The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

Ann Rule, the author, was a friend of Ted Bundy, so she has a unique perspective. She met Ted when they both worked at a crisis center answering phones. He was kind, caring, supportive, and charismatic. Ann liked him very much. Ted was around 24 when they worked together. Ann was older, married, with children. She was a crime reporter and ironically, she had already been assigned to write a story on the unknown serial killer who was raping and murdering teens and young women in the Seattle area, which is where they both lived. Ann & Ted were friends for many years, even writing letters to each other until his death by lethal injection in 1989. Her feelings for Ted obviously changed over time. Initially, she didn't believe that Ted Bundy was THE Ted that was terrorizing young women in the Seattle area. The more she researched, the more she learned, the more details she uncovered, her opinion of Ted changed from "friend" to "monster". She gave him the benefit of the doubt long after I would have! Of course, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. We know a lot more now about Ted's crimes than Ann knew at the time she was writing about him. Ted finally admitted his guilt shortly before he died and provided some information and details about what he did to some women/children that were never found. It was at this time that he admitted that he started killing at the age of 15 and he had killed many, many women in several different states.

I learned a lot about Ted Bundy from reading this. I thought I knew what he had done, but for some reason, I thought it was only in Florida. He truly was a monster. What was really difficult to read about was the endless number of women who loved him, believed in him, sent him money & stamps in prison, fought for his release from prison, fought for his death sentence to be revoked. It's absolute madness. This man did despicable things to girls as young as 12 years old! He may have savagely murdered between 100-300 children, teens, young women!! Some will never be found. The number of appeals, the amount of money the State of Florida had to spend to fight Ted's appeals ($6 million back in the 1980s!), the number of people who wanted him off death row is astounding and disturbing. I know that lots of people are against the death penalty but come on. Honestly. He didn't deserve to live. At the end, he stated he didn't want to die. Really? Neither did any of the possibly hundreds of young lives he took savagely. Disgusting.

I get discouraged by our legal system when I read books like this. I can't believe how much proof it takes to take down a serial killer. Ted used the same ploy, drove the same vehicle, didn't disguise himself (other than wearing a fake mustache as times) again and again. Some women got away and reported him. They could describe him. But as with many of these crime stories, there is no communication between law enforcement agencies in different states. I sure hope that has changed! Ted managed to escape from jail twice!! When he escaped the second time, he went to Florida, used a different name, and when he was arrested there (after several more murders), the Florida authorities hadn't even heard of Ted Bundy!

This was a very detailed book and extremely interesting. I didn't want to put it down. The only thing that bothered me was how long it took Ann Rule to truly understand what a monster Ted Bundy was!

Wendy's Rating: *****

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

The control that Jennette's mother had over Jennette was quite shocking and remarkable. Mom wanted to be an actress, failed, so forced Jennette to be an actress. Jennette's entire world was centered around her mother; what her mother wanted; what her mother wanted her to do. She was only six years old when she was forced to go to auditions. Her strengths were that she could cry on cue and she could memorize her lines very easily and quickly. Since Jennette was small in stature, she looked younger than she was. This worked to her advantage because she could get roles playing young girls at an older age and be more experienced on set. When she started to develop budding breasts as a preteen (10 or so), mom taught her how to calorie count. Mom started Jennette on the path of anorexia as a preteen. Eventually anorexia turned into binge eating, which turned into years of severe bulimia. 

Jennette's mother controlled her so completely that she was still wiping Jennette's butt after she had a BM when she was 10 years old. She was showering Jennette and giving her vaginal, rectum, and breast checks until she was 16 years old! Sometimes mom made Jennette shower with her younger brother so mom could save time with her showering process. Jennette's mom was more than the typical "stage mom". She was over-the-top on every set, every meeting, every audition. I can't believe that people let her get away with it. Jennette really didn't know life could be another way, so she just went with it. She felt the need to do everything she was told so she could earn mom's love.

Jennette's mom was diagnosed with cancer when Jennette was young, but she fought it and went into remission. Mom used her cancer story to gain sympathy at every turn. When mom's cancer returned, Jennette was devastated. What was her life without her mother? This co-dependent relationship about destroyed Jennette. Not only did she have a severe eating disorder, but she ended up with a severe drinking problem. She was on two hit shows (iCarly and Sam & Cat) on Nickelodeon, but she didn't respect her character (they were silly shows) and hated acting. Needless to say, her relationships with men were not healthy. Ironically, her closest friend ended up being her co-star on iCarly (Miranda Cosgrove).

Jennette wasn't truly able to live her life until her mother died of cancer. She spent years in therapy (finally) to work through the bulimia, addiction issues, self-worth issues. It took strength and courage to find her true self. Quitting acting also helped. I listened to this on audiobook, narrated by Jennette herself. It's a disturbing story and I would guess that Jennette will always struggle in some respect as a result of her childhood trauma.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

When I heard this novel was about gaming, I was skeptical that it was as good as everyone was saying it was. I have never played a video game in my life, and I have zero interest in doing so now. Well, I loved this book! 

The main characters are Sam, Sadie, and Marx. Sam & Sadie met as children in the hospital. Sam was in the hospital after a serious foot injury he received in a car accident that killed his mother. He had undergone several surgeries to try to correct the problem. He hadn't spoken to anyone since the accident (6 weeks) and spend his days playing a video game at the hospital. Sadie was visiting her sister, Alice, who had childhood cancer. Sadie joined Sam one day in the game room; Sam spoke to her; and their friendship began. Sam shut Sadie out of his life however after he found out that Sadie was getting community hours credit by spending time with him all those days at the hospital. 

Sam met Marx in college when they were assigned as roommates. Sam was the odd duck living in poverty. Marx was wealthy, handsome, kind, charming, and seemed drawn to Sam because he liked helping people who needed it. He was really Sam's only friend. One day Sam unexpectedly saw Sadie in public and called out to her. She initially ignored him, but he was persistent and she turned around to talk to him. Sam had forgiven her. Sadie was taking college classes in game coding & development. She gave Sam a game she had developed called "Solution"; he played it; and they eventually became partners in the game making business. Marx became their "manager", for all intents and purposes. The above explanation is very simplified. They story is much more detailed and engaging. These three characters, and their relationships with each other, are what drive the book. Sam & Sadie had a very contentious relationship at times. They were both extremely intelligent and talented, but they had different visions in their game development. Marx supported and loved them both. He was the calming presence in their personal and business lives.

As Sam & Sadie develop games (some highly successful and some not), their relationship goes through some rough times. Sam has always loved Sadie but never acted on it since they were business partners. Although Sadie also loved Sam, she was in an on and off relationship with her college professor, Dev, and eventually fell in love with Marx, which hit Sam incredibly hard.

As for the name of the book, and what it means, Marx explains it this way: "What is a game? It's tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It's the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever."

This book will break your heart, but it also demonstrates the power of friendship love. It's so much more than a book about gaming.

Wendy's Rating: *****

From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough

I was born after the Elvis craze. I understood his significance in the music industry, his sexy rock-n-roll vibe, the popularity of his "beach movies" though. I was more familiar with the "heavy, addicted" Elvis than the young, vibrant, hip-shaking Elvis. My family is from Tennessee, and I lived in Memphis when I was a young child. I have toured Graceland. I listened to this on audiobook, which included excerpts from Lisa Marie's audiotaped notes she was using as she was writing her memoir with her daughter Riley. I definitely have a deeper understanding of how deeply dysfunctional this family was.

Since Lisa Marie has passed on, Julia Roberts read her chapters of the book. Riley read her own chapters. That took a minute for me to get used to. Knowing Julia Roberts' voice so well, it was disconcerting having her speak for Lisa Marie. And then actually hearing Lisa Marie speak on audiotape, was even more disconcerting because she has a very masculine voice and sounds nothing like Julia Roberts. Some of the audio clips were difficult to hear/understand as well, but I still think it was an important addition to this story since it's her story.

Not having an "attachment" to Elvis Presley, I was a little surprised at how moved I was by this memoir. I actually got teary-eyed a couple of times. Again and again and again we read/hear about addictions in the entertainment industry. Is this because artist's personalities make them a higher risk for addiction? There seems to be a link between artistry and mental health issues. The more "genius" someone is in their talent, the greater the risk for depression, anxiety, addiction, suicide. Elvis spent the later part of his career mired in addiction. Lisa Marie, his only child, loved him deeply, lived with him as much as she was allowed to. Elvis had no boundaries for her. No bedtimes, no restrictions, no limits. She had the run of Graceland. She was a wild, free-spirited child, whose father loved her unconditionally. After his death, she was forced to live with her mother, Priscilla, full-time (at least when she wasn't sent off to live at boarding schools, etc, which she would get kicked out of repeatedly.) Priscilla is described by both Lisa Marie and Riley as cold and impersonal, and not a mothering type. That probably explains why Priscilla and Riley seem to be having issues since Lisa Marie's death on the issue of Elvis' estate!

Lisa Marie struggled with her relationships, which isn't surprising since she never had a good role model of what a healthy relationship could look like. She loved her children, and she seemed to have a few good years when Riley & Ben were young, but she was ultimately a lost soul in the truest sense of the word. Lisa Marie succumbing to addiction and living in addiction for over a decade was heartbreaking. The death of her beloved son, Ben, by violent suicide was devastating to the entire family, but definitely something that Lisa Marie never worked through. She lived past his death, but never with a sense of peace. I really don't think there was ever true "joy" in Lisa Marie's life. Even when she had Elvis, he had a violent temper and was scary and intimidating when angry. She did love Michael Jackson, and he loved her, but in the end, he was just another man in her life trying to control her narrative. (He desperately wanted children with her, but she feared that he would control those children and her role in raising them. She was probably spot on with that assessment!)

I was emotionally impacted by this memoir, which I certainly wasn't expecting. Deeply sad and moving.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Ghosts of Honolulu by Mark Harmon & Leon Carroll Jr

This is a nonfiction book about the US Navy's counterintelligence unit in Honolulu, HI in World War II. It's written by Mark Harmon, of NCIS fame, and Leo Carroll, who is a former NCIS Special Agent. I have read a lot about Pearl Harbor and visited it several times. I used to live on Oahu as well. I also know a lot about World War II in general. I figured this book about counterintelligence would fit right in my wheelhouse. 

This book involves a lot of people, most with Japanese, Hawaiian, or German names. It was truly difficult to keep track of everyone and their roles in this historic event of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. There were counterintelligence agents for the Americans, the Japanese, and the Germans. The main focus however was Douglas Wada. His story was very interesting. He was born in Hawaii, but when he was a teenager his father pretty much tricked him into "visiting" Japan. Douglas thought it was a visit, but his dad's intent was for him to stay there to learn the culture & language. He ended up finishing his education in Japan. He had a knack for languages, so by the time he escaped back to Hawaii, before he could be conscripted into the Japanese military, he was fluent in Japanese. Once the US Navy found him, they wanted him to work undercover in Naval Intelligence. They didn't necessarily want people to know he was connected to the Navy because he was very charismatic, personable, knew fluent Japanese as spoken in Japan, so they wanted to use him to translate wiretaps of the Japanese Consulate, gather information on the streets as a reporter, and interrogate a POW captured in Honolulu.

The book also explains how the Japanese Americans living in Hawaii and California at the time of Pearl Harbor were treated. One thing I didn't realize before reading this book is that the Japanese Americans living in and around California are the people who ended up in the internment camps in the US. The Japanese Americans living in Hawaii, like Douglas Wada's family and friends, were affected (ie their shrines being shut down, etc), but they were not sent to camps as POWs.

Although we learn all about Douglas Wada, his childhood, family, and career with Naval Intelligence, I wouldn't classify it as a narrative. Like I said earlier, it was hard to keep track of everyone. There was a point when I stopped trying to remember who everyone was and just kept track of the key people, especially those associated with Douglas.

Wendy's Rating: ***1/2

The Mother Next Door by Andrea Dunlop & Mike Weber

This is a nonfiction account of Munchausen by Proxy. It details the investigations into three different cases of mother's inflicting harm on their children for attention: Hope Ybarra, Brittany Philips, and Mary Welch. Andrea Dunlop is a novelist whose own family has been affected by MBP, through her sister. Mike Weber is a detective who has become an expert in MBP simply by spending years investigating these incredibly challenging cases. He has worked on more medical child abuse cases than anyone in the US. Although I knew about Munchausen by Proxy long before MBP victim Gypsy Rose Blanchard became a household name after she was charged and convicted of killing her mother, I didn't realize how many similarities there are between cases. I also had no idea that doctors will perform surgeries based on a mother's report, without doing any extra testing themselves. It's astounding really.

Just like police officers need to be trained in how to deescalate people having a mental health crisis, doctors should be trained to spot medical child abuse, especially since there seems to be a pattern in many cases. Hope, Brittany, and Mary all had children that were born premature. These poor children had multiple unnecessary tests, inconsistently abnormal labs, medical diagnoses (like cystic fibrosis and cerebral palsy) simply reported by their mother, feeding tubes, rare blood infections, leg braces. In all of these cases the children's eating issues and mobility issues were reported by their mothers but were not witnessed by anyone else. In fact, many friends, family members, and even nurses saw these children eating normally when mom was not in the room and walking/running with no issues at all.

All three of these cases were very challenging to bring to court. Both Hope and Mary were well-loved, intelligent, and wealthy. Mike Weber tried a number of ways to get these woman to admit what they had done. He had better luck with Hope, probably because her mother was the one who reported her and found some evidence that she turned over to Mike. Hope's story was actually quite remarkable since she was such an accomplished liar. She lied about her own health for eight years, pretending to have various types of cancer. This resulted in fundraising efforts by family and friends that raised an enormous amount of money. Hope lied about her education and her credentials. She lied about miscarrying twin daughters. She lied about her first daughter (second child) having CF. Her youngest child suffered the most however. Hope introduced bacteria and contagions in her feeding tube (which she didn't need) which could have easily killed her. Hope did end up in prison for 10 years. 

Mary was extremely wealthy (with money to burn) so she could afford to get her son medical care in Texas and Minnesota. When the Texas doctors told her that her son did not need a brain shunt, she simply got on a private plane and flew him to Minnesota to get it done. And she found a doctor to do it, taking her word for it! Mary fooled doctors, friends, her family, lawyers, and the judge! She was pretty and personable and wealthy. Money talks, right? Her mother protected her 100% and spent all her energy blaming Mary's ex-husband for everything, who was naive and innocent. He temporarily got custody, which probably ended up saving his son's life, although Mary won back joint custody in the end.

Brittany's case was different because she was not well-liked, respected, or wealthy. She had no supportive family or husband. She was verbally and physically abusive to her three year old daughter, Alyssa, in front of other people. She was reported to CPS several times by a variety of different people. Her daughter was finally taken away from her and put into a foster home after it was discovered that Brittany put feces in her daughter's (unnecessary) feeding tube which gave her a life-threatening blood infection. Her trial ended up with a hung jury (10 guilty - 1 not guilty - some people cannot believe that a mother would intentionally harm their child). Eventually Brittany pleaded guilty instead of going back to trial but she only served five years. Alyssa thrived in the care of her foster family, who ended up adopting her.

These women knew what they were doing. They were not "delusional". They were constantly seeking the attention they craved (and received) while caring for their "deeply ill" children. Both Hope and Mary's husbands believed their children were as sick as their wives told them they were. MBP continues to be under-reported and very difficult to prove. It's incredibly tragic.

Wendy's Rating: ****

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

I loved this book. There are several narrators: Louise, camp counselor; Tracy, camper; Alice, mother of Barbara; Jacob, accused and convicted murderer; Carl, gardener of the Van Laar Preserve; Judyta, BCI Investigator; and Victor, Director of Camp Emerson. The story alternates from the 1950s to 1961 to Winter 1973 to June 1975 to July 1975 to August 1975. There are other key characters (Barbara, TJ, Bear, three Peters, Delphine, John Paul), but we learn about them from someone else's perspective. The way the story is interwoven between timelines makes the story even more fast-paced.

The central family of this story is the Van Laars. Peter Van Laar 1 bought the land on which the homestead is built. By all accounts, he was a kind and generous man. He cared about the land and about people. The homestead was named Self-Reliance. Camp Emerson was developed on part of the Van Laar Preserve so that children could spend two months of their summer learning the land and how to survive on it. Peter Van Laar 2 didn't quite have the same vision. He was more controlling and domineering and wasn't necessarily well-liked. Peter Van Laar 3 was handsome and charming, but pretty much a jerk. When he was 29 years old, he chose to marry Alice, who was only 17 years old when they met. She was pretty and malleable. Just what he wanted in a wife. He wanted a son, which she promptly delivered (Peter Van Laar 4, but called Bear) and then he told Alice that they would not be having any more children. That was pretty much their relationship. The only thing they had in common was their love of Bear.

Bear was an adventurous and spirited child that was loved by everyone at Self-Reliance, including all the staff. He tragically disappeared when he was 8 years old, after he went for a walk with his grandfather, Peter 2. Carl, the gardener, was eventually accused of killing Bear, even though Bear was never found. Peter 3 and Alice end up having another child after Bear's disappearance. They named her Barbara. Barbara's parents weren't overly invested or engaged in her life. She was a difficult child, which made things worse. Victor Hewitt's daughter, TJ Hewitt, took over as the Director of Camp Emerson after her father could no longer handle the responsibility as he aged. TJ also took over as Barbara's "mother figure", since Alice was never the same after Bear disappeared.

Barbara declared to Alice in the summer of 1975 that she wanted to attend Camp Emerson as a camper. She befriended Tracy, who was new to the camp and was struggling with her own family life (parent's divorce, dad's new girlfriend, etc.) One morning, Tracy woke up and Barbara was gone. Louise was the camp counselor responsible for the girls in Barbara & Tracy's cabin, and she had left them unattended for part of the night. That's when Judyta joins the story, as one of the investigators who arrives at the Van Laar Preserve to find Barbara, or at least figure out what happened to her.

Despite the number of characters, the story is well-written and easy to follow, even considering the jumping around in timelines. I really enjoyed the ride.

Wendy's Rating: *****