good note, so I gave it a shot. It wasn't too bad. Definitely better than the second one, but not as good as the first. At least it wasn't as complicated. Jamie is back at Sherringford boarding school, he hasn't seen Charlotte Holmes in a year, not since her brother, Milo, killed August and Charlotte took the fall. He's dating Elizabeth, and playing rugby, and working hard to get into a good college. He still has the occasional panic attack, but he's doing better. It switched back and forth between Jamie and Charlotte's POVs: Charlotte is trying to smoke out Lucien, August's evil older brother. The ending was nice, not too "all tied up in a neat bow".


And finally, a sad note. My little puppy dog, Siddalee, passed away on Monday. She was a sweet, funny little dog, and we'll all miss her a lot. RIP, Sidda.

Churchill and the King

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England during WWII, and King George VI, had a friendly relationship, but a complicated one. They were very different people, with different ways of doing things, yet they had to find a way to work together to defeat Hitler. I'm sorry King George died so young, he sounds like he was a kind, generous, brave man who truly did the best he could for his country. Churchill has always fascinated me, but there's so much out there about him I hardly know where to begin. This book was a nice little introduction to his character, and maybe someday I'll get up the courage to tackle one of those doorstopper biographies about him :)

Prince Philip; Noir

I had "Prince Philip" sent over from another branch, and when it came in my coworker gave it to me and said: "boy, he's a handsome fellow, isn't he?". Yes, yes he was. This bio covered Philip's early years, from birth until his wife's coronation. Philip was the last child of five children, the only boy. His father was run out of Greece, where he was in line for the throne, when Philip was just an infant. They spent his childhood bouncing around Europe, basically homeless. His mother had mental health issues and was hospitalized, his father took off to go live in Monte Carlo with his mistress. Philip was in school, and over his holidays he would go to various relatives' homes, never having a stable home of his own to look forward to, which was why when he and Elizabeth had to give up Clarence House when she became Queen it was so heartbreaking for him. He sounds like he was pretty stoic about the whole thing: growing up royal but poor. People enjoyed having him around because he was fun and outgoing and charming. The fact that he didn't have the right clothes or a name didn't seem to bother him, at least not outwardly. It was very good, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed Christopher Moore's latest, "Noir", as well, it was (typical of Moore) funny and off-beat and quirky. Set in San Francisco in 1947, Sammy is a bartender with a bum foot who meets a gorgeous girl named Stilton (yes, like the cheese). Lots of strange adventures ensued. I can't sum it up without giving too much away, but there was an alien from Roswell, a deadly black mamba, and a foul mouthed kid all wrapped up in it.

Giant; Beautiful Days

I discovered James Dean as a teenager and became enchanted by him, and watched the three movies he starred in multiple times. I haven't watched "East of Eden" or "Rebel without a Cause" in years, but I have watched "Giant", because, well, Texas :) And Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson, and oil barons and yeah. As a kid, that's what I thought Texas was like--sprawling mansions on million acre ranches, cowboys, oil derricks. Don Graham's book was lots of fun and talked about the five major players of the film: Taylor, Hudson, and Dean along with director George Stevens and book author Edna Ferber. The lion's portion of the book was devoted to James Dean, which seems fair, since he stole the movie (through his acting and managing to get himself killed before it was finished). He discussed the importance of the movie today, how its legacy has endured. Now I really want to rewatch "Giant", but alas, I have too many books to read at the moment!

I was super disappointed with Joyce Carol Oates' latest collection of short stories, "Beautiful Days". Partially my fault: I got most of the way through then, then had a ton of other books I had to read, discovered "The Crown" on Netflix, and got distracted so I kept renewing it. It took me nine weeks to finish it, by which time I just didn't care anymore. Sad to say, I can't really remember any of the earlier stories, they just didn't stick with me, and the ones I just read were pretty dull.

Captains Outrageous

The cover of this book is completely inaccurate, that scene never happened. Someone died in a pool, but it was a man.
At any rate :) Hap is in a bit of a rut. His relationship with Brett has cooled since he and Leonard helped rescue Tillie. He's working at a chicken processing plant as a security guard, and one night while leaving work he stops a man who is attacking a young teenage girl. Turns out the girl's father is the wealthy owner of the chicken plant, and he gives Hap $100,000 (Hap protests that he didn't do it for the money, and Charlie talks him into accepting it so as not to hurt the father's pride) and gives Hap and Leonard a one month paid vacation from the plant. Leonard's new boyfriend, John, convinces them they should take a cruise. They cheap out though, and end up on a real tub. Their vacation gets even worse when they miss the shuttle back to their boat after an excursion to a Mexican village, and are stranded there. Leonard is stabbed during a mugging attempt, and an old man named Ferdinand rescues them and takes them on his fishing boat.
That was only about halfway through the book, if you can believe it. It was dense. Very, very good though. The worst part was that Charlie was murdered, after being mistaken for Hap. That made me cry, I liked Charlie.