Right there with you. I’ve finished 10 books so far this month, I’m in the process of 3 1/2 books (one did not work as audio so I’m attempting to swap to ereader) but I also DNF 5 books this month.

That sounds a bit mad when I write it out but one was a medical history that used really outdated terms despite being mostly recent and made me doubt I could trust the conclusions, one was a series that no longer was working for me, one was a topic I realized I had more expertise in than the author (one of my niche obsessions in history), and two were probably lovely but I realized I wasn’t the right audience. By quitting them, it freed me up to read the other books and oh I felt such joy at every one I finished. Coming off of that feeling just encourages me to keep reading rather than dwelling on the DNFs as a failure.

Most people only read the pop bestseller ones designed to appeal to the masses and then are furious they didn’t help them. I’ve found that very specific issues can be addressed by highly experienced authors and those are good. Examples on my end include doctors writing about brain fog and coping techniques, PTSD and trauma and anxiety coping (as recommended by my therapist), and books about situations where normal childhoods were discussed and how to not continue the pattern of dysfunction. I’ve read some, like Big Magic, that are more of a call to action and I tend to find those inoffensive as well. The absolute worst of the genre are ones that prey on people but next worst might be trying to read rich business bro’s musings and to learn something when really the secret is to be born privileged.

It’s honestly a mess of a book and the only value I got from reading it was that now I ignore recommendations from people who cite it as a favorite. I’ve gone deep into WWII set fiction and this ain’t it. I desperately want to recommend something like The Invisible Bridge or even Lovely War (which I hate the title but it’s because it’s dealing with god and goddesses too) that pull it off so much better.

My library system has a Charing Cross branch and its the only one that has it in stock. And by in stock, I mean always in use. One of these days I’ll put a hold on it but I keep meaning to visit every library branch and I thought it would make the best of reasons to make that trip if I could just get the book on the shelf when I go.

I really loved how she sourced her information too. One of my favorite things is looking through food notes and end notes of books to understand how an author built their research. I loved seeing how she built her case from there and kept digging showed she did more research than most. Certainly far more than the exploitative ripper tours and such. I used to work as a victim advocate and had really hoped this book would be a turning point in victim focused crime histories. The general public hasn’t fully shifted but I’ve definitely noticed an increased pushback and some more focus on victims. These women were all people with lives before their deaths and they didn’t exist just for one man to kill and everyone else since to exploit. I really loved how Rubenhold did her best to give them life again and how it reinforced her thesis.

My parents lived there, went to school there, played in the creek and I ended up with cancer. Could easily just be shit luck but without studies we’ll never know.

Unfortunately I do genealogy with the Florissant area being one of my focuses and there’s a lot of endogenous old Catholic families. Not as bad as the small Catholic towns in Lincoln and St. Charles County but a decent amount.