Book 12: Howard Hughes - The Untold Story, by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske

After seeing The Aviator, I became interested in learning more about the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. This biography wasn't a bad place to start. It went into almost excruciating detail about his (numerous) lovers, his various strides and innovations in the aviation industry, his strange and sometimes painful family life, his marriages and even his real and imagined diseases. The man apparently had more concussions in his lifetime than Troy Aikman, to which numerous psychoanalysts have attributed his many neuroses. Well, that and the lingering effects of a terrible and uncured bout of syphilis.

If nothing else, the book does a fine job of highlighting both the high and low points of the life of one of Hollywood's most intriguing and enduring celebrities. Though a strange man, there are times when it is possible to see how he was able to draw so many women to his side and also how he was able to maintain a lifelong friendship with both Cary Grant (perhaps Hughes' only true friend in life other than Katharine Hepburn).