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"Spare" by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex

book review by Riley Burnham 2/23/2023

well this was pretty dang good -- read by the author, too(!)

a complete surprise in a sense: such(!) an intimate view into the royal family, which was/is mostly a mystery to me; now slightly more comprehendible

my favorite part of the early book was his childhood antics w/ friends & family [playing War w/ bottle rockets; BB guns; etc.], as well as his descriptions of that pampered life: being awoken/put to bed by maids, scrubbed & washed like Pharaohs, & then being educated at The School [one of the world's best]

​​​​​​​there's so much laid out here: from his mother's car accident [he thinks she's hiding for most of the book...]; then his military service; then the massive fallout as he marries Meghan -- this takes up most of the latter portion, which elucidates how & why he left the monarchy, more or less [lack of support from family, backstabbing insiders, harassment from the press & paparazzi]

some of the sweeter portions were his meetings & descriptions of his grandmother, the Queen [lots of respect]

​​​​​​​the book concludes w/ his then family of 4: wife & 2 kids, making their way disconnected from the purse-strings & protections of the Crown, w/ Meghan telling him that his fatherliness made her love him more than ever, & that he's a man, rather than a spare

lastly, i was surprised by his partying [drugs, alcohol, etc.], which made him kinda relatable [as well as video games, television shows...], & privately doubt his testimony of his ventures to the North & South(???) poles [both of which he gets wasted afterwards & conveniently memory-blurred -- likely because the "South Pole" is radically different than we are told...]

so grains of salt warning & reading between-the-lines may be in order