Sunday Stealing

4th of July Questions

 
1) If you could attend a 4th of July fireworks display anywhere in the United States, where would you choose? I hate to sound poopy, but I have no interest in watching the fireworks at a major event. I did that once, years and years ago. My friend Kathy and I went to Navy Pier to see the fireworks over Lake Michigan and they were pretty and all. But we had to get there really early – hours early – to be able to sit. On the cement. We were stuck there because if we got up we'd lose our place. On the cement. The show itself lasted 15 minutes. It was cool to see the colors reflected on the Lake. But it wasn't worth it. Where I live now, I can see the fireworks display from the suburb 3 miles southwest. All I have to do is look out my living room window. I know it's a mundane answer, but I'm good with this.

2) What book are you currently reading? Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz. It's 5th in this series of entertaining cozy mysteries about a quirky family of private investigators. I'm enjoying it immensely.

3) What have you been listening to? Lots o' podcasts, Cubs-Cardinals.

 4) What shows or movies have you been watching? This weekend I'm going Presidential. I've found documentaries about FDR and JFK on Hulu. Then I'll watch Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln. All these programs have two things in common: the participation of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who is my imaginary BFF, and they reassure me we can do better than the orange-hued convicted felon who tore down the East Wing and made a shit-ton on bitcoin.

 

Thursday Thirteen #463

 The "I blame J. Edgar Hoover" Edition. According to Goodreads, I am not quite on track to complete 38 books this year. This is in large part due to G-Man, the 900 page biography of J. Edgar Hoover. It took me nearly two months to plow through that 896 page book.

I realize I'm making myself feel bad for not meeting a completely voluntary and ultimately meaningless metric I set for myself, but hey, that's how I roll.

So it's taken me to mid-May, but here are the first 13 books I've read this year. 

1. The Family Holiday by Elizabeth Noble. Fiction

2. Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica. Thriller

 

3. G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage. Biography

 

4. Nobody Heard a Thing by Angela Henry. Thriller

 

5. Silver Spire by Robert Goldsborough. Mystery

 

6. The Last Coincidence by Robert Goldsborough. Mystery

 

7. Kids, Wait Til You Hear This by Liza Minnelli. Autobiography

 

8. Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy by Steven Levingston. Non-fiction

 

9. The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz. Mystery

 

10. Suitable for Framing by Edna Buchanan. Mystery

 

11. Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell by MC Beaton. Mystery

 

12. A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures by Ben Bradlee. Autobiography

 

13. Conversations with Kennedy by Ben Bradlee. Memoir

How about you? Have you set any reading goals for 2026? If yes, are you on your way to meeting them?

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

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 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? Nothing but the Night by Greg King and Penny Wilson. Leopold and Loeb, two rich Chicago college students kidnapped and murdered a 14 year old boy, just to see if they could pull off "the perfect crime." Though it happened more than a century ago, this 1924 crime still comes up. My friend Nancy laughingly told me about how she heard Broadway composers Lerner and Loewe (Camelot, My Fair Lady) referred to as Leopold and Loeb by a confused coworker. When I saw Hitchcock's Rope at this year's TCM Film Festival, Professor Jacqueline Stewart introduced the film about a pair of thrill killers and couldn't resist adding that she, Leopold and Loeb all have ties to the University of Chicago.

 

So now I want to learn more about the truth behind the legend. This book, published in 2022, promises to give me a more nuanced look at the first murder to be dubbed "Crime of the Century." I know the original press coverage leaned heavily into the wealth, Jewishness and homosexuality of these two, obviously trying to "other" them. I hope this book examines whether that was a fair depiction.

 

One impression I have thus far is "too much, too soon." They both skipped grades and found themselves at U of C at age 14. They were not emotionally ready for the social and philosophical milieu they were thrust into. I'm not saying this explains what happened, but it didn't help.

 

2. What did you recently finish reading? Conversations with Kennedy by Ben Bradlee. The last two words of this book are "warm and kind." I'd say that about sums it up. Ben Bradlee and his wife became the couple that most often joined John and Jacqueline Kennedy for  dinner for four at the White House. The Bradlees also spent weekends with the Kennedys in Palm Beach, Virginia and Camp David. 

 

This gave them a view of the couple, and of life as First Couple, others didn't see. I enjoyed those glimpses. The President liked being teased by his wife, who called him "Bunny." He made bets but didn't honor them. He swore like the sailor he once was (saying "bastard" the way some of us say "shit"). He liked Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence records. It was the dawn of the space program and he loved hanging with the astronauts, just like any other red-blooded American boy. Except for sailing and the occasional game of golf, he was not at all outdoorsy and hated being dirty. His idea of "roughing it" was Bloody Marys on the veranda. Jackie, with her horseback riding, tennis and skiing was the jock of the duo. As I was reading, I found myself hoping that someone could give me a similar view of Abe and Mary Lincoln or Barack and Michelle Obama when they were at home and off the clock.  

 

My favorite part of the book was when the President insisted on including the Bradlees in an on-going argument he and Jackie were having. Apparently, in 1961, Jackie spent $40,000 on "department stores." That would be $400,000 in today's dollars. The President asked her to explain this, and she could not. She was embarrassed and baffled, but unable to make her own case. So her husband brought in Carmine Bellino, the FBI accountant who specialized in organized crime and money laundering, to help his wife budget. It's good to be king.

 

The couples were so close that immediately after the assassination, the Bradlees waited with Jackie at Bethesda Naval Hospital as the President's autopsy was being done. Yet by the time this book was published, Jacqueline Onassis no longer wanted anything to do with Ben Bradlee and cut him dead whenever their paths crossed. At first her behavior confused me, because this book is so affectionate and funny. But it's also very intimate. There's a lot about how they related to their young children and how they were with one another and family members. My guess is that it didn't bother Jackie that this memoir put them in a bad light, because it doesn't, but that as a private person she didn't want these anecdotes published at all. 

3. What will you read next?  Something light!

 

  

 

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 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? Conversations with Kennedy by Ben Bradlee. Ben Bradlee and his wife Toni were pushing a baby carriage down the street near their home on N Street in Georgetown. They ran into their new neighbors, Jack and Jackie Kennedy, who were also pushing a carriage. They ended up having drinks in the Kennedy's backyard and a friendship was born. The men – a Senator and an editor at Newsweek – had a lot in common. Their wives liked one another. Their kids were the same age. This foursome hung out from that day in 1959 until the President's death in 1963. They vacationed together in Palm Beach, Virginia and Camp David. They dined together upstairs at the White House. Bradlee was a pallbearer at the President's funeral. 

 

JFK and Jackie obviously knew Ben Bradlee was a newsman. He told them he was taking notes. He promised Kennedy he would not publish anything about their personal relationship until 5 years after JFK left the White House. He waited more than a decade until after the President's death, writing this while on sabbatical from his job as editor of The Washington Post after The Post broke the historic Watergate scandal. 

 

I know from Bradlee's memoir (see below) that he gave Jacqueline Onassis an advance copy of the book and she was so offended she never spoke to him again. I read this book decades ago and didn't understand why she was pissed. I'm almost 50 years older. Perhaps I'll get it now.

 

Even if I don't, this is a view of JFK you seldom see in biographies. Bradlee was not a member of the Kennedy Administration or family. He was never a relative, coworker or an employee. Also, he was a friend of the couple. Kennedy was known for his ability to compartmentalize, and few of the people who knew and then wrote about him saw him socially as Jackie's husband. Maybe this will give me an idea of what they were like when they lived in The White House. 

2. What did you recently finish reading? A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures by Ben Bradlee. It strikes me funny that Bradlee, who edited Woodward and Bernstein at The Washington Post during the Watergate scandal, could write a memoir that so clearly cried out for the steady hand of a good editor. The middle of the book – Bradlee's years in Washington with the Kennedys (see above) and then Watergate and the Janet Cooke scandal – was exciting and fascinating. But the beginning, about his childhood and Navy years, was boring and the end, after his retirement from The Washington Post was embarrassingly self aggrandizing. 

 

I was ruefully amused by how relevant this book, originally published in 1996, is today, when it's fashionable for MAGA to bemoan "what the media has become."  Oh, for fuck's sake! Bradlee mentions that FDR didn't understand why the press criticized him so, that JFK was so angry at one of the New York papers that he cancelled the White House's subscription, that Nixon resented  The Washington Post after Watergate and The Pentagon Papers, that Jimmy Carter thought it was reckless, that Reagan hid behind "national security" to try to get them kill stories ... when exactly did the media "become" bad? If you visit the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, there's an exhibit devoted to unflattering political cartoons published during the Civil War. Grow up and grow a thicker (orange) skin. That friction between a free press and a president is one of our greatest assets. Don't bemoan it – appreciate it. (Or just watch Fox News. Don't get me started about the Dominion Voting Systems scandal.)

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

 

  

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 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? The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz. Isabel Spellman, the eldest daughter of the San Francisco clan of private investigators, is on the case again, digging up dirt on a competitive PI. Thirtysomething Izzy is immature and passionate about grudges, so this ought to be good.

 

This is a reread for me. I know because I found it in my den. But I remember little about the case at the center. No matter. I enjoy time spent with this wacky clan. They are witty and idiosyncratic but they also love one another and they make me laugh. I could use some laughs!

2. What did you recently finish reading? Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy by Steven Levingston. In August 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy became the only First Lady of the 20th century to give birth while living in the White House. Her baby only lived two days. It was a trauma she and the President had to endure under the public's gaze, however it was nothing compared to the trauma and scrutiny she would withstand alone, three months later, when her husband was assassinated in Dallas.

 

This sensitive and well-meaning book covers Patrick's short life in detail and puts it in the context of their family and the nation. I learned some interesting things: Jackie only saw her son for minutes and may never have held him, since she was recovering from an emergency c-section in one hospital while her baby was rushed to another for neonatal care; while she was in the hospital, she actually had a cancer scare on top of everything else (!), her doctor removed/biopsied a suspicious mole on her foot; the President was with Patrick when he died, but was unable to hold him because the baby was in a hyberbaric chamber; these chambers were considered experimental at the time; Jackie was too ill to attend her baby's funeral, but the President was there. He even designed the headstone.

 

JFK grew up with a developmentally challenged sister, Rosemary. He understood that, due to lack of oxygen, Patrick may have faced the same fate. This was deeply personal to him and during the last months of his life, he authorized hundreds of millions of dollars (billions in today's spending) for improved neonatal research and care. 

 

Dr. Robert deLemos treated Patrick Kennedy and was inspired to devote his career to neonatology. Dr. deLemos played a critical role in developing more sophisticated ventilators for babies born with underdeveloped lungs. Today's CPAP machines were born of research done at this time. Patrick Kennedy, like his Aunt Rosemary, inspired John F. Kennedy to do good, and his rhetoric and example inspired American citizens. 

 

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a President who spoke to our better angels, encouraging us to add to mankind rather than subtract, to do something more humane with our energies than storm the Capitol, demonize immigrants and deny marriage rights to consenting adults? This book not only made me sad for the nuclear Kennedy family living in the White House, it made me sad for all us today.

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

 

  

 

Thursday Thirteen #457

Zzzzz ... When I started working from home during the covid lockdown, I discovered the joy of an afternoon nap. Instead of eating my lunch – which I could do during meetings with the camera off – I'd spend 45 minutes in bed, in my jammies, under the covers. It's a habit I've continued to this day.

Here are 13 things I've learned about napping from The Mayo Clinic, other sites, and personal experience.

1. Napping helps you relax. At first this seemed counter-intuitive. How can I nap when I'm keyed up? But I've found it helps to, in the words of John Lennon, "turn off my mind, relax and float downstream."

2. Naps can improve performance. As can any short break. When I was working, I found I was more productive after my little snooze, but also lunch.

3. Some people report greater manual dexterity, resulting in fewer workplace accidents, after a nap. 

4. Naps may help with pain. President Kennedy used to schedule short naps in the afternoon because staying seated in long meetings aggravated his bad back, and an afternoon snooze on a very firm mattress provided relief. (It surprised Jackie that he could both fall asleep and wake up so quickly, as she dozed off and rose slowly. She assumed his sleep habits were learned in the Navy.)

5. You may feel groggy immediately after waking from a nap. I personally haven't found this, but people who went to doctor school say it's so.

6. Look in the mirror after your nap. I've found a nap can ruin a good hair day and smear eye makeup.

7. A daytime snooze can make it harder for you to sleep at night. I found this was true back in the olden days, when I would close my eyes "for a minute" after work, wake up two hours later at around 9:00 PM, and find myself still wide awake at 1:00 AM.

8. Limit naps to half an hour. OOPS! That's not me. I'm 45 mins./hour. Maybe I should look at this.

9. Hey! Wait! NASA recommends 40 minute naps for military pilots! Oh well, this is certainly not the first time I've found competing experts disagree online. 

10. Set your alarm clock. "Sorry, I was napping," is not a well-accepted excuse for lateness.

11. Though #10 may be uniquely American. In China, for example, lunch breaks can last up to two hours to accommodate an afternoon nap.  

12. Nap in the early afternoon. I try to nap before 3:00 PM, which certainly isn't early but it works with my schedule. Napping later in the day can interfere with your sleep overnight. (See #7.)

13. Dogs and cats nap throughout the day. Dogs and cats seem pretty happy. Maybe we should be more like dogs and cats.

Where are you on the napping thing? 

 

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

 

 

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 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? Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy by Steven Levingston. John F. Kennedy Jr. is having a moment, but most people don't know that, for two days, he had a baby brother. In August of 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy gave premature birth to a baby who died. It would have been the news story of the year, if her husband hadn't died in her lap just three months later.

 

This is a book I've been waiting for. For all that every moment of November 22-25, 1963, has been documented, the circumstances around Patrick's birth and death are harder to find. I can imagine how excited the nation must have been to have a pregnant First Lady. What was the press coverage like? How did we respond to the baby's death? On the personal side, how did JFK juggle the demands of the Presidency while watching his son fight for life, and then mourn him? I hope I'll get answers to these questions from Mr. Levingston. 

2. What did you recently finish reading? Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by Liza Minnelli. Oy, this book! Much of it reads like science fiction. At one point, Liza is legally married to a gay man (Peter Allen) while engaged to a younger man (Desi Arnaz, Jr.) and then announces she's going to marry an older man (Peter Sellers). I know it happened. I remember the newspaper photo of Liza and Peter Sellers giving a press conference from a lawn somewhere. She goes on to cheat on her second husband and has a series of affairs (at least 3) with married men. I am not judging her morality. Far be it from me to do that. It's her wisdom. I don't know how she thought any of this would work out well. Her behavior would have been more comprehensible to me if, at some point, she took off on a flying saucer or chose to embark on a expedition to Middle Earth.

 

I wish I had more compassion for Liza. She had a genuinely horrific childhood with a mercurial, addicted, yet charismatic and loving mother. We've all heard about Judy Garland's demons, and living with her damaged Liza. While often clear-eyed about Mama, she insists on romanticizing her father. Director Vincente Minnelli never seems to be there for her when she needs him, even as she talks about her darling Papa in glowing terms. Example: Liza left home at 16 to go to New York and become a Broadway dancer. She was evicted from her residential hotel for non-payment of rent and ended up sleeping on a park bench for several nights. In Central Park! Then she began sofa surfing. She claims that if Papa had known any of this, he would have been beside himself. How did he not know? His 16-year-old daughter was on her own in NYC and he wasn't keeping constant tabs on her? Remember, this was before cell phones and Liza was without a phone number for weeks if not months. Later, when Garland dies and Liza finds herself in the center of a media circus at a young age, Papa refuses to come to New York for the funeral. He didn't want to be photographed with Judy's other ex-husbands. Fair enough, I suppose. But Liza recalls crying for a week straight while planning a high profile funeral and facing painful questions about Judy's drug use and possible suicide. Papa couldn't fly to New York but skip the funeral and hide out in her apartment, just to hold her hand? Frankly, he sounded like he didn't really give a shit about her. At least not until she became famous and burnished his legacy. I don't think it's an accident that in her two best movies, Sterile Cuckoo and Cabaret, she plays a girl who desperately insists she's her father's top priority, despite all evidence to the contrary.

 

Her denial about Papa. Her denial about her self-destructive behavior. She exasperated me. 

 

I respect her talent enormously. You can see her Emmy-winning special Liza with a Z for free on YouTube and it's a delight. I admire how she overcame addiction. I give her credit for revealing so much on these pages, warts and all. But she gave me a headache. 

 

I spent 900 pages with Streisand and found her far more relatable. Babs is a diva and a generational talent, but she's also a woman of bedrock sanity. She takes her faith seriously. She's grounded. Even at her most self-involved – and you have to be self-involved to write a 900-page book about yourself – I got her. I do not get Liza at all.

 

I still need to read Cher's memoir. I wonder if I'll find she's more Streisand or Minnelli.

 

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

 

  

Thursday Thirteen #453

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I have a sinking feeling that once it is closed for "renovation" on July 5, this beautiful building will go the way of The East Wing. I fear we will never be able to recover what this President has taken us. So I'm taking a moment to focus on that jewel on The Potomac.

1. In 1958, President Eisenhower signed legislation authorizing a National Cultural Center in the nation's capital. The bill allowed for partial federal funding, but private donors were needed. Fundraising was not successful.

2. In 1962, John and Jacqueline Kennedy used the White House bully pulpit and their personal star power to bring attention to the project. They were able to raise $30,000,000 in private funds ($320,000,000 in today's dollars).  

3. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was the Honorary Chairman and, in civility unimaginable today, invited her predecessor Mamie Eisenhower to join her on the board.

4. The Center's stated mission has always been to "meet the highest level of excellence and reflect the cultural diversity of the United States."

5. After JFK's assassination, Congress changed the name from the National Cultural Center to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

6. This could be the most important sentence of this post: Congress designated it a memorial to John F. Kennedy. This means that, legally, it is the same as the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln Memorials. Donald Trump had no right to add his name, anymore than he could carve the T-R-U-M-P down the side of the Washington Memorial. Yet he did it anyway. Congress does not have the spine to stop him, anymore than it stopped him from demolishing The East Wing. 

7. The groundbreaking took place on December 2, 1964, with the first shovel of dirt being dug by President Lyndon Johnson. The Center was first open to the public in 1971.

8. Nations from all over the world donated works to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts out of respect for the late President. A Hall of Nations thanks these countries by displaying their flags. When I visited The Center, I found this very moving. Countries the world over wanted to honor our fallen President in a tangible way.

9. I've toured the Center twice and thought the most breathtaking gift came from Austria. It's the crystal chandelier in the opera house. It's both huge and delicate and looks like edelweiss. I hope it's handled with care as the Trump Administration "renovates" the Center.

10. Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned Leonard Bernstein to create "an original musical theater work" for the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. When Mass premiered in 1972, she attended on Bernstein's arm. 

11. There's a permanent exhibit dedicated to The Arts and Ideals of President John F. Kennedy. Aimed at schoolchildren, this immersive program reflects JFK's belief that "there is a connection – difficult to explain but easy to feel – between achievement in public life and progress in the arts." (Yeah, we once had a President who spoke like that.)

12. A medallion commemorating Eisenhower's early role in the establishment of the Center is displayed on the box tier of the theater.

13. I've dined twice at The KC Cafe. Not the more glam sitdown restaurant (that's the Roof Terrace), the KC Cafe is a more affordable cafeteria with absolutely breathtaking views of The Potomac.

History matters. I do not trust the Trump Administration to respect Eisenhower's initial vision, JFK's memory and the beautiful tributes sent to us from around the world when he died. 

 

 

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

 

I'm sorry he's upset, or maybe I'm not

I've long known Will's politics are different from mine. There were clues on his social media – like when he was effusive on LinkedIn over his former employer's publishing a children's book devoted to Amy Coney Barrett, or his X post about Governor Pritzker. I've never engaged him. It's his social media, these are his opinions, and this is where he should express them. 

Will is the founder/moderator of our movie group and members of the group have been very outspoken in their criticism of Trump. As long as it somehow ties to the film we're discussing, Will doesn't weigh in. I've always respected him for that. 

From cnn.com

He knows where I stand on things, as I'm very outspoken on Facebook and we are friends on one another's pages. When Trump changed the name of the Kennedy Center,* I posted: Dear Leader is at it again. Who thinks this is a good thing? How soon before he begins naming airports, schools and roads after himself? I bet the first act of the privatized postal service will be a Trump postage stamp. When will be the penny be reintroduced with his face on it?

 For some reason, Will decided to respond: Plenty to get upset about. This isn't it, in my opinion.

First of all, I wasn't crazy about the tone. I don't need Will's permission to "get upset." Especially not on my own Facebook page.

Secondly, you don't have to know me long to understand that there are three topics I have down: The Chicago Cubs, the Beatles, and the Kennedy family. 

Lastly, Will used to work for a scholastic publisher. He worked with historians. If he doesn't understand the propaganda implications of Trump naming shit after himself, he should.

My response, while civil, reflected the second and third points. I let the first, more personal one, go.

Ever since, I've heard from Will over and over and over again. More than ever before. Now he thinks my Facebook posts are brilliant. In our text chain, he ❤'s that I'll be joining him and Elaine at a Barbara Stanwyck screening later in the month. He made me aware of another classic film on the big screen and offered to go along with me. Just now he sent me a link to a revival of a play he knows I like.

I feel like telling him it's fine. We're fine. He doesn't have to work so hard to repair damage because no damage has been done.

Except he shouldn't have done it. Condescending to me like that on my own Facebook page is rude. Same with this blog. If you disagree with me, fine. That's what your blog is for. Do not come into my (cyber) living room just to be provocative.

 

*Technically, he allowed it to be renamed, though if you believe he wasn't behind it, well, bless your heart. 

Thursday Thirteen #444

 

 My favorite books of 2025. I plowed through 41 books this year. These are the ones I liked best. I recommend them all, and have included links to Amazon, if you'd like to learn more.

1. Trial by Ambush: Injustice and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham by Marcia Clark. (2024) Non-fiction. Barbara Graham was one of the first – and still one of the few – women to be executed by the State of California. She may not have received justice. That's the problem with the death penalty: there's no mulligan. This book is continues to haunt me.

2. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue. (2024) Fiction. Remember that magic time of your life, when you were in your 20s and out on your own for the first time and met the friends who would be with you forever? This book captures that time so well. There's sex and chaos and money trouble and heartache. And love. Lots of love.

3. JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio. (2024) Non fiction. Decades after his death, John's friends look back on his life and his continuing influence on their lives. What's it like to grow up with and hang out with The Sexiest Man Alive? There was an inherent imbalance of power in his  relationships that John learned to navigate with grace. He also died recklessly and caused his friends incalculable pain for no good reason. I took comfort reading how his survivors continue to deal with this. I was especially heartened by something a priest said to Ann Freeman, the mother who lost two of her daughters in that pointless plane crash: "God is big enough to handle our anger." I must remember that when I get mad because my friends – John and Henry – died and left me.

4. Competing with Idiots: Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, a Dual Portrait by Nick Davis. (2021) Biography. These two brothers made some of the greatest films of all time (Citizen Kane, All About Eve, and more) and won so many Oscars I lost count. But at heart this is a family story. The author is Herman's grandson/Joe's great-nephew. Genius, ambition and depression run deep in this clan, and on a less grand scale in many families.  

5. One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware. (2024) Thriller. One Perfect Couple is the name of a prospective new reality show. Five couples are chosen to appear in the pilot and are whisked away to Ever After Island, where they will compete for fame and prizes and the title of One Perfect Couple. Only a storm knocks out power to the island and leaves the contestants cut off from civilization. Part Lord of the Flies, part ... And Then There Were None. Compulsively readable.

6. So, Anyway ... A Memoir by John Cleese. (2014) My favorite Python tells his story and I was completely charmed. Far sweeter than I expected. His career seems to have been a delightful accident, surprising him as he bounced from job to job and eventually became a star. I especially enjoyed his tales of being a teacher at the same boys' school he had attended. (Yes, there are men out there who had Basil Fawlty as their teacher!) 

7. Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz. (2009) Mystery. I am rereading this mystery series before rehoming them, and Book 2 is even better than I remembered. The Spellmans are a family of private investigators in San Francisco and they are a hilarious mess. The characters are drawn with great humor and affection and the plot had a very interesting twist.

8. Dark City Dames by Eddie Muller. (2025) Non fiction. Hollywood has created many great stars. These aren't them. Eddie gives us actresses who worked regularly and appeared in some very good films noir and crime dramas in the 1940s and 1950s. The femme fatale roles dried up and then what? These women were survivors who had fascinating second acts: raising families, doing charity work, battling illness ... Ann Savage memorably took the bus every day to an LA law office where she did clerical work. Her coworkers had no idea they could see this quiet old lady lure men to their deaths on The Late Show. I loved the stories of their lives.

9. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. (2017) Memoir. As candid as it is intense, The Boss puts the story of his life out there for us to learn from. He is talented, hard-working, driven ... and bedeviled by depression that sapped him creatively, spiritually and sexually. A moving story of hard won success – in both his personal and professional lives. I know more about a hero than I dreamed I would, and he remains a hero. 

10. Richard Nixon: The Life by John A. Farrell. (2017) Biography. President Bill Clinton said in the eulogy of his predecessor, we must "remember Richard Nixon's life in totality." This book does that. As we all know from Watergate, Vietnam and his trashing of Helen Gahagan Douglas, Nixon was amoral, expedient, and when desperate, prone to reckless decision making. He did not have the temperament to be President. But he was brilliant and resilient and not without empathy. I was touched by how distraught he was by the killings at Kent State and how kind and sensitive he was to Jacqueline Onassis when she brought her children back to the White House for a private unveiling of their father's Presidential portrait. It's impossible to imagine such dimension in the current occupant of the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I am grateful that John Farrell introduced me to new facets of a man I thought I knew.

11. Leo Durocher: Baseball's Prodigal Son by Paul Dickson. (2017) Biography. God, Leo was a big personality! He was the manager of my beloved Cubs when I was a little girl and I thought he was terrifying. I still do. The man bullied Babe Ruth, swung with Sinatra, helped integrate baseball (thereby helping to integrate America) and could be completely charming and thoroughly despicable, sometimes on the same page. I didn't like him, but I missed him when the book was over. The man was a force of nature. 

12. Pete Rose: An American Dilemma by Kostya Kennedy. (2014) Biography. Baseball has given us many heroes, but for some reason this year I gravitated toward the bad boys. Written when Pete Rose was still alive and fighting to get into the Hall of Fame, this book is fair and even handed. It gives us a great ball player and an incredibly flawed human being. At a time when companies like Draft Kings sponsor sporting events, when Donald Trump has normalized vulgarity, Pete Rose and what he represented deserve closer examination. A well-written, quintessentially American story.

13. How I Helped OJ Get Away with Murder by Mike Gilbert. (2008) Non fiction. What if your friend did something terrible? Mike Gilbert tells his story, of how as OJ's sports agent he made the decision to stand by "The Juice" during The Trial of the Century. I found Gilbert unlikable, but the book is thought provoking. Regardless of how you feel about Gilbert individually, he presents his side in such a way that you'll wonder what you would do in his position. 

Happy New Year! 

I wish you a 2026 fill with good reads.

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