Kevin's Updates en-US Sun, 22 Sep 2024 06:08:01 -0700 60 Kevin's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus8436352940 Sun, 22 Sep 2024 06:08:01 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin has read 'Inside the Hollywood Closet']]> /review/show/6867166939 Inside the Hollywood Closet by Boze Hayleigh Kevin has read Inside the Hollywood Closet by Boze Hayleigh
]]> GiveawayRequest592025574 Thu, 06 Jun 2024 12:43:48 -0700 <![CDATA[<a href="/user/show/6112133-kevin">Kevin</a> entered a giveaway]]> /giveaway/show/390759-murder-your-employer Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes ]]> Review6472895655 Wed, 01 May 2024 14:35:23 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin added 'A Corpse in the Castle']]> /review/show/6472895655 A Corpse in the Castle by Richard Tyler Jordan Kevin gave 5 stars to A Corpse in the Castle (A Polly Pepper Mystery Book 5) by Richard Tyler Jordan
bookshelves: cozy, cozy-mystery, murder-she-wrote
After over a decade, Jordan (Set Sail for Murder) has resurrected his delightfully comedic amateur sleuth Polly Pepper for her fifth cozy mystery.

Polly, a raunchier Jessica Fletcher mixed with a more tart-tongued Carol Burnett and boozy Edina Monsoon, won awards decades ago for her variety TV series. But now the TV star (who cautiously admits to being “sixtysomething�) spends most of her time sipping champagne with her domestic companion Tiara and doting on her gay son Tim.

This new outing finds Polly inheriting a castle in Abbots Clover, England. With dreams of turning it into a lucrative tourist trap, Polly, Tim, and Tiara travel abroad to inspect the place. When the castle’s disagreeable housekeeper is discovered dead in the kitchen’s larder, Polly is certain she’s been murdered and begins investigating the village’s inhabitants for the culprit.

Suspects include the castle’s hunky gardener, a gossip-loving vicar, and a local author whose PEYTON PLACE–like novel is a bit too closely based on local residents. The castle has hidden passageways to be navigated, stolen jewelry to be recovered, and even a nosy ghost.

Filled with bright and sarcastic dialogue and smart plotting, this clever cozy is an excellent reintroduction to Polly Pepper. ]]> ReadStatus7447090216 Fri, 12 Jan 2024 13:22:56 -0800 <![CDATA[Kevin is currently reading 'The House of Hidden Meanings']]> /review/show/6160903719 The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul Kevin is currently reading The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul
]]> ReadStatus6882842633 Sun, 06 Aug 2023 21:00:01 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin wants to read 'A Haunting on the Hill']]> /review/show/5749187425 A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand Kevin wants to read A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand
]]> Review5132867343 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:43:32 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin added 'The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece']]> /review/show/5132867343 The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks Kevin gave 3 stars to The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece (Hardcover) by Tom Hanks
Actor Hanks’s sprawling and engaging debut novel (following his 2017 short story collection "Uncommon Type") takes fictional worldbuilding to a new level.

Ostensibly a Hollywood novel about the daunting process of developing, casting, and shooting a major motion picture (under COVID-precautionary guidelines), the book and its characters are bathed in so much backstory and idiosyncratic detail that Hanks often adds footnotes at the bottom of the page to squeeze in even more minutia.

Sprawling across seven decades, the novel opens in 1947 with World War II veteran Bob Falls visiting his artistic nephew Robby Anderson, encouraging his drawing talents, and then abruptly abandoning him. When Falls resurfaces in the 1970s, Robby (now drawing under the pseudonym TREV-VORR) creates an underground comic book based on his uncle, who used a flamethrower during the war. Decades later, Robby’s comic is turned into a big-budget, high-profile superhero movie.

Hanks’s attention to detail and quirky, full-blooded characters make this novel an ideal choice for fans of both James A. Michener and John Irving. It’s an old-fashioned “big� novel that book clubs will love getting lost inside. ]]> Review5301953037 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:42:33 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin added 'Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's Greatest Love Affair']]> /review/show/5301953037 Bogie & Bacall by William J. Mann Kevin gave 5 stars to Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's Greatest Love Affair (Hardcover) by William J. Mann
This revelatory dual chronicle of the lives of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is the definitive biography fans have been waiting for and deserve.

By stripping away the barnacles of fake Bogart lore that vintage publicity agents created to carefully manufacture a he-man image, Mann (“Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn� and “How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood�) unveils a fresh, complex, and empathetic portrait. Readers learn about Bogart’s affluent but rocky childhood, raised by a drug-addicted physician father and an affection-withholding mother.

Mann also sorts through decades of erroneous mythmaking that cast Bogart’s first three wives as villains and alcoholics to better serve the propaganda of his loving but idealized fourth marriage to Bacall, who was 25 years his junior.

Mann treats Bogart’s high-functioning alcohol addiction with sympathy and nuance but illustrates how it controlled his life.

This sweeping biography tilts its focus a little more toward Bogart (1899�1957), but Bacall (1924�2014) is an integral half of this dual biography, including her affair with Frank Sinatra and her second marriage to Jason Robards.

This magnificent biography is splendidly written, reads fast, and is impossible to put down.
]]> Review5301953037 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:42:16 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin added 'Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's Greatest Love Affair']]> /review/show/5301953037 Bogie & Bacall by William J. Mann Kevin gave 5 stars to Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's Greatest Love Affair (Hardcover) by William J. Mann
This revelatory dual chronicle of the lives of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is the definitive biography fans have been waiting for and deserve.

By stripping away the barnacles of fake Bogart lore that vintage publicity agents created to carefully manufacture a he-man image, Mann (“Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn� and “How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood�) unveils a fresh, complex, and empathetic portrait. Readers learn about Bogart’s affluent but rocky childhood, raised by a drug-addicted physician father and an affection-withholding mother.

Mann also sorts through decades of erroneous mythmaking that cast Bogart’s first three wives as villains and alcoholics to better serve the propaganda of his loving but idealized fourth marriage to Bacall, who was 25 years his junior.

Mann treats Bogart’s high-functioning alcohol addiction with sympathy and nuance but illustrates how it controlled his life.

This sweeping biography tilts its focus a little more toward Bogart (1899�1957), but Bacall (1924�2014) is an integral half of this dual biography, including her affair with Frank Sinatra and her second marriage to Jason Robards.

This magnificent biography is splendidly written, reads fast, and is impossible to put down.
]]> Review5383274515 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:35:40 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin added 'And Don't F&%k It Up: An Oral History of RuPaul's Drag Race']]> /review/show/5383274515 And Don't F&%k It Up by María Elena Fernández Kevin gave 5 stars to And Don't F&%k It Up: An Oral History of RuPaul's Drag Race (The First Ten Years) by María Elena Fernández
Fernandez’s oral history of the first 10 seasons of RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE is an immensely entertaining look at how a little TV show shot in a basement studio went from a cult favorite to a taste-making cultural juggernaut and global success.

This epic compilation offers first-hand observations from virtually all of the first 10 seasons� contestants as well as RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Ronan Farrow, and others. Each season gets its own exhaustive chapter explaining the science of casting as well as eyewitness memories of meltdowns, catfights, conspiracy theories, and camaraderies.

As Bianca Del Rio notes, “It’s a pressure cooker of a show. It makes people crazy.� Discover the origin story of the phrase “She’d already done had herses�; Sasha Velour’s alternative plans for her iconic rose petal reveal; and the real story behind Willam being kicked off season four.

Loaded with heartbreaking and hilarious first-person confessions, this book’s a winner, baby! DRAG RACE fans and pop culture buffs will find this show bible irresistible.
]]> Review5383274515 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:35:29 -0700 <![CDATA[Kevin added 'And Don't F&%k It Up: An Oral History of RuPaul's Drag Race']]> /review/show/5383274515 And Don't F&%k It Up by María Elena Fernández Kevin gave 5 stars to And Don't F&%k It Up: An Oral History of RuPaul's Drag Race (The First Ten Years) by María Elena Fernández
Fernandez’s oral history of the first 10 seasons of RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE is an immensely entertaining look at how a little TV show shot in a basement studio went from a cult favorite to a taste-making cultural juggernaut and global success.

This epic compilation offers first-hand observations from virtually all of the first 10 seasons� contestants as well as RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Ronan Farrow, and others. Each season gets its own exhaustive chapter explaining the science of casting as well as eyewitness memories of meltdowns, catfights, conspiracy theories, and camaraderies.

As Bianca Del Rio notes, “It’s a pressure cooker of a show. It makes people crazy.� Discover the origin story of the phrase “She’d already done had herses�; Sasha Velour’s alternative plans for her iconic rose petal reveal; and the real story behind Willam being kicked off season four.

Loaded with heartbreaking and hilarious first-person confessions, this book’s a winner, baby! DRAG RACE fans and pop culture buffs will find this show bible irresistible.
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