Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 I've been following this case since 2020, when officers pleaded with Lori to return her children to Idaho. Since then, I've paid careful attention to new developments in the case. I also read Leah Sotille's book: When the Moon Turns to Blood . You can see my review for that HERE . This book was recommended to me on Audible, and I picked it up to see if it had any new insights on the case. Doomsday Mother  gives a pretty thorough background on both Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell. Lori grew up in California to well-off (but anti-government) parents. They were supposedly devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lori's marriages ended in disaster. Chad grew up in Springville, Utah. He served a mission for the Church and then worked at the Springville cemetery, where he met Tami. The two were eventually married and started their family. After a near-death experience, Chad began writing about it and the end times. He ultimately claimed to be h...

It was summer 2023. I remember coming across breaking news headlines about two children who were found in Ivins, Utah, in deplorable condition. These two children had been abused by their mother, Ruby Franke, and her friend, Jodi Hildebrant. The children were malnourished and had been forced to do horrible punishments, outside in the stifling Utah desert heat in the summer. This has been one of the major child abuse cases to come out of Utah in recent years, a string of others not far behind. It's a case that I remember distinctly following. One of my coworkers recommended this book to me, and I'll admit, I was hesitant at first. Sometimes people who experience this kind of abuse and trauma become extremely anti, and I just wasn't sure I wanted to read about that. However, as I dove into Shari Franke's book, I found her to be the opposite. That impressed me, and just added to what I liked about this book. In The House of My Mother , Shari Franke (Ruby Franke's oldes...

This is a book I've used as an option in my AP class. It was the only book I hadn't read for the longest time. I finally finished it, and here is my review. The Devil in the White City  covers two true stories. The first is the story of the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. This part of the book follows the story of how the fair was built and the work that went into it by the famous architect Daniel H. Burnham. The second storyline follows the life of America's first serial killer, Dr. H. H. Holmes, who was active at the time of the World's Fair. Both accounts are true and pulled from primary source documents. Larson attempts to use the voices of the actual people involved wherever possible. This book was an interesting account on both sides. The individual stories were interesting, detailed, and as I said, Larson pulled from primary sources wherever possible. He often uses the "characters'" words when recounting their story. I enjoyed this aspect of it...

 I picked this one up to possibly use in my AP class. It had been recommended to me by one of my coworkers and I was trying to decide if it was worth using in AP. The 57 Bus  recounts the true story of two teens whose happenstance meeting on a public bus in Oakland, California. Sasha identified as nonbinary, liked to wear skirts, and went to a private school in Oakland. Richard was a black student, a good kid, but also tended to get mixed up in trouble. He went to a public school in Oakland's poorer side of town. One day, Sasha was riding the bus as they always did back to their house from school. This time though, Sasha fell asleep on the long ride. Richard and his friends boarded the bus as well, and seeing the skirt hanging off the edge of the seat, decided to see what would happen with a lighter. The material of the skirt burst into flames, and suddenly Sasha was burning. This story is unbelievably sad for both teenagers involved. In working with teenagers, one thing is tr...

 This book was recommended to me by one of my coworkers. The case of Lori and Chad Daybell have fascinated me from the start. I'm not usually a "true crime junkie" by any means, but I do tend to follow some cases like this. The more I've read about this case, the weirder I feel it's gotten. This book aims to clarify and shed some light on the Daybell's strange belief systems. When the Moon Turns to Blood  written by investigative journalist Leah Sottile gives insight into the religious beliefs of Lori and Chad Daybell, both of whom are accused of murdering Lori's two children from previous marriages, and Chad Daybell's former wife. The book focuses mostly on the pair's beliefs and focus on the "end times" - the times right before the second coming of Jesus Christ as outlined in the book of Revelation in the New Testament. The couple have taken the doctrine taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and twisted it to their o...

 This is another book I plan on using next year in AP language. In Cold Blood  by Truman Capote is the story of the Clutter murders in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. Perpetrated by two men who had never met the family, Capote tracks them in the days that lead up to the murders and the months that follow. He follows investigators, family members, and many connected with the case to its ultimate end - the hanging of the two murderers. I loved this book. While this book is completely true, it reads like a mystery novel. Capote masterfully unravels the mystery and carefully reveals the secrets of the case. It was fascinating to read and is amazingly well-written. I feel like my only criticism is that it was a little unclear at first that it was non-fiction. I would have loved something at the end that described how Capote got the information he got. Did he follow the case from the start, or did he do his extensive research afterwards? Regardless, this is a beautifully written book and i...

Tess Henry was an addict. But she was also a loving mother, and she also desperately wanted to get clean. Somehow, she ended up dead in Las Vegas, her body dumped in a dumpster just after Christmas. Tess didn't die of an overdose. Her killer hasn't been found. Finding Tess  by Beth Macy follows the story of one of the many people she interviewed for her book Dopesick . Macy follows through Tess's many attempts to get clean, to stop using heroin and prescription pain-killers (oxycontin). It also examines how hospitals, support groups, rehab facilities, and law enforcement all failed her. This book was eye-opening. Some have tried to call the opioid crisis a pandemic, but it always seems to fall on deaf ears. No one seems to want to listen or solve the problem. Meanwhile, many of the victims are not what we stereotypically think of as druggies. They're white, upper class, straight-A students, and athletes. This image doesn't fit the stereotype. It broke my heart to se...