What was the last book you read?

Any book lovers on the Board?

What was the last book you read?
What was the author's name?
And what did you think of the book?

Note that it's okay to be critical about a book or an author, but please do it in a decent way!

 

"Heart of Tennessee" by Tommie Conrad

Amazing romance novel! I love the details that the author put into the characters!

A great read for a hot summer night! And I highly recommend this book!

 

I love Ann Rule's true crime books. She's a real legend in that book genre!

At the top of my head, I can recall reading her books:

• "The Stranger Beside me" (about the serial killer, Ted Bundy)
• "Small Sacrifices" (about Diane Downs, who shot her own three children); I also loved the movie with the same titel starring Farrah Fawsett
• "The I-5 Killer" (about the serial killer Randall Woodfield)

I just found out that Ann Rule passed away in 2015! Makes me cheerish her books even more!

 

It was quite a freaky coincidence that Ann Rule ever became well acquainted with Ted Bundy in the first place!

On the first anniversary of Ted Bundy's execution, Ann Rule said in an interview:
"I was writing true crime when I went to work at the crisis center in Seattle in 1971. And my partner was a very nice young college student named Theodore Bundy. At that time, the term serial murderer had yet to be coined. It would be another decade before it would be. But I'm probably the only crime writer who knew a serial killer before, during, and after his crime."

When asked what her feelings were on that particular day (i.e. the first anniversary of Ted Bundy's execution), Ann Rule's response was:
"This is a difficult day. Even though I know intellectually that he was a monster, I still remember the man who never was. The facade was so good that my mind remembers that man - he was manipulative; when I met him he had already killed. There is a sadness of what might have been; there's a relief that he's gone and at least a year's time has gone by. How many of us really know somebody who walks down a hall and gets into an electric chair? I wouldn't have stopped the electrocution on that day if I could have. I wouldn't today - because I believe he was one of the most dangerous human beings ever to live and that he would have connived and conned his way out of prison and into a hospital and he would have escaped."

When Ann Rule first signed the book contract to write about the mysterious homicides of several young women in the Seattle area (in what later became one of her best books, "The Stranger beside me"), she did not know that Ted Bundy was the killer.

Supposedly, Ann Rule became increasingly suspicious about Ted Bundy's possible involvement during the initial investigation into the murders in the Seattle area. She provided the investigators with the tip that her associate might be the killer, yet still was relieved when the police didn't follow up on her lead. However, later on when Bundy's guilt was confirmed, she felt very betrayed.

I love reading about true crime! How can someone so charismatic and charming as Ted Bundy supposedly was, turn out to be serial killer???

Anyway, back to books in general!!!

 

Not sure if this book qualifies as an autobiography, since it was co-authored, ... ... ... ...

"Leadership" by Rudolph W. Giuliani (former mayor of New York City) :fantastic: :fantastic:

What a great read ... and it's still a cheerished part of my book collection!