Cleopatra's Daughter

If there's one subject I love reading about almost as much as the Tudors, it's Queen Cleopatra. Michelle Moran writes of what happened to her daughter, Cleopatra Selene, after Cleopatra and Marc Antony kill themselves in Egypt and Octavian takes their children to Rome as prisoners. It was very well told and entertaining, and seemed fairly accurate, historically (alas, I do not know enough about the time period to say for sure). I feel a Cleopatra kick coming on!

Open

Andre Agassi's bio was getting such great buzz I decided to sign up on the waiting list and get it. Several weeks later, and it was worth the wait. I like tennis, but I don't really follow it and I don't understand all the terminology, but that didn't detract from the story at all. It wasn't nearly as scandalous as some recent bios I've enjoyed (Mackenzie Phillips' "High on Arrival" comes to mind) but it was entertaining and fun. The only thing I wish he'd handled a bit better was discussing his ill-fated relationship and subsequent marriage to Brooke Shields. He wasn't flat out mean or nasty, I just didn't like his characterization of it. Other than that, it was terrifically inspiring.

The Lady in the Tower

I love Alison Weir's histories and biographies. She's such a great historian and researcher and her books are always very enjoyable. This one was no different. It examined in great detail the events surrounding the fall of Queen Anne Boleyn. The only thing I can't agree with Weir on is Henry VIII (oh, and Richard III). She is adamant that we can't judge him by today's standards, and I know she has a point, but seriously, the guy was scum. I dislike him more for what he did to Catherine of Aragon, but poor Anne didn't fare any better. Still, Weir really did her homework and while there really wasn't anything new for me in this (but I read so much about the Tudors that it's very nearly impossible to give me anything new) I still enjoyed it.

Capote in Kansas

I love Truman Capote and I love (Nelle) Harper Lee. I love the idea of a book examining their relationship, especially during the time when they were in Kansas together researching "In Cold Blood". Kim Powers doesn't really do that in his book, however. It was kind of disappointing. Capote and Lee seemed flat and boring and I'm not sure he ever really got his point across. The blurb said it was a "ghost story" and it would examine the "truth" behind Lee and Capote's rift. It didn't, and the ghosts were unconvincing.

Tokyo Vice

Jake Adelstein moved to Japan and, on a whim, decided to become a reporter, despite his lack of Japanese writing skills. He spent years on the beat, where he made friends with cops and other reporters as well as members of the yakuza, the Japanese form of the mafia. He ends up putting his own life as well as the lives of family and friends in danger when he exposes some of the worst human trafficking practices of the yakuza. For anyone interested in the cultural differences between America and Japan and how this affects journalism and crime, this is a definite must-read. It was very entertaining and heart breakingly disturbing.

Generation A

Douglas Coupland is a strange bird. I've read everything he's written, and some of it I like, some of it I don't really care for, but I've never hated anything he's written. It's always interesting, I'll say that for him. "Generation A" fell into the not crazy about it category. A group of young adults in the not so distant future are stung by bees in five different locations throughout the world, after bees have become extinct due to the new wonder drug everyone is taking to make them feel disconnected from the world. I know there's a bigger message here, etc., metaphors for the state of society today and whatnot, but I just want a good story, so I don't pay attention to things like that. I'd rather reread "Microserfs", his first novel.

Ayn Rand and the World She Made

Almost as fascinating as the brilliant author's fiction, this book by Anne C. Heller took an in-depth look at Ayn Rand, her followers, her falling out with her self-proclaimed intellectual heir, Nathaniel Branden, and her long marriage to Frank O'Connor. It was a true page turner, which is hard to accomplish in a nonfiction book. I really loved it, and I'm dying now to read and re-read more of Rand's books.

The Informers

I saw the movie a few months ago, only because Billy Bob Thornton was in it, and even his presence couldn't make the movie more palatable. However, the book by Bret Easton Ellis was really quite good. I like his writing style, how bleak and stark everything is. He was able to capture the ugliness that was early 1980s L.A. without the repetition that plagued one of his other books, "Less Than Zero". The book is really about anything, other than relaying a certain feeling about a time and a place, which he does quite well.

Breathless and Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America

"Breathless" by Dean Koontz was kind of forgettable and weird. The storyline and characters just seemed old, recycled stuff from better books.
"Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America" by Elizabeth Fraterrigo was very interesting. It examined the rise of Hugh Hefner's magazine and the affect it had on post-World War II America and feminism, how it was good for women as well as men, why it declined during the 1970s, in the heart of the sexual revolution, and why now today some of its biggest fans are young women.