*THE KENNEDY WOMEN* by Laurence Leamer

Based on five years of research, and with unprecedented cooperation from Kennedy family and associates, Laurence Leamer paints startling, in-depth portraits of the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters who struggled to build and maintain the Kennedy dynasty—from steerage on an immigrant vessel to the slums of Boston, from the court of St. James to the White House.

*****Rate this 5/5. The years of research paid off because this book was so well-written and thorough. One always hears of the Kennedy men, but little of their wives, sisters and mother. This book introduces all of them in depth and the lives they lived. This book was over 800 pages and took some time to read, but it was worth the effort. I had just finished Bobby and Jackie, A Love Story, so this book expanded on that one.

*THE MANSIONS OF LIMBO* by Dominick Dunne

Dominick Dunne has met them all--stars and slugs, criminals and victims, the innocent and the hideously guilty--and now his two provocative collections of Vanity Fair portraits are in one irresistible volume. From posh Park Avenue duplexes to the extravagant mansions of Beverly Hills, from tasteful London town houses to the wild excesses of million-dollar European retreats, here are the movers and shakers--and the people who pretend to be.
Among colorful profiles and revealing glimpses of Elizabeth Taylor, Claus von Bülow, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Aaron Spelling, discover who dumped an heiress the night before the wedding to run off with the best man . . . what happens when the ex-husband of a movie legend becomes president . . . why a beautiful singer fell in with the mob . . . and, in Dunne's most personal story, how a lying murderer and a limelight-loving judge denied justice to his family after his daughter's life was brutally destroyed.
Filled with pathos and wit, insight and sass, this candid, controversial volume gives you an extraordinary peek into the rarefied world of the rich, the royal, and the ruined. For Dunne is the man who knows all their secrets--and now those secrets are out.

****Rate this 4/5 as I enjoyed Fatal Charms more. I have to now anticipate Dominick's last book which will be released in December called "It's Only Money" It will the last book I read of his because I have read everyone ever published. I will dearly miss this author's writing!

*FATAL CHARMS* And Other Tales of Today by Dominick Dunne

From the author of the best-selling People Like Us and The Two Mrs. Grenviles comes this unvarnished look at the gilded world of the real-life rich and famous. Here are the highly colorful and highly provocative look at the gilded world of the real-life rich of famous. Here are the highly colorful and highly provocative close-up interviews Dominick Dunne has written for Vanity Fair. In them, Dunne tells all about today's creme de la creme as only as insider can tell it. Here is his engaging profile of the everlasting regal Elizabeth Taylor; a bizarre encounter with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos exiled in Hawaii; a revealing, behind-the-scenes portrait of the great poseur Claus von Bulow; an inquiry into the squalid life and mysterious death of Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress, Vicki Morgan; Dunne's moving account of his daughter's violent death and the man who got away with her murder; as well as revealing glimpses of Ivan Boesky, Ava Gardner, Diane Keaton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Candy and Aaron Spelling, and others-plus a look inside the exclusive Mortimer's restaurant and the real Palm Beach. Sassy and stirring, candid and controversial, Fatal Charms is a startling expose of charm-in all its guises-both fatal and benign.

*****Rate this 5/5. I thought that I had read every book ever written by Dominick Dunne, but possibly due to his recent death I was able to locate both this book and "The Mansions Of Limbo" which I searched for years to obtain! Any time I read any of Mr. Dunne's books, I feel like I am conversing with an old friend. He 'lived' old Hollywood, he knew and was friends with so many stars and celebrities. I adore him and I am looking forward to his final book which will be out in December. You will be greatly missed Dominick Dunne!

*BOBBY & JACKIE, A Love Story by C. David Heymann

Pulitzer-nominated biographer Heymann delivers a gawk-worthy beach read with this fascinating look at Jackie and the Kennedy clan in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Life for JFK and Jackie was less than perfect; one story finds him cheating on Jackie during their 1953 Acapulco honeymoon, leaving the new Mrs. Kennedy "by herself on the verandah." Still, Jackie's devastation was real; afterward, her love for his brother Bobby was equally genuine. Unable to find peace (her Georgetown home had become a stop for all D.C. tour buses), Bobby gladly volunteered to play surrogate father to her kids; before long, an affair began. According to Truman Capote, it was "perhaps the most normal relationship either one ever had." It was not necessarily simple, however; both saw a number of people while together. Promiscuity aside, the Kennedys were also notoriously "chintzy" in their personal lives-they didn't tip and employed undocumented workers at home- though Jackie fares marginally better. It's anyone's guess how the affair would have ended if Bobby hadn't been killed; just four months later, she married Aristotle Onassis. Heymann's research is top notch, with plentiful attributions, making this train-wreck love story a substantial guilty pleasure and a sizzling reminder of how the rich are different.

*****Rate this a 5/5 as it was read in two sittings! Quite an engaging tale of the Kennedys and loaded with tidbits I never knew before. A very interesting read!