WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I can no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard. This is historic fiction about the courtship between Sen. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier. But the "me" in the title isn't JFK, it's Lem. Lemoyne Billings, Kennedy's lifelong best friend. Mr. Bayard imagines the relationship between Jackie and Lem, two people who loved the 35th President and the only two I can think of that he invited into The Kennedy Clan.

The thing I like best about this book so far is the author/Lem tells us from the get-go that there were many "Jackies" familiar to the public: regal First Lady, gallant widow, jet-set wife to a billionaire, New York working girl, and good mother/keeper of the flame. We know little about who she was before. Jacqueline Bouvier, diffident about her future, struggling to craft the life she wants for herself while conforming to what's expected of her.

 

Bayard gets some things wrong (example: Jackie only worked for Vogue for one day and quite a bit before she was introduced to Kennedy at the Bartlett's dinner party). This kind of thing bugs me because there's so much drek out there about The Kennedys -- Jackie herself called it "the river of sludge." But so far there's no damaging misinformation. And it's nice to see Lem get his sliver of spotlight. There's Jack & Lem by David Pitts, but beyond that, Lem is just that guy with JFK in just about every group photo throughout the years. I know Rose Kennedy expected him at Hyannis Port and Palm Beach for every holiday, that he tenderly squired young Rosemary Kennedy to social affairs, that he was a guest at The White House during the Bay of Pigs invasion, and Eunice Shriver delivered his eulogy. He really was "in the room where it happened."

2. What did you recently finish reading? Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Rayburn. The book opens with four warm and witty friends celebrating their retirement. These lovely 60-something women have worked together for 40 years and their employer for has rewarded them for their years of service with an all-expenses-paid cruise. Perhaps I should mention that these old girls have spent their entire adult lives as paid assassins, and the organization they worked for has no intention of letting them enjoy their golden years. 

 

From the moment they discover the cruise is a trap, the book is filled with action and tension. After all, their very lives are at stake. It's occasionally very funny, too. I liked the quiet moments when the women reminisced and shared their feelings about "the job." I mean, it can be hard to root for paid assassins, and finding out about their inner lives helped me stay on their side. I just wish this was the first of a series, but alas, no.

PS Thanks to Kwizgiver for turning me onto this book.

3. What will read next? I don't know.