Happy Friday the 13th!  I am currently packing for a two-week vacation that will start on Sunday.  I’ll be bringing along several books with me.  I am very much a believer in “the beach read.”  If you’re going to be relaxing on the beach, it’s important to not only have the perfect bikini but also to have a good book to read.  A book can be used to shield your eyes from the sun.  A book can give you an excuse not to talk to someone.  A book can make you look smart and that’s always a good thing.   Never underestimate the importance of the beach read!

First published in 2024, Ask Not: The Kennedys and Thee Women They Destroyed is beach read for gossip-lovers who are also into politics and history.  Written by Maureen Callahan, Ask Not looks at the lives of the women who had the misfortune to know the members of the Kennedy family.  Using the death of Carolyn Bessette as a framing device, Callahan examines the lives of Jackie Onassis, Mary Jo Kopechne, Joan Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Martha Moxley, and several others.  Callahan doesn’t just look at the famous victims of the Kennedy men. One of the best chapters deals with a young woman who was left paralyzed by Joseph P. Kennedy III’s reckless driving, someone whose name may not be nationally-known but who will never forgotten by those who loved her.  The tragic death of the ex-wife of RFK Jr., who committed suicide after he left her and then tried to annul their marriage, is also examined.  Callahan writes that she has no personal animus against the Kennedys.  I’m not sure that I buy that but still, her book is a fascinating look at both the arrogance of power and the way that the Kennedys were protected, for decades, by a sympathetic and compliant media.  The book reminds us that Chappaquiddick was not a Kennedy tragedy.  Instead, it was a Kopechne tragedy.  Of the many who have written about Chappaquiddick, Callahan is one of the few to actually show any interest in who Mary Jo Kopechne was and who she could have gone on to been if she hadn’t been abandoned to drown that night.  If just for that, this book deserves to be read.

If you’re a Degrassi fan, you simply have to read 2022’s The Mother Of All Degrassi.  Linda Schuyler’s memoir charts her life and shows how she went from being an 8th grade teacher to co-creating the most important thing to ever come out of Canada.  Schuyler includes all the behind-the-scenes details that you could possibly want but, even more importantly, her personal story is an inspiring and a heartfelt one.

Speaking of memoirs by television producers, 2016’s Truth Is A Total Defense: My Fifty Years In Television is Steven Bochco’s somewhat self-aggrandizing memoir.  It’s nowhere near as well-written as Linda Schuyler’s memoir but if you’re looking for gossip, this is a good book to go with.  Bochco, who passed away in 2018, was known for creating hit shows and pissing off the networks.  This memoir spends a lot of time on the people who Bochco did not like.  It makes for a fun read, if not a particularly enlightening one.

Finally, no vacation is complete with a true crime book to read.  If you want to read one that will truly leave you angry, I recommend Philip Weiss’s American Taboo, which examines the 1975 murder of Peace Corp volunteer Deborah Gardner and how the crime was covered up by both the Peace Corp and the government.  Not only was Gardner’s name smeared but the killer was never punished for his deeds.  True crime is a genre that has produced a lot of bad books but it’s produced some good and important ones as well.  American Taboo is one of the best.

Of course, the whole fun of traveling is seeing what you discover.  I’ll be bringing books with me but I’ll also be leaving plenty of room for any trashy paperbacks I come across on the way!  I’ll let you know what I find.