November Nonfiction Selection

It was great seeing everyone and catching up at last night's meeting. I think we were all long overdue for the opportunity to visit with each other after a lengthy break between books. Our book selection gave us an excellent jumping off point to discuss (and vent about) the current state of affairs, as well as providing a opening to bond over some personal accounts from our own lives. I really enjoyed hearing everyone's differing experiences in comparison to the context of our book's overall themes. I would also like to give a big shout out to our host for providing a cozy space for us to discuss the book. 

The summer is slowly drawing to a close and I think our next title will be a terrific choice for the upcoming fall.  Our selection in November will be a nonfiction title:

 

 The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

 

 Excerpt from the author's webpage:

"The Five was the 2019 winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction and was shortlisted for the 2020 Wolfson History Prize. It is the first full-length biography to explore and contextualize the lives of the five victims of Jack the Ripper. Offering new insights and drawing on previously unseen or unpublished material, its focus is entirely on the women and not on their murderer.

The story of Jack the Ripper has captivated our attention for over 130 years. Daily, tourists from around the globe make pilgrimages to visit the places where the ‘canonical five’ women; Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly were murdered while never knowing more than just the most basic ‘facts’ about their lives.  Ask anyone unfamiliar with the details of the case what they know about Jack the Ripper and the response will almost certainly be ‘he killed prostitutes’.

But what if virtually everything we’d ever come to assume about these five women was largely untrue? What if our general lack of understanding of how poor, working class women lived or how ‘respectable society’ viewed them has led us to believe that all of these women were ‘just prostitutes’, and that somehow this label has made their lives less worthy of exploration or commemoration? What if we learned that none of them were born in Whitechapel, or even in the East End, but ended up there after living full lives elsewhere? What if we learned that these women had been either wives or mothers or both? What would we think of ourselves and our society for never having questioned these things?

The Five has completely changed the narrative of the Ripper murders. As an investigation into these women’s experiences, it traces the surprising triumphs and heart-breaking difficulties they encountered throughout their lives. In hearing their stories it will be impossible for us to ever again see them as something other than daughters, wives, sisters, lovers and mothers or to remember them simply as nameless, faceless victims."