Obsessed with True Crime discussion
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Acquisitions ~ And WHAT ARE YOU READING? 2018-19
Erin wrote: "The polls said Clinton had a 95% chance of winning."I was hearing up until 11/9 that he couldn't possibly win. But they all told me in the same breath that Hilary was 1 percentage point -- 1 point -- ahead of Trump. If people don't act in EVERY election as if their vote were needed, well, things like this are going to keep happening.
Erin wrote: "I think Trump will be reelected. I don't see why anyone who voted for him in '16, wouldn't vote for him in'20. Also everyone in politics is terrified of him."
Erin,
Considering that he actually lost the popular vote, it won't take many of his base turning against him to tip the battle. I've heard his "easy-to-win" tariff wars are backfiring, and causing some of his supporters in big business to lose gobs of money, and these voters may no longer be as enamored as they were in November of 2016.
Finished No Longer A SECRET: Unique Common Sense Strategies for Children with Sensory or Motor Challenges last night. Useful, but not exactly gripping.
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Currently enjoying Better Made in Michigan: The Salty Story of Detroit's Best Chip, which is welcome light relief between rounds of reading The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South.
Lady ♥ Belleza wrote: "Just picked up: “One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway”. Hella big book."Oh wait till you get to the part about his sentencing. Wow.
Okay I just finished this The Silent Twins and it does have a TC tip in that the twins in question are convicted of (if I remember correctly) breaking & entering, theft, criminal mischief, and arson ........and ultimately at 18 they’re sent to Broadmoor Asylum (for the criminally insane), sentenced to an ‘indefinate’ period. A tragic, riveting and heartbreaking story about mental illness.
Fishface wrote: "I just discovered there is a whole book on the Staunton case other than Harriet Staunton: A Victorian Murder Ballad. I added it to the GR database but it needs to digest before I can..."In re: Harriet Staunton, I highly recommend this Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins, classified as historical fiction, but closely based on this infamous double homicide. Wasn’t sure if this genre of fiction based on TC is accepted on the group shelves.
I had a "fictionalized" shelf here once, but someone removed all the books and the shelf.But thanks for the reccy!
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But thanks for the reccy!"
IT WASN'T ME!
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But thanks for the reccy!"
Just sent you a message.
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Done and replied to.
At the risk of being redundant: https://the-line-up.comIf you don’t already know this website, then ENJOY! (I sure do)
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If you don’t already know this website, then ENJOY! (I sure do)"
Wrong thread, should be posted on "Smiley Crime Sites".
I'm on the app so no link.I'm about 200 pages into The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.
It was the runaway winner of the poll I made a couple weeks ago.
So far its living up to the hype. I like it.
Sigh. I got that book for Squidmas years ago and I never get around to reading it.
Squidmas! Lmao!!!!!!!!There’s something so perverse about being such a TC obsessive and yet not having read that book: I am, and I haven’t lol
Bearing in mind that we have around 9,000 books on our TC shelves as I type this, well, some of us have plenty to read right in front of us without asking for more. I just got my copy of Leo Stanley's book, MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE CRIMINALS. Along with being the head MD at San Quentin for 30 years, he was a total weirdo who believed that the flower of white manhood was withering on the vine because of weak testicles and to prevent the glorious white race from dying out they all needed some kind of testicle grafts. (See also Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam). This book was a real find and Harry Holmes will just have to get in line behind Leo and then Piet Byleveld. Among more than a few others.
I just finished
a 4 Star read. And now im reading
Having finished 2 other books today, I noticed my waiting copy of Into the Mountains: The Extraordinary True Story of Survival in the Andes and its Aftermath and opened it up to see what was what. It drew me right in. I wish all the survivors would write memoirs!!!
Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder, and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit by Kevin Flynn3 stars
The first half of this book about a mother and daughter who was killed by her ex-boyfriend was interesting. The second half was a lot of trial testimony, which was mostly repetitive of what we already were told. I would give the first half of the book 5 stars and the second half 2 stars, although if you like that sort of thing it would probably be 5 stars for you.
Needed a break from TC so I hungrily devoured Into the Mountains: The Extraordinary True Story of Survival in the Andes and its Aftermath. Then, refreshed by the uplifting message of that book, I plunged into Byleveld: Dossier of a Serial Sleuth. Almost the first thing I read in here is that this retired copper is a hero to black South Africans because he's taken their plight as people up to their collective neck in serial killers so seriously, and done such a great job catching those killers. This is gonna be good.
Now also reading one of our newest TC titles, Dark Secret: The Complete Story: The True Account of What Happened to Little Alex Suleski. Oh, and I finished up Better Made in Michigan: The Salty Story of Detroit's Best Chip.
Just sent for a copy of Torture Killers II. Can't wait to see what kind of nutty titles they gives the articles collected within.I have to tell you, Dark Secret: The Complete Story: The True Account of What Happened to Little Alex Suleski is rough going. The author tells you everything she saw and experienced in a very different type of torture situation from what I'm likely to read in the True Detective compilation mentioned above. Not for the weak of stomach.
My copy of Torture Killers II arrived today. The photo section suggests these cases are going to be even more horrific than the awful, awful ones in Torture Killers.
Marian wrote: "I am currently reading Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders"And what did you think of this incredible classic? I noticed your post again today after watching THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, starring Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski...
Nearly done with Torture Killers II and utterly absorbed in the wonderfully-written To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire.
Finally reading The Kuřim Case: A Terrifying True Story of Child Abuse, Cults & Cannibalism. It's way, way beyond nutty. I had to stop a few minutes ago and Google the story because it just seemed too outlandish to be true. To my astonishment, a row of photos popped up showing me the faces of the players in this insane drama. It's true!!!
Fishface wrote: "Finally reading The Kuřim Case: A Terrifying True Story of Child Abuse, Cults & Cannibalism. It's way, way beyond nutty. I had to stop a few minutes ago and Google the story because..."I've long ago come to the sad conclusion that there is nothing that can be imagined, that hasn't already happened.
I think it's safe to say nobody would have seen this mess coming.
A couple of books I read in 2018 but did not post before this:The Murder of Roseann Quinn: A collection of True Crime stories, edited by Peter Dover
3 stars
The cases in this book were very interesting and almost all of the information in here was new to me, but what a chore it was to read! The writing was strikingly clumsy and it got worse with every chapter, as if the copy editor were getting exhausted. There may not have been a copyeditor in the first place. I'm not sorry I read this one, but the authors need to brush up on basics like sentence structure and usage. With all that said, the stories themselves were well-chosen, very affecting and often genuinely tragic.
Blackout, Jonah Goldberg4 reluctant stars
This is simply the Grand Jury's report on their findings in the hideous case of Kermit Gosnell, with an introduction by Jonah Goldberg suggesting he did not understand at all what he read in it. While I'm positive my hair got a little whiter reading this report, I didn't come away with the impression Goldberg seemed to have formed, that Gosnell is the reason abortion is fundamentally wrong and that large swathes of the American public, the people he contemptuously dismisses as "the feminists" and "the liberals" are to blame for this nightmare. He may not realize that Gosnell and his untrained abortion providers are serious outliers in the current-day medical field. He may not realize that women and viable babies used to die every day in this country, under conditions like those found at Gosnell's clinic, because competent MDs working within the law were not allowed to do abortions. He also makes zero mention of the fact that some of the patients injured by Gosnell & Co. went to his filthy, dangerous clinic because they were scared off by the pro-life protesters harassing patients at the clean, safe Planned Parenthood clinics around the state. The question here is how this particular doctor went so far out of bounds and why nobody -- not even the pro-life types -- even tried to stop him despite numerous complaints over the years. So many questions still to answer here. I found the Grand Jury's report in itself bracingly realistic, and their recommendations pretty sensible, although I would have made a few more suggestions to deal with the systemic breakdown that led to this debacle. Read this one if you dare. It's not for the weak of stomach but a very important lesson in where and how things break down.
The Kuřim Case: A Terrifying True Story of Child Abuse, Cults & Cannibalism, Ryan Green4 baffled stars
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this story. The subtitle, which promised a story about "child abuse, cults and cannibalism" didn't even hint at the depths of the weirdness in this true case. By the end I was still baffled as to why any of this happened. The child abuse was almost an afterthought in here -- just the key that opened the gates to Crazyland. There are more questions than answers in here and a lot more wrongness than any courtroom can address.
Gosnell's Babies: Inside the Mind of America's Most Notorious Abortion Doctor, Steve Volk4 stars!
This is a very short read, but it answers so many of the questions I had about Kermit Gosnell. Very thought-provoking and stands to give any reader more to chew on when it comes to the endlessly difficult, endlessly controversial questions around abortion, the people who seek them out and the providers who make them happen. Gosnell is such a radical outlier -- I hope! -- but his life throws an interesting light on the whole abortion question. As well it should. Well worth your time.
To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire, David Cowan and John Kuenster5 stars
This book was absolutely absorbing, impossible to put down. I'm not kidding when I say I almost missed Christmas because I had to keep reading this one. Beautifully written story of a terrible disaster and its aftermath. But I warn you, this book is not for the faint of heart.
Torture Killers II, edited by Rose Mandelsberg3 solid stars
Another collection of hideously brutal crimes, brought to you by Rose and the gang down at True Detective magazine. These dire stories will really help put your own problems in perspective. Some of the criminals in here are unbelievably inventive, on top of being cruel. All of the victims' stories will haunt me. I confess I was a little disappointed that the chapter headings were not up to TD's usual standards of craziness; they reflect what actually happened in the stories ("She Pleaded To Be Allowed To Die!", for instance) rather than making up something bizarre (like "Eaten Alive By Killer Ballerinas!") to convince you to read it.
Panic, Harold Schechter4 solid stars
In this short work, Schechter focuses on a single sex-crime panic in the USA, in 1937. He does a good job sketching out the cases that dominated the headlines in that dim, dead year, but I wish he had told us more about some of the other cases he mentioned in passing. He helped me understand the overall level of outrage already simmering in the country the day of the Everett-Stephens murder, which I coincidentally just read about in Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret, and the underpinnings of a number of other crimes I've read about from this era. As always he leaves me wanting to know so much more. Don't miss this one.
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Happy New Year, group members. I, for one, am glad 2018 is gone, and feeling cautiously optimistic about 2019.I've started reading "I'll be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara. It will have to be awfully good to live up to the hype.
A minute ago I started reading I, a Squealer: The Insider's Account of the "Pied Piper of Tucson" Murders. It starts off with a bang. I think this will be an excellent read.
Not going to spoil I, a Squealer: The Insider's Account of the "Pied Piper of Tucson" Murders for any of you, but I'm only on page 41 and almost every page so far has had information on Charles Schmid's case that is totally new to me. AND it's well written!
I'm currently reading IT by Stephen King & The Phantom of Fifth Avenue by Meryl Gordon.
I'm trying to drag myself through Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster and I have The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple and My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers checked out of the library to read next.
Sounds like you're not enjoying Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster! I admit it didn't do much for me, either.
I've been debating giving up on it, but I'm 100 pages in and feel like I might as well just push on through at this point.. but the author's writing style just seems so bland, and then at other points it's like he's rushing through. Hoping the other two are better when I finally get to them.
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Obsessed with True Crime
Books mentioned in this topic
John Christie: Crime Archive (other topics)Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder (other topics)
Breaking Blue: A True Crime Book (other topics)
Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story (other topics)
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Åsne Seierstad (other topics)Peter Chrisp (other topics)
Peter Chrisp (other topics)
Peter Chrisp (other topics)
The polls said Clinton had a 95% chance of winning.