Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Harry @ Sat Apr 24, 2010 7:00 pm wrote:The Carpenters: The Untold Story by Ray Coleman

I love the Carpenters. Richard was such a good musical arranger and Karen's voice was beautiful.

I have one of Ray Coleman's books about John Lennon, which is very good. It's been a while since I read it.

I've nearly finished the Robert Oppenheimer biography I was reading (although I had to return it to the library before I could quite finish it.) I'm still going through The Nature of Personal Reality (one of the Seth books), plus a book related to The Seth Material, called The God of Jane by Jane Roberts.

I'm also reading The Law of Attraction (channelled by a group of spiritual entities known collectively as Abraham and transcribed by Esther and Jerry Hicks) and a fiction novel called The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt.

I hope to soon start Sophie's Choice by William Styron.

Florida Lighthouses by Kevin M. McCarthy
This book is very interesting! Has a lot of history behind each lighthouse.

I'd be interested in what information it has about the St. Augustine lighthouse. Allegedly it's haunted. I do know two of one of the caretaker's daughters died during the construction of it during the 1800's.

Okay, I'd be glad to give it to you, ks. I visited the St. Augustine last year, it's quite nice and interesting! Would you like me to PM you the info the book has about it?

^ meant to say - visited the St. Augustine lighthouse
They also have moonlight tours sometimes but I've not been on one of those yet

Sure, that'd be great! Thanks.

Gaheris - I read one book about Jane Roberts years ago. It got my attention. I almost went on to start reading her books but didn't know if her abilities were coming from her subconscious or her "guide". The book I read had a few photos of her in it. I remember one photo of her taken while she was in a "trance". Scared the pants off me. So you are enjoying her books?

I am reading an AWESOME book that I just bought yesterday at a fleamarket for $1. A Treasury of American Horror Stories ........51 spine-chilling tales from every state in the union plus Washington, DC. Written by such great authors as: Stephen King, H.P.Lovecraft, Jack London and Mark Twain just to name a few. A steal at $1 in my opinion. Hardcover, dust jacket all in mint condition.

Columbine by Dave Cullen. Only 23 pages into it, but excellent so far.

augusta @ Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:57 pm wrote:There is a brand new Custer book coming out. I just pre-ordered it. It's called "The Last Stand" by Nathaniel Philbrick, the guy who wrote "Mayflower". It doesn't sound like there's anything new in it, but just in case ...

Just came across this book last night at Border's and browsed through it. It has a couple photos of GAC and Libbie I hadn't seen before. I may go back this weekend and buy it.

I've been to England 3x and Scotland 1x. I had an opportunity to spend a month in London on my first visit (had an apartment loaned to me) and it wasn't nearly enough time...there's just so much to see and do...and there's so much else to see outside the city. I'm absolutely crazy about Inverness. Scotland...I spent 2 weeks there with friends. The city is so homey and the people were wicked friendly.

I'm reading WHEN EVIL RULES (about murder and police/gov. corruption in the nearby town of Falmouth-true crime) and also started 1491, about the Indians in North and South America before Columbus (everything I learned in school was wrong!).

Kssunflower - If you want to see a great book, written by an almost flawless scholar, and with a lot of photos in it that are rare, try to get a copy of Dr. Lawrence Frost's "General Custer's Libbie". I think the copyright is 1974. I don't know if it was reprinted or not. I got so lucky and got a used copy pretty cheap. I notice it named in lots of bibliographies of other works.

Also, a couple years ago someone wrote a biography of Tom Custer! I'm on the 3rd chapter (I set Joan Crawford aside to read this one, but I'll get back to Joan...). I don't know where the author got all his info, but it took him ten years and it is lauded as a very accurate and good book. It's very readable and totally interesting. Did you know he had at least one child out of wedlock? The mother named it "Tom Custer". Unfortunately the boy died at like 15. Again, I found a new copy online at a good price ($12.95). One good source for used books is to look up the book on Amazon.com, then click on "used and new books", and sometimes people will be selling brand new books for such a low price. If I am only buying it for research and won't be using it hardly, I'll buy a more used book, that's even cheaper.

nbcatlover - Your Scotland trip sounds fabulous. I'm glad you had such a good time. The books you're reading now sound good, too.

Augusta, I have a book called Crimsoned Prairie, 1972, by S.L.A.Marshall. Have you read that? You may borrow it if you'd like.

As for the Carpenters, I've been making Harry tell me the story as he's been reading it and now I don't have to read the book! Thanks Har!

I'm on book 12 (or 13?) in The Founding series, Morland Dynasty- it is Bristish Historical fiction.
I might be 1/2 way thru the series!

Now you know one of the things I've been doing while not here on the Forum!
BTW: Several people have asked me to return here. I'm so glad to be back! I had been promoted to full time at my new job and that has been something to adjust to!

No rest for the wicked, eh Kat?

Just last night I finished reading Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows. Amazing series that - it took about four months to get through all 7 books.

I'm glad you're back, Kat. And congratulations on being moved up to full time!

Thank you for the book loan offer. I'll check out the book online and let you know. How sweet!

I'm currently reading all of Larry Winget's books;

The Idiot Factor
It's Called Work For A reason
You're Broke Because You Want To Be
No Time For Tact
Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get A Life

Larry is an "in your face" motivator. I love his "get off your butt" approach to success.

Suzanne Somer's book, "Breakthrough" is a real good book on taking better care of our health.

-1bigsteve (o:

"As the World Churns" by Tamar Meyers. It's a book in a humorous mystery series where the main character is a Mennonite woman who runs an Amish B & B. I enjoy the series, and also Tamar Meyers' second series - also a humorous mystery series - about a woman who sells antiques in Charleston, NC. The first series is known as the Penn-Dutch series. The other is called "Den of Antiquity" series.

At the moment I'm also reading "Old Neutriment" by Glendolin Damon Wagner. It's a memoir of John Burkman, who was General Custer's orderly for years. It comes to me highly recommended.

Manhunt The 12-Day Chase For Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. Another book I cannot put down. I read half yesterday and hopefully the other half tonight and tomorrow. There are so many great things about this book. I did not know that the "mood" of the country at that time was pretty tentative and that tempers could flare at any moment. A few people were killed by other people because they were glad Lincoln was assasinated. Jefferson Davis was still on the run and there were still armed confederate forces in the Carolina's ready to fight. Booth also gave letters to friends explaining his reason for the assasination and they never came forward because they were terrified of being accused of being in on the conspiracy and arrested. I recommend this book for a fun weekend read. Don't do like I did and start it on Sunday, start it on Friday evening or Saturday. I spent the whole day at work wanting to get home so I could read my book!

Yes, Manhunt is a very well written book on the assassination. A good friend of mine, in fact a member of this forum, sent it to me a number of months ago. I've had a long time interest (even before Lizzie) in the assassination and have read numerous other accounts.

You may also be interested in joining the Surratt Society. They maintain the tavern in what is now Clinton, MD where Booth made his first stop in his attempt to escape. They publish a 4-5 page monthly newsletter (The Surratt Courier) about the era and articles on new findings in the case. All for the kingly ransom of $8 a year. Naturally it is not the quality of The Hatchet (but what is?). http://www.surratt.org/

Probably the premier web site on the assassination is at:

http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln.html

Harry

Just finished Bozo Sapiens - Why to Err is Human by Michael and Ellen Kaplan. It's about how we (homo sapiens) are hard wired to get things wrong - from criminal investigations to class distinctions and bias. I really liked it.

Now I'm reading Blue Gold – World Water Wars by Maude Barlow. A real eye opener about the privatization and manipulation of water for profit. For example, the largest market share of bottled water in Africa is Danani, owned by Coke Cola. A liter of water costs about .07 cents versus a liter of Coke at .05 cents. A Coke exec was quoted as saying “We are changing the way the world hydrates itself”. Transnationals buy up water rights from communities and ruin farms and farming communities, re-routing water for purposes of profit. Water will be the new oil. It practically already is now. PBS t.v. did wonderful documentary on the book which is riveting. I recommend it.


http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Blue_Gold_ ... kid=226870

I'm on another John Irving marathon this summer. So far have re-read A Widow for One Year, Until I Find You & have just started on The World According to Garp. Next week I plan to re-read A Prayer for Owen Meany. One of my favorite authors. So funny & yet so true & poignant. And, even if you re-read he never seems to loose his freshness.

I'm at my favorite bookstore now with my laptop and have browsed through Manhunt. I will have to come back and buy it. Harry, thanks for the other links. Will check them out. I also just came across Troopers With Custer. Now I have more firsthand accounts of Little Big Horn to read.

Harry!!! Thanks so much for the Surratt Society information and the Roger Norton site also. I had no idea about the Surratt Society. I plan to take a drive to the Tavern this weekend and pick up the map to the places Booth stayed during his attempted escape and then go on some "magical history tours". I have been to the Wok N Roll that used to be Mary Surratts Boarding House and have taken the tour of Ford's Theatre twice. It was a lot of fun and since reading Manhunt it will be even more enjoyable. Amazing what you can discover in your own back yard! Thanks so much for the info.

I always wished I could make the escape route tour myself. It used to be, and may still be, conducted by assassination expert and author Michael Kaufman. The September tours are sold out. Guess you have to book a year in advance.

Its fun to read history but going to the actual sites, such as the Borden B&B, adds immeasurably to the over-all experience.

I was at Fords way back in the 60's before they did the makeover. They had the artifacts in the cellar and you were able to almost touch them. The smaller objects, the diary, the deringer, Booth's knife, etc. were under glass though. I was able to peer through the hole that was bored through the door to Lincoln's theater box. That was eerie.

I think they show you where the "shootin' irons" were hidden at the Tavern.

Have fun and enjoy the trip!

If you hunt at http://www.archive.org/ there's a small volume titled Lincoln's Last Hours - apparenttly an address delivered at a meeting of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in February, 1909. The speaker was Dr. Charles Augustus Leale, one of the physicians who attended Mr. Lincoln in the theatre and afterward. It's a fascinating little book as you might imagine, and a quick read at under 40 pages.

I just finished book #32 in that Morland Dynasty series- it's historical fiction- of England. The last 4 books took place during WWI.

Um, it's a strange coincidence that the day after I finished (It took me since last Winter to find them and read them in order) I went on the author's website to see if there were any more, and there is One More, and it was to be published That Day, November 4th! What a long journey it's been, to get to the end and to find that very day a new one! Odd...
timing is everything...
http://www.cynthiaharrodeagles.com/cynt ... cing-years

I really liked this book, The Profiler, My Life Hunting Serial Killers & Psychopaths by Pat Brown with Bob Andelman. This book turned out to be a page-turner I could not put down. Her scientific no-nonsense method of building the personality profile is the key to figuring out the crimes. She spent years developing her methods but they are presented in this book for us to apply to any crime we may want to explore. Her website and other links are also fantastic.
www.CriminalProfilerPatBrown.com

I am reading Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff," about the early NASA days. I didn't like the movie but the book is real good. I loved the space program as it was going on.

I am also reading Mary S. Lovell's "The Sound of Wings," about the life of Amelia Earhart. I find it very interesting. I like Mary's book on flyer Beryl Markham, "Straight On Till Morning." I like the way she writes. She doesn't dwell on the color of the drapes, she gets right to it.

-1bigsteve (o:

The Sound of Wings was a good book. You might check out East To The Dawn also. I've toured Earhart's birthplace in Atchison, which is not too far from here. I read all I can about her.

kssunflower wrote:The Sound of Wings was a good book. You might check out East To The Dawn also. I've toured Earhart's birthplace in Atchison, which is not too far from here. I read all I can about her.

Thanks, Kssunflower. I will check that one out.

I am currently reading, "Steve McQueen: My Husband, My Friend" by his wife Neilie McQueen. This is the third time for me. It's a real good read on Steve McQueen's life.

Also, "Toxic People" by Lillian Glass, PHD. If you have people in your life that are driving you crazy, this is the book for you. She doesn't pull any punches!

-1bigsteve (o:

Hey Bigsteve, what a coincidence. Am heading to Atchison to tour another historic home this afternoon. Hope you enjoy the book.

I am re-reading "Lizzie didn't do it". I am always finding wrong facts and stuff that I missed the first couple of times I read it.

Just posted and it didn't take.

Hoping that post doesn't reappear, I'm reading Fanny Flagg's "Can't Wait to get to Heaven" (sequel to her "Standing Under the Rainbow"). I think Stewart posted about these a while back. I love Fanny Flagg and have read all but her "Fried Green Tomatoes", since I saw the movie a couple of times. When Borders was closing I found a new novel by her: "I Still Dream of You" that will get read soon.

Also reading "The Kennedy Detail" by Gerald Blaine, who was on JFK's secret service detail. Very good, if you're into the Kennedys, which I am.

Of course, I pre-ordered 'Parallel Lives'. Couldn't resist it.

I keep buying more and more books. I wonder if I'll live long enough to read them. I hope that we're allowed to read in heaven.

Oh - forgot to mench: Recently read one on the Carpenters, "Little Girl Blue". It was very good. I had read the one Harry did a few years ago, and I thought that was very good too. This "Little Girl Blue" gives you more of the private stuff that went on because now the parents have passed on and there isn't quite the family power to stop people from talking about Karen. I couldn't listen to a Carpenters song for a while after I read this. I think she's my all-time favorite female singer (along with Judy Garland). It was sad to read about her funeral. Recently I bought their double disc Christmas album. I had one of their Christmas albums on cassette tape. Of course it's wonderful.

Having lost two siblings in recent years, I cannot imagine Richard Carpenters' grief. He has a website now where you can post questions and he posts answers back.

On You Tube there is a Japanese lady who sounds a lot like her. There's a performance by Richard C playing without Karen one of their big hits. I think her picture is up on the wall of the stage. It is soooo sad. I don't know how he got thru it.

Sorry. Double posted it.

I just finished Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean by Richard Logan and Tere Duperrault Fassbender (formerly Terry Jo Duperrault). This is an account of how, in 1961, at the age of eleven, Fassbender survived the massacre of the rest of her family by one Julian Harvey, the captain of the Bluebelle, a sailing ship her father had chartered for a cruise. Harvey sank it, escaping on a dinghy. He expected Terry Jo to sink with the ship, but she survived four days without food and water on a cork float, being rescued just in time by a Greek freighter. When Harvey learned of her survival, he committed suicide, apparently aware that he would be exposed. He had claimed that a squall had hit the boat, bringing down its masts and causing it to catch fire. Terry Jo refuted these claims. It came out that Harvey had taken out an insurance policy on his wife (his sixth), who also perished on the cruise and was probably the only intended victim. A family member probably witnessed her murder accidentally, necessitating the killing of all possible witnesses. (Harvey had apparently gotten away with several insurance schemes involving similar "accidents," one of which took the lives of his second wife and mother-in-law. Nice guy.) There are also accounts of the lives of the principals before the disaster, and of Terry Jo since. (She now spells her name Tere, but the pronunciation is the same.)

I remembered reading about these events at the time they happened and had long been curious to know more about them.

Wow, what a book, Constantine! I had not known of the story before.

There's a new book by Massachusetts attorney William Landay, called "Defending Jacob"-- a must for fans of courtroom drama.

The case is set in an affluent Boston suburb, and some elements reminded me of L.A.B. There's a stabbing death, with discussion of blood splatter.

Anyway, there's a great quote, which I'll have to search and share verbatim, of how "not guilty" doesn't mean "innocent," just not proven guilty in the minds of the jurors.

Also, there's much discussion of the consequences of being accused, even if one is exonerated, of how the stigma sticks for a lifetime, and how the only solution for the person involved may be to relocate and reinvent oneself.

Pirate Hunter The True Story of Captain Kidd

L

I recently read The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder. It was his first great success.

The idea is certainly intriguing. (Five people are killed when the rope bridge they are crossing breaks. A monk who witnesses the tragedy wonders why God chose those five and researches their lives. He writes a book on the subject and is executed by the Inquisition for his troubles.)

It was neither the best nor the worst novel I ever read, but it had a curious effect on me: it enabled me to put a stop to some obsessive-compulsive behavior I had long wanted to deal with but had been unable to.

One of the characters has a daughter whom she obsessively worries about and prays for. (Her daughter is utterly indifferent to her and remains so until after her death.) As a result of a pilgrimage she takes, she comes to the conclusion that what will be will be and ends her obsessive behavior. (It is on her way back from this pilgrimage that she is killed in the bridge disaster.)

I had been constantly indulging in some private rituals of a "step on a crack, break your mother's back" nature, worried that if I did not do them, something dreadful would happen, either to people I loved or in the world. The fact that I was perfectly aware of their irrationality did not help me to stop. Reading this book somehow gave me the courage to do so, instantly and (apparently) permanently.

Anyone else here ever read a book that had a profound psychological effect on you?

(Anyhow, I will stay away from rope bridges for a while.)

I'm reading "In Cold Blood" for the second time. I started it about in April and just haven't been reading it, despite the fact that I don't have far to go.

I'm also reading "The Benteen-Goldin Letters", edited by John Carroll. I got lucky and found a softbound one cheap. It was always too expensive. It is good. It's about letters exchanged between Captain Benteen and Goldin, a guy who was at the Little Big Horn but not at the Last Stand. Scholars on Custer tend to say oh, don't believe that stuff. How do they know? Unless it's something a scholar can debunk with a source, why tell us to not pay any attention to it?

In one part, one asks the other if Mrs. Custer was aware of her husband's fooling around. And the other answers that yes, she was of some but did not know of all of them. Sounds pretty true to me.

Will be reading our Tina-Kate's book soon.

That's fantastic, Constantine, that you stopped an obsession from reading a book! Books do influence me. I know if I read humorous books, I'm happier. And once in a while I'll adopt a chracterization or two from a character I'm reading about - especially adopting a certain phrase at times.

Yes:

Is Tina-Kate's book fact or fiction, or fictional fact, or factual fiction, or poetry?

I am currently reading, "One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way" by Robert Maurer, Ph.D. It's a real good book on changing your life, getting rid of old bad habits, developing new habits and such by simply taking small little steps every day. Very easy to understand and follow through on.


-1bigsteve

I just started a book called The Belles Of New England - The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth they Wove
by William Moran.
I've only read about 25 pages but it seems that even though the work was very hard and the hours long these mill jobs provided freedom for alot of these women. Also the opportunity to earn their own paycheck.
It's actually quite interesting how before this time period they had very little choice in how they were going to live their lives.

That reminds me of a satiric poem by Thomas Hardy called "The Ruined Maid." (Elsa Lanchester used to sing a version of it.) It's about a poor hard-working farm girl who runs into an old friend and finds her much improved physically and dressed in finery. Her friend explains to her that this is the consequence of her having been "ruined."

Angel, this is not the place for a post like this. This thread is about things people have been reading.

Someone with something to sell. They have been removed.

Thanks, MB.

I'm reading Mother Angelica's book called Answers Not Promises.