Bears With Me by Sam Hall, 286 pages

 My ex tried to take everything from me.

My last chance at happiness.
One of the men I've given my heart to.
But while before he was content to terrorise me to get what he wants, now his ambitions have widened. He's got the whole town in his sights and he doesn't care who he has to hurt to get what he wants.
But that's OK.
I've let him ride roughshod over me for way too long and now? Me and my mates are going to push back and he doesn't know what's coming for him.

Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford, 286 pages

 When Christina Crawford's harrowing chronicle of child abuse was first published in 1978, it brought global attention to the previously closeted subject. It also shed light on the guarded world of Hollywood and stripped away the façade of Christina's relentless, alcoholic abuser: her adoptive mother, movie star Joan Crawford.

Christina was a young girl shown off to the world as a fortunate little princess. But at home, her lonely, controlling, even ruthless mother made her life a nightmare. A fierce battle of wills, their relationship could be characterized as an ultimately successful, for Christina, struggle for independence. She endured and survived, becoming the voice of so many other victims who suffered in silence, and giving them the courage to forge a productive life out of chaos.

A Garland for Girls by Louisa May Alcott, 286 pages

 

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by Rebecca Herzig, 286 pages

 From the clamshell razors and homemade lye depilatories used in colonial America to the diode lasers and prescription pharmaceuticals available today, Americans have used a staggering array of tools to remove hair deemed unsightly, unnatural, or excessive. This is true especially for women and girls; conservative estimates indicate that 99% of American women have tried hair removal, and at least 85% regularly remove hair from their faces, armpits, legs, and bikini lines. How and when does hair become a problem--what makes some growth "excessive"? Who or what separates the necessary from the superfluous?

In Plucked, historian Rebecca Herzig addresses these questions about hair removal. She shows how, over time, dominant American beliefs about visible hair changed: where once elective hair removal was considered a "mutilation" practiced primarily by "savage" men, by the turn of the twentieth century, hair-free faces and limbs were expected for women. Visible hair growth--particularly on young, white women--came to be perceived as a sign of political extremism, sexual deviance, or mental illness. By the turn of the twenty-first century, more and more Americans were waxing, threading, shaving, or lasering themselves smooth. Herzig's extraordinary account also reveals some of the collateral damages of the intensifying pursuit of hair-free skin. Moving beyond the experiences of particular patients or clients, Herzig describes the surprising histories of race, science, industry, and medicine behind today's hair-removing tools. Plucked is an unsettling, gripping, and original tale of the lengths to which Americans will go to remove hair.

In The Dark: The True Story of the Blackout Ripper by Simon Read, 286 pages

In 1942, while the Luftwaffe bombed London and its citizens fled underground, a killer emerged from the shadows to satisfy his inner darkness. Over a five-day period, "The Blackout Ripper" murdered with a lightning-fast ferocity that stunned and baffled investigators. Original. 

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris, 286 pages

In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of nineteenth-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters--no place for the squeamish--and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. These medical pioneers knew that the aftermath of surgery was often more dangerous than their patients' afflictions, and they were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. At a time when surgery couldn't have been more hazardous, an unlikely figure stepped forward: a young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister, who would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.

Fitzharris dramatically recounts Lister's discoveries in gripping detail, culminating in his audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection--and could be countered by antiseptics. Focusing on the tumultuous period from 1850 to 1875, she introduces us to Lister and his contemporaries--some of them brilliant, some outright criminal--and takes us through the grimy medical schools and dreary hospitals where they learned their art, the deadhouses where they studied anatomy, and the graveyards they occasionally ransacked for cadavers.

Eerie and illuminating, The Butchering Art celebrates the triumph of a visionary surgeon whose quest to unite science and medicine delivered us into the modern world.

The Royal Art of Poison by Eleanor Herman, 286 pages

The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots.

Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with mercury and lead. Men rubbed turds on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings, and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. The most gorgeous palaces were little better than filthy latrines. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don’t see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines.

In The Royal Art of Poison, Eleanor Herman combines her unique access to royal archives with cutting-edge forensic discoveries to tell the true story of Europe’s glittering palaces: one of medical bafflement, poisonous cosmetics, ever-present excrement, festering natural illness, and, sometimes, murder.

Undead and Unforgiven by Mary Janice Davidson, 286 pages

I'm sad that this series is almost over. I've been a fan since the very beginning. Betsy, Queen of the Vampires, sunk her fangs into my heart quickly. The drawback to being an early fan is having to not-so-patiently wait for each new book to come out. I've held out on reading this one and the last one just because I don't want the series to end.
I was very glad to see Marc get a love interest in this one. He really deserves it. I also enjoyed seeing Betsy and Eric still having the hots for each other, while still keeping the storyline fun and a romping good read. How has the first book not been turned into a movie yet?

Writers Between the Covers by Shannon McKenna Schmidt & Joni Rendon, 286 pages

Came across this in the new nonfiction section. It covers the scandalous romantic lives of legendary literary casanovas, coquettes and cads. Some of the authors weren't ones I read, but there were quite a few I enjoyed. Plus, it was interesting to read about their passions and affairs of the heart. Chapters were short, with interesting tidbits in between to keep it lively.