Gone with the Windsors- Laurie Graham

Fictional accounts about real life events are always amusing.  In Gone with the Windsors, readers are privy to the diary of Maybell, the best friend of Wally Warfield (the reason why Prince Edward abdicated the throne prior to World War II).  Maybell and her diary are fiction- the drama and royal disaster that unfolds are most definitely not.  I always appreciate it when a book makes me do research about its characters, and the Wally-Edward fiasco is compelling.  Maybell is fantastically dense and out of touch with reality; she is disappointed when a fashionable man doesn't marry her (turns out he's gay), she calls her little sister stupid due to her inability to speak correctly (turns out she's deaf), ands he talksabout how much she enjoy's Hitler and Mussolini's company and that they are both nice men.  Plus, there was a small cameo with characters from another book- It Seemed Important at the Time, by Gloria Vanderbilt- another surprise.  And who doesn't like reading that the current Queen of England was a serious and precocious little girl?  Without giving away too much, the book imagines a frivolous, pre-war rich life of the royal families and their hanger-ons.

3 1/2 bookworms.

All I could Bare: My Life in the Strip clubs of Gay Washington DC- Craig Seymour

I have weird tastes sometimes, and i'm fascinated by things that explain situations I will never experience- hence my intense love for The Deadliest Catch and the reason I wanted to learn about gay strip clubs in DC.  I was surprised that I coud find something to relate to - the forced gentrification of their neighborhood.  I've lived in New York City since 2000, and I remember going to large, underground, out of control superclubs that were in warehouses and on the most deserted streets of Manhattan.  Ten years later, that type of scne has all but disappeared and the warehouses have been chopped up into trendy boutiques and cookie cutter lounges.  Clearly, I miss the good ol' days.  Anyways, I realled liked this full disclosure memoir.  I appreciated that he talked about the different types of strippers, focused on the strain on his personal relationships, and highlighted the bizarre friendships between strippers and clients.  I was really surprised with how quickly and easily 'the line' was crossed by the writer; I kept thinking "he's not going through with this, he can't go through with this!" and he totally would.  I also liked that the lifestyle was not glamourized, even though it was very clear that Seymour initially thought that the whole subculture was fabulous and would help him become a local celebrity.  Overall, a fascinating read!

3 1/2 bookworms.

The Catastrophist- Lawrence Douglas Kingsley

I really need to stop reading books about men having existential mid-life crises because I just cannot sympathize.  I truly cannot, especially when a sudden shift in personality results in harming (physically or emotionally) their family.  Which is why I found this book difficult to swallow.  The protagonist is an up and coming professor whose slide into chaos begins when his wife announces that she's pregnant.  From there, various professional events take him back and forth from the US to Europe where he just makes poor decision after poor decision.  And his reasoning is awful too- for someone so smart, he explains away thoroughly bone-headed choices with pitifully weak reason.  At times, I was convinced he wasn't thinking at all (which makes him the same as the protagonist from Bergdorf Blondes). The book is actually fantastically written, with great descriptions of everything from scenery to the protagonist's emotional collapse.

2 bookworms- This review sounds like I hated the book and I did labor through it, but the writing was amazing enough that I think you should check out this book if you don't mind the topic.

Bergdorf Blondes- Plum Sykes

When this book first came out, all hell broke loose, despite the fact that the chick-lit phenomenon had already established itself.  The story- blonde, beautiful, and rich girls in New York City determined to have the best  clothes and the perfect boyfriend- quickly becoming the very definition of this new genre. Yet this is hardly a new story.  A case can be made that Breakfast at Tiffany's, Valley of the Dolls, and Gone with the Wind (among others) all influence Bergdorf Blondes.  So why is this book so refreshingly funny?  I would argue it's the protagonis, who charmingly refers to herself as moi.  She is ditsy and flippant and a thousand other synonyms that indicate she's not the brightest crayon in the Crayola box and the best part is that she is blissfully unaware of this.  She's wealthy and beautify and many things we mere mortals envy,but at the same time, she is just a total mess  that humanizes her and actually makes you like her.  You can't help but root for her  to pull through when she tries to commit suicide by swallowing a few Advils or when she is in a particularly awful relationship with a particularly awful man.  Her entire world is inhabited with people like her: friends use a book club to host a dinner party, her other wants her to marry up, and charity galas are never about the charity.  At the same time, I kept thinking, "this girl is an idiot.  How can anyone ever possibly think this is a good idea?" Sadly, I know people like this in real life, so I can't even claim it's a plot device.  All in all, Bergdorf Blondes is a fun read with a warm and fuzzy happy ending- perfect for a lazy weekend in spring under the sun!

4 bookworms

An amusing anecdote

* So I do not want to get into the habit of writing personal stories on here, nor do I expect to.  But this was too amusing to not mention here. 

Yesterday I was on the subway and I looked down to see what the woman sitting in front of me was reading.  Imagine how happy I was to see a familiar hardback paper cover:  A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer!  I really liked that book, so I was happy to see someone else reading it.  As I tried to figure out what section she was reading (yes, I am a nosy person on the subway), I noticed some discrepancies.  Primarily, her book had graphs and pictures.  There are no pictures in A Prisoner of Birth.  And then I looked closer at the text that she was actually reading... and saw one heading.

The benefits of Kegel's.

Needless to say, she was most definitely not reading the book that I thought she was reading.  Good thing I investigated before I told her something like "That book is fantastic!" and then tried talking plot points with her...