Nobody's Girl, Virginia Roberts Giuffre

 

Nobody's Girl:  A memoir of surviving abuse and fighting for justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.  I really do not have the stomach for what I am sure is in this book.  My sister, however, is very important to me and I will read this because she has asked.  Amy Wallace appears to be a ghost co-author.

Started: December 22, 2025
Completed: December 28, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: The older of my sisters

Review:

Honestly, this book is not as graphic as I thought it would be.  If, however, you have been abused yourself, there must be thousands of triggers, so be careful.  Giuffre did a good job of making clear the scale and broad nature of her abuse without describing any particular abuse in graphic detail.  Her most frequent reference was to "servicing" people (though the details of what that entailed surely differed from occasion to occasion, this book provides details far more about how Giuffre felt before, occasionally during, and generally after).  This is not an easy read, but surely nobody who reads a book about surviving abuse can expect an easy read.  Sexual slavery is also unpleasant even as a concept.  For those who can, this is a book worth reading.  It is important to have the context of Giuffre's experience to understand what happened to her and why continuing to fight for justice for her and her sister survivors is terribly important.

Where Tyranny Begins, David Rohde

 

Where Tyranny Begins:  The Justice Department, the FBI, and the war on democracy by David Rohde

Started: December 16, 2025

Completed: December 21, 2025

Recommendation: Recommended

Medium: Audio

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I thought that his book might outline some of the issues that Rohde experienced as a hostage.  Instead, this was a blow-by-blow recounting of the impact of Trump on the FBI and the Justice department.  This book provided endless details (J. Edgar Hoover was 29 when he started heading what would become the FBI).  This book ended before Trump's second term and projected more what was detailed in this book for the future.  Now we live in that future.

Hemlock & Silver, T. Kingfisher

 

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Started: December 9, 2025
Completed: December 16, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Medium:  Audio
Recommended By: Nobody, I have just been on a Kingfisher jag

Review:

This is an interesting take on Snow White (spoiler:  Snow White plays a minor role).  I do like the idea of an average person who is exceptional because she pursued her interests.  That, it occurs to me, is a woefully unexplored story line as opposed to the average person who is exceptional for some secret reason.  I also liked that in this fairy tale, there was less killing of the parents of a child (of course, to be consistent with the fairy tale concept, death of at least one parent is necessary).

The Land In Winter by Andrew Miller

 

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

Started: December 3, 2025
Completed: December 9, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended by: The Booker Prize

Review:

This is an interesting look at small town rural life.  It has all of the drama you might expect from any novel with the added touch of everyone knowing everyone.  As I read, it became clearer to me how the different pieces were going to go together, so the tiny amount of mystery did not attract me.  What did attract me, however, was how Miller was going to put it all together.  I also, have to admit that I did not think about the daily grind of rural life in the 1960s and how even small climactic changes can have such a big impact.  At the start of the book, I had a little bit of trouble grasping where the book was going--that is because the start was intended to throw the reader off a bit.  Of course, it all tied in, but it took a while.  The story is written with a degree of subtleness.  Miller doesn't throw plot twists in your face, he seems to bring you along for the ride rather than try to catch you out.

The Ten Year Affair, Erin Somers

 

The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers

Started: November 29, 2025
Completed: December 3, 2025
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: I think this was reviewed by someone on BlueSky

Review:

It feels like the author started writing about an affair, then switched to writing about a longer affair, a dream-like affair.  This book, is somehow a melding of both of those with the "real" world in which the dream-like affair is a fantasy.  This allows for a lot of juggling of priorities that aren't really juggled.  I could not get into it.

King of Kings, Scott Anderson

 

King of Kings:  The Iranian revolution, a story of hubris, delusion, and catastrophic miscalculation by Scott Anderson

Started: September 5, 2025
Completed: November 29, 2025
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Medium: Audio
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

There was a lot to learn in this book.  It was clearly well researched and worked well as a narrative moving back and forth between time periods as needed and managing to maintain a fairly coherent narrative.  Long as it was, it could easily have been much longer as a vast amount of information was covered trivially in the epilogue.  As an American, there was simply so much here that I did not know.  As a highschooler, I did know some of those who escaped Iran with the Shah, but only in the most trivial way as the people I knew did not speak English well (not a slam, to be expected).  I don't know the details, really, but it seemed like the Catholic school in which I was enrolled harbored these kids while their families tried to figure out what to do.

I am much more sympathetic, oddly, to the revolution in Iran after reading this book (which offers little sympathy).  There is no doubt that the people of Iran felt that they were under constant surveillance and that the Shah was robbing the country.  At this point, it seems clear that they are under more threat from the current government, but there is no way to know how things are going to go.  There is also little doubt that the standard of living has declined, but at least the leaders are not living literally as kings.  Please note, I do not sympathize with the demonizing of America that was central to the acceptance of the government, though there is no doubt that the USA's foreign policy has caused most reasonable people to dislike the United States since the end of the Cold War (and likely before).

One Dark Window, Rachel Gillig

 

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Started: November 20, 2025
Completed: November 26, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is the first in a series (it is unclear to me how long the series will last, there are two books at the time of this writing, so perhaps only a duology).  The ending is a bit of a cliff hanger.  The story itself is interesting and I like books where magic has a cost.  I can recommend this book as a good start.  I think the story has a lot of promise.  The characters are an odd mixing of flat and developing.  Some characters are remarkably flat (their early character flaws basically just continue), whereas others seem more dynamic, responding to the story line.