This Crazy Thing Called Love

Author: Susan Braudy
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1992
Pages: 480
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In 1955, Anne Woodward shot her husband, Billy, in their Oyster Bay, Long Island, home. While she was cleared by a grand jury, which believed her story that she had mistaken Billy for a prowler who had recently breaking into neighboring houses. New York society was convinced that she had deliberately murdered Billy and that her formidable mother-in-law, Elsie Woodward, had covered up the crime to prevent further scandal to the socially prominant family. The incident became fiction in Truman Capote's malicious 1975 Esquire story, leading to Ann's suicide, and later was the subject of Dominick Dunne's The Two Mrs. Grenville's. Now, after years of research, Braudy reveals the truth behind the legend. Tracing Ann's life from her difficult Kansas childhood through her early years as a model and aspiring actress to her stormy exile after his death. Braudy shows how Ann, a victim of cruel gossip and class snobbery, could not have deliberately killed Billy.

Review: I recently watched a quick 10-15 minute blurb on Ann Woodward's dress on an episode of Mysteries at the Museum (which originally aired February 21, 2013). The little bit the show shared was compelling so I went in search of a biography. 

A Crazy Thing Called Love reads more like a family saga than a traditional biography. The story of Billy and Ann Woodward begins with each of their grandparents, and ends with Elsie Woodward's death in 1981. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the historical context of their lives, The Gilded Age, The Great Depression, World War II and beyond. It's a comprehensive read, and I surprised myself by not wanting to put it down.

The Thorn Birds

Author: Colleen McCullough
Genre: Family Saga / Historical Fiction
Publisher: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. 1977
Pages: 560
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: The Thorn Birds is a chronicle of three generations of Clearys - an indomitable clan of ranchers carving lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with the bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrates their family. It is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Cleary's only daughter, Meggie, and the haunted priest, Father Ralph di Bricassart - and the intense joining of two hearts and souls over a lifetime, a relationship that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma.

Review: I have never met a family saga that I didn't love, until I read The Thorn Birds. I chose this for a January Reading Challenge and the prompt was, "a book written the year you were born." I had seen The Thorn Birds mentioned with rave reviews many times in various FB reading groups, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

First and foremost, I didn't care for the format/layout of this saga. Rather than a fluid novel, the book is divided into "books" by character with no common theme or plot to tie them together. Throughout the novel events take place and impact a character, but the same events seem to have no lasting impact or are never mentioned again. Characters are killed off at will to fit the narrative and again, no thought or attention is paid to them again in the context of another's character's struggle or growth. This is a novel that wants to be cutting edge, and maybe at the time it was because of the few scenes of (for the time, I suspect) graphic sex, but it translates into a soap opera, and not a compelling one at that.

To be fair, this was written in a different time and place for a different reader, but I can honestly say that even acknowledging that fact, the novel is still problematic.

Off the Map

Author: Trish Doller
Genre: Chick Lit
Publisher: St. Martin's Group, 2023
Pages: 272
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Carla Black's life motto is "here for a good time, not for a long time." She's been traveling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn't do love and she doesn't ever go home.

Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he's the one who's lost his sense of direction. He's unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out - literally.

Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend's wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love - if only they choose it.

Review: I'm sick with some kind of virus, but not so sick that all I want to do is sleep. This book was the perfect escape, and I was carried off into a wonderful fictional road trip world. Just a bit of warning through - this book has some spice so if that's not your jam, proceed with caution.

This is also third in a series, which I didn't realize until it was too late. I don't feel like I missed out on anything, but since I didn't read the previous two yet, I can't say for sure.

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress

Author: Ariel Lawhon
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Doubleday, 2014
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: One summer night in 1930, Judge Joseph Crater steps into a New York City cab is never heard from again. Behind this great man are three women, each with her own tale to tell: Stella, his fashionable wife, the picture of propriety; Maria, their steadfast maid, indebted to the judge; and Ritzi, his showgirl mistress, willing to seize any chance to break out of the chorus line.

As the twisted truth emerges, Ariel Lawhon's wickedly entertaining debut mystery transports us into the smoky jazz clubs, the seedy backstage dressing rooms, and the shadowy streets beneath the Art Deco skyline.

Review: I was a few chapters into this novel, and was watching Mysteries at the Museum one evening with my husband and they did a segment on Judge Carter. Lawhon wrote a 320 page story that took the show 10 - 15 minutes to tell. This is why books are (almost) always better.

I found this author when I read The Frozen River in December 2023, and I hope to read the rest of her books in 2024.

Other Ariel Lawhon Novels
The Frozen River