Spare

One of my earliest memories is of watching a family walking a rope line in London.  There was a gorgeous mom, a dad, and two little boys around my age – The Prince and Princess of Wales and their sons.  Living in America, the royal family has always intrigued me.  They manage to be simultaneously well known and mysterious – the public knows so much about the family, but hardly anything about the individuals as people. 

It’s easy to look at only the glitz and glamor and forget they have interpersonal and internal battles we never see.  Prince Harry’s new memoir Spare delivers a behind the scenes look at how the royals handle many of those battles – from brotherly conflicts at school, to median and paparazzi wars, to bumping heads while finding their own way in the world, this family has more conflicts than happy moments!  Harry details the scandals that rocked his own personal story in the media and shows how accurate they were, while also showing more about the man behind the title.

I give Spare 4 out of 5 stars.  As with several other recent memoirs and historical fictions, I walked into this already knowing many details, but learned so many new details.  I enjoyed getting a sense of his personality with the humor throughout the book.  I also enjoyed learning more about his time in Africa and the people he worked with there.  However, there were some areas of the book that felt solely as if he were airing grievances with his family, almost in retaliation for how things ended with his time working for the Crown.  I was baffled by the parallels between the lives of Princess Diana and Duchess Meghan while in the royal family and glad to see the differences between Prince Harry and his father.

This memoir does include honest descriptions of some more mature topics like sex, drug use, suicide, and mental health.  I would suggest this book for audiences 16 and up.  I would also suggest this memoir for readers who enjoy the Netflix series “The Crown” or other royalty-based shows.  I also found that this memoir sits well with military members and their families given the author’s discussions of his time overseas. 

I chose Spare for The Booklist Queen reading challenge prompt “About Royalty”.  I could have chosen a fiction novel about some handsome prince sweeping some unsuspecting commoner off her feet, and there’s plenty of books about queens and kings I’d love to read, but this one also became my autobiography for the month of April.  I think I also connect with Prince Harry in a way that makes more sense after reading his book.  I know this memoir has been quite controversial in royal watcher circles as well as book clubs, but there was nothing controversial about Harry speaking his truth.  I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Cold Snap, Mark Cameron
• Current audio book: Honeymoon for One, Portia Macintosh
• Book I’m most looking forward to: The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune