The Five, a review - by Hallie Rubenhold

 

It's not a secret that I'm obsessed with all things True Crime, except that I haven't ever really been fascinated by Jack the Ripper. This book came to my attention, however, because I began listening to her podcast, Bad Women. This book was a different take on the True Crime trope and intrigued me on both the women perspective and the true crime perspective. We hear a lot about the Ripper but his known victims aren't considered to be much more than names or prostitutes.  So I wanted to learn more and my eyes were opened. 

What the five women had in common was not what most people know them for. They weren't prostitutes, but they were women in Victorian England who were poor, destitute, alcoholics and invisible at the time of their deaths.  They were all also likely asleep. What they really were not were prostitutes. Rubehold gives these women back their lives and their stories while at the same time exposing the misogyny of the stories that had been so integral to the women's stories previously.

Rubenhold obviously did extensive (and impressive) research in writing this book. She looked at mostly primary resources in researching this book - newspaper reports (which were often horrifically wrong), parish records, court and coroner records and birth and death records among other things.  Then, she translated all of those into an easily readable and educational and interesting narrative that was very, very compelling. I learned much about the women and their families as well. There were vivid descriptions of the places that they lived in and the environments that they navigated. I really appreciated that it called out the mysogyny of the time - a system of belief that likely contributed tremendously to authorities not capturing the infamous Jack the Ripper (because these were "just drunken, poor, nightwalkers"). In common knowledge, we knew very little about the five known victims. 

What I did really appreciate about this books was Rubenhold's excision of the women's last moments. She didn't provide any lurid details of the crimes or how the women were found or what they looked like when they were found and I really appreciated this.  It allowed me to focus on who the women were when they were alive instead of viewing them as dehumanized murder subjects to be held up as objects without a story. I found this to be very effective. Rubenhold's book is a tribute to the women who were killed at the hands of a serial killer.  Highly recommended.

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

 

I picked up this novel because one of the reading challenges I'm doing is the Southern Reading Challenge. It's also helpful that I'm flying out to Alabama for about a week on Sunday morning, so this is a timely one too.  

In this novel, date rape and murder are primary characters, as much as the actual people themselves, so please be forewarned. Arlene Fleet - called Lena, Arlene and various other names by the people in her family - was a sophomore when she promised God to not lie, to not fornicate and to leave town after she graduated with an eye towards never returning. When we meet her, she's kept those promises - she left for Chicago in 1987 and is getting an advanced degree and in a relationship with Burr - a black lawyer (Lena is white). Ten years later, a former high school classmate (and former girlfriend of Jim Beverly - the antagonist here) shows up randomly at her door asking questions about Jim, who disappeared mysteriously his senior year. At the same time, Burr, who is quite ready to get serious with Arlene, asks for some indication that she's also ready for serious - as in marriage - by taking him back to Alabama to meet her family. Arlene realizes that she needs to go back to do damage control - not only regarding Jim but to salvage her relationship with a really good man.  This novel is about both Jim and Arlene's family, including Burr.

I loved this book. First and foremost, I loved the characters - they made this memorable for me, especially Arlene. I could see, hear and picture her. She's so perfectly imperfect and relatable - just like someone you'd meet anywhere and that was a huge hook for me. Her heart is big and good and in the right place and she has just the right amount of craziness to be believable. ANd Arlene's backstory from childhood through high school is something else. I loved her Aunt Flo as well - again I could see, hear and picture her - and she's a force to be reckoned with. Aunt Flo has had to be strong for the entire family, including Arlene's mother who suffered greatly after the death of Arlene's father and that caused her to put on a tough face to conceal the big heart underneath. 

I enjoyed the plot development as well. The book is told in chapters  that alternate between the present and the past that Arlene is trying to deal with.  I thought that I had it pegged but I absolutely did not.  At all. That's pretty unusual for me lately so kudos to Ms. Jackson for being able to do that. Definitely recommend.

Confessions of a Serial Killer: the Untold Story of Dennis Rader the BTK Killer by Katherine Ramsland

 

I heard about  this book after listening to one of my favorite podcasts cover the case.  In 1974, Dennis Rader stalked and killed his first victims - the Oteros, a family of four in Wichita.  He had been obsessed with serial killers throughout adolescence and his teen years. He continued to kill, until he accrued 10 victims (and took a "break"). He then named himself BTK for Bind them, Torture them, Kill them and wrote notes that terrorized the city until he was finally caught after being on the loose for thirty years (during which no one knew that he was the killer - this guy literally created hiding in plain sight). Katherine Ramsland, throughout jail visits and extensive correspondence with the BTK Killer, she worked to analyze the inner workings of his mind and this book is the result. Using his drawings, letters, interviews, and Rader's unique codes, she presents in meticulous detail the childhood roots and development his motivation to stalk, torture, and kill.

This is the first book by Katherine Ramsland that I read and I really enjoyed it. I am interested in True Crime because I'm fascinated and curious about what makes people act in a manner that is so beyond the pale and this book did a magnificent job in doing that for me with this particular serial killer. I felt like I really got into the (scary) head of the BTK killer in large part because Dr. Ramsland just went with it and let him say whatever he wanted. DOn't get me wrong, the book itself is sometimes very, very surreal and bizarre and you have to have the stomach to read some of his descriptions of things, but it really was very well done. 

Highly recommended. 

REVIEW - Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

 

So, this was one of the "it" books from last year and I wanted to read it. I have Little Fires Everywhere waiting for me, but I wanted to try this one first and boy, it pulled on my heartstrings. 

I wouldn't necessarily classify this as dystopian. It's not in the vein of Handmaid's Tale or The Walking Dead, but there is definitely an alternative reality. There has been an economic crisis (called, not very creatively IMHO, The Crisis) that has been caused by a downturn in the Chinese economic markets as a result of Chinese manipulation of the markets. It is fictional but is comparable to the Covid-19 pandemic and is a stand in for that. Things like removal of children and replacement of them with "approved" families, slavery and police brutality also make appearances in this novel. But what mostly rears its head is grief and what pulled on my heartstrings is the grief that was caused by a mother's separation from her son. I think it hit me particularly hard because the son in this case is the same age as my son, so it was really hard to separate it out and there were times I had to put it down and cry. 

We meet 12 year old Bird Gardner in the middle of the story. He's living with his father in Cambridge and his mother isnot with them. Bird is the one that must go on a journey to find and meet his mother and learn about what has happened and will happen with her. Bird's father, Ethan, prohibits Bird from even speaking his mother's name, while Bird's best friend, Sadie, believes that Bird's mother is actually a leader in a resistance movement. 

NG uses both Japanese folklore and Greek mythology to tell her story and it's very effective. It allows the hope/sadness tension to exist together in one space. I enjoyed how Ng used dramatic and non violent protest and art to protest. It affirms that this is really effective in conveying messages and may actually be more thought provoking, and sustained, in the long run.  It may also effectuate change in a better way. I generally enjoyed this book and am looking forward to another, more careful read in the future. 

The Children of Men by PD James - review

 After reading this novel, which is a bit of different for PD James, I wanted to read something light. This is dystopian fiction that is quite heavy and, like all dystopian fiction, tries to imagine the worst world possible while trying to hold up a mirror for us to use to recognize our own failings. This novel was published in 1992 and is very much focused on the sub fertility replacement issues that were going on in the United Kingdom at the time (it makes it very disconcerting to see that some of the dates in the novel were 2021!). At the time, the UK had had a sub fertility replacement rate for almost twenty years, which means the population was aging and young people weren't being born to take their place. 

The novel is set in 2021. We learn pretty early on that the last child was born in 1995 (and had died). It isn't just limited to the UK though - this seems to have happened on a global level and there is a global search for a cure. No progress has been made and no children have been conceived. The main narrator is Theo, a history professor. 

James' theory, as told by Theo, is that as humans lose hope in their future, they become more accepting of authoritarian rule. The British have yielded their rights to the Warden, who has promised to keep them comfortable. Part of this means banning the mentally ill and all criminals, even the petty ones, to the Isle of Man, a penal colony where anything goes. The general population doesn't mind this - the island and its concept is pretty popular (which is disturbing). Migrant labor is exploited to maintain the government's freedom from want. The UK seemed to exploit labor from other countries since it seems that the country itself still has a pretty decent economy. The migrants perform petty labor but have no protections or no rights - at least not on par with the citizens they serve. They are expelled to their home countries at 60 when they're deemed too old to be productive. 

 The population seemed to be depressed to the point that they had nothing left to live for. They took no pleasure in anything. At a certain point, they got so hopeless they engaged in Quietus, which was actually a nice name for mass suicide.  PD James seemed to be making the argument that having future generations gives motive to live because the current generations are focused on providing a legacy for the offspring. The writing style was sometimes very thick to get through but I enjoyed it and I enjoyed how James sometimes went back and forth between Theo's journal entries and third party narration.  

A worthwhile read for the messages that it sends but very heavy.  

This Land of Snow by Anders Morley

 

I found this book at the library and picked it up because Anders Morley grew up in Littleton, NH - a town that I lived in for a while and I thought that I may have run across him at some point. I didn't but I still got this book, which was the winner of the 2021 National Outdoor Book Award.  I'm not sure I can see why though because I had a hard time getting into the book and actually connecting with the author.

Morley grew up in Northern NH which, for those of you who don't know, have pretty cold winters with lots of snow. He ws intrigued by the Arctic and Antarctic explorers that came before him and which his family taught him about. He moved, eventually, to Italy (which is about as far as you can get from Northern NH geographically and culturally speaking) where he met his wife, Elena, and settled. During a period where he became (some would say) profoundly unhappy enough with his marriage and life that he planned a Canadian Ski trip alone (and began to emotionally connect with a woman other than his wife), he came back to North America to complete this trip. The trip began in 2012 In Prince Rupert, British Columbia and he continued halfway across Canada. He didn't have any experience with skiing while pulling the sled at the same time (with all his gear) or fifty degree below zero weather. This book draws upon his journals from that time and has been described as a meditation on wilderness and solitude.

As I noted above, I found it very hard to connect with the author. The best parts of the book weren't about him and being out in the wilderness. I found those to be very trite and self absorbed. The best parts, for me, were the parts where he described the towns that he came across and the people he encountered.  I loved hearing about those interactions and his observations of the communities and often wished that he had spent a bit more time on those sections.  I found those parts moved particularly quickly but that the parts that focused on him alone were very slow moving.  

I. certainly don't regret reading this book - I very rarely regret reading anything - but I wouldn't pick this one up again the next time.  

Truly Madly Deeply by Stephen Galloway, a review

 

I was absolutely fascinated by Vivien Leigh after watching Gone With the Wind (cringey I know).  But there was actually so much I didn't know about her - that she had bi-polar disorder and that she died of tuberculosis among them.  I knew that she was married to Sir Laurence Olivier though and so I randomly saw this book at the library and picked it up.

THe book starts with the personal histories of the two main players - Vivien being born in India as Viven Hartley and then sent to a Catholic boarding school at a very young age. Her stage name combines her first name and the first name of her first husband, Leigh Holman, with whom she had a daughter with (who she remained particularly close to in spite of their eventual divorce). Olivier was the youngest of three children born into a not very wealthy family and lost his mother at 12. He greatly admired his father, even though he wasn't particularly close to him. 

The couple met at a garden party and began what can only be described as a sordid love affair while they were both still married to other people - which meant that it was the best kept secret in all of Hollywood and the theater world for a while. Galloway then continues the story through its end.

What I greatly admired about this book was the depth of the research that Galloway engaged in.  He obviously spent a lot of time picking through interviews to glean information that he could then put together in a way that was palatable for us as readers. I learned things that I had not learned before - which is very, very valuable and the book, while long, is written simply. I found that the sections about the times on scene - the technical parts of the movie business and the gossipy, middle school type drama that occurred aside from the relationship - were not very interesting so I skimmed it. I wanted to read this book to learn about the people themselves and their relationships, not read a primer on the movie business and I did learn about it.  If you can live with those sections, then I would definitely give this book a go. The couples' relationship was dizzying and had a lot going on in it and the book itself was a generally enjoyable way of learning about it. 

Happy New Year and some resolutions

 

I hope that everyone had a wonderful, safe and happy night last night. I somehow, beyond anyone's wild imagination, managed to stay up to watch the ball drop after which I immediately went to sleep (I'm usually struggling to stay awake past like 9).  I wanted to drop a quick post about whatI'd like to accomplish this year.  Self indulgent? Perhaps but it's good to have goals right? I always have a few separate categories of goals and this year it's no different - reading, excercise, money.

Reading Goals

1. Read 100 books. I failed at this one miserably last year (as you can tell from my Goodreads profile. That being said, please add me. I love connecting).  I am hoping that it will be easier this year because I'm doing two more formal reading challenges and one informal one.

2. Use my library More and buy less books. Helps save money. And my local library is pretty great.

3. I'm participating in two formal reading challenges. One is the Southern Reading Challenge - and the other is to read a book set in each State in the United States. The other is more informal and involves me reading a book a month with Matt. Our first one is by Anthony Bourdain.

4. I am hoping that my store at Pangbooks does well.  I sell my used books there. :)

Health/exercise Goals

5. I am looking to run a mile a day everyday this year, except when I'm sick.

6. In that vein, I'd like to attempt a race a month but we'll see about that.

7. Journalling a few times a week.  It helps with my mental health.

What are your goals this year?