Below Stairs : The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs And Downton Abbey
by Margaret Powell

There are so many requests for this book at different public libraries that I wish I could alert these people not to bother. I got to page 180 and called it quits. By rights, I probably should have finished the bloody thing with 32 pages left, but I could no longer stand it.
For those of you who are hooked on "Downton Abbey," just stick with the show. I'm sure there's more depth than there than you get with this tale.
Margaret Powell came from poverty and at fifteen went into service as a kitchen maid. The work was extremely hard (up at 5:30 A.M. and finished well after dark) and it was totally different from what she was used to. She would scrub vegetables, the front steps, polish shoes, iron bootlaces, on and on. The homes were magnificent but not so the owners. The help worked their butts off for measly pay and certainly were not appreciated.
The most interesting thing that I can say about the book is reading about the difference in the classes. (This all took place during the 1920s.) Unfortunately, the writing is not the best (there are numerous errors) and all of the jobs became tedious and repetitious to read about. It just fell flat for me.
Not recommended.

Good Living Street : Portrait Of A Patron Family, Vienna 1900
by Tim Bonyhady

Hermine and Moriz Gallia were a prominent Viennese family and great patrons of the arts during the early part of the twentieth-century. They amassed a huge collection of paintings, furniture, silver, glass, etc. In order to avoid anti-Semitism, they all converted to Catholicism. When Kristallnacht reared its ugly head, they were able to pack up all of the contents of their apartment and flee to Australia. It was probably the best private collection that was able to be saved: a Steinway piano, diaries, chandeliers, furs, books, you name it.
Amazingly, I read this entire book thinking that it would be placed on the book-a-holics blog. By the time I finished the damn thing, I knew that wasn't going to happen. The author is the great-grandson of Hermine and Moriz Gallia. On the back flap of the book, it says that he is an award-winning art historian, curator, and environmental lawyer. Believe it or not, he has written five other books each of which must be as equally boring as this one is. Between the listings of every painting, types of furniture, names galore, every incessant detail of anything and the plodding, dull, deadening prose, why would anyone want to read this awful mess?
Not recommended.

A Slave In The White House : Paul Jennings And The Madisons
by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor

Paul Jennings was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolly Madison. He would become Madison's personal manservant. It's ironic that both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson (great friends) had hundreds of slaves since the two of them were proponents of individual freedom. Much of the information for the book was taken from Jennings' own memoir about living with the Madisons.
Unfortunately, I didn't get very far because I found the writing dry and plodding and there's an excessive dropping of names. The author is no writer. Her background is a scholar and lecturer and had a career in museums and historical research. One of the most annoying things is her constant use of supposition. She's guessing at what Jennings might have done or said or who was with him for many instances. So much for being a researcher.
The book is not really for the general public because of its academic slant.
Not recommended.

Coco Chanel : An Intimate Life
by Lisa Chaney

It seems like in the past year or so, there has been an onslaught of books written about Coco Chanel. I have read two one of which was reviewed on the book-a-holics blog and the other one was on this blog.
What started out to be promising (I actually raved about the writing) ended at page 186. Lisa Chaney has unearthed a multitude of information that has never before been revealed so Coco's character is much more fleshed out than in previous biographies and so are all of the people who were involved with her. Unfortunately, I believe there is too much stuff that most of us really don't want to plow through. And it's because of all this excess that I became annoyed with the author. She kept on saying that she is the one who had more information than any other biographer and they didn't get their facts straight or they were just plain wrong. Well, she ruined it for me. A significantly better book to read is The Secret of Chanel No. 5 by Tilar J. Mazzeo (see the review on 1/11/2011 in my book-a-holics blog: www.book-a-holics.blogspot.com).
The Chaney book strives way too hard and is tedious.
Not recommended.

The Shakespeare Thefts : In Search Of The First Folios
by Eric Rasmussen

In 1623, the first edition of William Shakespeare's collected works, known as the First Folio, was published. Fellow actors of Shakespeare compiled it. According to author Eric Rasmussen, there are over four hundred copies floating around but only two hundred have been identified. The other ones have been either stolen or lost.
Rasmussen and his team embark on an adventure around the world to try and track down the known copies.
Although the reviews for this book have been congratulatory, I beg to differ. Every chapter is a different anecdote of what Rasmussen found and none of them are connected. After a while, I became bored. The writing is dull and tedious.
Not recommended.

Eva Braun : Life With Hitler
by Heike B. Gortemaker

According to the publisher, Eva Braun was not supposed to be an insignificant figure in Hitler's life but more involved with his rule and his cohorts. Alas, I didn't get far enough to find out the so-called truth about her. The writing is very pedantic and boring and mainly talks about the high-ranking Nazis that were constantly around.
The book was translated but I don't believe that is the problem. Not too many people would be interested in reading it due to its heaviness and plodding text.
Not recommended.

The Boy Who Went To War : The Story Of A Reluctant German Soldier In WWII
by Giles Milton

This should have been a promising book but it, unfortunately, fell short of its goal. Giles Milton writes about his family and father-in-law living under Hitler's regime. Since they were Christians, it's interesting to see how they viewed the Fuhrer. The entire family was anti-Nazi and they got away with it for as long as possible.
I couldn't tolerate the writing. It seems quite juvenile and is loaded with grammatical and spelling errors. The author is no slouch in writing books; he has written quite a few and I have read many of them. The Boy Who Went To War is not like his others, which is a shame.
Not recommended.