One Hundred Saturdays

This cover is gorgeous.

All the illustrations throughout the book are even more incredible to look at.

But I am 100% not the target audience for this book.

One Hundred Saturdays chronicles the life of Stella Levi. This woman is well into her 90s, and she has lived an absolutely remarkable life. She been through it, back, and through it again. But somehow she never lost hope. Stella's story is much bigger than the numbers that were once tattooed on her skin.

Michael Frank spent nearly six years with Stella while writing this book. They spent a hundred Saturday's together, where she told him her entire life story. Beginning to end. Starting her story as a young girl in Rhodes, navigating friendships and romances. Then, onto her time in the camps and dealing with the aftermath of losing most of her family. Of course, Stella couldn't leave out finding her way in America and inevitably her way back to Rhodes.

Those few sentences I just wrote will never encapsulate the stories Stella shared with Michael. I wish I enjoyed this book more, but like I said I'm not the intended audience for this book, at all. It's a great story that is written very well. But without knowing the history of where Stella grew up, it was hard for me to envision. This book is for History Readers. Entwining the rich cultures while also discussing a traumatic event definitely helped move the story along, but all in all, I didn't love it.

Huge thanks to Simon and Schuster and Avid Reader Press for sending me an advanced copy!

One Hundred Saturdays: In Search of a Lost World by Michael Frank hits shelves September 6, 2022!

The Menendez Murders

A few months ago I became infatuated with the Menendez Murders.

For years, I had heard about the boys who had killed their parents. But that's kind of all I knew about it and I wanted more. I started watching documentaries and reading articles about their two trials. I couldn't believe what I was reading.

I've never understood why we allow men and women to be held to different standards when it comes to abuse. It's hard for me to understand how people can view abuse of a man different from abuse of a woman. Abuse is abuse. As for these boys, (and yes I'm going to be calling them boys because they were younger than my 26 years of age when this happened), they believed after years of abuse their parents were conspiring to kill them. The sexual and physical abuse from their father continued throughout their childhoods up to the point of Jose's death. Not to mention the constant verbal abuse from their mother. I've seen the trial, I've seen the transcripts, I don't believe they did this with malicious intent. 

It's interesting to me that we can support a woman killing her husband, claiming self defense under the assumption of battered wife syndrome, but we can't apply that same scenario to two sons whose parents were abusing them.

As for this book, Robert Rand makes it apparent very early on that he supports both the Menendez Brothers. That being said, the views portrayed in the book are very biased, aside from the trial transcripts included throughout the text. I was completely unaware of his stance before picking up this book, but it is similar to my own.

 

I don't believe we will ever truly understand what happened that fateful night in August 1989.

I'm Glad My Mom Died

THAT TITLE, MAN.

Honestly, I love Jennette McCurdy. When I first saw her on iCarly, I wanted to be her. I wanted to be the unapologetic girl who wears converse and hates everything. I even wanted her clothes, which makes me cringe so hard because when I rewatched iCarly earlier this year...... let's just say I'm pretty sure we had the same pair of plaid bermuda shorts.

So obviously, I pre-ordered this book as soon as she announced it. I know the title feels like a sucker punch, but she has every single right to feel this way. It made me sad to be reading about a girl who was only a few years older than me. A girl who was going through some of the same shit, just for different reasons. A girl whose childhood revolved around pleasing the people around her, specifically her mother. It's not my place to detail the things she went through, but trust me when I say you can feel the emotions behind her words.

 

 

So many celebrities write memoirs about their public persona, or their personal lives, or where they came. I've never read a book that morphs those topics so drastically. Her story felt so raw yet incredibly relatable. This book is not a Nickelodeon tell all, it's not even about exposing her secrets. This book was about healing, growing, and becoming who she wants to be. It's phenomenal.

American Animals

This book has everything I could ever want.

It's true crime about college kids robbing their library, AND Evan Peters is in the movie adaptation.

I usually don't talk about movies here, but I watched American Animals years before I read it. It's a quick read, less than 200 pages. Eric and two of his friends, Warren and Spencer concocted an elaborate heist that they believed might actually work. The idea was simple, they were going to rob the Rare Books Room at the Transylvania University Library. They had a contact in Amsterdam who was willing to purchase The Birds of America and several other rare books. If they would have gotten off with all the books they intended on stealing, they were looking at a 12 Million Dollar payout.

It boggles my mind that these 19 and 20 year old kids really tried to pull this off. It's even crazier to think that authorities believed it could have been a professional hit. It took roughly two months before the boys were caught with the books unharmed and still in their possession.

I know this feels like a weird thing to enjoy but I've began collecting rare books myself. Just the thought of holding something worth so much gives off such a powerful feeling. I can only imagine the power, the rush, and the terror of pulling off a heist like this.