Recent Reads

My Darling Clementine:  The Story of Lady Churchill by Jack Fishman.  This is one of those personal biographies that is short on facts and is supposed to give a general overview of the subjects life.  I have no problems with that style of biography, but I did have a problem with this particular book.  Fishman clearly thinks that Winston Churchill was the bestest thing ever and the book is as much about Winston as it is about Clementine. Her life before her marriage is barely mentioned as if she only existed as his wife. During WWII she worked with the Red Cross, spearheaded efforts to send relief to the Soviet Union, and even traveled there to see how that aid was being used.  All of this pales in comparison to her most important war work of seeing that Winston was fed and got a nap each day.  Women clearly only exist to amuse and support men.  In the chapter on the Churchill's children Fishman includes a story of the one daughter getting spanked at a serviceman's club by an American GI.  Of course the silly girl deserved it for daring to complain that the GI was stepping on her feet.  In the end I learned very little from this book apart from the fact the author was an ass with a low opinion of women.

Without You:  A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent by Anthony Rapp.  Speaking of authors who are asses, here's another one.  Rapp starred in the Broadway and movie versions of Rent.  Despite the books title, there was very little about Rent in here.  The main gist of the story is that while he was finding fame and success in NY, Rapp had to keep flying to Chicago to be with his dying mother.  These trips were less about giving her aid and comfort than about his need to have her accept and discuss his homosexuality.   Here's a thought, maybe her not wanting to talk about his love life had less to do with his being gay and more to do with the fact distance kept her from knowing his boyfriends or the fact some parents do not want details from their children.  Rapp gives graphic details of his teenage fumblings in the book, and if he is willing to way over share with strangers, I shudder to think what he would tell close family.  He expects his boyfriends to give him 100% of their attention and understanding while not reciprocating.  I know actors tend to be narcissistic by nature, but Rapp's complete self-involvement is a bit much.

Cabbages and Kings by O. Henry. I've started working my way through O. Henry's complete works.  The first book in the collection I bought was a collection of his short stories.  The second was Cabbages and Kings, his only novel.  Set in a banana republic (and coining that term) it features a large cast of Americans and natives trying to make do in Central America.  It's delightfully twisting and the ending made me want to reread it to better see how he drew all the plot lines together.  I settled for rereading the early chapter that set up the end.  This is where Kindle for PC comes in handy since it is much easier to skim back and forth through an ebook through that than on my Kindle. 

Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak by Lela E. Rogers.  Everything about this book's design screams that it was written by Ginger Rogers.  In fact, it is part of a YA series from the 1940s  where actresses embarked on Nancy Drew type adventures.  In some, the actress was herself.  Others, like this one, had a main character with the name and looks of the actress who was not the actress herself.  In this case, Ginger Rogers worked the night switchboard at a hotel.  It was written by Ginger's mother and the strongest scenes were the ones involving the Ginger character's relationship with her mother.  Other than that, it's not good.  One fun thing about reading old books is seeing old technology.  Before reading this, I didn't know jukeboxes were once controlled by switchboard operators (interesting article on that here).

101 Things You Didn't Know About Ireland by Ryan Hackney and others.  I picked this one up when it was free for Kindle last week.  The title suggests it will be a collection of trivia.  Instead it is an overview of Irish history and customs.  It wasn't what I expected, but I found it interesting as a primer on the country.