And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Stephanie Marie Thornton

And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Stephanie Marie Thornton. Penguin Publishing Group. March 2020. pb, 480 pp.; ISBN #: 9780451490926.

Welcome to the world of Jack and Jackie – a romance beyond romance!  It’s a world where we see Jackie’s sense of humor and mostly grit.  She knew what she was marrying into but she married Jack Kennedy anyway. She knew he was a womanizer but he swore she was his only woman and proved it. It reads like an intimate memoir.  It brings the reader to share in her tears and deepest fears.

She met his family and got along with everyone of them.  She had miscarriages and trials but kept her chin up until she had her children, Caroline and John.   When she drives through Texas with Jack, we know how mind-numbing his assassination is and what it does to her.  It takes her to levels of grief and yet it is her family and his that offer the support that keeps her going.  Yes, it is Bobby who is there for her and gives her strength that she takes time to turn into her own.  From then on, her stoicism guides her through the tragedy of Bobby’s assassination. 

From then on, she gets to raise her children and decides to travel to Greece.  There she eventually marries Aristotle much to the chagrin of the Kennedy clan and Aristotle’s children.  She does this for her children’s safety and it works.  But marriage to Ari isn’t what she had hoped and she is hopelessly entangled in a stay at home, European style marriage and it isn’t until his death that she feels free. 

She then has the money and the dreams to become an editor, a successful one at that.  Jackie has been married three times and spends the rest of her life doing what she loves.  Throughout the book she shares her love of poetry and prose in small ways with each of her families, but only after life has taught her through joys,  pain and trials does she celebrate her literary life with the world.

Many readers do not know Jackie’s life but now they can get to know her intimately in a way that gives her reality a way to remember the days of Camelot – and beyond.  Wonderful historical fiction!

Who Slays The Wicked? by Sebastian St. Cyr C. H. Harris

Who Slays the Wicked? – Sebastian St. Cyr. C. S. Harris. Penguin Publishing Group. April 2019. pb, 352 pp.; ISBN #: 9780399585654.

A very evil nobleman who is married to Sebastian’s niece, Stephanie.  This quickly turns into a “was” married when he is found murdered in the most foul manner possible.  Years ago, he was responsible for a string of murders of young boys.  Lord Ashworth has some deviant sexual habits and is a very nasty individual with a habit of not paying his bills and sneering at those who demand payment.  When Sebastian asks who would want Lord Ashworth dead, the answer is obviously anyone and everyone who knew him. Although this is the 14^th St. Cyr novel, it’s a stand-alone that’s so very well worth reading.

So does one go after the poor vagabond prostitutes in the neighborhood or the other noble lords and ladies in London, especially quite a few from Russia here to encourage and celebrate a wedding of their own arrangement?  All have a reason to hate Lord Ashworth’s dead or alive guts.  The size of a blood stain even suggests that a small woman committed the gruesome deed, maybe even his wife Stephanie whom the Lord had married only to get an heir or he would have been cut off from the family money. 

What’s most interesting about this novel are the potentially guilty characters who carry an obvious hatred of the dead victim but also have a coldness about them that wouldn’t think twice about killing a person.  Motives boil down to they would just plain like to do it and no you wouldn’t get a smile with that verbal admission.

There’s a double whammy message here about how the aristocracy couldn’t care less about the suffering and cruel circumstances of the poor beggars, prostitutes, and local ragpickers, of whatever age.  St. Cyr has an obvious caring heart and this makes him sensitive to the suffering around him, a trait his beloved wife also shares.

One also gets a good picture of the politics of the time.  Politicians are out for money and not the good of their constituents.  Covering up evil deeds is par for the course.

This is a grand read with plenty of rumors, hints, scandals, etc. for those trying to figure out the mystery before the main character does.  Fine crime novel that will keep you enraptured for hours and hours – enjoy and then go for the other St. Cyr novels – all masterfully crafted!

Gilded Dreams (Newborn Gilded Age Book Two) by Donna Russo Morin

Gilded Dreams. (Newport Gilded Age Book Two). Donna Russo Morin. Magnum Opus: Sold by Amazon. June 2020, 325 pp.; ASIN: B084GM8DC4.

For the last eight years, the women’s rights movement for suffrage is raging.  Donna Russo Morin brings us into Pearl’s Newport world. Beginning with a terrible tragedy, Pearl loses her father on the Titanic.  That awful event brings the reader to the event as she is forced to identify her father, the last member of her family, and the horrors she has to experience.  That loss makes her realize that she has lost everything as her husband inherits everything. She can inherit nothing as she’s a woman.  It is here that she sees the need for a women’s rights law. 

She finds her world as a novice suffragette as she meets the women involved in this far off fight. She continues to forge on, being a mother of two and drawing fashion and agreeing to do little things at the Newport level.   She and Ginerva are together through the thick and thin of it all. WWI is begun and she is separated from her beloved husband, Peter.  The hero he was emerges as she hears of his heroic action which saved the lives of hundreds.

Her world dissolves with the death of Peter and we experience it with Pearl.  A crisis develops and she must come up with the will of Peter which she does after much searching and worrying.  Who will inherit in this mess when a wife cannot inherit anything? 

The world is winding up the war.  During this time we meet the other upper echeleon of women’s rights supporters, such as the Lady Astor Brooke, whom Pearl supports.  Night and day is the picture of this lady.

Late in the novel, Pearl and Ginerva become opponents.  This is totally unexpected and shocks readers but doesn’t prevent the goal of achieving women’s rights which are signed into law. 

There are dozens of pages in which supporters help Pearl become the women she rises as she rises from little known Pearl to the leader of the Newport campaign.  She is a woman who reads a great deal and is a wise leader in sharing her knowledge. 

Donna Russo Morin is great writer who has done her research well and presented a lively and dynamic story.  This is historical fiction at its highest and all should enjoy the story!!!

Becoming. Michelle Obama. Crown Publishing Group. November 2018. $19.50; pb, 448 pp.; ISBN: 9781524763138.

Usually the public demands on the First Lady of the United States are minimal.  However, we live in times where division is rife and the public are starving for inspiration.  It’s a way of saying, “It’s all going to turn out right or at least as close as possible to right.”  So what is usually such a formidable demand on the President also attached to the First Lady.  Michelle Obama’s memoirs address many aspects of the goals that are expected of public figures.  Will all readers agree with the phases of her life that she describes in becoming me, becoming us, becoming more and the epilogue?  Probably not, but what a fine way to start understanding the ins and outs of the woman who became First Lady for eight years which clearly parallels the mental and emotional journey of America over those eight years of her service.

First, First Lady Obama takes readers into the formation of her educational journey and the establishment of a personality grounded in honesty, integrity and purpose.  She admirably describes her ascent from insecurity step-by-step.  Molded by a hard-working family and meeting the challenges of a father who was ill for many of her growing-up years and of living in a family of limited economic means, she accepted thrift but also accepted a sense of responsibility about handling finances.  Hard work was the journey she was to take to rise from those conditions, encouraged by her parents’ model and life experience.

It would be accurate to describe her education as “driven.” She was hungry to learn and that passion honored her drive with success.  Only after she wrestled through her college and legal education did she finally realize that her calling or passion was not to be law but in something connected to public service.  However, that separation was not as large as she seemed to experience.  That introductory period gave her an immense body of knowledge that she probably uses to this day.

On and on the story continues.  The strengths and weaknesses of a marriage, campaigning for political offices, the expectations of supporters and the hellish harangues of opponents, all in all an evolution of skills and learning how to handle the public and private aspects of her entire life fill these pages of riveting expression, exposure and internal debate.

Readers will love the light-hearted moments with the Obama children, the Secret Service and the friends and supporters of Michelle during each phase of her life, thoughts and responses to which every reader can relate.

This is a memoir that should be must reading for all who deeply care about the future of our country and those who have prominence and influence over goals and dreams.  But more than that, this book is just as important about growing in becoming a life-affirming, honest, humorous, intelligent and deeply caring human being.  There’s much more herein – enjoy sharing Michelle Obama’s life story to date – it’s so real!

The Kennedy Debutante: A Novel by Kerri Maher

The Kennedy Debutante: A Novel. Kerri Maher. Penguin Publishing Group. October 2018. 384 pp. ISBN#: 978451492043.

Kathleen (“Kick”) Kennedy is the vivid debutante of this novel, a story that captures the essence of the Kennedy clan’s powerful presence, but which presents this famous woman as complex, fearless, socially adept, and devout. She’s a woman of her own character, living out her blend of service and compassion for and within the formidable issues of her time.

The novel begins with Kick’s “coming out” party.  Like any normal debutante, Kick loves to party and is only held in check by her mother Rose, a formidable woman who monitors “everything” about every one of her children.  Kick’s father, Joe, is obsessed with his effect and that of his children and we later see how he comes to respect Kick’s presence and then her ideas which might enhance his position as America’s Ambassador to England.  But Kick is definitely her own woman!

Two challenging issues face Kick within this account.  One is falling in love with a member of British aristocracy, Billy Harrington.  He and his family are staunchly Protestant and Kick’s equally strong practice of Catholicism seem initially like an unbreachable impasse and a painful one at that!  Their love will evolve with some wise counsel of friends, family and mentors.

In the midst of this constant partying and pleasurable activities, WWII is looming.  Hitler’s aggressive behavior is threatening the world and that includes England.  Kick’s family is deeply affected.  Kick chooses her own way of donating her time to help in the war effort.  Billy signs up for Royal service, realizing how patriotic he really is and wanting to make a difference, with a later painful cost.  Kick’s father returns to America, his doubt about Hitler making many consider him a failure.  Kick’s brothers, Joe Jr. and Jack, join the Air Force and Navy respectively.  Kick’s mentally and emotionally challenged sister, Rose, undergoes a change that is tragic for her and the entire family.  Other difficult results of the war loom large, making it almost unbearable but which the Kennedys address with amazing strength.

Almost everyone has heard of the Kennedy family.  But Kennedy Debutante… plunges the reader into the everyday, real life of Kick Kennedy and her family in a way that doesn’t hide flaws but acknowledges “service” and “duty” to the world as the sound principles that made a difference to so many – yes, politically, but also personally.  Memorable, engaging biography and history reading!!!

The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power by Gary Wills

The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power. Gary Wills. Open Road Media. June 2017. 346 pp. ASIN #: B072F1Q32V. 

Americans who lived in the 1960s believed in the Camelot image of the Kennedy family.  Garry Wills joins the troupe of political analysts who demythologize the Camelot image.  This particular account is the reissue of his 1982 book; an introduction to the text is a look back from 2017, suggesting that we have something to compare with the current government.  You decide whether there are parallel elements!

Power was the byword for the Kennedy family, beginning with Jack Kennedy’s father.   Money and connections were the ingredients of success that bought political office, connections with famous people, and deals that turned out to have major and minor significant in American history.  But those elements that guaranteed success also, according to Wills, encased the Kennedy family in a downward spiral that almost finished off the family until Teddy Kennedy finally got his act together to dismantle the destructive family patterns and dedicated the latter part of his life to “service” to the people he represented as a Senator.

While some may be intrigued by the aspects of sex, family, image, charisma, and power, others will be revolted.  Everything is relative to one’s point of view and priorities.  Ironically, every one of these aspects in which the book is outlined had potential for greatness.  The “prisoner” aspect of sex, for example, shows Jack Kennedy, despite his serious physical ailments, as a nymphomaniac who seemed unable to control his need for conquering women sexually.  Ignoring him was tantamount to a desperate campaign to win while the Kennedy women seemed to ignore Jack’s randy ways.  The other fascinating aspect is Jack’s obsession with famous people like Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, etc., etc.  The trashier the gossip, the more Jack loved to hear and share it.

Bobby Kennedy seems to have been the exception as far as women but his notorious temper and exertion of power on domestic and international issues cannot be denied. 

On and on it goes.  American strength separated us from everyone else and allowed us to threaten and challenge from that position when the reality was we were no different than weaker nations (Russia, Cuba, etc.) in insisting on dominating international politics.

There are some interesting portions of this analysis but for those very familiar with the Kennedy era, there’s not much new to learn herein.  The Kennedys certainly personalized the image of the American government, but Wills ultimately includes American citizens in his critique.  For we love the power, glamor, naughtiness, and machinations as much as we say we decry them.  The fact that Gary Wills’ book is being published anew says volumes about America’s fascination.  The question we are left with is, “Do we see the immense consequences of such worship and enablement?”  Reader, analyze and decide!

Blind Ambition: The White House Years by John W. Dean

Blind Ambition: The White House Years. John Dean. Open Road Media. December 2016. 480 pp. ISBN#: 9781504041011.  

John Dean felt privileged on being invited to be Richard Nixon and the White House’s legal counsel.  Highly intelligent and skilled, Dean recognized that his main task was building a business in the White House and wrongly assumed he would have all the connections and advice necessary for the job.  He also realized he had spent so much of his life working, he had no meaningful relationships outside of that professional career, so he again wooed and married his old girlfriend, Mo.  It wasn’t long before his surrealistic, high-flying dreams began a slow, odious descent from legal counsel to firefighter, to fellow conspirator, to defender, to criminal and finally to prosecutor.  This then is Dean’s story of Watergate, the ultimate demise of Richard Nixon and many of his staff members who never learned the lesson that power has limits!

It all began with a break-in of a psychiatrist’s office to get the psychiatric records of Daniel Ellsberg to smear him and progressed to a larger break-in of the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. in June 1972.  Five men were arrested for the latter break-in and Dean clearly describes the White House interference trying to get these men freed and paid hush money.  It didn’t help that the men were carrying a large amount of cash ultimately found to be connected to the Committee for the Re-election of the President (Nixon).   The remainder of the story concerns the cover-up attempted by Nixon’s henchmen: Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Colson, Strachan, Mardian and others.  What made it ten times worse is that everyone was caught in lying about the event, about the money used to hush testimony, about the use of pivotal figures quickly followed by their being discarded, and numerous hours and money spent in trying to deny the truth and basically save butts.

At first Dean’s job seemed to be what he calls being a “firefighter,” putting out the truth before it burst into the public scene via media.  As one reads these pages, it’s hard to deal with the mix of feelings of feeling sorry for these misguided men and then getting angry at the relentless justice that pursues them for their clear, untrammeled guilt.  Dean portrays Richard Nixon as the wily, devious manipulator who plays dumb but is playing each of the characters toward his own end of being acknowledged as innocence.  But he failed to realize that his Presidential staff would slowly unravel in fear of being indicted and eventually jailed; after each implodes, devastating testimony is given that is both convicting and self-serving, including for certain time spans Dean’s own reporting.  While these men were prosecuted and served time in jail, except for Nixon who was forced to resign the Presidency, the truth has been spoken despite attempts at distorting, denying and placing blaming elsewhere.  

Blind Ambition: The White House Years is vital reading for a nation concerned with the abuse of power and the checks and balances systems of government that are intended to stop events like Watergate from happening and/or being kept hidden.  Power has boundaries! Highly recommended reading!