Shelley Klein

DNF'd because I have better things to read. I'm interested in the house and modern architecture, and the idea of what it was like to grow up in a mid-century modern house is a great one (I recently heard an painter interviewed who talked about growing up one and her father painted fake Mondrians, which I think is why I wanted to read this book when I heard about it) but each chapter felt drawn out and I was not interested in the memoir aspect. Maybe it would have been worth finishing, I may never know. I may have to go back and read about the Pink room!… (meer)

I found this book interesting, at times gruesome and disturbing, but interesting none the less. Some of the women included I felt were rather tame considering. They committed heinous acts to be sure, but they did not seem to be at the level of some of the others. It was your typical book of mass murdering psychopaths and serial killers (which in the female category they are admittedly few compared to their male counterparts). I can't say that the writing was particularly impressive, nor was it bad. The author seemed to favor the term "ruled with a rod of iron" which began to get on my nerves. Repetitive words and/or phrases being a particular pet peeve of mine. Having seen the movie Monster, I enjoyd the inclusion of Aileen Carol Wuornos. Charlize Theron looked surprisingly like her in the film. There were a few other stories I was fairly familiar with, having lived in England in the late 80's / early 90's, and having a sister who is a fan of crime shows on television. I found the earlier historical figures i.e.. Roman Empresses, Catherine the Great of Russia, Tz'u-Hsi of China particularly intriguing.

My brother now refers to me as "psycho" because of the title!… (meer)

The Most Evil Women In History
by Shelley Klein
2003
Barnes & Noble Books
3.8

A quick read of 15 women deemed the most evil in history, broken into categories according to the type of crime they committed. Each is given at least 10 pages about their pasts and crimes. Almost all include b&w photos.

Among them are:
Tz'u-Hsi, 'The Dragon Empress' whose xenophobic rages resulted in the death of many for merely being tourists or "outsiders".
Queen Ranavalona I, 'The Bloody Mary of Madagascar' who had people killed by beheading or boiling alive, feeding the bodies and remains to her dogs.
Elena Ceasecu who encouraged families to sell their children to her state-run institutions, to teach them military and killing practices, some as young as 4-5.
Mary Ann Cotton, 'The Black Widow' who killed between 15-21 people with arsenic including her own mother and 4 of her husbands.
Rose West, owner of 'The House of Horrors' whose life as a prostitute seemed tame when 15 bodies were exhumed from her yard and home. She is serving a life sentence.

Women, at the time of this publication, represented only 2% of the world's serial killers, but the number is rising.
Recommended.… (meer)

Here is a book you truly can't judge by its cover. The cover is for marketing purposes. It is sensational. The contents are not.

I found this book to be a very interesting read, don't get me wrong. But, The Most "Evil" Women in History? I question that. I will agree that there are a few examples in here that were really horrific reading but there were some that I felt were more bent on survival than being truly evil. Examples are the older stories about Catherine the Great and Aggrippina the Lesser. Lets face it, in today's world Men have problems behaving properly and treating women fairly. In those times? Multiply the abuse by about 1000. I felt that these women did what they did just to stay alive and to flurish. Also, with one expection, all the women described here did what they did either with a man as a partner or because of a man. My point is that I guess my definition of Evil and the author's defenition of evil are two totally different defenitions.

The book itself read like a pretty morbid version of the TV news gossip show "Hardcopy" or better yet, I can see this book being a Holloween cable TV special narrated by Vincent Price. So it was entertaining in a very morbid sort of way. It also brings to mind that one really does not know what is in the mind of their fellow human being and that there really were no such days as days of innocence. Sad but true.

I would recommend this book to anyone to read. It is entertaining. The author does back up her facts with footnote annotation that is easily researched and generally it is an easy read. My only beef with it is that I found that with maybe one or two exceptions, these women were not generally, of their own nature, evil. Hence the 3 star rating.
… (meer)