full title;
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

from amazon;

Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war. Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home. Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.

This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.

really only interesting if you're a fan of downton abbey, or have an interest in english houses of the time period. or even egyptian archeology, king tut's bomb in particular. because almina's husband, the 5^th earl of carnarvon, bankrolled the excavation & there are a couple of chapters that deal with that.

the full title is When Normal Blew Up: The Story of the People Who Died and the People Who Lived On

from amazon;

In 1967, in the small town of Circleville, Ohio, a man walked into an old-fashioned drug store on a busy Saturday and laid a smoking package on the pharmacy counter in the back. He shouted for everyone to leave, he had a bomb.

Five people died that day and the mystery surrounding this event was never fully solved until 50 years later, Joni Foster went looking for the details. Over nine months, she would interview first responders and survivors to hear stories about what happened and how they and the town moved forward. The event was so shocking, many of those closest to the event had never spoken about their trauma, even to their own families.

The story is a tragedy, a history lesson on the slow, painful emancipation of women, and ultimately a love story to the families trying to live normal lives.

an interesting look at a tragedy in a small town.
the author (a child of one of the victims) does a good job of detailing the before, during and after of what she calls the event, and trying to dissect the motivation behind it.

Queens and Pirates by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio

Girl Genius book 18

And the adventure continues! Being thrown out of Paris after all they did! A trip to England! A queen! Europans of piractical descent and pride in their ethnic heritage! Bears! Fish! Mad Scientists!  Cats! Murder, intrigue, and parties! Gil admitting that Tarvek will act in Agatha's best interest! And lots of airships and submarines!

Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio

Girl Genius Novels book 4. Spoilers for the earlier books/webcomic of the same storyline.

( Read more... )

from amazon;

When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into one of Hollywood's most beloved stars.

more kind & gentle than shockaholic, this book is mainly "i accidentally starred in one of the biggest movies of all time & (sort of) accidentally had an affair with my marred co-star.

and you'd think that the behind-the-scenes crew would want to stay close to home & have dinner with their families when they could. but no, most would rather be on location, getting on location Per diem & trying to hook-up with the locals.

it also goes into how weird it is to make personal appearances & sign stuff (which she called "lap dances") and was honest in saying she was doing it for the money.

R.I.P ms. fisher