A Cruel and Shocking Act is an in-depth look of the aftermath of the J.F.K. assassination - Philip Shenon provides us with as much as it seems possible on the people, commissions, and agencies involved. This was my first foray into this particular subject (About two years previous to this, I read 20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents by Rufus W. Youngblood, the secret service agent that dove on top of Lyndon B. Johnson during the assassination, so his memoir inevitably touched on the topic and I believe prompted me to add this book to my reading list.)

This is one of those events in U.S. history that regardless of what you seek out, you are going to know things about just by growing up here. I learned about the Single/Magic Bullet Theory in a high school class, there were many pop culture references to "the grassy knoll," and would say I probably had a loose grasp of the overall events; and was aware that there were a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding it.

This book provided a linear timeline of the events and then a deep analysis of how all the people involved ended up handling them. The answers to most of the questions proffered by this report seem to be along the lines, "It may not be possible to know." If you would like to learn the details of multiple bureaucracies and individuals completely bungling the collection of evidence and interviewing of witnesses (whether for well-meaning or selfish reasoning), this is the gift that keeps on giving. If this book does answer one question, it surely explains just why there would be so many conspiracy theories developed.

For the audiobook version moving from The Bad Beginning to The Reptile Room, we lose the full cast option for voicing the different characters, but Tim Curry really did a phenomenon job doing the second book on his own. (And reader, I'm sorry to say that we will miss him dearly. Until he is back for the sixth book, that is.) His coughing fits as Mr. Poe had me physically cringing every time, which I can't decide if it added or subtracted to the atmosphere.

We've continued into the unfortunate events of the Baudelaires, sometimes feeling a dash hyperbolic, and sometimes having me wonder, "Well, maybe a grown adult would be more likely to think his coworkers are trying to use a spy to steal his research rather than that suspiciously timed new assistant being Count Olaf in disguise." Because, that egotistical mindset wouldn't truly surprise me. I did love Uncle Monty and his love for the children, even if it couldn't last.

But I adore this one paragraph the most, in regards to loss of a loved one:

At the sight of the Reptile Room, which Uncle Monty had filled so carefully with his specimens and in which he was now a sort of specimen himself, the weight of the Baudelaires' despair was too much for them and they quietly began to cry. It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things. The Baudelaire orphans were crying not only for their Uncle Monty, but for their own parents, and this dark and curious feeling of falling that accompanies any great loss.

I read most of these books as a kid and then the first 3 or 4 again as an adult a little before the Netflix series was released. I don't think I finished the series either time (it wasn't complete until I was 16 and had lost interest) - my viewing history said I finished the Netflix show and I recall bits and pieces of the End but not much of the overall story, and I've been in a bit of a listening/reading lull and middle grade books always are a delight at these points for me.

I know that this is literally A Series of Unfortunate Events - and maybe it was because this time I was listening to the full cast audiobook, where the voice actors remind me I'm hearing a story about such young children, and maybe I was just extra emotional, but this time around it just felt like a truly tragic story to me, and had me in tears at some moments.

The Bad Beginning seems so wretched through adult eyes. It makes me think of how often I see adults trying to keep their kids "safe" by not exposing them to concepts they think they can't handle. But as a kid reading these books, they were just stories. And I think they were also stories that introduced me to some less savory aspects of society, before experiencing/witnessing them in real life. Like, I am pretty sure this book was the first time I learned a legal guardian could marry a 14 year old by giving themself permission to. Barf. But that happens in real life!!! And it's gross!!! And the cruelty of having someone who want's to love and care for the Baudelaires, but the legal documents state otherwise, and there's no happy fix. And while it can feel very hyperbolic in certain parts of the series: sometimes adults will lie to you, or dismiss you, in a way that can effect your own safety. Sometimes your hunches are right, even if you're just a kid. It's upsetting but it's real life, and I'm glad A Series of Unfortunate Events was around for me to read as a preteen to introduce it to me with the cushy landing of fiction rather than the complete shock of the real world.

And while I couldn't relate to it as a kid, having experienced loss as an adult - I love the way grief and loss is handled here. I am writing this review as I'm already up to Book Five, whoops, so it may be more touched upon throughout the whole series more than just in The Bad Beginning. There are times where the Baudelaires sob all night long, there are times when they feel joy (touched with guilt of feeling that joy.) There are times when they feel miserable even when things are at a high point, and they tell themselves they should feel lucky - but they still just wish they were in their own home with their parents and won't apologize for feeling that way. I can't think of another book I read around that age that dealt with the nuances of long term grief, and it feels cathartic even as an adult.

 

I was recommended this book by someone who described it as two stories in one - the history of a serial killer and the history of the Chicago World's Fair. This sounded great to me, as I love a nonfiction book that weaves things together. Unfortunately, this book felt less like weaving and more like patchwork - while the World's Fair did happen at the same time and place, they didn't seem to have much else to do with each other to validate the juxtaposition.

I am not a true crime person, so the parts of the book about H.H. Holmes were not so interesting to me, and didn't come off as feeling very mysterious.  It almost feels as if this was trying to get the interest of true crime fans, but the history of the fair is what really made this book worth reading. I did love the history of the World's Fair told by Larson, enough to still rate this book as 4 stars and say it's worth recommending. If a reader was seeking a thrilling true crime history and got an in depth history of the planning of the first World's Fair along with it, this book may fall flat. (Or perhaps, gain them a new interest if they're into it.) As someone more interested in the in depth history of the planning of the first World's Fair, I could have gone without the H.H. Holmes bits completely.

i switched back to the emails format again, can't make up my mind

I actually had no intention of reading this book despite it's popularity, mostly because it didn't sound like my cup of tea. Then I actually had my mind changed by someone's 1 star review...whoops. It still didn't sound like a book I would love, but it sounded exactly like fanfiction I would love, so? What's the difference?

It was fun. It had all the tropes. I could predict things were going to happen, but not everything needs a twist, sometimes you gotta be there for the journey not the destination. However, I realized my difference in enjoying novels vs fanfiction. With fanfic, I know the characters, I know the background, if I get a little bored, I can skim ahead and still have a grasp of what's going on. So, I may not necessarily like these types of stories when I have to fully commit and don't just skim past any bits I don't care for. And I also forgot I'm usually just there for the pining, and once the couple gets together, I'm bored? As one would say on tumblr, I'm putting my blorbos in a jar and shaking them around - and I guess my interests don't apply the same when they're not my blorbos and I can't shake the jar (aka exit and read a same but different version.) I apologize for this whole paragraph, but only a little bit, because the Love Hypothosis didn't really apologize for being rebranded fanfic. (And that's fine!! Just not for me, surprisingly.)

This book was very cute - I think I start all of my reviews about romance books like that, but really....isn't that all we want? I keep saying I don't read romance very often, but I do find myself seeking it out for something between heavier reads and I always have a good time.

I did enjoy Luc as such a flawed character, and he was a little too relatable for me, personally so I probably had extra empathy. With Oliver, I think this is actually one of few instances where the handsome, responsible, good but misunderstood/socially flawed guy is perpetually single because his crusty outer shell is actually pretty crusty, where I feel like these kinds of characters are just like, "I have a well paying job I love, am financially stable and I'm super in shape and handsome, but I eat crackers in bed, so no one will love me. 😔"

I wasn't super invested but enough to keep coming back. I was also glad that Luc realized he had to be clear that he appreciated Oliver as a human being, and not just a handsome, smart, fake boyfriend. My guy just needed someone to like him for who he was. I appreciated that, and that Luc realized he was being a lil shallow in his actions.

I enjoyed my time with this book., although I really need to stop going for audio format on art adjacent books. I have more interest now in art history than I did while actually taking art history in school. but my memory for even iconic pieces is sketchy at best. After mentioning the Ghent Altarpiece and The Astronomer so many times I really wished I had a photo aside to reference, but that's also what smartphones are for I suppose.

I always think I know more than enough about the World Wars, but diving into these books always makes me realize there is always more. While there is the obvious moral discussion of "What is more important, lives or culture?" I think it's almost too complicated to critique. It is easy to look at these events in hindsight and think they focused too much on an inanimate object when lives were at stake.

On the one hand, there are events like the bombing of Monte Cassino that resulted in the destruction of a beautiful monastery at the detriment of the Allies since the Germans were not actually using the building as a fort, and actually felt more comfortable using the ruins for their own defense, when they had avoided entering the Monastery before. This is a great example of the word discussed in this story - because the effort can only be decided worthwhile after the event. Had the Germans been defeated by the bombing, Allied lives drastically saved, then perhaps the sacrifice of the monument itself would have been easier to accept. The "wrong" choice is only known afterwards, and we will lament the loss of a beautiful, sacramental building. If the Monuments Men had succeeded in their efforts to protect their monument, it would have also benefited the Allies, making their intention about whether to protect art or life less of a factor when the goals aligned.

On the other hand, the monuments can be more than just places or things to people, especially when they are tied to a religion. When a whole town can find hope in faith around a depiction of Mary and the Christ Child, is that really just a painting or statue? I did not have to be religious to shed tears at the moment when one of the Monuments Men was able to give an in-tact torah to the rabbi giving sermons to the Jews freed from the camps after - to a people who were targeted to be destroyed by the Nazis for their birth and religion, that was not just paper and words.

As I age, I realize again and again how much I am living through history. It is easy to critique a movement like this, but in reality it was a very small fraction of people dedicated to saving these monuments amongst a plethora of soldiers and fighting. There are wars and fighting happening as I write this book review. As Notre Dame burned in 2019, there were plenty other things happening that were arguably much worse, but it doesn't change the feeling of sadness at the loss of iconic, unique beauties. Major events happen near and far from us, and we continue our lives through them (unless we don't.) We acclimate and live around these events just as much as we live through them. (I think the show Derry Girls is an interesting representation of this - despite taking place during The Troubles, there are still teenage girls going through teenage girl problems - just sometimes modified.) I think for the world to come out of World War II with people having looked after objects that meant so much to people is still an admirable thing. Yes, an object is not as important as a life, but objects can still be invaluable, even if just to one person.

If you lost everything you owned in this life, would it not be comforting to be reunited with something that meant something to you? When we lose cultural objects, we lose history, and we are already bad enough at learning from our history when we have it mostly in tact.

Human beings are complicated, and we always are walking a line between creation and destruction. The Monuments Men are another example of the way we cope. There are the Ghent Altarpiece and Madonna of Bruges that continue representing a part of our history and a symbol of survival, or Notre Dame and Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), damaged drastically or completely and recovered, rebuilt, still as important and beautiful as before, still a representation of survival. And there are the things that are lost and never recovered, but still remembered for their impact while we had them.

This book was long but that's what I was in the mood for, so it finally got to get off my tbr and into my currently reading. In the beginning it was hard to keep the characters straight, especially with the use of first names and last names, and then it took me a while still to realize the connections between them. I do expect this in fantasy books and in very long stories, so I tried to remind myself to be okay with being confused for a bit, and over time I did get properly connected to the story and characters. I appreciated that the backstory of each character wasn't all given right in the beginning - by the time we learned a lot of the important details and history, I had a much firmer grasp on who each character was and understood their goals better. I think a lot of books with the multiple POV tend to infodump the backstory in the beginning, making it much more difficult to keep track of who is who and why they are important. In the beginning I could focus on the geography and world-building without having to try to keep as much track of individuals, outside of where in the world they were.

I enjoyed the political aspect of this book, along with the different viewpoints on cultures. I really loved learning the history of the dragons and of Virtuedom (and watching it be unraveled). Overall I think it had a very intriguing look at what was this universe's version of world relations, and the struggles of forming alliances amongst people of different viewpoints. I personally tend to enjoy these details more than action-adventure aspects, but I could see a lot of it being boring to other people reading the book.

I was most invested in Sabran and Ead's storyline (mainly due to the focus they got, but also because I found the religion aspect interesting) and Niclays Roos and his tragic life. I found Sabran and Niclays to both be "less likeable" amongst the cast of characters, but mainly due to having such set-in-stone viewpoints that required being changed to move forward - they both had probably the most character growth and I loved seeing how their choices changed through the story.

Details I appreciated in particular:

- Sabran and Ead's relationship felt very "realistic" compared to how these stories tend to go. They both had their own goals and responsibilities and I was actually happy to see they chose to sacrifice in their relationship rather than one of them having to sacrifice in their goals or their people, with the intention of having their HEA after their work is done.
- How often the characters have to admit they're wrong or accept differences in others for the greater good (Admitting Trude's methods were misguided but admitting her goal of working with the East was necessary, Sabran slowly accepting that their religion was mainly on lies, Niclays not making the same mistake of sacrificing others for his own well-being and finally admitting he wants to live rather than just exist, and not out of spite for Sabran)
- It was just nice that the "unwanted" spouses were still caring and nice people. It would have been much easier to have Sabran's husband or Jannart's wife be annoying and cruel, but I appreciated that they were still real people who could love their companion and be loved in return, even if not necessarily romantic. In a world with political marriages it is nice to see people still be companions even when it is an arrangement.

Bonus points - I listened to the audiobook for this and Liyah Summers was fantastic. Her narration was so unique for each character that it really helped me keep up with the story. Even if I didn't necessarily remember the name or viewpoint I was currently in - especially in the beginning - the narration helped me keep track of where I was, when I otherwise could have gotten lost much easier in details.

This book felt comforting even when it felt sad. It’s an ongoing reminder that maybe we are looking at life through the eyes of “the therapist” when we see a situation and find the answer is so obvious, wondering why the patient just doesn’t get it. Then have to remind ourselves it is just as easy to be the patient, unable or unwilling to see that answer. There were a lot of themes here I could remember hearing from a therapist myself, thinking they are simple to consider now and were impossible at the time. I find myself thinking I wouldn’t mind returning to therapy.