Lock Every Door; People v Ferlinghetti

Two very different books, but both were good. "Lock Every Door" by Riley Sager is his third book, and it did not disappoint. Jules has recently been laid off from her crappy job and came home to find her boyfriend with another woman, so she moved out. Crashing on her friend Chloe's couch, she scours the want ads looking for another job and responds to one for an apartment sitter. She ends up at an exclusive New York City apartment building known as the Bartholomew. For Jules, it's the chance of a lifetime: not only will she have a beautiful place to live for three months, she'll be paid $1,000 a week to do so. Sure, the rules are a little disturbing and draconian, but she's desperate.
Right after she moves in, Jules realizes the Bartholomew isn't what it seems. For one thing, apartment sitters disappear at an alarming rate, never to be heard from again. And they're all people like her: young, single, without families, not likely to be missed right away if they disappear. Sager is great at placing red herrings, I really thought I had it figured out. I was wrong, of course, but the ending was so much worse (and so much more believable) than I had guessed.

Back in 1955, Allen Ginsberg wrote "Howl", and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, agreed to publish it under his imprint. "Howl" was unlike anything published before, and Ferlinghetti, along with one of the clerks in his store, was arrested by the police for selling obscene material. The book told the story of the publication and arrest and trial. It was very short (barely 100 pages), but interesting. The rest of the book was the judge's written decision in the case (I didn't read it, it was too full of legalese and I couldn't understand it) and a published transcript of an interview Ferlinghetti did on the 50th anniversary of the case back in 2007. The radio station wanted to play a recording of Ginsberg reading his epic poem (since Ginsberg died in 1990 he wasn't around to read it in person), but the FCC wouldn't allow it. I did read the interview, in which Ferlinghetti lamented how as a society we seemed to moving backwards instead of forwards when it comes to free speech.

I will leave you with a quote from Ginsberg: "Whoever controls the media, controls the culture".

Queen of the World

Not a traditional chronological biography of the longest reigning monarch in the world, but rather a look at different aspects of her reign: the trips she's made, the world leaders she's entertained at Buckingham Palace, the family who have supported her along the way, and the role of the monarchy in an ever changing world. It was a bit dull in places, to be honest (I should care more about certain things, but I just don't), but otherwise pretty good. 

Man with the Candy; Garden of Shadows; Mycroft and Sherlock: the Empty Birdcage; Forbidden Hollywood

I had never heard of Dean Corll until I watched "Mindhunter" on Netflix and they mentioned him. It's amazing there is really nothing written about him, I ended up buying this book off Amazon, and it wasn't terribly good, but better than nothing, I guess. Corll lived in Houston and murdered at least 30 young boys before one of his victims killed him. He owned his own candy manufacturing business (hence the name of the book), and he lured a lot of kids that way. 

After reading the atrocity of "Beneath the Attic", I wanted to reread the real thing. There were still some glaring inconsistencies, since the ghostwriter had taken over at this point, but it wasn't nearly as bad.

I loved the third installment in Abdul-Jabbar's Mycroft and Sherlock series. Mycroft goes to Vienna to have his heart repaired, and upon arriving back to England he is visited by Deshi Hai Lin, father to Ai Lin, the Chinese woman Mycroft developed feelings for in the second book. Lin asks Mycroft a big favor: his future son in law, the man who is marrying Ai Lin, has been arrested by the Chinese government and charged with treason. Lin would like Mycroft's help rescuing him. Mycroft agrees to do what he can. Meanwhile, Sherlock has gotten himself expelled from school so he can investigate a string of murders committed by the Fire Four Eleven killer. Mycroft puts his foot down when his brother tells him he doesn't want to return to school, but when the Queen herself asks him to look into them, he reluctantly agrees to allow his younger brother to play detective. It was super clever and tons of fun, and I love the developing sibling rivalry between Mycroft and Sherlock. 

"Forbidden Hollywood" was a fun look at pre-Code movies and how risque they were. It had a lot of gorgeous black and white stills of major stars from the 1920s and 30s.

Bookish Life of Nina Hill; Beneath the Attic

I really wanted to like this one. It sounded right up my alley: introvert Nina works in a cute indie bookstore and has a core group of friends she plays trivia with. They compete at bars on trivia nights, and Nina starts noticing Tom, a player on another team. After a few false starts, they start dating. But Nina also finds out she's named in the will of the father she never knew, and also has a bunch of relatives she's never met who aren't any too happy to have her taking a chunk out of the inheritance pie. Nina feels overwhelmed, like her life is spinning out of control. The story itself was all right, if not really contrived and totally predictable, but her tone killed me. It was entirely too cutesy (she described the neighborhood Nina lives in on page 2 as being "hella cute" and I knew I should have closed the book then and there. I was not wrong). Adults don't talk like that, unless they're being ironic. It made me feel old and out of touch and unhappy with my own pathetic life, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted. Where are the books about nice introvert girls who never end up with a man because all she meets are commitment phobic assholes? I'd read that.
Anyway. Moving on.

"Beneath the Attic" was atrociously awful. Just...ugh. Corrine Dixon is a 16 year old flirt who thinks she's wise beyond her years and can tangle with a grown man and come out ahead. Wrong. So very wrong. She meets Garland Foxworth at a party and they are instantly attracted to each other. Corrine visits an elderly relative who lives near Foxworth Hall and ends up being raped by Garland and falls pregnant (I'm not spoiling anything: it's on the dust jacket, not to mention it was totally predictable). The book ended on the eve of their rushed wedding.
Okay, let's break this down. As an avid reader of the original "Flowers in the Attic" series, anyone who has read and paid the *slightest* bit of attention to "Garden of Shadows" knows Garland was a NICE guy. MALCOLM was the jerk who was obsessed with his mother and liked to force himself on women. It was like the author (whoever is churning this trash out now, I don't think it's still Andrew Neiderman) was merging Malcolm and Garland into the same person. It would have been so much better to see how Garland was truly in love with Corrine and spoiled her and how she treated him like garbage and finally left him when Malcolm was five. You know, like how V.C. ANDREWS wrote it. I'm mad, in case you couldn't tell :) It's not like these books have been great lately, but still. Come on. This was just terrible.

Phantom Prince; Drive Thru Dreams

Elizabeth Kendall, who is actually Elizabeth Kloepfer, first published her account of her life with serial killer Ted Bundy in the early 1980s. Apparently she is updating it, with the book slated to come out next year. She told a compelling story of falling in love with the charming Bundy and how she ended up coming to discover he was actually a very bad man. It was interesting to hear her side of their relationship.

I was disappointed with "Drive Thru Dreams". A couple of my coworkers read it and raved about it, but I thought it was just okay. Chandler gives a brief overview of fast food restaurants as a whole and how they started and their impact on so many different aspects of modern society. I very, very rarely eat fast food (I'm vegan, so my options are pretty limited, although it is nice that more places are offering meat alternatives), but I can understand the appeal. I remember when I was a kid my Dad tried to convince his parents that we could eat at fast food places for less money than it cost to buy food and prepare it at home. Even as a kid I knew that was ridiculous, but he gave it a good shot.

For the Love of Books; Bright Lights, Big City

"For the Love of Books" was such a fun, quick read, just little snippets of book history neatly packaged up. 

I've been meaning to read "Bright Lights, Big City" forever, it always appears on those lists of books for Gen Xers to read (along with Bret Easton Ellis and Douglas Coupland, two authors I also enjoy). This one was pretty good, it was very short and went quick. It was also written in the second person, and I don't think I've read an adult book written in the second person before, so that was interesting. The unnamed protagonist spends his days drudging along in a fact checking section of a magazine and his nights snorting cocaine and drinking with his friend. It was written in the 1980s, but it really didn't feel dated (unless you count the lack of cell phones). 

Rosie Result; American Predator

The third Rosie and Don Tillman book was pretty good, it made me laugh. Don and Rosie have moved back to Australia with their ten year old son Hudson, so Rosie can have the chance at her dream job. Hudson is a lot like Don and is having trouble fitting in at school. Don decides to make it his mission to help Hudson, with hilarious results.

I have to admit, I was disappointed with "American Predator". I wanted to like it, and it got better, but I almost didn't finish it. Israel Keyes was arrested and charged with murdering a young woman in Alaska. During the course of his interrogation, the police and FBI discovered he may have killed more. How many more is impossible to say. Keyes had very specific demands: he wanted to be executed as quickly as possible, and he wanted his name kept out of the press, mostly for his daughter's sake. They were able to keep his name out of the ongoing investigations into some of the murders they thought he might have committed, but they took too long to execute him: he committed suicide. He stopped talking to investigators, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. There isn't a lot of information about him: his parents had him and his siblings off the grid and lived a nomadic life. He was a very creepy guy, though.