Bibi

 

I loved Benjamin Netanyahu's autobiography, it was so engaging! And my God, was he a gorgeous guy! His beloved older brother, Yoni, died a hero, rescuing hostages in Entebbe and his brave sacrifice inspired Bibi (there are a lot of Benjamins in his family, everyone has a nickname) to help form an anti-terrorism group named after his brother. He moved into politics and has served as Israel's Prime Minister for many years, most recently being re-elected in December of 2022. 

I have always greatly admired this man, and the nation of Israel as a whole. The anti-Semitism that is creeping back into this country is appalling to me. The Jews are not colonialists who are squatting on the Palestinians' land. Israel belongs to the Jews. It was theirs 4,000 years ago, and in 1948 the world got together after the atrocities of the Holocaust and made right an ancient wrong, giving the land back to its rightful owners. The "country" of Palestine existed briefly between WWI and WWII, part of the British Empire. For some reason a large part of the world thinks that the Jews displaced Palestinians, when nothing could be further from the truth. Bibi has spent his political life fighting for Israel's right to exist. There will never be "peace in the Middle East" because the Palestinians don't believe the Jews have a right to exist, let alone have their own nation. You can't negotiate with folks who think that way, and it's ridiculous for Americans to think they should have to. The amount of interference Israel has had to put up with from our presidents is ridiculous. But through it all Bibi has kept a cool head and done the best to make his small nation one of the best in the entire world. Such a success story!

How to Sell a Haunted House; The Queen; The Lindbergh Nanny

Okay, I got three books read over the weekend, so I'm pretty proud of how productive I've been!

First up, Grady Hendrix's latest, "How to Sell a Haunted House".

Sigh.

I *love* Grady Hendrix. "My Best Friend's Exorcism" was brilliant. I've enjoyed pretty much every book he's written, some more than others, of course, but they've all been fun. 

And then we have this one. I really wanted to love it. It totally creeped me out at first. Such a promising start. And then...I don't know. The whole storyline with the puppets and ghost possession and...yeah. It just did not gel for me. I was super disappointed. 

My disappointment continued with "The Queen: her life" by Andrew Morton. In case you don't remember, Morton is the one who secretly interviewed Princess Diana and published her jaw dropping memoir in the early 90s. Part of my disappointment was that I've just read so many books about the late Queen that there's really nothing new in any of them anymore. The second piece of it was that he wrote it before she died and didn't update it (I can't imagine it would have taken that long to add a quick epilogue). So he talks about her in the present tense at the end, saying when she does finally exit the world stage, things like that. It jarred me a little. And the pictures were disappointing. 

And finally, "The Lindbergh Nanny" by Mariah Fredericks. I read everything I can get my hands on about the Lindbergh case, fiction or nonfiction. I liked this one quite a lot, actually, it was a quick read. 

Betty Gow was hired to be little Charlie's nanny (or "nurse"). The book is told from her point of view. The only thing I disagreed with Fredericks about is Bruno Hauptmann's guilt. She said in the epilogue that she doesn't believe in "conspiracy theories", therefore she believes Hauptmann is guilty. 

Well, it's obviously a little more complicated than that. "Suspect No. 1" makes an excellent case for Lindbergh himself having been more involved in the kidnapping than anyone thought. There is another book I haven't read in ages called "Scapegoat" that makes a compelling argument that Hauptmann was framed. I really just don't think the facts of the case fit the theory that Hauptmann kidnapped the baby. Matching a piece of wood from the ladder to a floorboard in his attic is ridiculous. Hauptmann always claimed that a friend gave him the ransom money to hold onto when he went to Europe, and it seems quite plausible to me. At any rate, Fredericks posits that while Hauptmann was guilty, he had help from someone on the inside. 

 

The King

 

I really wanted to like this book. I've never been as hard on Charles as some people have (my mother, for instance, believes that Diana could do no wrong. I think, in any relationship, there is always some sort of blame that can be assigned to both parties. It isn't fair to say it was 100% one person. But anyway). Unfortunately it was just very gossipy and seemed churned out in a rush. For instance, he cavalierly mentions Prince Phillip having affairs, like it's an undisputed fact, and I disagree. 

Eventually there will be a nice authorized (and of course very sanitized) biography on King Charles III, so I'll just have to wait for that. This one didn't even have pictures.