File M for Murder, by Miranda James

I believe I came across this in my reading for work; the author and I are on the same listserv. It's not bad. Quite silly, in parts, but fun. The main character is a cataloger at a small Southern college. His daughter and a guest professor are friends, and the prof ends up dead with said daughter as the mostly likely murderer. And so it goes.

The Counterfeit Crank, by Edward Marston

The troupe has a new author, as their regular writer Edmund Hoode has come down with a mysterious illness.

The Cutting Room, by Laurence Klavan (on CD)

Dumb.

Dumb dumb dumb, and the reader didn't do much for me either.

The Time of My Life, by Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi

Not exactly literary, but this memoir is certainly as honest as you would expect. Interesting, not completely forgettable, and kind of depressing knowing that Swayze didn't make it much longer that the day the book hit the stores.

A Prairie Tale, by Melissa Gilbert

Classic Hollywood memoir. Rather disappointing, actually, due to lackluster writing and the number of times she talks about the same things without saying much. I had forgotten that she and Rob Lowe were an item in the 80s.

But, the inside stuff about her career is mildly interesting, and the news that she can't (or at least couldn't) stand Melissa Sue Anderson was delightfully gossipy.

Funny part: the list of suggested book titles from her friends.

The Bawdy Basket, by Edward Marston

So, Edmund falls deeply in love with a wealthy woman who wants him to quit the theatre, Nicholas gets involved in helping to redeem the name of another player's father who was hanged for a murder he didn't commit, the King's Men nearly disband due to their patron's bankruptcy, and I still don't know what the hell a bawdy basket means in slang!

Other than that, quite a good book. Lots of plotlines and good new characters.

Up Till Now : The Autobiography, by William Shatner

In the Frame : My Life in Words and Pictures, by Helen Mirren

I fell in love with Helen Mirren during the first Prime Suspect series. She was the first flawed, not-young, not-perky, fallible good police officer I ever saw on TV. Yes, I loved Cagney & Lacey, but they really weren't real. Tennison was treated badly, drank too much, bitched at people, made political errors with her career, and was still a damn fine detective.

Mirren hasn't gone wrong since then, either. As for this book, I loved the chapters about her childhood--her grandfather was an officer in the Russian army who was trapped in England when the Revolution broke out. Her childhood was very boring and simple. Once she gets into her acting career, I sort of lost interest, frankly, and looked at the pictures with more focus than I read.

I bet she's a lot of fun to hang out with.