The Price of Salt

I read this book after a listserv I subscribe to recommended great road trip books. There's nothing I love more than a good road trip, and this one sounded interesting. It was, a little too sentimental for my taste at times, but all in all not bad. Theresa is a young woman working in New York, trying to become a set designer for the theater. In the meantime, to pay the bills, she's working at a department store. She's also in a tepid relationship with a man named Richard. One busy day at work she meets an attractive woman named Carol, and her whole life changes. She and Carol start meeting up to talk, and Theresa blows off plans with Richard on the off chance Carol might call and want her to visit. Carol is in the middle of a nasty divorce, and custody of her daughter is at stake. Even so, she invites Theresa to come along on a cross country road trip. Carol's ex-husband, Harge, sends a private detective after them to gather evidence of Carol's "unnatural" affair with Theresa (it was first published in 1952). In order to not be completely cut off from her daughter, Carol agrees to cut off all ties with Theresa.

Elizabeth the Queen

Wow, I'm woefully behind on my reading! Our staff summer reading program started at work yesterday, so I better step up my game :)
This book is fairly recent, so it covered William and Kate's marriage. It was very thoughtful and very thorough, a nice tribute the world's longest reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth has such dignity and poise, I admire her. I wish I was better at not letting my emotions get the best of me. Practice! I love how all of these books I've read recently about the Queen and Prince Philip have emphasized (in a nice way) that Princess Diana was not the blameless victim so many other books (and movies, and interviews) have made her out to be. I always felt bad for Charles, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy, if not a bit dull. It's nice to get a different perspective on the whole thing.

One of Us is Lying

A review I read for this book described it as "Pretty Little Liars" meets "The Breakfast Club".
Sold!
It was so good, too, definitely did not disappoint. Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, Cooper, and Simon find themselves in detention one afternoon, for having cell phones in Mr. Avery's class. They all insist the phones found in their backpacks weren't theirs, but to no avail. A minor car crash in the parking lot distracts them momentarily, and then Simon takes a drink of water from a cup and goes into anaphylactic shock: turns out he's allergic to peanuts. Not only is his EpiPen gone, *all* the EpiPens in the nurse's office have disappeared as well. Simon dies later at the hospital, and the other four are  suspects in his suspicious death. Simon had an app where he spread school gossip, and each of the four seemingly perfect students had a big secret to hide that he was threatening to expose. Each of them had a motive. So who did it? Great twist I didn't (but probably should have) seen coming.

Battle for Beverly Hills; Richard III

Nancie Clare had a good idea for a book: to explain how celebrities like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks used their influence to keep their home town of Beverly Hills from being annexed by Los Angeles, but unfortunately, there just wasn't enough of a story there to make a book. She does explain why Beverly Hills considered being annexed (water, of course. What else in So Cal?), and how the people who worked in the new motion picture industry were figuring out how to use their celebrity status to exert influence. It's strange to imagine a time when movie picture stars *weren't* political, isn't it? While the book itself was well written, it wasn't much about BH, more about Pickford, Fairbanks, and their desire to live scandal free (I wish more modern day celebrities felt the same way). The citizens of BH voted not to be annexed, they weren't, end of story. Moving on!

What else is left to be said about King Richard III? Plenty, apparently, books keep coming out and I keep reading them. I did enjoy this one, I've read other books by Skidmore and appreciated how well written they were, and this one was no exception. He doesn't render his opinion on Richard, only gives the facts as best he can from contemporary sources at the time. One thing even Richard's detractors agreed on was that he was brave and fought valiantly at the end for his crown: he might have been able to escape to freedom, but he refused to leave the battlefield and put up a fight to the end. I don't think we'll ever know the truth about his nephews, though.

Crooked Staircase; Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage

Dean Koontz continues Jane Hawk's search for the masterminds behind the program that killed her husband in "The Crooked Staircase". It's hard to say too much without spoiling the story, but there were some sad deaths and I'm worried about Jane's little boy, Travis. I feel for the poor woman, she must be exhausted, being on the run, never having a moment to feel safe. And based on how the book ended (the next one is expected out in October) Jane still has many dangers ahead.

Brandreth has known the Prince and Queen for awhile, although he's "closer" to Prince Philip (he's adamant that he's not really a friend), so the book really did feel like it was more about Philip than Elizabeth, but it was still very good. I think the writers of "The Crown" took careful notes when reading this, I felt like we've seen much of what he wrote about in the first two series. He touched on both their backgrounds, their courtship (such as it was), engagement, wedding, and early life together. Once Elizabeth became Queen things naturally changed, but Brandreth is firm in his belief that they have a good, loving marriage. It certainly does seem that way. It makes me sad how frail and old Prince Philip looked at Harry's wedding a few weeks ago, he is 96 after all, and I'm afraid he won't be around much longer.

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 :)