Max Arlington, Virginia, USA

This is a really funny, quick read. The plot is a bit over the top, but the phrasing is worth it. I think there may be a dozen newly coined phrases in here. The humor approaches Steve Martin territory.

My only complaint is that the portraits of the kings and queens are from artists who lived centuries later. I'd rather see contemporary art than fanciful depictions in historical biographies.

Reading about Charley Hill is interesting in itself, but Dolnick's writing makes it even more entertaining. Recommended.

This is a string of very short stories - really more braggadocio anecdotes than stories with plotlines - featuring the same two characters who have some CIA-type past and are now bookdealers who know how to thwart even the toughest underworld thugs.

The tone of this book is more academic than layman, written like a thesis argument. The people covered are those who have made some claim to royal rights (legitimate and dubious descendency from the Stuarts, Tudors, Byzantine emperors, etc). There are some interesting lesser known cases of territories claimed to be independent from their surrounding, well recognized, sovereign states (such as Hutt River Province in Australia). ... (continue)

Not much happens in the plot of this one, but it's better than "Codex" and about as good as "The Geographer's Library"