Zany, Man

First of all, the premise of this book is quite serious. Sexual abuse of anyone, by anyone, is horrific and life-changing. So it was a brave effort for our author, Amber, to take on the task of writing about a female serial rapist of men. I applaud her desire to expose this issue for what it is, a violation of untold proportion, one underappreciated by the general public because of our discomfort over the age-old question about how an aroused man could actually be raped. (Spoiler alert: drugs help.) That being said, I wasn't surprised to learn that some of Amber's earlier works are books of poetry. Turns out this is, too. Don't get me wrong--she has talent in that area, but it's just that it felt much more like a platform for that purpose than a fully fleshed-out story. Generally weird, bleak and tragic, this book has good intentions but fell a bit short for me.

Exposing the Truth for Base Believers

Trump was elected with help from the religious right, and that includes self-proclaimed "evangelical" Christians. If you're curious about this distinction, the word is defined as: "of or according to the teaching of the gospel or of the Christian religion". Sounds kind of like a "round circle" to me. Anyway, for almost four years now, as we watch 45's parade of cruel acts, statements, and executive orders, slews of Americans have been stumped by how this base continues to support Donald Trump, while maintaining that their faith supports this ongoing preference for him over an alternative. This collection of essays by 30 evangelical Christians challenges his supporters to take a true look at what the Bible says and how their leader is behaving. Although the positions were generally more conservative than mine, I found the array of perspectives presented here interesting and enlightening. The problem is that these clear explanations of how Trump pretty much does the opposite of what is taught by parents, churches, temples, etc. will not ever reach the eyes of those who could benefit from this information, because it seems they're not searching for answers. They're searching for the justification of what they (and Trump) are doing. So therein lies the rub, folks.

Cross-Dressing, Pint-Sized Provocateur Thwarted by Traitor

From the world of political intrigue, back-biting, wanna-be monarchs, and a heck of a lot of inbreeding, comes this narrative of the duchesse de Berry, whose son was heir to the French throne before the ouster of the Bourbons. An early day Princess Diana type, she endeared herself to the populace when she came on the scene, mixing with the public and shopping on the town. Hot on the heels of the French Revolution, this was an era fraught with the potential for dire consequences if one was caught on the wrong side of the ruling powers. Although, after the Bourbon exile, the Duchess utilized her talents as disguising herself as a boy to escape detection, eventually her bad choice of cohorts caught up with her. Enter Simon Deutz, an opportunist of monumental proportions, who even "converted" to Catholicism when he thought the winds of fortune were blowing that direction. The reason this was so staggering was that he was the son of France's Chief Rabbi. This betrayal of the beloved Duchess was unfathomable to many, and quite unfortunate for the Jews of the land. While France had been a relatively friendly place for Jews to live, after this the rumbling anti-semitism that had been previously subdued was renewed, with a fervor that was frightening and vicious. And we all know what came of that.

While a very well-researched book, sometimes I felt that I was in for a wade along the shore but instead found myself in a submarine in the Mariana Trench. Lots of unnecessary detail and commentary (for example, the small size of her feet, rendering her unable to wear anything but the softest of leathers--really?) made it a bit tiresome. Unlikely opinions aside, it was a thorough documentation of an unfortunate sequence of events that had huge global and societal impact.