A Killing in Amish Country: Sex Betrayal and A Cold Blooded Murder by Greg Olsen and Rebecca Morris


At just 30 years old, with dark-blonde hair and freckles, Barbara Weaver was as pretty as the women depicted on the covers of her favorite "bonnet" stories - romance novels set in Amish America. Barbara had everything she'd ever wanted: five beautiful children, a home, her faith, and a husband named Eli. But while Barbara was happy to live as the Amish have for centuries - without modern conveniences, Eli was tempted by technology: cell phones, the Internet, and sexting. Online he called himself "Amish Stud" and found no shortage of "English" women looking for love and sex. Twice he left Barbara and their children, was shunned, begged for forgiveness, and had been welcomed back to the church. Barb Raber was raised Amish, but is now a Conservative Mennonite. She drove Eli to appointments in her car, and she gave him what he wanted when he wanted: a cell phone, a laptop, rides to his favorite fishing and hunting places, and, most importantly, sex. When Eli starts asking people to kill his wife for him, Barb offers to help. One night, just after Eli had hitched a ride with a group of men to go fishing in the hours before dawn, Barb Raber entered the Weaver house and shot Barbara Weaver in the chest at close range.It was only the third murder in hundreds of years of Amish life in America, and it fell to Edna Boyle, a young assistant prosecutor to seek justice for Barbara Weaver.

Product Identifiers
ISBN-10 1250067235
ISBN-13 9781250067234

this book was very influential to me!

Todays chapter is Pivot tables in Excel. :|

"The Help"
 

Warning: triggers

I found the following article at The Atlantic. I think this, or a form of this brutality, happens more often in the States than is reported—particularly with immigrants from all over the world.

My Family’s Slave, by Alex Tizon
She lived with us for 56 years. She raised me and my siblings without pay. I was 11, a typical American kid, before I realized who she was.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...-story/524490/

The Girl in the Leaves

Scott, an experienced true-crime writer, chronicles the bizarre and shocking true story of 13-year-old Sarah Maynard, who was the lone survivor in a crazed killer's spree that occurred in Apple Valley, Ohio, in the fall of 2010. Available in a tall Premium Edition. Original., THE STORY OF ONE OF THE MOST BIZARRE MASS MURDERS EVER RECORDED. AND THE GIRL WHO ESCAPED WITH HER LIFE. In the fall of 2010, in the all-American town of Apple Valley, Ohio, four people disappeared without a trace: Stephanie Sprang; her friend, Tina Maynard; and Tina's two children, thirteen-year-old Sarah and eleven-year-old Kody. Investigators began scouring the area, yet despite an extensive search, no signs of the missing people were discovered. On the fourth day of the search, evidence trickled in about neighborhood "weirdo" Matthew Hoffman. A police SWAT team raided his home and found an extremely disturbing sight: every square inch of the place was filled with leaves and a terrified Sarah Maynard was bound up in the middle of it like some sort of perverted autumn tableau. But there was no trace of the others. Then came Hoffman's confession to an unspeakable crime that went beyond murder and defied all reason. His tale of evil would make Sarah's survival and rescue all the more astonishing--a compelling tribute to a young girl's resilience and courage and to her fierce determination to reclaim her life in the wake of unimaginable wickedness.

Product Identifiers
ISBN-10 0425258823
ISBN-13 9780425258828

Key Details
Author Larry Maynard, Robert Scott, Sarah Maynard

Book Woo Woo
 

I just happened to be gifted three incredibly good books, all hard back editions, today. :)

The Painted House | John Grisham (2000, Doubleday Publishers)

The Reporter's Life | Walter Conkite (1996, Knopf Publishers)

Undue Influence | Anita Brookner (This book, near as I can tell, was published in England, but was also published by Viking Press in Canada. It was bought for $33.95, back in 1984, per owner's inscription inside the front cover of the book).

I've got lots of good stuff to read now! :)

A few years back I read that Walter Conkite book and really enjoyed it!

How I long for the day when newscasters just read the new and gave us the fact!

We didn't know their politics or parties affiliations and that served us well IMHO!

I cracked open the book last night and got as far as page seven of the first chapter. Where he tells about taking a job over at the Moscow bureau, his wife Betsy in tow -- working a job at the embassy bureau of information (government job). It was his wife's small salary that kept them fed, Cronkite's salary was just peanuts compared to his wife's. As I was reading, all I could hear was his deep bass gravely pipe smoking voice.....


Journalism today is nothing like it was back in the time and day of Walter Cronkite or Chet Huntley or Hugh Downs or....And what a joy that we have Barbara Walters, right?

That's so cool that you've read the book too and enjoyed it.
I noticed last night that there's a bunch of choice black and white pictures too.

This book in particular is like having an longtime old friend, when you turn each page, read each turn of thought, as you reminisce about times gone by. :balloon:

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.

I am loving this book!
 

Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce


A searing debut novel from one of the most imaginative minds in fiction

Kelly Luce's Pull Me Under tells the story of Rio Silvestri, who, when she was twelve years old, fatally stabbed a school bully. Rio, born Chizuru Akitani, is the Japanese American daughter of the revered violinist Hiro Akitani--a Living National Treasure in Japan and a man Rio hasn't spoken to since she left her home country for the United States (and a new identity) after her violent crime. Her father's death, along with a mysterious package that arrives on her doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, spurs her to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years. There she is forced to confront her past in ways she never imagined, pushing herself, her relationships with her husband and daughter, and her own sense of who she is to the brink.

The novel's illuminating and palpably atmospheric descriptions of Japan and its culture, as well its elegantly dynamic structure, call to mind both Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being and David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars. Pull Me Under is gripping, psychologically complex fiction--at the heart of which is an affecting exploration of home, self-acceptance, and the limits of forgiveness.

HM
 

"Absolutely on Music"

Haruki Murakami Conversations with Seiji Ozawa

"A deeply personal, intimate conversation about music
and writing between the internationally acclaimed, best-selling
author and his close friend, the former conductor of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra."

a keeper...Greco

The Discovery of France by Graham Robb. Really good.

On Audible, listening to The Magicians by Lev Grossman

I read that article a few days ago. I'll never forget it.

いちきゅうはちよん ~ 村上 春樹 - 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
 

Murakami spent four years writing the novel after coming up with the opening sequence and title.[11] The title is a play on the Japanese pronunciation of the year 1984 and a reference to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. The letter Q and the Japanese number 9 (typically romanized as "kyū", but as "kew" on the book's Japanese cover) are homophones, which are often used in Japanese wordplay.

Excerpt from Wikipedia here

Our neighborhood is
 

starting a book club next week. The book that was chosen is "The Women in the Castle." Has anyone read it? Thoughts?

A neighborhood book club?!? I want to have one of those! Sounds like an interesting book. I look forward to hearing if you recommend it or not.

Rereading The Handmaid's Tale because I'm really into the series on Hulu, so I wanted to read it again.

I've got plans to buy this book next Tuesday. A close friend of mine from grad school read it recently. She gave it a thumbs up, so I'm looking forward to reading it. :balloon:
http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimag..._s1200x630.jpg

– White Rage by Carol Anderson
– Of Blood and Sorrow: A Tamara Hayle Mystery By Valerie Wilson Wesley