J.R. Moehringer - Sutton

There are few things in this world that make me happier than walking through Barnes & Noble with no set goal in mind. Usually when I go book shopping, it's "Okay, let's hurry and get to the Mysteries section. No, don't check out the special edition classics, you don't need five copies of Pride & Prejudice. Oh, and don't you dare even THINK about going near that Buy One, Get One 50% table..."

But there are a few days a year I allow myself to meander and browse for purchases. One such day was the day this past school year that one of my more... hmm, how to phrase this... quick-fingered students made off with my iPhone. I was distraught. Not because my phone was gone, but because I always thought I was one of the teachers the students actually LIKED (which I was assured I was once word spread that someone took it). I trusted my students, and I take it personally when my trust is betrayed like that. So I needed that retail therapy... specifically I needed that literary retail therapy.

I picked up Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, because I'd been dying to read it. And while randomly wandering away from the W's, the cover pictured above grabbed my attention and forced me to pick it up. Once I started reading, I quickly realized that the book itself was just as good as its cover.

This novel is a fictional account of Willie Sutton, a real life bank robber. You've all heard of Al Capone. Willie Sutton was friends with him and even took some notes from the notorious thief. This novel travels back and forth between the events that led to Sutton's arrest(s) and his retelling of his life's work to two reporters. Moehringer gives Sutton a voice that is only too suited to a 1920's wise guy. Sutton details his crimes, his motives, and most importantly his love for a very special woman. It's a truly entertaining read. But what makes it better is that it is based off of a real person. Willie Sutton really lived, really robbed, and really loved. I highly recommend this underrated book. It's a great palate cleanser if you're coming off of a hefty classic (I'd just finished the previously mentioned Wharton novel) or if you're looking for the not so typical beach read.

Diagnosis: It's a quick read, but it's a quality read.

Therese Anne Fowler - Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald





When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.

Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby’s parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott’s, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda’s irresistible story as she herself might have told it. (from amazon.com)

Back when I was my students' age in 10th grade honor's English, my English teacher Mrs. Allen assigned us to read The Great Gatsby. I fell in love. I loved everything that Fitzgerald wrote, from the way he developed his characters, to the way he used beautiful language to capture a time in history that I had never before studied. Because I loved Gatsby so much, I learned a little bit about Fitzgerald's life. So I had heard about his "crazy" wife Zelda who tried to bring about his literary downfall... and wasn't too pumped to read a novel in her defense.

When I'm wrong, I'll admit I'm wrong. I was wrong. I LOVED reading a novel in her defense. After reading Fowler's depiction of Zelda and of Scott, it's safe to assume that they brought about each other's downfall. They were two of a kind and wore each other out. Fowler does an excellent job of blending fact and fiction. The glimpses she gives us of other famous celebrities of the time are refreshing and... well, fun. She describes Hemingway's lady-killer attitude, but also hints at a homosexual interest in Scott. There are also delightful cameos by Cole Porter, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, etc.

Overall, I would have to say that I truly enjoyed reading this window (albeit fictitious) into the Fitzgeralds' lives. It definitely kicked my Fitzgerald juices into high gear and urged me to finally get around to reading Tender Is The Night, which has been on my reading list since I was 16. So thank you, Ms. Fowler.

Jean Plaidy - Madonna of the Seven Hills

The most beautiful woman in Rome, Lucrezia Borgia, was born into a family—and a destiny—she could not hope to escape . . .
Fifteenth-century Rome: The Borgia family is on the rise. Lucrezia’s father, Pope Alexander VI, places his illegitimate daughter and her only brothers, Cesare, Giovanni, and Goffredo, in the jeweled splendor—and scandal—of his court. From the Pope’s affairs with adolescent girls to Cesare’s dangerous jealousy of anyone who inspires Lucrezia’s affections to the ominous birth of a child conceived in secret, no Borgia can elude infamy.

Young Lucrezia gradually accepts her fate as she comes to terms with the delicate nature of her relationships with her father and brothers. The unbreakable bond she shares with them both exhilarates and terrifies her as her innocence begins to fade. Soon she will understand that her family’s love pales next to their quest for power and that she herself is the greatest tool in their political arsenal. (from Amazon.com)

I am normally the historical fiction fan that devours anything about the Tudor family. So when Showtime made the series about him and his wives, I was thrilled. Obviously it had to come to an end... I mean, the man couldn't stay alive to marry EVERY woman in England. But with the show off, I needed something to fill the void. Luckily, Showtime felt my pain and gave the world The Borgias. I admit, I knew nothing about them except that Lucrezia was supposedly one of the most sexually perverse women in history. I had to read about this woman and find out who she was before Showtime turned her life into something that borders on pornography...

Jean Plaidy, a personal favorite of mine, has created a world for Lucrezia that completely drew me in. She tells the story of Lucrezia's father becoming Pope. Papal history buffs will love the details about the election of the Borgia Pope. However, those who are reading solely for the courtly intrigue will not get too bogged down in the politics.

In my studying and reading about these Borgias to build some background knowledge before diving head first into Jean Plaidy's series, I found a lot of talk about an incestuous relationship between Lucrezia and her brother Cesare. There also were rumors about a similarly inappropriate relations between Lucrezia and her father, Pope Alexander. Plaidy hints at the relationships (especially with Cesare), but she paints Lucrezia as the victim who does what she can to spurn any true advances.

Whether you believe in the Borgia incest or not, no one can deny that they were indeed an interesting family. If you have good Borgia book suggestions - send them my way!