#RoseMarie Terenzio

[beganavagabond007]

Fairy Tale Interrupted by RoseMarie Terenzio

[obsessedwithjohnjr]

Once, when most of the editorial staff was out of the office at a group lunch, John returned from a meeting to find me at my desk.

  “Oh, you didn’t have to wait for me to get back,” he said. “You could have gone to lunch with everybody else.”

  “I wasn’t invited,” I said quickly.

  “What? Why?”

  “They never invite me.”

  I could tell John was annoyed. He didn’t tolerate people being slighted. “Come on, we’re going to lunch,” he said.

  He took me to the place where the rest of the staff was eating, and we sat three tables away, laughing and gossiping. I didn’t need to look over at their table to know they got the message.

Fairytale interrupted by Rosemarie Terenzio

[gallescouture]

Carolyn wasn't John's shadow; she was his equal. He would ask her, a fashion insider who worked for Calvin Klein, about cover choices or get her advice on approaching designers and advertisers. From my point of view, John was happier when Carolyn was around. And Carolyn, like any smart woman, had a way of making John pay attention to things he didn't necessarily want to even think about. She got him to differentiate between the people taking advantage of his generosity and those who needed a little extra attention from him. With those two circumstances alone, Carolyn made my life much easier. - Rosemarie Terenzio “Fairytale Interrupted”

[darlenefblog]

Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss by  RoseMarie Terenzio 

Publisher: ‎ Gallery Books

Publication Date: January 24, 2012

Print Length: 258 pages

Glad this was a library loan and I didn't pay a penny for it. This woman was a walking disaster and was working for a PR firm? Thinking the other women in the office shallow and silly was my first clue that something was off. Turns out she is uncouth, never learning how to business dress, when to keep quiet or be less confrontational. How can someone working in that business not know how to comport herself? I'm mystified, was she raised by wolves? Somehow screaming, stomping around and doing a less than stellar job got her access to the most followed, reported on people of that time. Was Carolyn Bessette as crude and self-centered as Terenzio portrays her? It would explain how they became besties, that and Terenzio kissed a lot of ass and worshiped her.

She happened to be staying at their apartment on the weekend they died so she stayed in the middle of things. She also convinced Carolyn to go to the wedding, putting her on the plane. I'd be torn up too

To be honest I expected more about John and less about her love life. The book title and photo of John and Carolyn on the cover were deceptive marketing. The fairy tale interrupted was hers.

#FairyTaleInterrupted #JFK,JR #CarolynBessette #RoseMarieTerenzio #autobiography #notworthit

[reviewithowtoit]

JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio | Behind the P...

[dankusner]

JFKjr + George + Coulter

Much has been written and said about John F. Kennedy, Jr., though not all of it by people who actually knew him.

In this new oral biography from RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil, JFK Jr.'s closest friends open up about who he was outside of the spotlight and what made him such a compelling figure that we're still besotted even 25 years after his untimely death.

The first oral biography of John F. Kennedy Jr. is an extraordinarily intimate, comprehensive look at the real man behind the myth.

Sharing never-before-told stories and insights, his closest friends, confidantes, lovers, classmates, teachers, and colleagues paint a vivid portrait of one of the most beloved figures of the 20th century, revealing how the boy who saluted became the man America came to know and love who still captures public imagination twenty-five years after his tragic death.

Born into the spotlight, John F. Kennedy Jr. lived a short but remarkable life filled with expectation, ambition, family pressures, love, and tragedy.

JFK Jr. dives deep into his complicated psyche and explores the what-ifs, illuminating both the cultural and political moment he inhabited and the way this son of a president, so full of promise and possibility, embodied America’s most cherished hopes.

ANN COULTER, CONTRIBUTOR  He loved bringing both sides of the aisle together. That was kind of the hallmark of George. Can you imagine what a different world it would be if anyone still cared about that? I have a surprising number of liberal friends, many of whom I met through George — all of whom have to deny me to their friends and still I am friends with them. At a lunch event early on, I had just been fired for the 18th time from MSNBC.

John thought it was the coolest thing ever.

“This is something you should put on your résumé. You’re like Howard Stern!”

He wanted to know everything I’d been fired for.

Loved it all.

I thought, “Yeah, this is the magazine for me.”

KELLYANNE CONWAY, POLLSTER FOR GEORGE 

He was fascinated with polling, because polling was the touchstone to what people think.

I remember telling John Kennedy that “I don’t know” is a great answer that often gets ignored.

He really enjoyed that part, “Let’s not push people.”

We did one poll asking, “Would you rather be president of the country or president of your own company?”

It wasn’t even close, they wanted to be president of their own company, because they don’t actually like politics, and it’d be less stressful and more lucrative.

That fascinated him and definitely informed his editorial choices.

CONWAY 

Two months before his death, there was a BMW event.

Laura Ingraham was there, too.

It was another example of bringing people together because it was the right versus the left, but we were in race cars and it was just fun.

He had his foot in a cast, so he couldn’t participate.

But he had fun.

He was always lovely, shy in a way, just trying to blend in and make everyone feel comfortable.

COULTER 

I think things in politics would be different if his plane hadn’t gone down. The polarization and hatred would have to be less because he set a standard. I mean, who knows? Trump still could have come along and wrecked everything, but even through Trump, life would have been better in politics, more interesting and more fun. Maybe there would be a President John.

JFK Jr.’s Final Days: Exclusive Excerpt from Revealing New Book JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography

Close friends share never-before-told stories about the life and tragic death of John F. Kennedy's only son, who died at age 38

JFK jr, john f kennedy jr cover

JFK Jr. in New York City in 1996 and the JFK Jr. PEOPLE cover .

Close friends share never-before-told stories about the life and tragic death of John F. Kennedy's only son, who died at age 38

On Nov. 25, 1963, three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluted his assassinated father’s casket in a televised funeral procession.

That heartbreaking image came to symbolize the nation's loss.

The world never stopped watching as the little boy grew into a movie-star-handsome magazine editor, married Carolyn Bessette and then died at age 38 on July 16, 1999, when the plane he was piloting crashed off Martha’s Vineyard, also killing Carolyn, 33, and her sister Lauren, 34.

For more on JFK Jr., pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

Now, 25 years after JFK Jr.’s death, many of his closest friends have opened up about the man behind the myth in JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio and People editor-at-large Liz McNeil, excerpted exclusively — in print and audio — below.

Before her husband’s funeral, Mrs. Kennedy asked military personnel to teach John how to salute his casket.

Philip M. Hannan, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington

"I saw John Jr. salute [that day]. I was standing by him. I thought, This is the picture that will live.

I saw the reaction of the people across the street. It was an instantaneous reaction; they broke down, especially the women … I had heard Mrs. Kennedy say, 'John, salute.' I knew then that this was probably the most poignant picture of the century."

John grew up in New York City, where his mom moved with him and Caroline in 1964. She enrolled him at the private Collegiate School.

David Clarke, schoolmate

"He had this big mop of hair. You’d see him wandering around the halls, shirttails hanging out, his tie ripped off to one side, his hair a mess. He was known for losing blazers."

He transferred to elite Andover in 1976 and had to repeat his senior year when he failed math before starting at Brown University in 1979. He was easily distractable but his name and charm brought advantages — and fun.

William Cohan, schoolmate

"One weekend, he invites me down to [the family’s apartment at] 1040 Fifth Avenue. I walk in and it’s mind-boggling. And his mother’s there. And then John goes into his room and decides he wants to get high, takes out the bong, smokes a bowl, pours the bong water out onto Fifth Avenue from his bathroom."

Gary Ginsberg, college friend

"I met John in the second-to-last row of a history class. One day … neither of us had any clue what was really going on. John had to give an answer, and it was so inane. But after he finished his two-minute response, the professor’s nodding vigorously. 'John, that was so insightful.' That’s when I realized it was what John always referred to as 'the JK Factor.'

"There’s no table in a restaurant? Then one appears. He’d always look at me with that sh---eating grin and go, 'JK Factor.' "

John F. Kennedy Jr. photographed at George Magazine Headquarters in New York City in 1996

John F. Kennedy Jr. photographed at 'George Magazine' Headquarters in New York City in 1996.

Anne Marie Fox

He got his law degree from NYU in 1989 and passed the bar exam on his third try. He dated actress Daryl Hannah off and on but met and fell for Calvin Klein publicist Carolyn Bessette in 1992 before formally ending things with Hannah.

Robbie Littell, best friend

"[Carolyn] intrigued him more than anyone he’d ever met. A force of nature. He said he wanted to marry her. He was adamant."

They wed on Sept 21, 1996 on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia.

George Kyriakos, wedding guest and Carolyn’s hairdresser

"John slept in my then-wife Jackie’s and my room the night before the wedding. Which is crazy — there was this huge mansion where everybody had rooms, and John was sleeping on a cot in our room. It was the whole don’t-sleep-with-the-bride-the-night-before-the-wedding thing."

Gogo Ferguson, who hosted their wedding

"We lit the church with all the candles and flashlights we had because by the time we got her in her dress and I drove her down the road in my truck, it was getting dark. There was no electricity. John and Carolyn stayed at our house that night. Someone had the great idea of putting rose petals all the way up our driveway and into our bedroom, which ended up a complete mess. That was gonna be the honeymoon suite."

The press attention intensified — and while John was used to it, Carolyn was overwhelmed.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy arrive at the annual John F. Kennedy Library Foundation dinner and Profiles in Courage awards in honor of the former President's 82nd Birthday, Sunday, May 23, 1999 at the Kennedy Library in Boston, MA. John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy at the annual Profiles in Courage awards on May 23, 1999 at the Kennedy Library in Boston, Mass. Justin Ide Sasha Chermayeff, college friend

"She genuinely felt she was in danger. The paranoia set in when she kind of let her mind spin off: 'What if somebody wants to kidnap me?' After they got married, it just escalated and escalated and escalated. John was five years older. And being followed, it’s very different for a 200-lb. man than for a woman alone. By then she was thinking, 'They’re spying on me. They’re stalking me. Now my life is being afraid.' "

John got his pilot’s license in 1998 and found an escape in the skies.

Robbie Littell

"That was some of the happiest times he ever had. Floating around with the buzzards in his Buckeye [plane]. It was the freedom. But most of all, it was getting away. Flying made him super happy. Free spirit, in control, doing something, you know … a James Bondian endeavor. Playing James Bond."

Gary Ginsberg

"He said, 'It’s the only place I can go where no one is bothering me. I have complete silence, and no one can get to me except the air traffic controllers.' Maybe that gives you insight into what he was really dealing with on the ground."

RoseMarie Terenzio, friend and assistant

"When he got his plane, the Cessna, you have to have a tail number, and he wanted 529 because that was his dad’s birthday — May 29. When he went to reserve that number to register it with the FAA, that one was taken. He ended up buying the number from the person who had it. The tail number on both of John’s planes was N529JK."

John was trying to keep George magazine afloat, fighting with Carolyn and worried about the looming death from cancer of his cousin Anthony Radziwill. In May 1999, he broke his ankle paragliding. John and Carolyn’s relationship hit a low point the week of July 12. Though accounts vary, John spent at least one night at the Stanhope Hotel.

Sasha Chermayeff

"They were spiting each other. Maybe Carolyn was trying to make him worry [by not coming home]. So then he did it the next night. He was not with her those last two nights. The Stanhope thing was tricky. I think he went there to meet [former girlfriend] Julie Baker. Everybody always asks me, 'What do I think would’ve happened?' Anything was possible."

Julie Baker

"I spoke to John for the last time the night before he passed. There is a rumor going around that I was with him at the Stanhope [that night]. This is not true. He was at a baseball game and wanted me to meet up with him and his friend after to grab a drink. I was away, so I couldn’t. I did however grab a quick lunch with him (which we often did) at the Stanhope a few days before the accident."

On July 16, he spent the day at the office. The plan was to fly to Martha’s Vineyard to drop off Carolyn’s sister Lauren, 34, and then fly to Hyannis, Mass., for his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding. But they ended up leaving later than planned.

RoseMarie Terenzio

"I got to John and Carolyn’s apartment, where I was staying until my air conditioning got fixed, at 9:30 or 10:00. They had two phones — one in the kitchen, and then a fax machine. Only three or four people had that number. I picked up the fax phone and it was Carole [Radziwill, Anthony’s wife]. She said, 'Oh thank God you’re there.' I said, 'Carole? It’s Rose.' She said, 'Where are they? They didn’t land in the Vineyard.' No one knew where John was. [RoseMarie spoke to John’s flight instructor Bob Marena.] He said the flight took off at 8:39. That’s when I panicked.

"Then Ann Freeman, Carolyn and Lauren’s mom, called . . . She was panic-stricken. She said something like, 'I told him never to take two of my girls up at the same time.' She was angry. Crying. It was panic, shock. Disbelief."

The National Transportation Safety Board determined the cause of the accident as the “pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze and the dark night."

Jeff Guzzetti, NTSB investigator, Office of Aviation Safety

"His flight path into the water is consistent with what is known as a graveyard spiral. The airplane makes a spiral nose-down . . . kind of like going down a drain. The plane went into one final turn and it stayed in that turn pretty much all the way down to the ocean. He went in seven miles from Martha’s Vineyard.

"I don’t think the passengers knew what was happening to them. They might’ve felt a little G-force pushing them down in their seats, like, 'This feels a little bit weird.' You would’ve heard the rush of air over the fuselage accelerate or get louder, during the final fatal plunge. Perhaps feel yourself accelerating a little bit. And then they hit the surface of the water and it’s over. Now, the pilot is different. I would expect that the pilot would be very confused and perhaps a little frightened because the instruments may have not been matching up with how he was feeling. The impact forces were tremendous."

RoseMarie Terenzio

"A week later, I got a big brown box from the mail room. I think it was from the NTSB. There was his wallet. It was all water-damaged and warped. And one crutch. I sent it to [John’s sister] Caroline [Kennedy]. I just cried."

On July 22, the USS Briscoe brought members of the Kennedy and Bessette families to scatter the ashes for a burial at sea.

Barry C. Black, Navy chaplain

"Caroline clutched the urn . . . I calmed her, and we went down. Contorted with grief is not even an adequate description. She put the ashes in. As the ashes were pouring, she reached her hand into the water to put some water back on her [as if she thought], 'I’m not going to let go of his hand.' They dropped flowers as the ship was sailing. They embraced one another as if that human closeness would somehow mitigate the ache.

Robbie Littell

"I’ve heard they cut a tree down in Irish culture when someone dies young because they only lived half of their life. And I like to say, here’s a guy who lived twice as hard as anyone else. Twice as well as anyone else . . . I think of the loss, not so much my loss, but his loss — of not being able to experience life which he loved so much. The loss was going to come when the stories faded — and I didn’t want to lose the stories."

BOOKS Through the eyes of those who knew him best

Into the ruthless world of Kennedy family biographies enters JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography , co-written by RoseMarie Terenzio — John Kennedy Jr.’s executive assistant and a close confidante of his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy — and People magazine editor-at-large Liz McNeil.

JFK Jr. is timed to the 25th anniversary of the still-unthinkable deaths of the couple, and Bessette’s sister Lauren, in the crash of a plane piloted by Kennedy on a foggy night off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999.

The oral history offers extensive reminiscences from a friendly chorus of prep school classmates, colleagues, close friends, housemates, historians, multiple girlfriends and one National Park Service ranger who declined Kennedy’s request to rappel off the top of Mt. Rushmore to promote a book associated with his magazine, George.

Pamela Anderson shows up to remember Kennedy fondly, as do Garth Brooks, Brooke Shields, Jeffrey Sachs and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

Sprawling and fascinating, JFK Jr. was clearly written by and populated with people who love him.

Terenzio’s closeness to the couple was virtually unrivaled.

She was staying at their Tribeca apartment the weekend of their deaths;

she was the one everybody called in a panic, the one who called Ted Kennedy’s house to tell him his nephew’s plane was missing, the one who boxed up the couple’s effects.

The extent of her access to Kennedy’s inner circle, and the frankness of their recollections, are remarkable.

In the first years after Kennedy’s death, few of his famously protective friends spoke to the press, and then it seemed as if they all did, all at once, producing a firehose of memoirs and documentaries.

Terenzio herself has previously done both.

The book benefits from its distance from that gold rush, since Kennedy’s friends no longer need to jealously guard their recollections.

It suffers as well, since so few mysteries remain.

While JFK Jr. almost certainly provides the fullest portrait of Kennedy ever written, stacked with gratifyingly gossipy details, it offers few actual scoops.

Wisely, it doesn’t linger on the well-tilled Camelot years, or on Jack and Jackie Kennedy’s famously fraught relationship.

“I’m not so sure he didn’t love her at the end,” says one of Jackie’s confidants, with a notable lack of enthusiasm.

The image of John-John (a name he came to hate) saluting his father’s casket came to symbolize the nation’s grief.

It was his third birthday, and he had practiced the salute with his Secret Service detail.

After that, John F. Kennedy, Jr. belonged to everybody.

Jackie, portrayed here as doting but strict, eventually moved her children to Manhattan, hoping to give them regular lives.

Classmates remember Kennedy as a mostly normal kid, albeit one who took his friends dancing at Studio 54 and refused to discuss the Warren Commission.

“He had a bit of sadness to him,” recalls one of Kennedy’s teachers.

“He was a more complicated person than people think.”

Friends describe him as scattered — always late, always losing things, including cars and bicycles — and an indifferent student whose admission to Brown surprised everyone.

He would later fail the bar exam twice.

“We never thought he’d be very smart,” admits Secret Service agent Clint Hill.

When Kennedy was 27, People magazine named him the Sexiest Man Alive, something that seemed to both embarrass and secretly thrill him.

“He knew he was beautiful,” recalls a gossip columnist who knew him.

“He spent hours and hours at the gym. I never saw him take a shower with the curtain closed.”

Kennedy developed an alarming taste for adventure that resulted in several near-death experiences;

he once wandered off-trail and got lost in the African jungle.

He had been fascinated with flying since his days riding with his father in the presidential helicopter.

In the air, he was free from the earthbound pressures that came with being a Kennedy, his friend William Cohan says.

“He did do a lot of crazy things, but I don’t think he had a death wish. I think he thought he was invincible, which is pretty crazy given his father and uncle were assassinated.”

Under Terenzio and McNeil’s skillful navigation, a portrait of Kennedy emerges:

He was a loyal friend, unpretentious and effortlessly likable, skilled at putting normies at ease with his ridiculous fame.

He was always the biggest celebrity in any room, and never knew anything else.

Regular New Yorkers would stop him on the street to tell him what his father meant to them (he usually loved this).

Women, even supermodels, would swoon, sometimes literally.

But when he met and married Calvin Klein executive Carolyn Bessette, the spotlight became unbearable, at least for her.

Kennedy’s friends speak of Bessette with what seems like a mixture of fondness, trepidation and resentment.

They recall her electric personality, her alternating tendencies toward hostility and warmth, her maternal instincts.

The more they describe her, the more unknowable she seems.

(Despite rumors to the contrary, Terenzio says she never saw Bessette-Kennedy use drugs, though her husband was a daily pot smoker.)

She was hunted by paparazzi who would hurl insults to get a reaction, once sending her fleeing into traffic.

Toward the end, she became reluctant to leave their apartment.

She seemed to be unraveling.

Kennedy, who shared his family’s famous determination to get on with things, was mostly unsympathetic.

It didn’t help that the photographers who tormented Bessette-Kennedy would pretend to be kind to her when he was around.

“He could have done more to help her,” one friend observes. “He was brilliant in the deep end, so he thought Carolyn could do the same.” If there’s one surprising thing JFK Jr. reveals, it’s how much the tabloids were right: about the tension between the couple in their last days, their likely extramarital dalliances, and the fact that Carolyn, unenthused at the prospect of putting on a brave face at Rory Kennedy’s wedding that terrible weekend, almost didn’t go.

On the day of the crash, Kennedy, according to one friend, was “fighting to turn around his life.”

His marriage was crumbling, his best friend and cousin Anthony Radziwill was dying, and he was estranged from his beloved sister, Caroline.

Neither sibling liked the other’s spouse, and Caroline, who did not speak for the book, is portrayed as frosty and distant throughout.

According to those who knew him, Kennedy was beginning to cautiously embrace his political destiny.

The night before the crash, he told a friend he wanted to challenge New York Gov. George Pataki, the first stop on a likely inexorable road to the White House.

It had always been both obvious and necessary that he would pick up the mantle of the Kennedy family — he was their last charismatic member.

At the time of his death, he was still struggling to figure out his own way there.

“He wanted to be his own person,” recalls boxer Mike Tyson, a friend of Kennedy’s. “But how do you become your own person … when you almost belong to everybody?”

[rathertoofondofbooks]

    In happy news this week… I managed to have an hour out with my husband. The gorgeous weather coincided with his day off earlier this week so we went and sat in a lovely pub beer garden and had lunch outside. It was bliss to feel the sun on my skin and to just be outside for a little while. And it was wonderful to have time out with my husband and to just feel normal for a while. It’s been months since I’ve spent time outside and it made me so happy. This was our view 🙂

This week has been quite positive on the medical front but it means tough times ahead in the short term but will be worth it in the longer run. I’ve now managed to reduce my pain meds enough that I can switch to different meds, which will give me more control. In the short term this means my condition will be much worse due to sudden withdrawal and an increase in pain while my body adjusts. I’m trying to focus on the longer term when I will hopefully be better able to control my pain without feeling drugged up all the time. I’m only sharing this here as once the med change happens (it’s due to be in the next couple of days but it will depend on the NHS being back up and running) I will probably be around less for a little while. I may miss replying to comments here, or commenting and sharing your posts so please bear with me, I will be around as and when I can be.

I did have a productive couple of days at the start of last week and managed to write quite a few reviews and posts so I’ve got those scheduled. It means there will still be posts from me but I might not necessarily be around when the posts appear and links are tweeted.

This week I’ve finished reading four books:

The Zero by Jess Walter

This was my audio book for this week and I very much enjoyed listening to it. It’s a novel set around the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York but the main character is losing chunks of time and is increasingly confused so the story is told out of order. This book was so much more than I was expecting and I’m so glad that I stumbled upon it when sorting out my Kindle last week.

Fairytale Interrupted by RoseMarie Terenzio

This was an interesting book written by John F. Kennedy Jr.’s assistant. I enjoyed reading about the setting up of George magazine, and about John and Carolyn. I did find that Terenzio is a bit irritating at times but it didn’t stop me enjoying the book for the most part.

The Comfort of Others by Kay Langdale

This is a beautiful novel, one that I think I’ll be reading again in the future. I was sent this for review so I’m hoping to get my thoughts written up and posted very soon.

The Way Back Home by Freya North

I was such a fan of Freya North’s novels when she was first published but I haven’t read anything by her for a few years now. I’m not sure when I bought this book but I found it on my kindle last week and decided to read it right away. I really enjoyed it, it isn’t my favourite book by her but it was a good read. I especially loved that Cat and Django from an earlier novel featured in this novel, it was nice to see how they both were.

  This week I’ve blogged seven times:

Sunday: Weekly Wrap-Up

Monday: Guest post by Paul E. Hardisty about the evolution of his protagonist Claymore Stryker as part of the Reconciliation for the Dead blog tour

Tuesday: Review of Little Deaths by Emma Flint

Wednesday: WWW Wednesday

Thursday: Review of The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

Friday: Review of The People at Number 9 by Felicity Everett

Saturday: Stacking the Shelves

  This is what I’m currently reading:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

I started reading this yesterday and am already engrossed. Eleanor Oliphant is a great character and it feels like she could be one of those characters that really stays with me after I finish the book.

The Light We Lost by Jill

I started reading this last night and it’s got me hooked. I’m intrigued by where the story is going and what happened between these two people.

The Honeymoon by Tina Seskis

This book is so gripping, it grabbed me on the first page and I begrudge having to put the book down when real life intervenes on my reading time.

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

This is another book that has been on my TBR for ages – I actually bought it when it was published but never got around to reading it. I’ve discovered the audio version is part of my subscription service so I’m part listening and part reading it. I’m really enjoying it and am intrigued to know where the story is going.

Fragile Lives by Stephen Westaby

This is an incredible memoir of a top heart surgeon and I’ve been fascinated by the various surgeries that he has been involved with, or has pioneered himself. I’d recommend this book to everyone.

How to Survive a Plague by David France

I’ve read another chapter of this book this week and am really engrossed in it now. It’s a similar book to And the Band Played on by Randy Schilts, and some of the same people do feature but a different perspective is given so it’s fascinating. I do find it utterly horrifying how various political elements stopped the cause of AIDS being known sooner.

  Update on my TBR:

TBR at the start of January 2017: 1885 (see my State of the TBR post)

TBR in last week’s Wrap-Up: 1934

Additions:

Books bought/received for review/gifts: 8

Subtractions:

Books read this week: 4

Books I’m currently reading: 6

TBR Books culled this week: 0

Total:

TBR now stands at: 1932

Woo hoo! My TBR has gone down by two, which I’m very happy with. 🙂

  I’m linking this post up to Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer’s Sunday Blog Share.  It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

  How has your week been? What have you been reading? Please share in the comments below. If you write a wrap-up on your blog please feel free to share the link. 🙂

  Weekly Wrap-Up (14 May) In happy news this week... I managed to have an hour out with my husband. The gorgeous weather coincided with his day off earlier this week so we went and sat in a lovely pub beer garden and had lunch outside.

[johnfkennedyjunior]

The Last week of JFK Jr, a timeline.

Here's an incomplete list of the events that occurred during the last week of J&C. I compiled it using books and this thread.

Monday, July 12:

Morning: Carolyn was at the Vineyard with Carole Radziwill, and Holly. 

Later on she heads out to the airport to return to NYC with Efigenio Pinheiro.

John flew from Martha’s Vineyard to Toronto to meet with Keith Stein. Once in Toronto, Stein drove John north to his offices in Aurora, Ontario. 

John and his co-pilot flew back to NYC later on Monday night.

Tuesday, July 13:

Night: John showed up at a British advertising agency party in downtown Manhattan. Only stayed for forty minutes.

Wednesday, July 14:

Morning: JFK Jr was still in CAM Walker.

John called Empire Executive car and Limousine service of Manhattan to pick them up at home and deliver them to Paramount Plaza Building, where George maintained office space on the 41st floor.

John and Carolyn held a breakfast reception at George for the executive board of the Robin Hood foundation.

Following the breakfast, Carolyn went shopping at Bergdorf Goodman, then picked up her sister Lauren at the midtown Manhattan office of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. 

1:30 p.m: Carolyn and Lauren were dropped off at the Stanhope Hotel. John joined his wife and sister-in-law for lunch in the hotel cafe M.

After lunch, John returned to George offices and dealt with financial papers.

He also spoke to Caroline over the phone.

Richard Blow overheard John's conversation with Carolyn, which lasted five minutes. He was only able to make out the following, "Well, Goddammit, Carolyn, you're the reason I was up at three o' clock last night!" 

4 p.m: John received a call from Janet Reno’s office to discuss an upcoming interview with Reno for George magazine.

5 p.m: John telephoned Jacques Lowe, and recounted details of his latest altercation with Carolyn. He told Lowe that he intended to spend the next night or two at the Stanhope Hotel.

8 p.m : John returned to the Stanhope after work, and checked into room 1511. 

Ordered light supper from room service, and ate while watching the evening news on television.

Several hours later John received a visit from Julie Baker. She stayed with John and watched a video until 12:30 a.m. She then left, but insisted she join John for breakfast the next morning. .   

John and his cousin Chris Lawford cruised West Village that night, having dinner then checked out some parties.

Thursday, July 15:

8 a.m: John had breakfast with Julie Baker at the Stanhope dining room, Cafe M.

After breakfast, John taxied to Lenox hill Hospital and his CAM Walker removed, he was given a walking cane, and a new pair of lightweight metal crutches.

10:30 a.m: He left the hospital and went to the North Moore apt for a change of clothes, and packed a weekend bag to take back with him to the hotel.

Afterwards, he stopped at Kennedy family offices on 500 Fifth avenue to retrieve his quarterly financial statement, and  bumped into cousin Chris K. Lawford. According to Lawford, John had lost his crutches was dragging his broken foot. 

Early afternoon: He had lunch with publisher Peter Jay Russo to discuss the future of George. They lunched at San Domenico on Central Park South. They lunched in his usual booth. At one point, he hobbled over on his injured ankle to hug and kiss Diane Sawyer and chat with her lunch companions, Leslie Stahl and Peggy Noonan. He told them he wasn’t letting his crutches slow him down. Restaurant co-owner Marisa May says he was in a great mood. He thanked her for always protecting his privacy. “Remember, I brought Carolyn [Bessette] here before anyone knew,” he said. “I hope to bring the whole family soon.”  

Afternoon at George: John called the edit staff into the conference room for a meeting. Then John met with the George business staff.

Later that afternoon, John showed up at La Palestra,he put in a two-hour workout, says a source, and handed studio owner Pat Manocchia a set of keys to his loft, so Manocchia could spend the weekend.

Met with Gary Ginsberg and both were driven to Yankee Stadium to watch a Yankee/Braves game.

After the game John, and Gary ate a ‘midnight snack’, and shared a car home, during which both discussed Jack Kliger, and Anthony Radziwill's sickness, John also told Gary he was ready to fly again.

After the game, John returned to his North Moore apartment to spend time with Carolyn.

Shortly after 1 a.m and by 2.am: John instructed the driver to head south on 5th avenue, because he would be staying at the Stanhope Hotel.  Friday, July 16:

9 a.m: John checked out of the Stanhope Hotel, and ate breakfast at the hotel Carlyle on Madison avenue.

10 a.m: John came into George offices, and began discussing the upcoming Rob Lowe cover. 

John also attended a meeting with Jack Kliger at the George office to discuss the future of the magazine.

John told Rosemarie Terenzio that Carolyn didn’t want to attend Rory’s wedding. Terenzio was able to convince Carolyn to attend the wedding, and told Carolyn to go shopping for a dress.

Carolyn spent nearly 2 hours in the afternoon shopping at Saks Fifth avenue for a dress with a friend.

John returned to the Stanhope to collect his papers.

At about noon, John received a telephone call from Brian Calcagne, director of sales for Air Bound Aviation. Calcagne asked John if he was planning on flying the Saratoga later that day. Confirming the flight, John asked the caller to have the aircraft ready for departure by early evening.

John then got a call from Robert Merena, a flight instructor who wanted to know if Kennedy needed somebody to accompany him to Martha’s Vineyard. John told the instructor he wanted to fly the plane himself.

1 p.m: John went to lunch with Richard Blow at the Trionfo, John was still using crutches even though his cast was off. He ordered salad, chicken in white wine sauce, and peppermint tea.

After lunch with Richard, John returned to George offices.

3 p.m: John placed a phone call to William Noonan, to cancel a dinner appointment the two had set up for later on Friday night.

5:00 p.m: John went into Richard’s office to ask him about publishing a poem in the magazine, both of them thought it was a bad idea, and John returned to his office, phoned New York literary agent Sterling Lord, and John let him know the poem won’t be published.John also wrote a rejection letter and sent it to them.  

5:30 p.m: John was on the phone with Lauren Bessette and agreed to meet her at 6:30 p.m in front of his office building. 

John informed Rosemarie Terenzio he was going to work out, then head off for the weekend.

Rosemarie Terenzio reminded John to meet Lauren in the lobby at 6:30.p.m

He then checked the Weather Service International’s aviation website to determine the weather conditions for Martha’s Vineyard.

6:30 p.m: John left George offices and went to meet Lauren.

6:45 p.m: Carolyn was seated in the back of a Lincoln Town Car en route to Essex County airport.

8:25 p.m: Carolyn called Carole Radziwill and told her “We’re getting a late start, I’ll call you in the morning.”

8:38 p.m: Tower at Essex County airport cleared John for takeoff.

9:24: John flew over Westerly, Rhode Island.

9:39 p.m: John radioed the airport and said he was 13 miles from the airport and 10 miles from the coast.

9:40 pm : John’s plane descent rate eventually exceeded 4,700 fpm (53 mph). The target's last radar position was recorded at 2140:34 at an altitude of 1,100 feet."

[flairmagazineblog]

Remembering JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette—Marking 20 since Plane Crash

In heartbreaking news of the death of John F. Kennedy Junior at the age of 38 along with his wife Carolyn Bassette Kennedy, 33, the world mourned the royal couple’s untimely passing 20 years ago on this day. No matter how time passes it still remains a sad memory that someone who was ahead of his time and loved by all was taken so soon.

Remarkably, JFK Jr. and Carolyn were a power couple who exuded the dream that everyone wished to have. They were in love, with a passion for their work equally. JFK Jr. was a man ahead of his time, who I believe was among the visionaries who predicted how politics and fashion will merge in the form that we use mostly now and what we call our social media, which gave rice to this digital age that we currently living in.  

His prediction took shape in the form of George, the first magazine to address politics yet from a fashionable angle, by which despite of most of the critical predictions it received before launching the first issue, he went for it and had on his first cover Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington. As he had expected, the magazine quickly flew off the shelves and became one of the bestsellers in the country, competing against the other strong publications.

Not only he worked very diligently to keep his dream going, he included his wife in the most important events, such in May 1999, George magazine hosted a table at the White House Correspondents Dinner and there one of the couple’s most famous picture was taken, capturing the ease and love they both had for each other.

JOHN F. KENNEDY JR. GIVES HIS WIFE CAROLYN A KISS ON THE CHEEK AFTER THE ANNUAL WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER IN 1999. TYLER MALLORY

“It was magical,” the magazine’s staffer RoseMarie Terenzio said of that night, according to an article published in Town&Country.

 “John was very much ready to make a splash with George. He was proud of it and thought, This is the time, this is the place, and we belong here. We just had a great time. Carolyn really was proud of John, and she was happy to be there to support him. She talked to everyone at the table and everyone at the next table. She went around to everyone on the staff and said hello,” she added.

Carolyn was someone who made sure to step away from the cameras that followed them, she kept their privacy a key element in their life, and by which there is no recorded video interview or even a print, of her showing how she spoke or what she thought in general. She was someone who was chased by the media, yet she never spoke to them.

She worked at Armani and he her sense of style was as classic and as timeless as today.  Whenever a picture surfaced on the scene of her, she was always effortlessly put together in the most elegant and classy manner that radiated confidence in the minimalistic style she regularly selected for herself.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy with her husband John F. Kennedy Jr.  CREDIT: GETTY

 One of the ones who were really followed on the street for her sense of style and fashion sense was Carolyn, as if she was the one who unconsciously invented Street Style. Her career was a solid gold starting  as a personal shopper from Calvin Klein for someone as famous as the TV presenter Diane Sawyer, then all the way up to being Calvin Klein’s publicist working from the head office in New York.

The grace she carried herself with and mystic made her even more demanded in the media, and remembered till this day as an icon of fashion who inspires us all to become as dedicated to our sense of style and being true to ourselves. The royal couple is truly missed and the sadness still stays in our hearts over their memory leaving this life that was decades ago, yet it feels that their work and love will always be remembered and admired.

Remembering JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette—Marking 20 since Plane Crash was originally published on FLAIR MAGAZINE

[vagabondtrousers]

For five days in July, 1999, America was on the edge of its seat -- and on the fifth day, the nation's heart broke.

On July 16, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette had taken flight from New Jersey in Kennedy's small Piper Saratoga plane en route to Massachusetts for his cousin Rory's wedding -- and seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

On July 21, the worst fears of Americans and Kennedy fans around the globe were realized. The three bodies were retrieved by U.S. Navy divers from the broken plane on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

“It was earth-shattering,” Kennedy's personal assistant and ABC News consultant RoseMarie Terenzio said. “It was unbelievable. It was as [if] the earth had cracked in half somehow. And I could not understand how this could happen. To him of all people.”

The tragic plane crash brought an all-too-soon end to a remarkable public life that began playing out when Kennedy was only a small child.

[beganavagabond007]

Fairy Tale Interrupted by RoseMarie Terenzio

[obsessedwithjohnjr]

Sasha Chermayeff I always wanted to paint a beautiful picture. I did not want to admit this, but the last thing John said to me about Ed Schlossberg was “God, Ed’s such a prick.” John saw Ed as the problem between him and his sister. They hadn’t spoken for months. Everything was coming to a crunch, and he said, “I’m going to make amends with my sister.” It was just too stressful to have this toxic thing going on with her. He called her before leaving for the wedding… because he missed her. Thank God. They had that one phone call.

-JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography

by Liz McNeil and RoseMarie Terenzio

[gallescouture]

The gap between people's intense interest and the little they actually knew about him allowed them to fill in details of their own choosing. They could easily impose their fantasies onto the blank slate of his public persona. John was the perfect storm for those with obsessive tendencies: good-looking, famous, single, and part of a family with more conspiracy theories than cousins. - Rosemarie Terenzio “Fairytale Interrupted”

[minimalistcarolyn]

“She loved making people feel good about themselves. She was generous and down-to-earth. It was her mission to boost those around her.” -RoseMarie Terenzio (Fairytale Interrupted)

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

The greatest tragedy of life is that at some point, we have to say goodbye to the people we’ve spent a lifetime loving. ― RoseMarie Terenzio

[alfausanews]

John F. Kennedy Jr.’s assistant recalls her friendship with Carolyn Bessette: ‘She was so warm and funny’

RoseMarie Terenzio still has fond memories of Carolyn Bessette, who would have turned 54 on Tuesday.