Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery
Robert Kolker, 2013
HarperCollins
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062183637
Summary
Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Kolker delivers a haunting and humanizing account of the true-life search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island, in a compelling tale of unsolved murder and Internet prostitution.
One late spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert, after running through the oceanfront community of Oak Beach screaming for her life, went missing. No one who had heard of her disappearance thought much about what had happened to the twenty-four-year-old: she was a Craigslist prostitute who had been fleeing a scene—of what, no one could be sure. The Suffolk County Police, too, seemed to have paid little attention—until seven months later, when an unexpected discovery in a bramble alongside a nearby highway turned up four bodies, all evenly spaced, all wrapped in burlap. But none of them Shannan's.
There was Maureen Brainard-Barnes, last seen at Penn Station in Manhattan three years earlier, and Melissa Barthelemy, last seen in the Bronx in 2009. There was Megan Waterman, last seen leaving a hotel in Hauppage, Long Island, just a month after Shannan's disappearance in 2010, and Amber Lynn Costello, last seen leaving a house in West Babylon a few months later that same year. Like Shannan, all four women were petite and in their twenties, they all came from out of town to work as escorts, and they all advertised on Craigslist and its competitor, Backpage.
In a triumph of reporting—and in a riveting narrative—Robert Kolker presents the first detailed look at the shadow world of escorts in the Internet age, where making a living is easier than ever and the dangers remain all too real. He has talked exhaustively with the friends and family of each woman to reveal the three-dimensional truths about their lives, the struggling towns they came from, and the dreams they chased. And he has gained unique access to the Oak Beach neighborhood that has found itself the focus of national media scrutiny—where the police have flailed, the body count has risen, and the neighbors have begun pointing fingers at one another.
There, in a remote community, out of sight of the beaches and marinas scattered along the South Shore barrier islands, the women's stories come together in death and dark mystery. Lost Girls is a portrait not just of five women, but of unsolved murder in an idyllic part of America, of the underside of the Internet, and of the secrets we keep without admitting to ourselves that we keep them. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Robert Kolker is the New York Times bestselling author of Lost Girls, named one of the Times's 100 Notable Books and one of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of 2013. It was released as a 2020 Netflix film.
As a journalist, his work has appeared in New York Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, O Magazine,and Men's Journal.
He is a National Magazine Award finalist and a recipient of the 2011 Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Robert Kolker's Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery is, physically, a well-made book. Its cover image is crisp and haunting. Someone has paid close attention to this volume's many maps. They are stylish and, a rarity, actually helpful. This sense of mastery carries over into Mr. Kolker's lean but ductile prose. Reading this true-crime book, you're reminded of the observation that easy reading is hard writing.
New York Times - Dwight Garner
Kolker indulges in zero preaching and very little sociology; his is the lens of a classic police reporter. And often in Lost Girls, the facts are eloquent in themselves.
Newsday
Some true crime books are exploitative…others grasp at serious literature. Robert Kolker’s new book falls into the latter category.
New York Observer
Rich, tragic...monumental...true-crime reporting at its best.
Washington Post
Kolker is a careful writer and researcher...[he paints] a far more nuanced picture of each young woman than any screaming headline could.
Miami Herald
Through extensive interviews with the victims’ families and friends, Kolker creates compassionate portraits of the murdered young women, and uncovers the forces that drove them from their respective home towns into risky, but lucrative, careers as prostitutes in a digital age.
New Yorker
In stark contrast to the ugliness of the story, Kolker’s sad tale of five young women linked by the tragic circumstances of their disappearances is beautifully and provocatively written.... Just the right amount of detail will make all but the hardest-hearted empathetic. Add a baffling whodunit that remains, as the subtitle indicates, unsolved, and you have a captivating true crime narrative that’s sure to win new converts and please longtime fans of the genre.
Publishers Weekly
Kolker's portrait of the young women and their families will draw readers in despite the frustration they will feel at the book's end. Although all five of the victims profiled were sex workers, Kolker does not condescend or dismiss the women as lost causes.... Verdict: Readers may find themselves checking in with the case in the future, hoping for some justice for the lost girls. —Kate Sheehan, Waterbury, CT
Library Journal
What sets his investigation apart from many true-crime tomes, however, is the attention he pays to the girls' back stories.... Kolker also does a fine job of describing the girls' lives without patronizing their decisions.... Most commendably, he points out inconsistencies and dubious motives on the part of some of his interviewees; one mother, who had little to do with her daughter while she was alive, reinvented herself as a crusader for justice.... An important examination of the socioeconomic and cultural forces that can shape a woman's entry into prostitution.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers broad talking points to help start a discussion for Lost Girls:
1. Does the fact that the young women were call girls, sex workers, affect how you feel about their loss?
2. Kolker does an extraordinary job of elucidating the girls' backgrounds. Which backstory do you find most sympathetic? Discuss the forces that drove each of them into the dubious profession she pursued.
3. Talk about the communication devices that facilitated the girls' entry into the world of prostitution. How can society protect its young women given the ease and anonymity of modern technology?
4. Discuss the numerous theories put forth by law enforcement officials, the community, and even some of the suspsects. Which, if any of them, do you find credible?
(Questions by LitLovers. We'll add specific ones if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Bob Hope: My Life in Jokes
Linda Hope, 2003
Hyperion
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781401307424
Summary
Bob Hope died at the age of 100 in July '03. His legendary career spanned the entire 20th century, from impersonating Charlie Chaplin in front of the firehouse in Cleveland in 1909 to celebrating an unprecedented 60 years with NBC in 1996.
Hope entertained millions worldwide with his performances in vaudeville and on Broadway, on his top-rated weekly radio show, in beloved movies such as his Road pictures with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, and, most notably, in the countless television appearances that made him a superstar and a welcome guest in every living room in the country.
With My Life in Jokes, readers can enjoy the very best of his humor and, in the process, learn about the amazing life and career of a true national treasure.
On the early years:
"I wouldn't have had anything to eat if it wasn't for the stuff the audience threw at me."
On growing old:
"Age is only a number. However, in my case, it's a rather large number."
(From the publisher.)
Biography
Linda Hope
Linda, Bob Hope's daughter, is chief operating office of Hope Enterprises and producer of his television specials for the last 25 years. She lives in North Hollywood, California, and Ireland.
Bob Hope
• Birth—May 29, 1903
• Where—Eltham, London, UK
• Raised—Cleveland, Ohio, USA
• Death—July 27, 2003
• Where—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—Boys Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio
• Awards—(See below)
Bob Hope, born Leslie Townes Hope, was an English-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, author, and athlete who appeared on Broadway, in vaudeville, movies, television, and on the radio. He was noted for his numerous United Service Organizations (USO) shows entertaining American military personnel—he made 57 tours for the USO between 1942 and 1988. Throughout his long career, he was honored for this work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress declared him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces."
Over a career spanning 60 years (1934 to 1994), Hope appeared in over 70 films and shorts, including a series of "Road" movies co-starring Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. In addition to hosting the Academy Awards fourteen times, he appeared in many stage productions and television roles, and was the author of fourteen books. He participated in the sports of golf and boxing, and owned a small stake in his hometown baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. He was married to his wife, fellow performer Dolores Hope (nee DeFina), for 69 years.
Earliest years
Hope was born in 1903, the fifth of seven sons. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer from Barry who later worked as a cleaning woman. In 1908 the family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia, and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio.
From the age of 12, Hope earned pocket money by busking (frequently on the streetcar to Luna Park), singing, dancing, and performing comedy patter. He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests (as Lester Hope), and won a prize in 1915 for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. For a time Hope attended the Boys Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio. As an adult, Hope donated sizable sums of money to the institution.
Hope worked as a butcher's assistant and a lineman in his teens and early twenties. Deciding to try a show business career, he and his girlfriend, Millie Rosequist, signed up for dance lessons. Encouraged after they performed in a three-day engagement at a club, Hope then formed a partnership with Lloyd Durbin, a fellow pupil from the dance school. Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw them perform in 1925 and obtained them steady work with a touring troupe called Hurley's Jolly Follies.
Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who performed a tap dancing routine in the vaudeville circuit. Hope and Byrne had an act as a pair of Siamese twins as well, and danced and sang while wearing blackface, before friends advised Hope that he was funnier as himself. In 1929, he changed his first name to "Bob." In one version of the story, he named himself after racecar driver Bob Burman. In another, he said he chose Bob because he wanted a name with a friendly "Hiya, fellas!" sound to it. After five years on the vaudeville circuit, Hope was surprised and humbled when he failed a 1930 screen test for the French film production company Pathe at Culver City, California.
Film career
Hope signed a contract for six short films with Educational Pictures of New York. The first was a comedy, Going Spanish (1934). He was not happy with the film, and told Walter Winchell, "When they catch John Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice." Educational dropped his contract, but he soon signed with Warner Brothers. He made movies during the day and performed Broadway shows in the evenings.
Hope moved to Hollywood when Paramount Pictures signed him for the 1938 film The Big Broadcast, also starring W. C. Fields. The song "Thanks for the Memory", which later became his trademark, was introduced in this film as a duet with Shirley Ross. The sentimental, fluid nature of the music allowed Hope's writers (he depended heavily upon joke writers throughout his career to later create variations of the song to fit specific circumstances, such as bidding farewell to troops while on tour.
As a movie star, he was best known for comedies like My Favorite Brunette and the highly successful "Road" movies in which he starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. The series consists of seven films made between 1940 and 1962. Hope had seen Lamour as a nightclub singer in New York, and invited her to work on his United Service Organizations (USO) tours. Lamour sometimes arrived for filming prepared with her lines, only to be baffled by completely re-written scripts or ad-lib dialogue between Hope and Crosby. Hope and Lamour were lifelong friends, and she remains the actress most associated with his film career. Hope also made movies with many other leading women, including Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Rosemary Clooney, Jane Russell and Elke Sommer.
Hope teamed with Crosby for the "Road" pictures and countless stage, radio, and television appearances together over the decades from their first meeting in 1932 until Crosby's death in 1977. The two invested together in oil leases and other business ventures, but they did not see each other socially.
After the release of Road to Singapore (1940), Hope's screen career took off, and he had a long and successful career in the movies. He starred in 54 theatrical features between 1938 and 1972, as well as cameos and short films. Most of Hope's later movies failed to match the success of his 1940s efforts. He was disappointed with his appearance in Cancel My Reservation (1972), his last film, and the movie was poorly received by critics and filmgoers.
Hope was host of the Academy Awards ceremony fourteen times between 1939 and 1977. His feigned desire for an Academy Award became part of his act. Although he was never nominated for an Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with four honorary awards and, in 1960, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. While introducing the 1968 telecast, he quipped, "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it's known at my house, Passover."
USO shows
While aboard the RMS Queen Mary when World War II began in September 1939, Hope volunteered to perform a special show for the passengers, during which he sang "Thanks for the Memory" with rewritten lyrics. He performed his first USO show on May 6, 1941, at March Field, California, and continued to travel and entertain troops for the rest of World War II, and later during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the third phase of the Lebanon Civil War, the latter years of the Iran–Iraq War, and the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War.
His USO career lasted half a century, during which he headlined 57 tours. He had a deep respect for the men and women who served in the military, and this was reflected in his willingness to go anywhere in order to entertain them.
During the Vietnam War, Hope had trouble convincing some performers to join him on tour. Anti-war sentiment was high, and Hope's pro-war stance made him a target of criticism. Some shows were drowned out by boos and others were listened to in silence. The tours were funded by the United States Department of Defense, his television sponsors, and by NBC, the network that broadcast the television specials that were created after each tour. Many people considered him as an enabler of the war and a member of the system that made it possible.
Hope recruited his own family members for USO travel. His wife, Dolores, sang from atop an armored vehicle during the Desert Storm tour, and his granddaughter, Miranda, appeared alongside Hope on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. Of Hope's USO shows in World War II, writer John Steinbeck, who was then working as a war correspondent, wrote in 1943:
When the time for recognition of service to the nation in wartime comes to be considered, Bob Hope should be high on the list. This man drives himself and is driven. It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard, and can be so effective. He works month after month at a pace that would kill most people.
For his service to his country through the USO, he was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1968. A 1997 act of Congress signed by President Bill Clinton named Hope an "Honorary Veteran." He remarked, "I've been given many awards in my lifetime—but to be numbered among the men and women I admire most—is the greatest honor I have ever received." In homage to Hope, Stephen Colbert carried a golf club on stage each night during his own week of USO performances, which were taped for his TV show, The Colbert Report, during the 2009 season.
Theater
As a comedian
Hope was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes. His style of delivery of self-deprecating jokes, first building himself up and then tearing himself down, was unique. Working tirelessly, he performed hundreds of times per year. Early films such as The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Paleface (1948) were financially successful and were praised by critics, and by the mid-1940s, with his radio program getting good ratings as well, he became one of the most popular entertainers in the United States.
When Paramount threatened to stop production of the Road pictures in 1945, they received 75,000 letters in protest. He had no faith in his skills as a dramatic actor, and his performances of that type were not as well received. Hope had been a leader in the radio genre until the late 1940s, but as his ratings began to slip, he switched to television in the 1950s, an early pioneer of that medium. He published several books—written with ghostwriters—about his wartime experiences.
Although he made an effort to keep his material up-to-date, he never adapted his comic persona or his routines to any great degree. By the 1970s his popularity was beginning to wane with soldiers and with the movie-going public. But he continued doing USO tours into the 1980s, in spite of being considered a promoter of the military–industrial complex, as he thought it was a patriotic thing to do, and he continued to appear on television into the 1990s. Nancy Reagan called him "America's most honored citizen and our favorite clown."
Family
Hope's first short-lived marriage was to his vaudeville partner, Grace Louise Troxell, whom he married in January 1933. In 1934, Hope married Dolores (DeFina) Reade, who had been one of his co-stars on Broadway in Roberta. They adopted four children at an adoption agency called The Cradle, in Evanston, Illinois: Linda (1939), Tony (1940), Kelly (1946), and Nora (1946). From them he had several grandchildren, including Andrew, Miranda, and Zachary Hope. Tony (as Anthony J. Hope) served as a presidential appointee in the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations and in a variety of posts under Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Later career
Hope continued an active career past his 75th birthday, concentrating on his television specials and USO tours. Although he had given up starring in movies after Cancel My Reservation, he made several cameos in various films and co-starred with Don Ameche in the 1986 TV movie A Masterpiece of Murder.
A television special created for his 80th birthday in 1983 at the Kennedy Center in Washington featured President Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball, George Burns, and many others. In 1985, he was presented with the Life Achievement Award at the Kennedy Center Honors, and in 1998 he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. Upon accepting the appointment, Hope quipped, "I'm speechless. 70 years of ad lib material and I'm speechless."
At the age of 95, Hope made an appearance at the 50th anniversary of the Primetime Emmy Awards with Milton Berle and Sid Caesar. Two years later, he was present at the opening of the Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress has presented two major exhibitions about Hope's life—"Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture" and "Bob Hope and American Variety."
Hope celebrated his 100th birthday on May 29, 2003. He is among a small group of notable centenarians in the field of entertainment. To mark this event, the intersection of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles was named "Bob Hope Square" and his centennial was declared "Bob Hope Day" in 35 states. Even at 100, Hope maintained his self-deprecating sense of humor, quipping, "I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type." He converted to Roman Catholicism late in life.
Death
Hope remained in good health until old age, though he became a bit frail. In June 2000 he spent nearly a week in a California hospital after being hospitalized for gastrointestinal bleeding. In August 2001, he spent close to two weeks in the hospital recovering from pneumonia.
On July 27, 2003, two months after his 100th birthday, Bob Hope died at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles. His grandson, Zach Hope, told Soledad O'Brien that when asked on his deathbed where he wanted to be buried, Hope had told his wife, "Surprise me."
His remains were interred in the Bob Hope Memorial Garden at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles. After Hope's death, many newspaper cartoonists worldwide paid tribute to his work for the USO or featured Bing Crosby (who died on October 14, 1977) welcoming Hope into heaven.
Dolores Hope, 6 years younger than her husband, outlived him for 8 more years. She died in 2011 at the age of 102.
Academy Awards
Hope was awarded five honorary awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:
• 1940: Special Award—for his unselfish services to the motion picture industry
• 1944: Special Award—for his many services to the Academy
• 1952: Honorary Award—for his contribution to the laughter of the world, his service to the motion picture
industry, and his devotion to the American premise
• 1959: Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
• 1965: Honorary Award—for unique and distinguished service to the industry and the Academy.
(From Wikipedia. Accessed 6/27/2013.)
Book Reviews
Linda Hope, who assembled this volume, clearly understands her father, Bob, and that his life can best be told through his jokes. To read them is to know how he felt on personal and political issues, and their topical, satiric nature makes them more biographically relevant than old material from most other comedians.... The quality of the jokes range from gently amusing to side-splitting, mildly sharp but never mean-spirited. After reading them, it's easy to understand Hope saying he'd like to live his life all over again because "it's been a hell of a ride."
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
(Many thanks to Angela from the Ligonier Public Library in Indiana, PA, who developed these questions and has graciously shared them with LitLovers. She also recommended this book to LitLovers.)
1.My Life in Jokes is written in a peculiar way for a biography with small snapshots of his life followed by jokes. Did you enjoy this style of this book or find it distracting? Some reviews said that reading so many jokes in a line dulled their punch.
2. Bob Hope was originally born in England, a fact many people do not know. How do you think his early life helped shape him? Do you think he considered himself all American?
3. Did you feel that more personal info could have been introduced about his life? Or was that left out with respect to his family?
4. What did you think of Bob Hope’s relationship with the various presidents? How did he roast them in public and yet become close friends with most of the ones that he met?
5. Was there one joke that stood out to you above the rest?
6. Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...? What was memorable?
7. Both Bob Hope and his wife lived to see a century of their life. How do you think the changes they saw throughout their lives help to shape who they are.
8. Bob Hope loved the military, he spent much of his life traveling overseas to see servicemen and perform for them. Why do you think he had such a love for what they did? Why do you think the military loved him so much also? And what did you think about them honoring him by making him a veteran and naming military vehicles after him?
(Questions courtesy of Angela, Ligoniere Library, Indiana, PA.)
The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story
Lily Koppel, 2013
Grand Central Publishing
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781455503247
Summary
As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons.
Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was proclaimed JFK's favorite; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived on base with a secret. Together with the other wives they formed the Astronaut Wives Club, meeting regularly to provide support and friendship. Many became next-door neighbors and helped to raise each other's children by day, while going to glam parties at night as the country raced to land a man on the Moon.
As their celebrity rose—and as divorce and tragic death began to touch their lives—they continued to rally together, and the wives have now been friends for more than fifty years. The Astronaut Wives Club tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history. (From the publisher.)
Watch a video of the astronaut wives.
Author Bio
• Birth—1981
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., Barnard College
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Lily Koppel is a writer living in New York. She is known for her books, The Astronaut Wives Club (2013) and The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal (2008). Astronaut Wives traces the lives and marriages of the wives of the nation's astronauts from 1969-1971. Red Leather Diary is about her discovery of a young woman’s diary, kept in New York in the 1930s, and its return to Florence Wolfson Howitt, its owner, at age 90. The diary was recovered from a steamer trunk found in a dumpster outside of Koppel's apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The non-fiction book is based on Koppel's New York Times City section cover story.
Koppel writes for the New York Times and other publications. She graduated from Barnard College in 2003 with a degree in English Literature and creative writing. Koppel began contributing reporting to the New York Times "Boldface Names" celebrity column in 2003.
She has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America and National Public Radio. (From .)
Book Reviews
A fair and accomplished reporter...Lily Koppel offers a grounded, irresistible and sociable social history.... Koppel's book deftly delivers The Wife Stuff.../ Koppel does an excellent job of capturing a group portrait with enough highlights, low points, sunny spots and shadows for individual features to emerge.... The Astronaut Wives Club is wholly and consistently in Koppel's voice: smart, evocative, informed and warm-an electric fireside chat with the women who put men on the moon.
Chicago Tribune
The men catapulted into space in the 20th century were interesting, sort of. The women they left back on earth were fascinating.... A lively account of how the wives coped with fame, fear, [and] loneliness.
People
This is one of those light, tasty summer reads you'll guzzle down like a milk shake.
Entertainment Weekly
[A] true (juicy) story. Gotta love non-fiction that feels like a beach read: Lily Koppel's The Astronaut Wives Club chronicles the wives of 1960s astronauts.... Put down that mystery and pick up some history!
Redbook
In this entertaining and quirky throwback, journalist Koppel revisits the ladies who cheered and bolstered their men to victory in the U.S. space program..., revealing public triumph and rarely private agony. Koppel looks at the history of the race to space...focusing on the wives...[who] had to be gracious to the Life magazine reporters who invaded their homes, concealing unpleasant domestic details..., and unseemly competition with other wives.... This is truly a great snapshot of the times.
Publishers Weekly
The author's aim was to uncover the real lives behind the "perfect" astronaut wives, and she hits the mark, crafting an exceptional story that seriously examines the imperfection and humanity of America's heroic astronauts, their wives, and their families. —Crystal Goldman, San Jose State Univ. Lib., CA
Library Journal
Mad Men fans and history buffs alike won't want to miss a new book about...the lives of the astronauts' wives.... We meet the Mercury Seven women in the first chapter of The Astronaut Wives Club, and author Lily Koppel does a nice job of staying close to their stories. By the time you see the women's faces in the pictures, you'll feel like you're a member of the gang.... It's hard to believe no one has already written their story, and this reader is glad Koppel finally did.
BookPage
Koppel explores the cohesiveness of a group of wives who formed an unofficial support group and their individual development during the early years of the Cold War. With the announcement on April 9, 1959, of the "nation's first astronauts," the women's lives changed, as they became instant celebrities along with their husbands.... Koppel describes their appearance on the pages of Life magazine, looking like "scoops of ice cream" in their "pressed pastel shirtwaists."... Insightful social history with a light touch.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Astronaut Wives Club:
1. Talk about the lives of the different women covered in the book. Whom did you most sympathize with, admire, or dislike?
2. What did you find most impressive regarding the level of support the women provided one another? Is there anything in your own life that resembles the bond that developed among the astronaut wives?
3. Discuss the various stresses the women were under: the invasion of privacy, the absense of husbands, the not infrequent infidelity, and the anxiety for their husbands' lives. What was most difficult? What would you have found most difficult. Do you find any aspect of their lives enviable? Were the lives of the astronaut spouses any more difficult than other spouses whose husbands or wives go off to war?
4. Talk about Betty Grissom, Pat White and Martha Chaffee—the widows of the three men who were burned alive during a pre-launch test of their Apollo 1 mission. How did each woman handle the horrific tragedy? Pat White was considered "the final victim of the Apollo 1 fire," writes Lily Koppel. Is there any way in which Pat White's life might have had a better ending?
5. Talk about the marital relationships within the couples. Which marriages did you find solid and which were troubling...and why? Were you surprised at the number of marriages that ultimately failed?
6. To what degree, if any, might the lives of these women be different today given the change in society's attitudes toward women? Consider, for instance, their reactions to the Life magazine article:
The wives were completely shocked, worrying about how America would judge them. They would never wear such a bold colored lipstick. They were mothers, not vixens.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville
Clare Mulley, 2012
St. Martin's Press
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250030320
Summary
The Untold Story of Britain’s First Female Special Agent of World War II
In June 1952, a woman was murdered by an obsessed colleague in a hotel in the South Kensington district of London. Her name was Christine Granville. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising; that she had survived the Second World War was remarkable.
The daughter of a feckless Polish aristocrat and his wealthy Jewish wife, Granville would become one of Britain’s most daring and highly decorated special agents. Having fled to Britain on the outbreak of war, she was recruited by the intelligence services and took on mission after mission. She skied over the hazardous High Tatras into occupied Poland, served in Egypt and North Africa, and was later parachuted behind enemy lines into France, where an agent’s life expectancy was only six weeks.
Her courage, quick wit, and determination won her release from arrest more than once, and saved the lives of several fellow officers—including one of her many lovers—just hours before their execution by the Gestapo. More importantly, the intelligence she gathered in her espionage was a significant contribution to the Allied war effort, and she was awarded the George Medal, the OBE, and the Croix de Guerre.
Granville exercised a mesmeric power on those who knew her. In The Spy Who Loved acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley tells the extraordinary history of this charismatic, difficult, fearless, and altogether extraordinary woman. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1969
• Where—Luton, England, UK
• Education—M.A., University of London
• Currently—lives in Saffron Walden, Essex
Clare Mulley is a British biographer, known for documenting the life of Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children, and has received the Daily Mail Biographers' Club Prize for The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb (2009).
In 2012 her biography of World War II SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville: The Spy Who Loved: the Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's First Female Special Agent of World War II was published to critical acclaim.
Life
Clare Mulley was born in 1969 in Luton, England. In 2006 she graduated from the University of London with a Masters degree in Social and Cultural History. She lives in Saffron Walden, Essex, England, with her family.
Mulley has worked with Save the Children and Sightsavers International, raising charitable donations on behalf of the organizations. She has also served as a member of the financial advisory board of the World Development Movement, a membership organization in the UK that campaigns on issues of global justice and development in southern countries identified according to the global north-south divide. She was most recently a trustee of the national charity, Standing Together against Domestic Violence.
Mulley is a public speaker, with experience making presentations and lecturing in academic conferences, literary festivals and museums throughout the UK. She continues to serve as a Campaigns Ambassador with Save the Children.
Biographies
• Eglantyne Jebb
In 1999, while working with Save the Children, Mulley was introduced to the life of Victorian-era British social reformer Eglantyne Jebb, and became intrigued with her life and career.[3] When Mulley took a maternity leave of absence, in order to have her first child, she began researching the life of Jebb, compiled her notes, and began writing the biography, The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb.
Jebb was an unlikely children's champion; she privately confessed that she was not fond of children, once referring to them as "the little wretches" and laughing that "the dreadful idea of closer acquaintance never entered my mind." She never married or had children of her own. She was a noted humanitarian whose visionary ideas permanently changed the way that the world regards and treats children.
Jebb had soon won huge public support. Motivated by humanitarian compassion, the belief in the need to invest in the next generation to secure international peace, and her very personal, spiritual, Christian faith, Jebb quickly grew the one-off fund into an international development organization, supported by the Pope and the miners, the British establishment and the Bolshevik Government, European royalty and the fledgling League of Nations in Geneva.
Five years later, Jebb wrote the pioneering statement of children's human rights that has since evolved into the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most universally accepted human-rights instrument in history. She noted:
It is not impossible to save the children of the world. It is only impossible if we make it so by our refusal to attempt it.
The biography was published in 2009 to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Save the Children and the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As noted on the copyright page of the book, all of the author's royalties are donated to Save the Children's international programs.
• Christine Granville
In 2012 Mulley published the biography The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville. Granville was Britain's first female special agent of World War II. The book has received solid reviews in the British press and in 2013 was released in the U.S. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/5/2013.)
Book Reviews
Compulsively readable… Clare Mulley has done a dogged piece of detective work piecing together Christine’s ultimately tragic life… She has written a thrilling book, and paid overdue homage to a difficult woman who seized life with both hands
Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Brings alive a glamorous, swashbuckling heroine
Sunday Times (UK)
Engrossing biography details the high-voltage life of one of Britain's most remarkable female spies... Fascinating
Mail on Sunday (UK)
Mulley's fastidiously researched tome provides the most detailed picture yet.
Sunday Express (UK)
(Five stars.) The brutal end of Christine Granville’s short life—told with terrific élan and mesmerising detail by Clare Mulley—came when the last of a multitude of spellbound lovers stabbed her through the heart in the bedroom of a Kensington hotel…. [a] splendid book… [a] captivating female version of the Scarlet Pimpernel… Christine Granville remains as alive, well and compelling as ever: a figure of radiant magnetism, ruthless determination and a courage that—as several of them attested—could make a strong man shudder.
Telegraph (UK)
Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, Clare Mulley’s The Spy Who Loved is a fine account of Christine Granville’s extraordinary war, told with skill and care... Mulley succeeds in making her human... What is quite clear from this inspiring biography is that Granville was as charismatic as she was courageous.
Roderick Bailey - Literary Review
This is the first book about [Granville] for more than 30 years—and it painstakingly disentangles her complex story and equally complex character. Clare Mulley has made a fine and soberly thrilling addition to the literature of the undercover war—the sort that does not exaggerate or mythologize.... Christine did not want a normal life: all she cared for was freedom, independence and adventure—the more dangerous, the better. This book, massively researched and excitingly told, brings an extraordinary heroine back to life.
Daily Mail (UK)
This is a meticulously researched but also highly readable account of [Granville’s] heroic but unfulfilled and deeply tragic life, without any attempt at gloss. It is one of the most exciting books I’ve read this year.
Alistair Horne - Spectator (UK)
Assiduously researched, passionately written and highly atmospheric biography… Not just the story of a uniquely brave and complicated patriot, but also a scholarly and tautly written account of secret operations in occupied Europe.
Economist
Apocryphally dubbed Churchill’s favorite spy and possibly the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Vesper Lynd, Warsaw-born Christine Granville (1908–1952) was the “willfully independent” daughter of a charming but dissolute and caddish Polish aristocrat and a Jewish banking heiress. In England, following Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, Granville, armed with “her gift for languages, her adroit social skills, formidable courage and lust for life,” volunteered for the British Secret Intelligence Service and hatched a bold plan to ski into Poland from Hungary, via the Carpathian mountains, in order to deliver British propaganda to Warsaw and return with intelligence on the Nazi occupation. In other heroic feats, Granville parachuted into occupied France to join a Resistance sabotage network, bribed the Gestapo for the release of three of her comrades just two hours before their execution, and persuaded a Polish garrison conscripted into the Wehrmacht to switch allegiances. Getting short shrift from Britain after the war, Granville supported herself with odd jobs before becoming a stewardess on an ocean liner, where she met the man who would fall for her and become her murderer. Mulley (The Woman Who Saved the Children) gives a remarkable, charismatic woman her due in this tantalizing biography.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
1. What did you learn from the book, and how much did you find surprising?
- How much did you know about the role of Poland in WWII? Does this change the way you think about Europe?
- Did you already have an image of female special agents inWWII? Did Christine fit this image?
- How does the story reflect on Britain’s conduct of the warand post-war period?
2. It has been argued that history, more than most subjects, is required to have modern resonance, to give it value. Do you think this story helps to enlighten us today? Do you think that this is important?
3. How valid are biographies as a way of learning about our past? What are the advantages and limitations of this genre?
4. The author wrote that Christine "lived boundlessly, as generous as she could be cruel." What were Christine’s great strengths, and what were her weaknesses?
5. Do you think the way we judge Christine has changed over time?
6. What motivated Christine?
7. What do you think Christine would have done with her life, had WWII not taken place, and what do you think she would have gone on to do with the rest of her life, were it not for her untimely death in 1952?
8. Does Christine deserve a place in history?
9. How readable did you find the book?
10. How does it manage the balance between telling a thrilling story and presenting well-researched history?
11. Did you read the appendices at the end of the book? What did they add? Why were they not included in the main chapters, and do you think this was the right decision?
12. Would the story make a good film or TV series? Who would play the part of Christine Granville?
13. Watch Clare Mulley talk about Christine Granville in this YouTube film.
14. Find the Wikipedia entries for Christine Granville, and other female SOE agents. How do they compare?
15. Use Googlemaps with Streetview to see some of the locations mentioned in the book.
(Questions from the author's website.)
Pain Killer Addict: From Wreckage to Redemption
Cathryn Kemp, 2012
Little, Brown UK
300 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780749958060
Summary
Cathryn Kemp was a successful travel journalist who fell ill with a life-threatening illness. After four years of painful operations and misdiagnoses she was discharged from hospital with a repeat prescription for fentanyl, a painkiller one hundred times stronger than heroin.
Within two years she was taking more than ten times the NHS maximum dosage, all on prescription.
Painkiller Addict: From Wreckage To Redemption is a story of our times; each year more and more prescriptions are written for strong painkillers, sleeping tablets, anti-depressants and tranquillisers. In this extraordinary poignant, vivid and honest memoir, Cathryn describes her horrifying descent into addiction and her fight for freedom from the medication which saved her life—then almost destroyed it.
It is a love story, a horror story and one of the bravest survival stories you will ever read. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1971
• Where—Surrey, UK
• Education—B.A., European Fine Art; M.A., National Council for
Training of Journalists
• Awards—The Big Red Read Non Fiction Award;
Nominated, Samuel Johnson Prize; Peter
Wilson Award for Journalism
• Currently—lives on the Suffolk coast, UK
Cathryn Kemp is an award-winning journalist and writer. Painkiller Addict: From Wreckage To Redemption recently won The Big Red Read Non Fiction Award 2013 and was nominated for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize 2012.
Cathryn worked for The News of the World, The Mirror and The Sunday People before falling ill overnight in 2004. She has written and co-written several Lonely Planet guides including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Romania and Moldova and Eastern Europe. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Seeringly honest and courageous, an absolutely brilliantly written book about the descent into painkiller addiction that can so easily occur when someone is dealing with unbearable physical and emotional pain. A brave, heartfelt and extraordinary book.
Corinne Sweet - Author, psychologist and broadcaster
Frankly written, Kemp's courageous memoir will help those dealing with an addict, or with addiction itself.
Big Issue (North)
A brilliantly written book.... It's not only an inspirational addiction recovery story but also a deeply moving book about recovering from loss on many levels—health, love, independence, career, dignity, trust, optimism.... Cathryn's story gripped me at gut level from page one.
Gael Lindenfield - Author and Self-Help Expert
Looking at the cover, you might think Painkiller Addict is a self-help book for recovering addicts (and I've no doubt that Cathryn Kemp's insights and inspirational story are a beacon of hope for many), but I don't think that's what it is. It's a brilliantly well written memoir. Reading the book is like reading any great story: it's not just an account, it's an experience. Surprisingly, it's not harrowing to read. The journalistic pace of Kemp's writing draws you into the story and keeps you reading - it's fascinating and impossible to put down. I read the sample and loved it. I'm so pleased I bought the whole book, it's a great read!
SL Bradbury
Brilliant book. I've only got about a quarter of the way through but I'm really enjoying it. It's well written and, so far, I can relate to everything she says.
Emma-Jane Robinson
Amazing story of bravery and determination. Couldn't put this book down. Honest and inspiring, well done to cathryn kemp! Amazing.
Michelle Haiming
A very open account of a successful young woman's decent into the physical, psychological and social torture which is addiction. Whether the drug of choice is alcohol, painkillers or any other number of substances or behaviours, the patterns are all strikingly similar. The thing that struck me hard in this book is the shame, guilt and deceit that encircles the addict and is fed by the spiral of need... A great account which left me close to tears at the end. Cathryn obviously realises the delicacy of life and lives each day accordingly. Thank you Cathryn, and good luck for your future.
Marc (UK)
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the relationship between Cathryn and her GP—was he negligent in prescribing more and more of Cathryn's medication or should Cathryn be held as accountable?
2. Describe the dynamics of the family relationships around Cathryn and how the illness affects her mother Sue and father Albert.
3. Was Cathryn's boyfriend Adrian wrong to leave her during her illness and did his decision to go precipitate the spiral into addiction?
4. Describe the point at which Cathryn moved from pain relief dependency into addiction.
5. Was Cathryn wrong to lie about her growing need for the painkillers to her family and friends?
6. At what point should Cathryn's GP have stopped her medication, was he quick enough to act?
7. Discuss how society sees drug addicts.
8. What was Cathryn's rock bottom moment in her addiction?
9. Describe Cathryn's relationship to the fentanyl lozenges—were they more than pain relief?
10. Should Cathryn have received funding from the NHS for her rehab or is it right she had to fend for herself?
11. How important was Cathryn's family to her going into recovery?
12. How culpable was the hospital which prescribed the fentanyl lozenges for Cathryn in the first place?
13. Describe the conflict between Cathryn's willingness to get off the drugs and her desperation to stay on them.
14. What was the attraction by Cameron for Cathryn, why did he want to have a relationship with her in light of her illness and addiction?
15. Discuss how Cathryn's inability to have children affected her throughout the book.
16. How does the arrival of Cameron's son, Cathryn's stepson, affect Cathryn's recovery?
17. Can you relate to any of the addiction issues raised by the book?
18. Can you relate to the illness suffered by cathryn or pain issues raised by the book?
19. What are your feelings towards Cathryn and her journey by the end of the book?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)