Book Number 30 - You Are Not Alone, Michael Through a Brothers Eyes by Jermaine Jackson

I am a true Michael Jackson fan. I never believed any of the vicious rumors that went around and I fully believed Michael's life should have been saved. I never like using the word 'should' but in this case, I make an exception.

So you may say I went in biased, yes I did. I have read Moonwalk, I have never believed what I read in the tabloids and I believe Michael was one person clearly misunderstood. The people out there who believe the trash, need to read this book and BELIEVE. Jermaine is the fourth child in the Jackson family and the closest to Michael. Michael was the seventh child in the family, and if you look clearly at some emblems on jackets, furniture etc, you will see the number 7 in many cases.

Michael didn't have a childhood, we all know that. What we don't know is how we would have grown up with no childhood, majority of us can only imagine having one. We cannot make sense of some of Michael's ways but how can we?? how can you?

In this book Jermaine says when Michael met Shirley Temple they both hugged each other and cried as they both had their childhoods taken away and they understood each other.  Sure, many of us would love a childhood like these two but really, would you give up your childhood for this?

I found a lot of information I had never known about Michael and it blew my mind away. How Michael's car broke down near a car rental place, and the owner of this place was Jordy's father. Michael hired a car leaving with the promise to call the fathers son, Jordy, who was a big fan. The family and Michael became very close till one day Jordy's father needed money to pursue three movies worth about 5 million each, he was a director and needed the money. He tried to blackmail Michael who refused....I think you know the rest. Jordy didn't speak to his parents for 11 years after the allegations and Jordy's father shot himself about 3 months after Michael died. Sounds shifty doesn't it. Michael had money and fame and people abused it. Karma gives...

When I reached the last chapter, I had to pause and continue another time as it was all too much.
Sadly it seems on the night of his death Conrad was on the phone to a girl, he'd walked away from Michael after administering propofol and one moment the girl told police she was talking to Conrad, the next minute he wasn't there on the end of the phone line and all she could hear was strange noises. Propofol is an anaesthetic and can only be used by doctors in a hospital. Basically Michael died from proporfol overdose as too much entered his body and became toxic. He didn't die of 'drug overdose' as the media craps on about.

If you want to read the truth, if you can handle the truth then read this book. Its freaking amazing, it's an amazing insight into the life of the Jackson family.

RIP Michael, I love you

100/10

Book Number 31 - Emma and The Vampires, Wayne Josephson

As a human being who never read any of the 'classics', I'm finding these quirky classics enjoyable but really, are they saturating the market a little bit too much?

Is Jane Austin and co turning over in their graves or would they find it humerous and exciting that people like me, who never read these books, are now finding a place in my heart for them?
I loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as well as Mr Darcy Vampire (secretly, I'm looking forward to a zombie/Vampire version of Wuthering Heights - maybe its already out there) and this undead novel isn't as funny as the others and I found I didn't really work out if Jane, Emma etc knew the men or woman were actual Vampires or not. It really was unbelievable (yes, I know how that sounds) in the sense that the people knew there were other people out there with black eyes which turned red once married and that no-one ate at any of the dinners or balls and that everyone was pale and even the father couldn't cope with silver crosses.

Is there something I am missing, perhaps I missed that paragraph which put my mind at ease, or back then, were the folk really that blind in this story? Yes, there were crazy Vampires out there which Emma and Harriet and co managed to be-head but are the aristocrat Vampires good instead of bad...hmm...I missed that point.

Anywho, I've still got a few of these 'quirky classics' to ponder over, so keep tuned, maybe express to me your thoughts on this particular book.....I'd be interested to know...

6.5/10

Book Number 32 - Jason Donovan, Between The Lines

I grew up in the 80's, I watched Charlene and Scott's relationship develop on television and I never thought about what went on behind the scenes. I figured they had a relationship around the time they sung the duet and I remember it wasn't until I saw Donovan in the Nick Cave film clip, Pure White Snow, did I realise this boy had dealt with drugs - badly. He does look weathered and although in the book he directs this look as a busy life and getting old, I have to say no, its because he didn't look after himself for a number of years.

I was intrigued reading about his relationship with his mother, well lack of, the Kylie story (I had no idea!) the drugs and the parties with many famous peeps to then finding love with his children and wife.

I finished this book thinking good on Jason for getting through the drugs and not becoming a statistic, or part of the 27 club, or fatally dying due to bad drugs. Seizures, fainting and snorting folks, its all here!

A great read, an easy read and an intriguing read. To think I was watching Neighbours totally unaware of the goings on with the cast! The innocence of a child....

7/10

Book Number 33 - Sophie Kinsella, I've Got Your Number

I was hooked by the Shopaholic series, kinda reminded me of me, and its been a while since I picked up one of Kinsella's books. I actually loaned this from a friend after she was groaning at the 'footnotes' throughout the book. The story is obvious at points but a interesting and easy read and the footnotes aren't as bad as I thought, I actually found I missed many of them as I didn't notice the little numbers and it wasn't until I was at the end of the page that I saw them, by then I just kept reading and didn't look back at the numbers, its not like I felt I was missing anything special. All of Kinsella's books, to me, are similar and almost like its the same girl in each one (I guess its because I read the shopaholic books first and it set the path) but I can't help but be on each girls side and I cheer for them in the end through all life's up and downs.

A book of mobile phones, love, big companies, cheating, ice cream and tears that I found to be an easy read and a book that I did think about when not looking at its pages. Would this story happen in real life, finding a phone in a bin and being able to keep it? Sounds like it was meant to be...perhaps...

6/10

Book Number 34 - Penny Vincenzi, an absolute scandal

As I picked us this book I also thought I'll need physio from reading it due to such a big and heavy novel! This book brought upon real life asbestos's tones (though not as much as I oringinaly thought when I read the start) along with the English company Lloyd's who uses Names to get money and in the end bankrupt a lot of rich people who, some might say, can afford it but with many twists and turns the books bounces through life and death, mistakes and life changes until it ends on, what I feel, it an unfinished note. I found I enjoyed the people in the book and with a couple of lovers, I found the results weren't expected and this was a nice blessing.

6/10