Lost Ecstasy by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Kay Dowling - young, lovely, and spirited - was used to luxury, expensive pleasure, and the gentlemen who could afford them.  But when she accompanied her wealthy family to her late grandfather's ranch, it was ordinary Tom McNair who caught her eye.

But when Tom was arrested for a not-so-ordinary murder, Kay's life was suddenly turned upside down.  No one but Kay believed in his innocence.  And now someone was out to silence Tom - or take revenge; Kay wasn't quite sure which.  But she was determined to help Tom prove himself.  Even if she had to put her own life in danger to do it...

First off, this synopsis, other than the bare bones of it, has nothing to do with the book.  It makes Kay sound like a floozy, flitting from man to man until she meets Tom McNair.  Since there is only one other man in her life, her father's secretary, that even has a remote claim on her, she doesn't really seem the type of girl to flirt up a storm.

It also makes the murder and the revenge scheme on Tom sound like the main plot points of the book, which is so far off the mark, it makes me laugh even thinking about it.  First off, it wasn't a murder, it was a ranch hand shooting at an Indian who was stealing cattle.  That same Indian took months to die, and then it was from the bad care he got, not the gunshot.  Now the revenge part is true.  Another Indian follows him across the country, after he's joined a traveling circus/wild west show.  That same Indian does try to kill him, but Kay's life is never in danger.  All told, I think those two aspect of the book took up maybe a third of the pages.

The other two thirds is taken up with this rather bizarre romance between Kay and Tom.  It's so filled with self doubts on both sides, that I wanted to pull their hair out in frustration.  They both go back and forth on whether or not they like each other, or are right together.  Then when her father has enough of it, he packs the family up and goes back to New York.  Tom follows a little later, once he is about to be arrested for the shooting, and while at first it seems they will get together, there is a misunderstanding and he goes back home.  Once there he joins a the traveling shows, ends up back in New York, where our two love birds meet up once again, and decide to get married on the spot.

The action then takes us back to Wyoming, where the spoiled little rich girl is trying her best to be a rancher's wife, in what her family thinks are squalled conditions.  Needless to say, the rest of the book details a fight, her moving back, him pouting and feeling bad for himself, and joining the traveling show once again.  He just happens to end back up in New York.  They just happen to run into each other again and after some fighting, decide to live happily ever after.  And he still refuses to take her families money.  The End.

So if you couldn't tell, this is not my favorite Mary Roberts Rinehart book.  It has elements of two genres, western and romance, that I really don't care that much for.  To tell you the truth, if this had been set outside of a western setting, I may have been able to deal with the almost pure romance aspect of it more than I was able to.  The combination of the two, just didn't do anything for me.  There was mystery and intrigue, but not near enough of it for me.  Not even close to the amounts I've come to expect from her books.  I have a feeling this should not be shelved within the mystery section, but should be regulated to the romance department.

Challenges: VM (Yankee Doodle Dandy)

Born on a Moutain Top: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier by Bob Thompson (Plus Giveaway)

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Pioneer.  Congressman.  Martyr of the Alamo.  King of the Wild Frontier.  As with all great legends, Davy Crockett's has been retold many times.  Over the years, he has been repeatedly reinvented by historians and popular storytellers.  In fact, one could argue that there are three distinct Crocketts:  the real David as he was before he became famous; the celebrity politician whose backwoods image Crockett himself created, then lost control of; and the mythic Davy we know today.

In the road-trip tradition of Sarah Vowell and Tony Horwitz, Bob Thompson follows Crockett's footsteps from his birthplace in east Tennessee; to Washington, where he served three terms in Congress; and on to Texas and the gates of the Alamo, seeking out those who know, love, and are still willing to fight over Davy's life and legacy.

I came to know and love Davy Crockett in about the same manner as everyone else my age, or even thirty years older than me.  It was watching Fess Parker play Davy Crockett for Disney, that made me fall in love with the adventures he had, and the kind of man he was.  Parker's Davy was daring, generous, fearless, and about every other positive adjective I can think of.  I wanted to go on his adventures and grow into the man he was.  He was almost godlike to me as a kid, and all I wanted was that damn coonskin cap.  I don't think I ever got that hat, but I never lost that feeling of adventure and awe that Davy, through Parker, instilled in me.

I was such a huge fan that when I finally had enough points with the Disney Movie Rewards program, the very first thing I ordered was the Davy Crockett Two Movie Set on DVD.  At that point in time, my son had never seen anything about or knew who Davy Crockett was.  When we got it in the mail, we fired it up, and I introduced my son to one of my childhood heroes.  There is just something so magical about the way Fess Parker played him, because it got my son hooked on him and he wanted to know all about Davy, Colonel Travis, Jim Bowie, and all the rest of the heroes who died in the Alamo.  I actually had to explain to him that Davy, though he is single handily fighting off the Mexican soldiers at the end of the movie, died.  My son though he lived and prevailed since the image faded to black.  He couldn't believe that this man, who he had just met, could die.  This was a few years ago, and while my son isn't as fascinated by him as he was then, he will occasionally put the movie in, and relive the adventures all over again.

For me, watching them with my son, it brought back all the magic.  I fell in love all over again.  Now my love for Davy has never made me go out and do my own research into his life.  I did buy a few children's books for my son after we had watched the movies for the first time, but I was never compelled to go out and read about the man himself.  I think part of me was scared that if I got to know the real Davy Crockett, that some of the magic would go away.  Even as a kid, I understood that the Davy I knew, was more myth like than real.  That he had been built up into some sort of a demigod; much like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, or John Henry.  He was a creation of fact and fiction, and I was worried that some of the fact would overshadow that myth.

It's that separation that Bob Thompson was trying to do in his book, Born on a Mountaintop: One the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier.  Much like myself, he first discovered Davy through Fess Parker and Disney and rediscovered him through his kids.   Unlike myself, he was curious enough to set out on a journey to try and discover the real Davy Crockett, who the man was behind the myth.  What he found out is that sometimes, it's very hard to figure that out.

Our history books are not only full of facts and dates, but they include a fair amount of guesswork, myth building, and a even a tiny bit of fiction.  Those boundaries seem to be even further blurred when is comes to Davy Crockett.  So much of what we know, or think we know, is myth and reality combined into a rather tangled skein, difficult to comb out.  Thompson, through interviews, talking with Davy addicted historians, visiting site and landmarks important to the life of Davy Crockett, and investigation some of the source material himself, tries to do some combing on his own.  Oftentimes he discovers enough to make a solid decision on whether something is fact, fiction, or a blending of the two.  Other times, he is left with having to make an educated assumption, understanding he may have it wrong.

I'm not sure we will ever know the complete factual details of Davy Crockett's life, nor do I think we need to.  We need our heroes, our demigods, almost as much as the Greeks and Romans did.  We need men and women to elevate to a higher plane, people we can look up to and celebrate.  I'm not sure how much can actually be accomplished if we were able to bring them back down to Earth.  I think it's best they are left up in the stratosphere, it gives us, and future generations an example of how to live our lives.

Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier gives us some of those missing facts, dispels some of the myths, but keeps the magic intact.  Bob Thompson was able to create this wonderful balancing act of finding out the truth, what he could anyway, and keeping the myth whole.  He didn't hurt the legend of Davy Crockett through this book, he made it stronger and brought more color to it.  He kept Davy Crockett magical for me, but gave me more information about who the man actually was.

The wonderful group at Crown Publishers have generously offered my readers the chance to win a hardcover copy of this book for themselves.  The giveaway will last until 11:59 pm, CST, on 4/11/13.  You must be a resident of the United States to enter, and all you have to do is leave me a comment with your email address.

The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour

Synopsis From Back Cover:

"I am Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid."

This was the boy's mantra as he plodded through the desert alone, left to die by his vengeful grandfather.  Johannes Verne was soon to be rescued by outlaws, but no one could save him from the lasting memory of his grandfather's eyes, full of impenetrable hatred.  Raised in part by Indians, then befriended by a mysterious woman, Johannes grew up to become a rugged adventurer and an educated man.  But even now, strengthened by the love of a golden-haired girl and well on his way to make a fortune in bustling early-day Los Angeles, the past may rise up to threaten his future once more.  And this time only the ancient gods of the desert can save him.

One of the earliest decisions I made about my reading this year, is that I'm going to accept very, very few review books, and concentrate on the books I want to read.  That means I'm going to be rereading a lot of books I haven't touched since I started blogging.  I have missed my visits with old friends, especially those I first discovered as kid.  Zachary & Johannes Verne, Miss Nesselrode, Jacob Finney, Meghan Laurel, and Dona Elena, are characters I first encountered as a wee lad, and I have loved them ever since.

I can say with all honesty, that I am not a Western fan.  I have never been able to get into the genre, movies or books.  My mom on the other hand, is a huge fan.  Growing up, I watched her devour John Wayne movies and Louis L'Amour books.  You can't be a book whore like I am, even at such a young age, and not pick up a book or two that your parents seem to be into.  For the most part, the Louis L'Amour books I read, didn't do anything for me.  But there was something about The Lonesome Gods that has stuck with me over twenty years later.  I have a feeling that it's because the story starts off with Johannes, as a young boy, traveling to California with a dying father.  A child who is facing a unknown fate, and has no clue what will happen to him.  The bravery he shows in the face of death and a black hole of possibilities amazed me the first time I read this book, and still leaves me feeling a little annoyed with myself, thinking I would not have been so brave.

As the book progresses and Johannes grows into a young man who any father would be proud of, the book never looses focus on the danger that still awaits him.  He is surrounded by those who would rather seem him dead, then think of what he means to them.  Luckily for him, he gathers a few close friends around him, friends who are fiercely loyal and will do what needs to be done to make Johannes honors his father's memory.