Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vols. 5, 6, 7, 8

 

I'm going to take a meandering path here, so bear with me (or skip to the end, my feelings won't be hurt). 

I was just starting Vol. 8 this weekend and remembered there is a Vol. 9. I went online to put it on hold, only to discover my library didn't own it. Then a terrible thought occurred to me: what if it wasn't out yet? So I looked and sure enough, it will be published in February of 2027. 

I almost wept. 

Years ago, Stephen King put out "The Green Mile" in six installments, one every month, because it irritated him that his readers would race through his books and not savor them like he thought they should. I bought the first installment, read it, and then realized I'd have to wait a month for the next one. So I waited until all six installments came out and then read them all at once in one big gulp, because no one is going to tell me how I should enjoy a book, thank you very much. 

I'm so spoiled now with nearly instant gratification. I remember having to wait years for the next season of a TV show (still do, sometimes). Or even worse, when the "X-Files" would end a season on a cliffhanger (every year) in May and I'd have to wait until November before the next season would premier. Season 7 hit especially hard: Scully announced to Skinner that she was pregnant. I screamed: shock, joy, disbelief, all of it. Then I screamed again when I realized I would have to wait SIX MONTHS to find out how this miracle happened. Six months!! I literally wept. But I remember the giddiness when season 8 premiered. So I'll try to keep that in mind as I (im)patiently wait for Vol. 9. 

In the meantime, though, off to Vol. 5!

Emma is grief stricken over burying Maxwell. Pierce (the Tenant) tries to lift her spirits but he doesn't have much luck. She owes Jack a favor, and he makes her go to his dying mother's bed with him and pretend to be his pregnant wife. She is outraged and feels terribly guilty, until Jack leaves the room and his mother tells her she knows he's lying to spare her feelings. On the plus side, Jack does feel guilty about the deception and tells Emma he owes her a big favor in return. 

The men all give Emma a different book for Christmas, but Hawkes' really hits home: he tracked down one of her father's books (she had to sell her dad's library after he died in order to pay for school--the men were horrified when she told them). 

1884 dawns and with it, Emma turns 21 on January 13. The long awaited day of her independence (or so she thinks). The men gift her with an antique lion pendant, a really amazingly perfect gift. The Reprobates 10 stand outside her window and serenade her in the middle of the night (also perfect, but in a different way). 

Emma gains employment in the form of a month long trial as a secretary to a lady married to a wealthy man of industry. The first two days she goes, the teenage son proves to be a pest, but nothing Emma can't handle. It's when the lady's brother (the Uncle) shows up that things get bad. He puts his hands on her, and she swings a fireplace poker at him, breaking an urn filled with the ashes of their dead pets. Needless to say, Emma does not survive the trial and is still unemployed. She didn't tell any of the men what happened, though. I would have. It would have been nice to hear about the three of them knocking the stuffing out of that slimeball. 

The book ends on rather exciting note (and boy was I glad to have Vol. 7 ready to go!) when Pierce KISSES her and she kisses him back! I wondered which of the three it was going to be! Oh what a choice, though! They're all so amazing in different ways. 

Emma and Pierce are navigating their courtship, which is made dangerous by the fact that Pierce lives under the same roof and Emma doesn't actually have a chaperone. He's much more concerned about her reputation than she is. 

Her overbearing Aunt Eugenia and Arabella arrive unexpectedly, driven from their home by a leak in the roof. Her aunt expects to meet her (fictional) chaperone, Mrs. Dowd, and when Emma protests that she's 21 and no longer needs a chaperone her aunt refuses to hear it. So Emma calls in her favor from Jack who, thankfully, provides a perfect Mrs. Dowd and she plays the part to perfection for a few days until the roof is repaired and Aunt Eugenia and Arabella are on their way. 

The Season begins and Aunt Eugenia is running poor Emma ragged, determined to snag Arabella the most eligible bachelor she can find. She and Islington are at a ball together, arguing in a corridor when Islington is taken ill and collapses into Emma's arms. Of course someone sees them, and in order to avoid having to propose marriage, Islington says her father appointed him her chaperone until she marries. Aunt Eugenia strongly objects to this (despite the fact that Islington is a Duke) until he produces a letter written by Emma's father, naming the bearer of the letter his daughter's chaperone. It turns out the letter is actually Hawkes', but he lent it to Islington. Emma is outraged but understands she has to go along with it and at least pretend that Islington has some guidance over her life. 

Meanwhile, her friend Mary has become enamored of a widowed professor she's been working with, and Tybalt (the cat she and Pierce have been keeping for his friend who was out of the country) has to go home with his owners. Emma is devastated. 

May Day brings a festival to St. Crispian's, and Hawkes shows off his boxing prowess and defeats a strongman who was making fools of the good men of the village. Emma writes a rousing story of his match that gets published in the local Gazette, and Pierce and Islington both speculate as to which man wrote it, since it was so good (Hawkes knew Emma wrote it because she told him, but I have a feeling Hawkes would have known anyway). I was surprised at Pierce and Islington for thinking it had to be a man. Have you two learned nothing from spending time with Emma? Jeez. A fortune teller reads her palm and tells her she had one amazing love that is now over, but there are two other men, equally perfect for her but in different ways. Which one she chooses will be up to her. Oh dear. Pierce and...Hawkes? Islington? Jack? Roland? A dark horse? 

Islington invites everyone to his country seat, Stonecrop, in June and Emma is delighted to go. Pierce loses a lot of money in the American stock market and as a result he has to stay in London to work, but he does visit Stonecrop as often as he can. During one visit they go to a nearby village and it turns out it's the village where he grew up. They run into his sister, Nance, who begs him to come home and see their mother, so he does, taking Emma with him. He asks after his stepfather and is told he's taken ill (he had a stroke). Pierce goes in to see him and lashes out in anger: turns out he'd beaten and abused Pierce as a child and tried to drown him, causing Pierce, at the age of twelve, to run off and stow away on a ship to America, where he worked as a photographer's apprentice, taking pictures of the Civil War. Emma is horrified for him, and Pierce is not in a good place, but Hawkes and Islington are able to bring him around after a few days. 

Emma thoroughly enjoys the freedom and loveliness of Stonecrop, although she learns that Islington had a twin sister, Hannah, who died when they were just 20. His older sister warns him about keeping better care of her reputation (Emma overhears them arguing while she's out searching for a pen in the bushes that she lost). 

While sitting around with the men one night, Islington asks if they all want children. Emma says she does, and so does Islington, but Pierce is a definite no. Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise. 

I will be eagerly awaiting Volume 9!!

Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 4

 

I'm really enjoying these books but I'm sad there's only nine of them, which means I'm almost halfway done 😒

Cousin Archibald is now, unfortunately, mobile and Aunt Eugenia has taken Arabella to the Country now that the London season is over. Emma gets to know her neighbor and tenant, Niall, better and they bond over her memories of her childhood sweetheart, Maxwell, who was killed in Afghanistan. Niall took photos from the war and at Emma's insistence, let her look at them. 

In addition to being ceremoniously crowned Queen by the Reprobates Ten, Emma finds herself spending more time with the Duke of Islington, Niall, and Young Hawkes. The four of them end up in the same place at the same time together frequently and have struck up a friendship. The three men are appalled at the way Emma has been treated by her aunt, cousin, and various others in her life and marvel at how she's able to stay so positive (me too, honestly. She has the patience of a saint. I would have tossed Cousin Archibald out the garret window). 

Emma finds out by reading a newspaper that Maxwell's family located his body and have brought him home to be buried. She's upset that Maxwell's older brother didn't write to tell her like he promised he would, and distraught that she doesn't have the funds on such short notice to travel to Maxwell's home. Niall steps in and saves the day, buying them both train tickets and paying for their lodgings, and accompanying her. He also finds just cause to punch Maxwell's brother in the face, refusing to tell Emma what he said that upset him so (good for you, Niall. I'm sure he deserved it). 

On a side note, I've always been fortunate in my life to have really great male friends, so reading about Emma hanging out with the men reminded me of some fun times in my life. None of my male friends, however, could banter as well as Niall, Islington, and Hawkes do. I wish they did, but alas, I'm afraid men like that only exist in books. 

Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 3; Henry "Chips" Channon Diaries Vol. 1; Rock*

 

First up, volume 3 of the Emma M. Lion series. This one was a little bigger and had more going on, so that was nice. 

Emma and her cousin Archibald (the most unlikely of duos) have teamed up to try to follow the clues in order to win tickets to the St. Crispian's secret annual performance of Julius Caesar. Emma figures the clues out (naturally, Archibald is about as helpful as a bag of hair) and gets the tickets, but Archibald breaks his leg when Emma and Niall's (the tenant) cat startles him. In a fit of spite, he eats his ticket rather than allowing Emma to choose someone to go with her, which was a damn shame. I was curious who she would have picked. There are so many eligible young men flittering around her!

And she's invited to a soirée at Lady Trewartha's house where she's seated at a table with nine rowdy young men and Young Hawkes, the minister, who call themselves the Reprobates Ten. Emma has a terrific time bantering with the spirited group, although the Duke of Islington seems rather less excited at how much fun she's having. Is that a spark of jealously I see, Islington? Oh my. I can't wait to read Volume 4. 

This brick of a book, oh my gosh. It took me months to read it, but I really did enjoy it. 

Henry "Chips" Channon was an American who was in Paris during World War I and that's when his diary starts: the end of the war. He renounces his American citizen to become British and inserts himself into high society and eventually gets elected to the House of Commons. He roamed with everyone back in the day: the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VIII before abdicating, the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and many others. He married Honor Guinness, a wealthy heiress to the Guinness fortune, and they had a son named Paul. Chips dallied with both men and women as a youngster and apparently when London society found out he'd been keeping a diary many a peer went white with fear as to what he'd said about them. The answer is: probably something very catty and unflattering. But luckily for them, he stipulated that the diaries wouldn't be published in full until long after his death. 

I'm actually really excited for the second volume, which will cover WWII. Since Chips was a fan of Germany and Hitler, I'm interested in what he thought of the whole thing and when he changed his mind and realized that the Third Reich was evil. 

And finally, a really fun one: Rock, an Alternative History. Klosterman writes it as nonfiction. It was pretty funny. What if the Beatles were never really that popular (also, they never broke up and John Lennon never died) but instead Rock began in 1967 with the Velvet Underground, who were the most influential rock band on the planet? 

Well, quite a few things change. Grunge was relegated to a not very influential or popular movement, it was mostly a Northwest Regional phenomenon (Nirvana wasn't even mentioned). The magazine of record was called Velveteen, not Rolling Stone, since the Stones weren't popular and broke up in the mid-'70s. Music became the most important part of American culture and a very powerful union of music critics called NARC exerted their influence over everything. Blockbuster movie scores had to be completely rock (imagine Star Wars with a Kinks song instead of John Williams, if you will), all music played in buildings and outside had to be rock and it wasn't optional--you had to play music. Even in libraries (imagine again if you will, Highway to Hell playing in the New York Public Library. Which, honestly, is probably pretty on point). Rap music was reclassified as an offshoot of Country, so as not to interfere with Rock. I pictured the Wu-Tang Clan on the stage at the Opry and about died laughing. Madonna became the height of Christian Rock in the '80s with her pro-life anthem, Papa Don't Preach. 

Like I said, the book was funny, but it's also kind of interesting to contemplate how one small change could have upended everything we know. Is there an alternate universe out there where Lou Reed was the voice of a generation instead of Paul McCartney and John Lennon? Maybe. 

Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 2

 

I'm really enjoying this series, they're so clever and witty.

Emma meets the Tenant, Niall Pierce, by exchanging notes through a crack in the shared wall in the garret. He is alarmed by her life (we all are, Niall) and also that they have mice and suggests a solution. She agrees and they end up with a shared cat named Tybalt. 

Emma also meets the Duke of Islington at a party her Aunt Eugenia makes her attend, and then later his journal ends up in their kitchen cupboard (this is a common phenomenon in St. Crispian's--items wander. They even have a centralized return location so residents can retrieve their lost possessions). Emma reads it and is enchanted by his outlook on life. She does return the journal to him and admits her indiscretion, and the Duke is Not Pleased. 

Back at the awful school she used to attend, the shared copy of "Jane Eyre" the students passed around has been confiscated by the formidable headmistress, Mrs. Wade. Emma's friend from school, Mary, has hired a con artist named Jack to pose as her cousin and chaperone so she can move about society freely and Jack offers to help Emma get the books back. They pose as a married couple and meet with Mrs. Wade. Jack distracts her and breaks into the desk and gets the books back, but now Emma owes Jack a Favor. Which sounds ominous. 

It was a lot of fun and for someone who considers herself a bit of a shy, retiring person, Emma has a *lot* of male acquaintances who are clearly interested in a more romantic relationship with her. I can't wait to see how it goes. 

Dragonfly in Amber

 

I think this is only the second time I've read this one, since it's not one of my favorites (while John Grey 🦊© is introduced he's just a child and only in one short scene). It was better this time around though, I enjoyed it. 

I'm about to spoil it, so be warned.

The book starts in 1968 in Scotland. Claire Randall and her daughter, Brianna, visit Roger Wakefield while on holiday in Scotland and Claire tells them both the story of how she fell through the stones and landed in 1743 and met and married Jamie Fraser. They traveled to France to see if they could stop the Jacobite uprising, but they fail and end up coming back to Scotland to fight with Prince Charlie's army. At Culloden, Jamie takes Claire back to the stones and tells her to go back to her time and to Frank. She's pregnant with their second child (their first, Faith, was stillborn earlier in the story) and he wants them to be safe. Claire doesn't want to go but in the end she does and Jamie returns to Culloden to die with the other men from Lallybroch. 

Brianna refuses to believe that Frank Randall was not her real father, but Roger believes Claire's story. She tells him about Geillis Duncan and how she believes he is her descendant. Since Geillis came through the stones in 1968, she wanted Roger to be able to make the decision on whether or not to try to contact her and warn her about what will happen. They do try, but it's too late - they arrive in time to see Geillis vanish through the stones. And then the book ends with Roger telling Claire that he doesn't think Jamie died at Culloden.  

Making of American Girl

 

I still have the very first American Girl catalog I ever received in the mail when I was a kid, back when it was still Pleasant Rowland's company and not Mattel. 

I was of an age where I was considered "too old" to be playing with dolls, but I didn't care. I grew up loving "Little House on the Prairie" and reading those books over and over again. I loved stories about the "olden days". Partner the gorgeous dolls with all the amazing accessories plus the historical factor? I was obsessed. 

Unfortunately, my parents couldn't afford them. My parents did buy us the books, so we had Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly's stories to read over and over, just not the dolls themselves. I was in my early twenties when I finally got my American Girl: Kit, who grew up during the Great Depression. And I still have her 😀 I went to Chicago with a group of girlfriends in 2010, and I drug them to the American Girl story on Michigan Ave. I had a splendid time. The other women? Probably not. 

American Girl is very different now than it was when I was a pre-teen. Pleasant sold the company to Mattel, who has done away with the historical dolls and all of their wonderful accessories (for the most part). I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how the company was brought to life and all of the research and work that went into creating the original dolls. I thought they were expensive until I read about how much effort went into them, now I realize they were actually kind of a bargain. This was a beautiful book that reminded me that there's always room in your life for imagination and whimsy, no matter how old you are. 

Summerall: On and Off the Air; Outlander

 

As promised, I was able to borrow a copy of Pat Summerall's autobiography, "On and Off the Air". The nights of drunken debauchery were not as exciting as I'd hoped, but that was okay, his life story was interesting. 

Pat was born with a club foot and his right leg twisted backwards. A doctor was able to correct it, and thought he would be okay to walk once he got older but probably not ever run or play sports. Pat defied the odds, playing all kinds of sports as a kid and a teenager, he loved all of it. 

He ended up playing football for a few teams, including the New York Giants when they had both Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi as assistant coaches. When he retired from football he took up broadcasting and was paired with Tom Brookshier. The two of them were great friends as well as drinking buddies until CBS split them up and put Pat with Coach Madden. Eventually his family and friends held an intervention and convinced Pat to go to the Betty Ford clinic for his alcoholism. Pat went and never drank again. 

Due to his years of alcohol abuse, Pat ended up needing a liver transplant and lived for another ten years. He sounded like a humble, grateful man at the end and I'm glad he got the chance to turn his life around. 

I've read "Outlander" before but a friend at work who loved the show just started reading the books and after talking with her about them it made me nostalgic to go back and reread them. I took advantage of the long, rainy weekend and tucked in with book one. 

The year is 1945 and Claire Randall, a nurse who served on the battlefields of France during WWII, and her husband, Frank, are vacationing in Scotland before Frank takes up a position at Oxford. They were apart during the war and they're trying to reconnect. While looking at some flowers at Craigh na Dun (a rock formation like Stonehenge), Claire falls through a portal back in time to 1743. 

A band of Scottish Highlanders rescue her from Captain Black Jack Randall, an ancestor of her husband, and take her under their protection. As part of being kept from Black Jack's murderous hands, she ends up marrying Jamie Fraser. At first for convenience, since she's determined to get back to the stones and go to her own time, but she and Jamie fall in love and she decides to stay. 

And yes, I know I have a million library books (not to mention all the ones I own) that I haven't read yet but there's no point fighting it. I've learned over the years 😊

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1

 

So these books seemed to have exploded out of nowhere. After reading the first volume (of 9, I believe), I understand why. It was really good! 

In 1883, Emma Lion, an orphan, returns to the home she's set to inherit when she turns 21 in a few months. She's been living with her very disagreeable and elderly cousin Matilde, who promised to set her three years of wages aside for her but now is refusing to do so because she thinks Emma stole her silver. Her cousin Archibald, Matilde's brother, has been living in Lapis Lazuli House (which is Emma's), taking care of the upkeep and finances. He refuses to give Emma her old rooms and instead sticks her in the garret. He keeps avoiding her and Emma finally makes an appointment with her banker, who tells her Archibald has deliberately blown through her inheritance by buying expensive clothes. 

Boy, with relatives like these, man. Poor Emma. She's a plucky girl, though, and quickly arranges to have a renter come in and rent out part of the house so they have some income. Her aunt Eugenia also wants Emma to be a companion to her daughter, Arabella, who Eugenia is getting ready to introduce to society. 

Brower has written Emma with a lovely, quirky, slightly dark sense of humor and as a result Emma is very relatable and fun. I'm looking forward to reading the next volume. 

Rich People Problems; The Football Game That Changed America

 

I'm so sad the series is over but at least the ending was wonderful. Just perfect *chef's kiss*

The main storyline is about Nick's Ah Ma, Su Yi, has had a heart attack and isn't expected to make it. Nick's cousin Eddie, knowing that Nick is persona non grata, makes a play for Tyersall Park (in your dreams, Eddie). Nick hasn't seen his grandmother since she forbade him from marrying Rachel a few years earlier but Rachel convinces him he should go to Singapore to say goodbye. 

Meanwhile, Astrid's divorce from Michael is getting contentious. He's demanding five billion dollars from her so she can share custody of Cassian. Astrid and Charlie just want to their respective divorces done so they can get married. 

I can't say much more without spoiling it, but it was so good. I really enjoyed it and I can see myself rereading the series at some point. 

This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It was more of an academic treatise on the financial and cultural aspects of the Super Bowl. Parts were interesting (like how the Super Bowl halftime show has evolved over the years) but other parts were pretty dry and he did get repetitive at times. 

Ironically enough, I rarely watch the Super Bowl. I think the AFC/NFC Championship games are usually way more entertaining. The Super Bowl always seems to be one sided to me. The commercials are on YouTube weeks before the game or immediately after, so I don't need to see them (I don't particularly care about most of them, anyway). And the halftime show? Meh. Again, I can watch it on YouTube if I'm so inclined. Seeing a performer do a minute of each of their most popular songs doesn't appeal to me. 

The really interesting thing I learned was that the Super Bowl almost didn't survive after the first two. The NFC team (Green Bay) won Super Bowl I and II, and the Colts were heavily favored in Super Bowl III, until the brash young QB for the Jets, Joe Namath, made the bold prediction that the Jets were going to win. The Jets did, and because of that fans in America realized the AFC could be contenders. After 60 Super Bowls, the divisions are pretty evenly split as far as wins. Most people watch now for the entertainment aspect rather than the game itself. 

Madden and Summerall

 

Ah, football season. This time of year if I'm not watching football, I want to be reading about it. 

I don't remember when Madden and Summerall called NFL games together, although I was watching football before Summerall retired. I'm sure I heard the two of them in the booth together. I do very fondly remember Madden and Al Michaels calling Sunday night games (I was so sad when Madden retired and Cris Collingsworth took over). 

Coach Madden was a treasure. Have you heard of a turducken? It's because of him. And for 21 years, Pat Summerall was his perfect foil. Pat used to call games with his buddy, Tom Brookshier. Their nights of drunken debauchery are, apparently, legendary (I'm trying to track down Summerall's bio so I can read about them). Eventually CBS broke them up and paired Pat with Coach Madden, who was very new to broadcasting. They weren't friends outside of work but they worked very well together. I went on YouTube to watch some clips and they were hysterical. And boy, has football changed. I saw one play and said "Oh, pass interference!" but no one threw a flag. No foul on the play. Back when they could just *play*. 

Pat quit drinking after an intervention but the damage was done. He had a liver transplant in his early 70s and lived another 10 years. Coach Madden retired and then passed away in 2021. A true end to an era. 

China Rich Girlfriend

 

The sequel to "Crazy Rich Asians" did not disappoint (seriously, Kevin Kwan is a treasure). 

Nick and Rachel are getting married despite his grandmother's strenuous objections. They were able to find Rachel's biological father, Bao Shaoyen, who has become a successful businessman and is married with a son, Carlton. Shaoyen attends the wedding and invites Nick and Rachel to his home in Shanghai so she can get to know him and his family better. Nick and Rachel happily accept. 

Meanwhile, Kitty Pong, the former Hong Kong soap opera actress, married Bernard Tai and had a daughter, Gisele. Kitty is desperate to get into elite society and hires a woman named Corrine to help her. 

And poor Astrid--now that her husband, Michael, is fabulously rich (thanks to Charlie Wu purchasing his first company anonymously), she's miserable in her marriage. Michael has changed and become a complete ass. She finds herself spending more and more time emailing and calling Charlie so he can console her. 

It was very fun and I'm looking forward to the third book, although it seems like it might be the last one, which is really sad. 

Intimate Audrey

 

This was a beautiful, touching tribute to a wonderful woman. 

Audrey barely survived WWII. She'd been living in the UK when war was declared and her mother sent her to the Netherlands, thinking she would be safer there. Unfortunately the Netherlands were occupied and many people died. Audrey was almost one of them. When the war was over and Audrey returned to England to resume ballet lessons, her instructor told her that she wouldn't be able to be a professional dancer due to her malnutrition. Audrey then turned to acting and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Audrey's father left when she was six and she didn't see him for decades. Her mother was a hard woman and as a result Audrey was insecure and had abandonment issues. She desperately wanted to find love and get married and have babies. She married fellow actor Mel Ferrer and had Sean after suffering several miscarriages. She and Mel drifted apart and divorced and she married Andrea Dotti and had a second son, Luca. Andrea cheated on her endlessly, and their marriage also broke up. She spent the last years of her life with a partner named Robert Wolders. By all accounts, they were deeply in love but never married. 

Audrey left the public eye to focus on raising her boys. She became an ambassador for UNICEF, traveling all over the world to raise awareness to children dying from starvation. Sadly, Audrey was diagnosed with cancer and died a few months later in her beloved home in Switzerland. She was only 63. 

The legacy she left is a powerful one and won't soon be forgotten. She brought a light into this world, a light of love and compassion, of helping others and expecting nothing in return. We are both better off for having known her and worse for her having left us so early. 

The Heirs

 

This one was on my TBR list and I found myself at work one day without a book for lunch, so I checked my list to see what might be on the shelf and grabbed it. The premise sounded intriguing: five child prodigies (well, four and one dud) are all suspects in their wealthy father's murder. 

Leontes Button adopted five kids when they were babies: Octavius, Fola, Bilal, Perdita, and Romeo. Each one was supposed to cultivate a gift through his unique "Button" method, which basically meant 18 hour days spent with tutors and specialists. Octavius became a music prodigy, Fola a chess and math wiz, Bilal an Olympic fencer, Perdita an artist, and Romeo was supposed to be a talented writer but no amount of tutoring could help him so he was known as "the failure". 

On the night of the Prodigy Ball, Mr. Button is murdered on a yacht full of people and the police get to work trying to track down the killer. The Button siblings decide to figure it out for themselves. 

I have to admit, it just wasn't great. I really wanted to like it but it fell flat. The solution to the mystery was very banal (and I saw it a mile away, which is really unusual for me). At least it was a quick read so I don't feel like I wasted too much time. 

The Unknown; In Broad Daylight

 

Okay, first up is the latest by Riley Sager, which was really good. 

Marin is an aspiring actress working as a waitress in New York. The only thing she's done is a commercial. Her agent sends her on a casting call for a part in a movie that's being directed by Ronan Peters, a renowned director, and starting two time Academy award winning actress Violet Wright. Marin doesn't think she stands a chance, but to her shock she lands the part. 

Ronan is a "method" director and wants the actresses to immerse themselves in the experience. The movie is a psychological horror based on a true story. In 1926, five women disappeared off an island known as New Avalon. One of the women, Daisy, kept a diary, and the screenplay is based off of that. Ronan wants the women to stay on New Avalon to bond and get in touch with their characters. 

The original five women were mystics or physics of some sort and Daisy's diary talks about "the Darkness" they communicated with during a seance, who gave the name of Azra. Their first night there, the 2026 women conduct a seance. One of the film crew becomes ill and the producer takes him back to the mainland on their boat. Only after they're gone does Marin realize that she had their cell phones and without a boat, they are trapped on the island. Then the actresses start disappearing one by one, in the same order as the 1926 counterparts they're playing. 

The twist at the end wasn't quite as twisty as some of his previous books, but it was still good. 

This one got better as it went along. I wasn't impressed with MacLean's writing style, and then I discovered he wrote a book a few years ago that I read and enjoyed about Charles Starkweather. Since this was his first book, I gave him a pass. His writing has improved since the 1980s. 

The small community of Skidmore, Missouri was terrorized for decades by Ken McElroy. McElroy raped and impregnated young teenage girls (and burned one father's house down when he dared object), stole with impunity, threatened people with intimidation tactics and guns, and actually shot a man, all without consequences. The police seemed helpless to do anything. McElroy knew how to skirt the edge of breaking the law, but then he got into an altercation with a much liked and elderly grocery store owner named Bo Bowenkamp. McElroy pulled a shotgun on Bo one night on the loading dock of his store. Bo's quick reaction saved his life, but he did end up in the hospital with substantial wounds to his neck. Unlike McElroy's other victims, Bo refused to back down and the case went to trial, where McElroy was found guilty. He was released on bond and continued to terrorize Skidmore until he was sentenced. 

One of his conditions for being out on bond was not to brandish firearms, and he did just that one day at the tavern in Skidmore, bragging about how he was going to kill Bo. Four men went and signed an affidavit that he'd broken the conditions of his bond and the hearing was set for July 10, 1981. The townspeople decided to form a caravan to show support for the four men as well as keep them safe during the drive to the courthouse, but when they showed up in town they learned the hearing had been delayed for 10 days. Frustrated, the men gathered at the Legion Hall to discuss what to do and they decided to keep an eye on him. Follow him everywhere. Patrol the backroads he used. In other words, use his own intimidation tactics against him. 

McElroy showed up in town and went to the tavern, and the men went in too. Estimates put about 60 men in the building. When McElroy and his wife, Trena, left, the men followed him out and surrounded his pickup. Some of the men went across the street to strategic locations. Someone yelled to shoot him, and shoot him they did. McElroy died in his pickup and sat there for over an hour until his brother heard what happened and called his lawyer, who called the local police, who claimed they had no knowledge of the incident but would go investigate. 

A wall of silence went up in Skidmore that day. Of the 45 or so witnesses interviewed, no one saw a thing. Everyone, even the mayor, claimed they heard the shooting start and hit the ground. No one was ever prosecuted, although there was a strong suspect that Trena named. No homes were searched and no weapons were ever found. Most of the residents shrugged and went "he's dead and gone. I don't know anything and I don't want to know". 

I can't begin to imagine the terror those townspeople felt, and the frustration and helplessness as the law and the courts failed them time and again. It's a wild story. There's a made for TV movie about it that came out in 1991 but of course you can't find the darn thing anywhere. It's too bad, it sounds like it was well done and had an excellent cast. 

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. 
 

This Son of York

I enjoyed this fictionalized account of good King Richard III. Smith did a lovely job of bringing Richard and his world to life.

Richard is the fourth and youngest son of Richard, Duke of York. The War of the Roses (or the Cousins' War) started when Richard, who had a much better claim to the throne than King Henry VI, was named Henry's heir, despite Henry having a son of his own. Henry was a very weak and ineffectual king who suffered periods of confusion. England needed a strong ruler, and Richard really was the better choice. Naturally war ensued between the Yorks and the Lancasters. The Duke was killed, along with his second son, Edmund, but his oldest son, Edward, claimed the throne and became king. There was some back and forth, but Edward ruled until his untimely death, and that's when things got really sticky. 

George, Duke of Clarence, the third son, had been put to death for treason and his son was barred from the line of succession. Edward had two sons: Edward and Richard, and he named his youngest brother, Richard, protector of the realm. When Richard gets to London, he's met with a bishop who has a shocking tale: Edward was precontracted in marriage before he married Elizabeth Woodville, therefore his two sons are bastards and cannot inherit the throne. The only one left to be king? Richard himself. 

I truly believe Richard did not want the throne. Contemporary reports at the time (at least the ones that the Tudors didn't destroy in their attempt to rewrite history) talked about his agony over it. He did, reluctantly, agree that he was the right person and was crowned king. 

He was a good king. He was beset by tragedy (his son and wife both died while he was king). He was always being challenged and stabbed in the back by people he trusted. And then he met his terrible, unjust fate at Bosworth Field and England's last warrior king was brutally slain by the forces working with the usurper, Henry Tudor. 

Was Richard perfect? No, of course not. Was he as evil as history remembers? Absolutely not. I'm so grateful for the hard work the Ricardian Society has done over the years to right the wrongs of the last 500 years and restore his reputation.  
 

The Museum of Unusual Occurrence

Ever since her father's death, Aly has run his museum full of spiritual oddities. Her mother moved to Tampa and left Aly with her younger sister, Merope (or Merry, as she's called). 

Aly finds a dead women in the museum who's arranged in a strange way. The tableau earns the nickname of the "Snow White Murder" because the victim was poisoned (she was found holding a vial), had long black hair, and her fingertips were all poked and bleeding. 

The tragedy does bring out the macabre sight seekers, and while Aly is glad for the business she's also worried about Merry and how the tragedy is affecting the high school senior. She feels obligated to help the police solve the crime and get justice for Rose. 

The solution to the murder wasn't entirely satisfying (and not something readers would have been able to figure out--all the clues were red herrings) but I liked the characters and the story was engaging.  
 

One Summer: America, 1927; Red Sheet

Bill Bryson is always great. His nonfiction is so engaging and funny. I really enjoyed "One Summer: America, 1927". 

Quite a lot happened in 1927 in a short period of time. Charles Lindbergh made the first successful solo airplane journey from New York to Paris alone in a plane that no one thought would make it. "Lucky Lindy" became an overnight mega-celebrity. Like the Beatles were thirty some years later. 

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig both had record breaking seasons with the Yankees. Ruth became the first batter to hit 60 homeruns in a season, a record that stood for decades. 

Ford stopped making the Model T and didn't have the Model A ready to go yet, so production shut down for months while they worked on that. Ford fell behind the other car manufacturers. This era also ushered in the idea of new models every year, which car manufacturers still do to this day. 

Talking motion pictures took off with "The Jazz Singer". Calvin Coolidge announced he wasn't running for reelection, paving the way for Herbert Hoover. Work began on Mount Rushmore (which was named after one of its major financial backers). Jack Dempsey was on top of the boxing world, which was becoming a popular sport. More people attended the Jack Willard vs. Jack Dempsey match than attended any Yankees' game. Capone was making money hand over first due to Prohibition. The Stock Market was riding high but a group of four international bankers who met in secret that summer made a fatal decision on interest rates that led to the Great Depression. 

All in all there was a lot going on, a lot that changed America forever, and Bryson did a great job summing it all up. 

And the latest from the incomparable James Ellroy. I adore this man. He is such a talented author and this book was fantastic. 

Freddy Otash is still on special assignment, working with the LAPD, mostly the notorious Hat Squad (four detectives from Robbery and Homicide who are rather poorly regarded now that we know the illegal tactics they used to get confessions out of people). Freddy and the Hats are working with Deputy Chief Daryl Gates, who is in charge while Chief Bill Parker is taking "the cure" in the basement of a local Chinese food restaurant. 

Freddy finds himself tangled up with some pretty violent Communists. He also falls in love with a lounge act singer, Judy. It was loads of fun and I wish I could replicate his slang. He's so good at it. 

The only complaint I had is the cover. What the heck is this? So weird.   

 

I See You've Called In Dead

 

This book was surprising. I was expecting a black comedy and instead it was really quite moving and very deep. 

Bud is an obituary writer living in New York. His life kind of sucks. He's been divorced for a few years and he doesn't really have any friends other than his landlord, Tim. One night Bud gets home from a disastrous blind date (the woman brought her ex-boyfriend along to explain they were getting back together. Yikes. I thought the blind dates I've been on were bad). Bud goes home and starts drinking and gets an email from his ex-wife letting him know her mother passed away. The email sends him into a bit of a tailspin, imagining what his own obituary will look like one day. 

So he writes it. He makes up a lot of fun, exciting things he did. And then he accidentally publishes it through his newspaper, sending it out to all the major publications throughout the country, who run it the next day. 

His boss isn't very happy. Apparently they can't fire someone who's technically, if not factually, dead, so they put him on suspension until they can get it straightened out. 

So Bud starts going to random strangers' wakes and funerals. Tim tries to help him realize how much he has to live for. One of his colleagues, Tuan, is even being friendly. Bud meets a woman, Clara, at a wake and she's spontaneous and whimsical and breathes fresh air into Bud's life.

Things are looking up when an unexpected, tragic death occurs. The book ended on a hopeful note, which was unexpected but welcomed. I enjoyed it, Kenney is a very good writer. 

A Murder in the Making

 

The second Dovey the mystic book was fun, I enjoyed it. 

Dovey has been avoiding gorgeous FBI agent Grant Barlow (or Gib, as she calls him) for the last few weeks. Her friend, Ursula, encourages her to tell Elric (her binder) how she feels. Ursula is sure Elric will understand and agree not to kill Gib. 

So Dovey comes clean and tells him she's developed feelings for Agent Barlow and would like to explore a relationship with him. Elric agrees not to harm him, but makes Dovey promise that she won't bind him. And then he very publicly breaks up with her so no one can accuse him of being a cuckold. 

Dovey is actually very devastated to lose Elric. She still loves him, despite her budding attraction to Gib. But she hardly has time to mourn the lost of her 180 year relationship. There's a mystic on the loose with a powerful trinket who is murdering FBI agents and seems to be coming after her next. 

Things get intense fast, as Dovey does her best to protect Gib from the rogue mystic as well as keep herself safe. Bits (her hedgehog) had a starring role in this book. He was a hero! Go, Bits! 🙌 Book three is set to be published this fall, so something to look forward to. 

Mayhem at the Halloween Wedding; A Letter to the Luminous Deep

 

The second book in the Lazy Bones Bookshop series was disappointing. 

One year after her disastrous first literary festival, Bailey is back. Her second festival went much better, but now she's gearing up for her friend Raven's Halloween wedding (oh, and the potential love interest from the last book? Got a throwaway sentence about how they went on a few dates but it didn't work out). 

Raven and her fiancé, Emmett, are excited to have a Halloween themed wedding. Raven's parents are fully on board, but Emmett's parents aren't happy and would have preferred a more traditional wedding. So would Raven's sister, Harmony, who's a social media influence (ugh). Harmony is bitter that Raven picked her friend Ivy to be her maid of honor instead of her and is picking fights with everyone in the wedding party, including Bailey and Colby. But then again, so is Ivy. Honestly, none of these people were likable, even Raven sounded awful. And why is Colby antagonizing people? It felt like everyone was at a level 11 on the stress meter. Even the poor Boortio cart lady got dragged into it somehow. It was wild how everyone in a ten mile radius hated Ivy and Harmony. 

Suffice to say, when Ivy turns up dead there's a whole bunch of potential suspects. Bailey eventually figures it out and Raven has a nice Halloween themed wedding. 

Meanwhile, I fear these books are going to start to suffer from Miss Marple syndrome, where all these random murders keep happening in a quiet little town. In the first book, a police officer made a statement about how there hadn't been a murder in decades (or something like that) and now between these two books there have been at least five in a little over a year. I can't imagine those crime stats look great for their tourism agencies. 

It took me months to get through this one. I should have given up, honestly. It wasn't worth it. But I wanted to like it so badly. On paper, it sounded perfect. A fantasy set in a world where everything is underwater. 

It's told in epistolary format, a series of letters from one person to another. It starts out with E. (her full name is Erudite, she goes by E. No one blames her for this) hopefully writing to a scholar named Henerey Clel about the sights outside of her home, the famous Deep House her mother built. Henerey starts responding back, and before long a sweet sort of blossoming romance begins to form between the two very shy people. 

A seaquake destroys the Deep House while Henerey is visiting E., and both are presumed lost. While going through their siblings' belongings, Sophy (E.'s sister) and Vyerin, Henerey's brother, discover their correspondence and start trading letters, hoping to understand their siblings better and potentially figure out what might have happened to them. And that's where the book ends. 

So why didn't I like it? Well, the letters were extremely formal in tone and she used a lot of made up names and words, too many for me to keep track of. I have a hard time with names I can't pronounce (I had a lot of the same issues while reading "The Song of Ice and Fire" series). The pacing was absolutely glacial. Nothing happened. At all. For hundreds of pages. 

It's unfortunate, because I liked the premise but the execution was just not what I needed it to be in order to keep reading the rest of the series.   

A Trinket for the Taking

I 100% checked this book out because there's a hedgehog on the cover. I love hedgehogs, and I'm still sad that my state doesn't allow them as pets. I have a friend at work who is Finnish, and she told me hedgehogs run wild in the forest there. Between that and the fact that Finland loves black licorice and saunas, I think I should have been born Finnish. 

At any rate, on to the actual book! It was fun, I liked it. Dovey is a two hundred year old mystic. Mystics are a type of magical being. They can cast spells and have trinkets that they infuse with their essence. 

Dovey is bound to Elric, a very old and powerful mystic, meaning she can't ever break free from him. Dovey loves Elric very much, so she's okay with this...until Elric asks her to track down a powerful trinket that's been stolen. Dovey goes to work and in the process of her investigation meets a handsome and charming FBI agent named Grant Bartholomew. Sparks fly between them and Dovey realizes she's toeing a dangerous line. The bound can't have relationships with the  unbound (the common people) without causing major problems. Not to mention Elric would have him killed if he so much as suspected Dovey had feelings for him. 

Dovey puts that aside to concentrate on finding the trinket as more members of a powerful Greek pharmaceutical family keep dying in horrific ways. 

And Dovey has a magical pet hedgehog named Bits who helps her choose her daily wardrobe 😀

It was the first book in a series and I'm excited to read the second one. 
 

Lombardi and Landry

 

I'm not well-versed enough on the logistics of football games to have really appreciated this book. It got pretty technical with formations and plays. I understood some of it, but a lot of it went right over my head.

The parts I did understand I enjoyed, so there's that 😊

Before he coached the Packers, Vince Lombardi was an offensive coach for the New York Giants under head coach Jim Howell. Tom Landry was the defensive coach for the Giants at the same time, before he went on to coach the Dallas Cowboys. Both coaches helped propel the Giants to winning seasons and championships (before the Super Bowl). Lombardi left to go to Green Bay, and a few years later Landry went to Dallas. Both coaches became legends in their respective towns (and of course, as we know, the Super Bowl trophy is named after Lombardi, since the Packers won the first two matchups). Landry led Dallas through the raucous '80s when the moniker "America's Team" was hung on the Cowboys (unjustly so, in my opinion). The Giants faltered and it took them a long time to return to their former glory. Most people blamed the Mara family for letting Lombardi and Landry get away. 

History is full of hindsight, so it's hard to know what might have happened "if".