Small Sacrifices

Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule
1988
Weight: 8 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

I was working at Waldenbooks in early 2000 when a woman came in to the store proclaiming desperately that this book was her life and that I had to read it to understand her.  I had never met her before, but she pressed a copy of the book into my hands and then bought a copy for her attorney.  She was incredibly emotional and high-strung. 

I bought the book without paying much attention to it.  I was curious, but I was uncomfortable because I knew that Ann Rule was THE true crime author of the time.  I got home and saw the book was about a woman who tried to murder her children, successfully killing one.  I was a teenager.  I was not so sure I should have bought the book.  I hoped that the woman was just a little insane and mostly just a liar.  I put the book away and every time I picked it up I would just put it right back away.  I wondered who the woman thought she was.  The murderer, the child, the prosecution--couldn't be--she said she had an attorney.  Was she just attention-seeking?  I will never know. 

I finally read it this year.  We just moved into a new house, and we have less space even though we like this house better than the last.  We are purging a lot.  I am, of course, still trying to read and let go of all of these books.  There are still SO many.  I knew I wanted to let this one go because of my feelings about true crime and because of all the thoughts it brought up every time I came across it.

The Stranger Beside Me

The Stranger Beside Me  by Ann Rule

2001

Weight: 8.8 oz

Method of Disposal: Leaving somewhere

Another Ann Rule book is getting kicked out of the nest.  This is THE BOOK that really helped blow up Ann’s career as a true crime writer.  Ann Rule worked with and considered Ted Bundy a friend.  She had communication with him throughout his trials and was not convinced of his guilt right away.  The book is, obviously, eerie given the subject matter and the author’s insider information.  It is also, like all true crime books, sad and strange to read.  I could barely stand to think about the woman, killed in her own dorm room, so close to her friends.  I could barely stand to think about any of the women.  Again, I am not sure exactly what true crime offers us as readers.  Is it entertainment?  If so, is that okay given all the pain that rests within it?  Is it educational?  And to whom?  Is it a memorial?  Again, and to whom?  What do you all think about reading and/or watching true crime?  Fictional crime shows?