Rest in Peace, Dolly

Rest in peace and love, Miss Dolly. You were a true legend, an absolute icon. 

Henry Tudor Must Die

 

What if Anne Boleyn really was a witch? That's the premise of this fun alternate history. 

On the eve of her execution, Anne is visited in the Tower by what she assumes is the ghost of Catalina de Aragon, Henry's first wife. Catalina brings her a bloodletting knife and a book of spells so she can save herself from the chopping block, then spirits her away to Marguerite d'Angouleme, who has started a movement known as the Hellebore Sisterhood. Turns out Catalina (or Lina, as she goes by now) did not actually die, but rather a nun who bore a striking resemblance to her. The nun was happy to take her place in her bed and pretend to be her so Lina would have a chance to live her life free from Henry. 

Marguerite is recruiting remarkable women from all over Europe to help advance women's rights and Anne and Lina jump in to help the cause. But the final goal never changes for Anne: Henry Tudor had to die. 

 

Crazy Rich Asians

 

Another one I was late to the party on, but it was super fun. I listened to it on audio during a long road trip and the narrator was fantastic. I'm actually really glad I listened to it instead of reading it, I think I got more out of it. 

Rachel and Nick live in New York and have been dating for a few years when Nick invites her to attend his best friend's wedding in Shanghai. Rachel is excited to go and meet his friends and family, but Nick fails to warn her that his family is rich. As in "crazy" rich. So are his friends. 

It's a whole different world for Rachel. Nick's family doesn't approve of her because she doesn't come from an acceptable family. Nick's old girlfriend is jealous and tries to drive Rachel away. Nick is scrambling to try to make it up to her and not doing the best job. 

I know absolutely nothing about how the 1% live, but it was fun to read about how opulent and over the top these folks are. I'm about halfway done with the next book, which I downloaded as soon as I finished this one 😊

Murder in Hollywood; Postmortem

 

All right, first up is "A Murder in Hollywood" about the murder of Johnny Stompanato. There really was no "untold" in this book, it just rehashed what we already knew, but Sherman did go into detail regarding Turner's early life (her father was murdered during a burglary when she was a little girl, which I didn't know). 

Lana Turner was a major star and a serial bride. She had already been married four times by the time she met Johnny, a shady guy with mob connections. Johnny was abusive and hit her, stalked her, refused to go away, showed up unannounced (and unwanted) on her sets. Just a garbage human being all the way around (although not quite as bad as hubby number four, Lex Barker, who sexually abused Lana's preteen daughter, Cheryl). 

Johnny was stabbed to death in Lana's bedroom one night, and Cheryl took the blame. I think by now most people realize Lana probably killed him and Cheryl copped to it because she was only 14, but who knows for sure? It was a quick read but yeah, sorely lacking on anything new. 

I wanted to like "Postmortem", I truly did. But unfortunately there were too many factual errors that kept me from enjoying it (and I hate using the word "enjoy" for these type of grisly true crime books, but I don't know what other word to use). 

Right off the bat, O'Neil claimed that the McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, was the first one. No, not actually. The first McDonald's was in San Bernadino, California. The one in Des Plaines was the first that Ray Kroc opened, after he bought the business from the McDonald brothers (there's a whole story behind that). So that was misleading. Later on in the book she referred to Lizzie Borden as an ax murderer. Now, Lizzie is one of my OG true crime obsessions, so there are very few books I haven't read about the crimes in Fall River, and I don't believe she was guilty. That's not only just my opinion, it was also the official verdict of the jury when she was tried for the crimes: Not Guilty. So while O'Neil might *believe* Lizzie is guilty (an opinion many people hold), I don't think it's right or fair to say that without qualifying that Lizzie was tried by a jury who determined she was not guilty. 

Things like that really bother me, especially when the author is supposed to be a well-respected researcher. And where the heck was the editor? Why didn't they do anything? 

Oh well. Her story was actually interesting: O'Neil's mother is Kim Byers, the young lady working at Nisson Pharmacy the night that Gacy took his last victim, Rob Piest. Kim and Rob were friends, and Kim ended up being an extremely important witness for the prosecution for a few reasons. One was that Gacy tried to claim he never talked to Rob, but Kim testified that Rob told her he was going to talk to Gacy about a potential summer job that paid twice what he was making at the pharmacy. Secondly, Kim put a photo receipt in the pocket of Rob's parka (which he let her borrow, since she was working at the front counter and got cold every time the doors opened. It was December after all). That receipt and Rob's parka were later found in Gacy's house, but the receipt let the police get their initial search warrant. 

O'Neil's book wasn't trying to rehash the original crimes but rather discuss generational trauma and the trauma we as a nation have for events that enter the national psyche. That was interesting enough, if only she'd stuck to the facts in every part of the book instead of choosing what to be accurate about. 

Elizabeth II; Lady Clementine; Where the Crawdads Sing

 

First up, an interesting biography of the last Queen Elizabeth II. I thought Hardman did a nice job of hitting the high (and low) points in her very long life and reign, and while most of it was already known to me, he had some interesting revelations about Prince Harry and his marriage. 

Elizabeth took the throne at the young age of 25 when her father, King George VI, died from complications from cancer. King George was never meant to be king, and Elizabeth was never meant to be queen. King Edward VIII, George's older brother, abdicated his throne to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. George (or Bertie, as he was known) wept when he heard he would have to take the throne he never wanted, but he did an amazing job holding the country together during WWII. 

Elizabeth was brought up to "get on with it", as it were, and she did, for over 70 years, becoming Britain's longest reigning monarch. 

I am currently reading a giant brick of a biography on Winston Churchill, so this was a nice companion piece, as it were. 

Winston Churchill married Clementine (pronounced "Clem-in-teen" in England, not "Clem-in-tine" like we do in the U.S.), a really smart move on his part. Clementine was instrumental in his career, giving him sound advice, taking care of him, ensuring that he remained safe when he wanted to do dangerous things. They went through the Great War together, through Winston's fall from grace to his triumphant return to public life and resident of 10 Downing Street as the Prime Minister. I'm not sure how much of Benedict's book is fiction (I guess I'll find out if I ever finish the bio of her husband) but it sounds like Clementine did a lot to improve conditions in war torn London during WWII. It was an inspiring tale of the woman behind the powerful man. 

I put off reading "Where the Crawdads Sing" for a few years now, because 9 times out of 10 when a book is that popular, I've been disappointed by the hype and it doesn't live up to it. 

This book was the exception. To everyone over the last few years who recommended it and I dismissed it with a bit of a sneer (I admit it, I was being a book snob), I deeply apologize. It was everything promised and then some. 

Kaya is just six years old when her mom leaves their rundown shack in the marshes of North Carolina and doesn't look back. Her older siblings scatter, fleeing from their abusive and alcoholic father, including her brother Jody, who was the next closest to her in age. Kaya quickly has to become the woman of the house, learning how to cook and clean and buy groceries in town from the money Pa leaves her. 

There is a brief interlude of hope where Pa takes her out fishing on his boat and into town for lunch one day, but that hope is dashed when Pa returns to drinking and finally abandons Kaya for good, just like everyone else has. 

Kaya has to learn to fend for herself in the swamplands, digging up oysters and mussels and selling smoked fish to Jumpin', a kind Black man who runs a small shop and sells gas. Jumpin' and his wife, Mabel, realize Kaya is on her own and do what they can to help her out with donations from their church of clothes and supplies. Kaya attends school for exactly one day, then leaves, determined never to go back after being subjected to the ridicule of the other children, who call her "Marsh Girl". She becomes something of an urban legend, half-human half-wolf, the missing link, a feral, dangerous child. When in reality she was just a very lonely, sad little girl trying to survive. Her loneliness oozed through every heartbreaking word. 

One of Jody's friends, Tate, tentatively befriends her, careful not to scare her away, by leaving her offerings of feathers and other things he finds in the marsh. Kaya reciprocates and eventually feels comfortable enough to talk to Tate. He teaches her to read and promises her he'll come back when he leaves for college. 

He doesn't, though, and once again Kaya is burned by another human and vows not to let anyone get that close to her again. 

I don't want to say too much more and give anything else away for the five or six people on the planet who haven't read it yet, but suffice it to say it was incredible and made me laugh and cry, sometimes at once. So moving and so powerful. What a story. 

Heads in Beds

 

I wanted to read this when it first came out but it was really popular and had long waiting lists, so I waited and forgot all about it until recently. 

Jacob Tomsky (not his real name) worked in hospitality, first in New Orleans and then in New York. He dishes all the dirt on how to get upgrades and comps (money, basically. Slip the front desk person a twenty and ask what they can do for you). He talked about how the bellmen (bell people?) compete since a lot of people decline help getting to their room. I've never stayed anywhere fancy enough to offer a bell person, the hotels I visit just offer a luggage cart that you can use and bring back, so there's that. I guess if I ever get financially flush enough to stay somewhere fancy, I'll make sure to tip the bell person!

I have cousins who work in hospitality, and some of their stories are wild, so this was fun to read and hear about similar experiences. 

The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives

This one was really fun!

Beverly, Eloise, and Margot are an unlikely group of friends. But they have one thing in common: their husbands are serial killers. The women have bonded over their misfortune. The year is 1966, and most people don't believe that they really didn't know what their husbands were up to until they were caught. But looking back, they realized there were signs. And now another killer is on the loose. 

The police of course don't believe three housewives, so they decide to investigate on their own and prevent any more young women from being brutally murdered. 

There were a lot of red herrings that I didn't fall for AND I figured out who the killer was well before the ladies in the book did, so I felt pretty proud of myself.