King Edward VIII

Powell makes the case that Edward's love affair with America began long before he met Wallis Simpson. He visited the North America as a young man, and was so enchanted by the wilderness in Canada that he bought a ranch. Even though his visits were few and far between, he enjoyed both Canada and the U.S. He was treated differently in America, where he was a celebrity. People were excited to meet him, but they weren't deferential like they were in the UK. He was able to be himself at little bit more without being chastised. It was well written, I enjoyed it.

Wild Bill; French Exit

I really liked "Dodge City" by Tom Clavin, so I was excited for his biography about Wild Bill Hickok. It was a little disappointing, actually. I can't exactly pinpoint why. There were moments I really enjoyed, Clavin's writing style is fun, and even though it was a subject I was interested in, it just didn't hold my attention. James Hickok (who knows where "Bill" came from, nicknames in the Old West often didn't make sense) fought in the Civil War, fought Indians, was a peace officer, and when it became clear the Old West was disappearing he joined up with his friend Buffalo Bill Cody and joined his wild west show. He hated it and quit, moving to Deadwood, where he spent his final days gambling. He was killed by a coward who approached him from behind and fired a shot, not giving Wild Bill a chance. It was a sad way for him to go out.

I really loved "Undermajordojo Minor" and "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick DeWitt, so I was looking forward to this one, too, and again, really disappointed. I know why with this one: it was just thin. The characters weren't very well fleshed out, the story wasn't executed very well. It was a great premise: Frances has lost her fortune through willful neglect. Her friend Joan offers her use of her Paris apartment, since Frances and her son Malcolm are being kicked out of their Manhattan penthouse. They take her up on it, sell everything that isn't nailed down, and sail for France. In France they meet several curious characters and have some strange things happen to them and then it ends (I don't want to spoil it, but the ending was predictable). At least it was a quick read, so I didn't feel like I wasted too much time.

Bibliophile; Cabin at the End of the World

"Bibliophile" by Jane Mount was a fun little illustrated collection of miscellaneous things book related. There were sections on cool bookstores and libraries from around the world, book recommendations from librarians and bookstore owners, even a section on authors' pets. I was glad that I've already read most of the books she talked about, otherwise my "to read" list would have grown exponentially.  It was a nice celebration of all things books.

I was disappointed by the ending of "The Cabin at the End of the World" by Paul Tremblay. It started out quite good: Eric and Andrew are vacationing in a little cabin in Maine with their daughter, Wen. Four strangers show up and break into the cabin, demanding that they choose one of their family to sacrifice in order to stave off the apocalypse. Of course they are horrified and appalled and refuse to kill one of their own. I don't want to spoil it, but it was one of those books where you're never *quite* sure what's going on, which, when it's done correctly, is great ("Gone Girl" comes to mind as a good example of this). This book had me hooked until the end, when it just sort of fizzled out. It felt like he wrote himself into a corner and didn't really know how to get out of it. It was too bad, it was a good premise.

Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood

I went through a Howard Hughes phase about 15 years ago, where I read everything I could get my hands on about the eccentric billionaire. Some were pretty good, some were awful, like Terry Moore's book that Longworth hilariously lambastes towards the end. I really enjoyed her writing style, she had a bit of snarky sarcasm that, when done correctly, is delightful. What caused Howard to go off the rails and become a recluse? Was it having to sell RKO? Was it all the car and airplane crashes? I mean, he was weird in the beginning, super possessive, spying on his girlfriends and whatnot. At any rate, he certainly led an interesting life and his death is still mysterious and sad.

Bloody Scotland; 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do

I read a fun collection of mystery short stories set in Scotland. They were all pretty good, some better than others, of course. What I found interesting was that a couple of them were about cannibalism, which isn't a topic I run across a lot in fiction.

Self-help books are like workout equipment: they only work if you actually use them. I found this book to be quite useful and full of nice, common sense tips, but of course the challenge is remembering them. I made notes of the 13 things I'm not supposed to do any more (luckily some of them I already don't do, so hooray!) and I'll try to review them and stick to it.

The Hamlet

I have a million and one library books checked out, but I got a bug to reread "The Hamlet" by the incomparable William Faulkner, and I did and I'm not sorry :) "The Hamlet" is the first of the Snopes trilogy. Frenchman's Bend is a little town (or hamlet) in Mississippi, mostly owned by Will Varner. Varner owns the store, the cotton gin, the blacksmith shop, the school, and holds mortgages on most of the farms. One day his son Jody rents out a tenant farm to a man named Ab Snopes. Will and Jody learn that Ab has a reputation for settling disputes with landlords by lighting barns on fire. In an effort to prevent that, Will offers Ab's son Flem a job in his store. Before you know it, Frenchman's Bend is overrun with Snopes relations. There are Snopeses everywhere. And then Flem marries Will's youngest daughter, Eula, cementing the alliance. It was such great fun to reread, I love how darkly funny it is.

Rust & Stardust; Bestseller

This one made me cry. I know, I read the "Real Lolita" a few weeks ago, but somehow this fictionalized version was even more heartbreaking. Sally Horner is kidnapped by Frank La Salle and taken from New Jersey to Baltimore, Texas, and finally California before Sally has a friendly neighbor call her sister and brother in law, who call the FBI and rescue her. Poor tragic girl. It was extremely well written, I thought Greenwood did an excellent job.

This book could have benefited from an editor. It was insanely repetitive. Did you know that Mary Higgins Clark's books come out around May each year? I do, because he mentioned it no less than seven times. He summarized "Misery" by Stephen King three times in three pages, using basically the same verbiage. I had to keep checking to make sure I wasn't going backwards instead of forwards. And he referred to "From a Buick 8" as "From a Buick 6". I'm sure there were many others I didn't catch. It wasn't as interesting as I hoped it would be, all it did was add to my "to read" list, which is already at approximately 8,000,000 titles and I'll have to live another 500 years to read them all. Oh well. What was interesting was how the list has changed in the last 20 years or so, with the rise of the internet. Books are no longer on the bestseller list for months at a time, they change much faster. I think (this is just my opinion, he didn't offer one) that publishing goes faster. Back in the day, an author would have to type out his manuscript and send it to the publisher, who would send it back with edits and changes, and back and forth and back and forth, and now all that's done much quicker in email.