Our November book was Boys Enter the House: The Victims of John Wayne Gacy and the Lives They Left Behind by David Nelson

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As investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from a small Chicago ranch home and paraded them in front of a crowd of TV reporters and spectators, attention quickly turned to the owner of the house. John Gacy was an upstanding citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown.

But in the winter of 1978–79, he became known as one of many so-called "sex murderers" who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s. As public interest grew rapidly, victims became footnotes and statistics, lives lost not just to violence, but to history.

Through the testimony of siblings, parents, friends, lovers, and other witnesses close to the case, Boys Enter the House retraces the footsteps of these victims as they make their way to the doorstep of the Gacy house itself.

David Nelson is a Chicago-based author whose fiction has been published in the Rappahannock Review, the Tishman Review, and Another Chicago Magazine. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received honorable mentions from Glimmer Train. His coverage of ongoing war crime trials and the DNA identification process for victims of the Balkans conflicts was published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Our October book is Goodbye Hello: Processing Grief and Understanding Death through the Paranormal by Adam Berry.

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From paranormal investigator and host of Kindred Spirits Adam Berry comes Goodbye Hello, which blends supernatural and psychological research to explore the paranormal and afterlife to try and help answer big questions about the end.

Death affects us all—not just at the end of our lives, but every day. And yet, it’s one of the most feared and misunderstood things we face. But what if there was a way to know more and use that knowledge to inform our daily lives? The first of its kind, Goodbye Hello blends supernatural research with psychology to explore death and grief. Written by paranormal investigator and star of Kindred Spirits and Ghost Hunters Adam Berry, this book will not only entertain but offer comfort to those struggling to come to terms with loss, grief, and the end of life.

Goodbye Hello answers questions such as: Why do spirits linger around in this world? Is there a “light” at the end of the tunnel? Can you connect with spirits in your dreams? How do you prepare for what’s next? Featuring incredible stories of real people who connected with the spirits of loved ones as well as interviews with paranormal experts Amy Bruni, Chip Coffey, and many more, Goodbye Hello helps you understand where you go after this life and why some stick around. Whether you want to believe in the afterlife, don’t believe in it at all, or just want to come to your own conclusions, Goodbye Hello is the ultimate paranormal guide for you.

Adam Berry is the co-star and Executive Producer of the hit television series Kindred Spirits now on Travel Channel. Adam’s love and passion for the paranormal ignited from an extremely haunting experience he had in Gettysburg PA. After many years of studying, research and founding his own paranormal research team with his husband Ben Berry he was asked to join the SyFy Channel original series Ghost Hunters Academy. This competition reality show tested the strengths of investigators from around the country and Adam proved to be the best of the best by winning and was awarded a spot on the TAPS team and the original series Ghost Hunters. Adam likes to say he was awarded Amy Bruni as his prize because the two paired up and have since became a paranormal powerhouse. With similar beliefs and styles Adam and Amy possess the capabilities to connect with those in the after life with uncanny accuracy. Focusing on helping families and spirits alike, they have traveled the country changing the way the world thinks about ghosts and what happens after we shuffle off this mortal coil.

When Adam isn’t looking for ghosts he is the Executive Director of Peregrine Theatre Ensemble, a non-profit theater company based in Provincetown MA. This educational summer theater program produces some of the most spectacular musicals and plays on the Cape while also nurturing young actors in a professional working environment.

Adam also sits on the board of directors for “Tim’s Fund”, a non-profit scholarship program created to support social activists who change the world through art, music, literature and filmmaking.

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“It might come as a surprise to know that, for millennia, people all over the world have actively cultivated a relationship with death, as an important part of both living and dying well. Shamans and priests acted as psychopomps—literally, soul guides—to help people move through the death process. People consulted ‘books of the dead,’ guides to preparing for a good death and after-life experience. And Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life. our ancestors utilized memento mori (Latin for “remember you must die”), which were objects, works, or practices meant to remind them of their death in order to encourage them to live the life they truly wished, before it was too late. Paradoxically— or so it might seem to us—by forging a relationship with death, our ancestors mitigated their fear of it, and were able to live fuller and more meaningful lives.”

In our modern culture, talking about death is often deemed morbid, or even taboo. But not long ago, contemplation of death was widely used as a powerful tool for countering fear, putting the difficulties of life in perspective, and helping you live according to your higher values. Now scientists, psychologists, and spiritual leaders agree - it’s key to living a life with meaning.

This life-changing book will lead you on a 12-week program to befriend death in your own way, creating your own personal, daily meditation on what it means to be mortal. Filled with lessons learned across cultures and with the help of insightful prompts and questions, Memento Mori will help you both come to terms with what death means and to live alongside it without fear. In doing so, you will see your own in a new light and discover what makes life worth living, swapping anxiety for joy. As our ancestors knew so well, there’s no better motivation to seize the day than a regular reminder that your days are numbered.

Follow Memento Mori on a journey of authentic self-discovery and transformation. Whether you're currently experiencing grief or loss, facing your own mortality, or simply seeking a deeper understanding of the profound mysteries of existence, this book offers invaluable insights to help you navigate your life with courage, resilience, and meaning.

Joanna Ebenstein founded Morbid Anatomy as a blog in 2007. An award-winning curator, photographer, graphic designer and author, her books include Memento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life, Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy and Death: A Graveside Companion. Joanna teaches a number of popular classes for Morbid Anatomy on topics ranging from death and art to exploring creativity and ambivalent deities. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Morbid Anatomy Online Journal. Her paternal grandparents were emigres from Hitler’s Vienna, and her ancestor Judah Loew ben Bezalel was credited with creating the Golem in 16th century Prague. She is a proud member of The Order of the Good Death, and her TEDx Talk—Death as You've Never Seen it Before—has been viewed over 16,000 times.

Links:

https://www.joannaebenstein.com/

https://www.joannaebenstein.com/books-articles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FBFvWc7zf0

Our August pick for The Morbidly Curious Book Club was "Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America's Cemeteries" by Greg Melville.

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Journalist Greg Melville’s Over My Dead Body is an “astonishing . . . fascinating . . . powerful” (New York Times Book Review) tour through the history of US cemeteries that explores how, where, and why we bury our dead.

“You hold in your hands a treasure map, a gentle, sly, and poignant presence leading us to places in America and in our lives that have been hiding in plain sight. This tale is about cemeteries, but it’s really about how beautiful is life.” —#1 New York Times bestselling author Doug Stanton

The summer before his senior year in college, Greg Melville worked at the cemetery in his hometown, and thanks to hour upon hour of pushing a mower over the grassy acres, he came to realize what a rich story the place told of his town and its history. Thus was born Melville’s lifelong curiosity with how, where, and why we bury and commemorate our dead.

Melville’s Over My Dead Body is a lively (pun intended) and wide-ranging history of cemeteries, places that have mirrored the passing eras in history but also have shaped it. Cemeteries have given birth to landscape architecture and famous parks, as well as influenced architectural styles. They’ve inspired and motivated some of our greatest poets and authors—Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson. They’ve been used as political tools to shift the country’s discourse and as important symbols of the United States’ ambition and reach.

But they are changing and fading. Embalming and burial is incredibly toxic, and while cremations have just recently surpassed burials in popularity, they’re not great for the environment either. Over My Dead Body explores everything about cemeteries—history, sustainability, land use, and more—and what it really means to memorialize.

GREG MELVILLE is an author, adventure journalist, and tombstone tourist whose writing has appeared in many of the country's top print publications including Outside, National Geographic Traveler, Slate, and The New York Times. He is also a U.S. Navy veteran. Melville's acclaimed environmental book Greasy Rider was the 'campus common read' for six colleges and universities, and named by the American Library Association as one of the top 100 "Outstanding Books for the College Bound" for the first decade of the 2000s. He has served as an editor at Men's Journal, Sports Afield, and Footwear News and as a crime reporter for a daily newspaper in Northern Virginia. Melville is in the Navy Reserve. He has deployed to Afghanistan, written speeches for top military officials, and taught English for five years at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was the recipient of the school's Apgar Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019. Born and raised in the Boston area, he now lives with his wife and two kids in Delaware.

Author website: https://www.gregmelville.com/

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Check out Loren's website here: https://lorenrhoads.com/

About Loren: Fiction Author: Loren Rhoads is the author of In the Wake of the Templars, a space opera trilogy. She’s co-author (with Brian Thomas) of the As Above, So Below books, a dark urban fantasy duet about a succubus and her angel. Her short stories have appeared in Best New Horror, Strange California, Fright Mare: Women Write Horror, Sins of the Sirens: 14 Tales of Dark Desire, and much more. Unsafe Words is the first full-length collection of her short fiction.

Nonfiction Author: Loren Rhoads is the author of 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die (forthcoming) and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. She is the co-author (with Emerian Rich) of the Spooky Writer’s Planner. This Morbid Life, a memoir comprised of 45 death-positive essays, won a Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2022.

Cemetery Expert: Loren Rhoads is the author of 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die (coming in 2024) and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. She’s the editor of Death’s Garden: Relationships with Cemeteries and its sequel, Death’s Garden Revisited: Personal Relationships with Cemeteries. She’s written about cemeteries for Gothic Beauty, Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and more. She’s lectured about cemeteries at the Association for Gravestone Studies conference, the Horror Writers Association’s Stoker Weekend, and the Science Fiction Writers Association’s Nebula Conference, as well as at the San Francisco Death Salon, the Odd Salon, and at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

Editor: Loren Rhoads is the editor of seven books, including Death’s Garden: Relationships with Cemeteries, Lend the Eye a Terrible Aspect, The Haunted Mansion Project: Year Two, and Tales for the Camp Fire: An Anthology Benefiting Wildfire Relief. For ten years, she was the editor of Bram Stoker Award®-nominated Morbid Curiosity magazine. She collected some of her favorite essays into Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: True Tales of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox, and Unusual. In 2022, she edited Wily Writers Presents Tales of Nightmares and Death’s Garden Revisited: Personal Relationships with Cemeteries.

About the book: Perfect for budding cemetery armchair travelers and serious taphophiles, this hauntingly beautiful guide to the world’s most interesting and unusual cemeteries has been revised and updated to include 23 additional locations.

Every year, millions of tourists flock to cemeteries around the globe to uncover hidden stories of their residents and admire the incredible architecture, stunning landscapes, and even wildlife in these open-air museums.

In this lavishly photographic bucket list of the world’s most interesting cemeteries, author Loren Rhoads, who hosts the popular Cemetery Travel blog, details the history, eye-catching monuments, and other fascinating finds that make each destination unique. Entries include unforgettable cemeteries such as the Mount Koya cemetery in Japan, where 10,000 lanterns illuminate the forest setting; Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery which hosts gorgeous night tours of the Southern Gothic tombstones under moss-covered trees; and Il Cimitero Acattolico in Rome that is the final resting place of young poets John Keats and Percy Shelley.

Whether you are a true taphophile (cemetery enthusiast) who seeks out obscure locations or a tourist who likes to incorporate not-to-be-missed cemeteries like Paris’s Pere Lachaise and Arlington National Cemetery into your itinerary, 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die is both a useful trip-planning tool and a browser’s delight.

Our July pick for The Morbidly Curious Book Club was "A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy" by Kathly Kleiner Rubin and Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi.

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About the book: "In January 1978, I slept in my bed at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University as Ted Bundy stalked nearby. He grabbed an oak log from a stack of firewood, slipped through a back door with a broken padlock, and headed upstairs. He began twisting doorknobs. Room 9 was open, and he quietly and quickly killed one of my sleeping sorority sisters. Across the hall, he found another unlocked door and murdered again. Then, he turned the knob to my bedroom and found it was open. I remember the attack vividly. Bundy bashed me once in the head with the log and then attacked my roommate. He heard me moaning and came to finish me off. He never let his victims live. But he stopped suddenly when a bright light filled the room. He fled the sorority house and the light disappeared.

Bundy wasn't my first brush with death, and he wasn't my last. I've long been a survivor. I was born into a Cuban American family in 1957 in Florida. I had a happy childhood until I received my first death sentence at the age of thirteen. Physicians weren't sure why I was always so exhausted and running a low-grade fever. The prognosis was grim after my left kidney started to fail. Then, a physician from Cuba saved my life with a surprise diagnosis—lupus—and a treatment plan: chemotherapy. I endured chemotherapy again in my early thirties when I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

This is my story of surviving three death sentences and finding love and happiness along the way. I was saved by a bright light, and I hope my story is one for people who are experiencing their own dark times. I am a victim, but I am also a survivor, and I want to speak up for all the women and girls whom Bundy murdered.

He has become a legend, and our voices have been muted or ignored. It's time we were heard."

Excitingly, we have chapters sprouting up around the world. Find them here: https://bookclubs.com/join-a-book-club/the-morbidly-curious-book-club -- if you don't see your city, send me an email!

themorbidlycuriousbookclub@gmail.com

The Sun article mentioned: https://www.the-sun.com/news/423345/grinning-ted-bundy-told-me-id-be-a-good-serial-killer-and-called-me-his-homeboy-i-even-organised-his-wedding/

Welcome to the Archives bonus episodes!

In 2024, I launched this podcast to delve deeper into our book club's nonfiction selections by engaging directly with the authors—the experts behind these compelling works. Over the years, our club has explored some exceptional books, and today, I am thrilled to spotlight one of our most acclaimed reads: The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis by Maria Smilios. This remarkable book has earned and incredible 9.4 out of 10 rating on our BookClubs website and remains unrivaled at the top of our charts. I’m very excited to chat with Maria today.

“It was a glorious moment, long-awaited and widely celebrated. Newspapers worldwide rang with banner headlines announcing the ‘wonder drug.’ Images from that day show the ‘incurables,’ the patients slotted to die, in the hallways laughing and dancing. Standing behind them are the Black nurses, their faces still, their eyes fixed and hesitant. They knew a more solemn story. Now only a small handful remain, including Virginia, who lives among the ruined buildings, keeping her promise to remember them, the Black nurses, the ones ‘time and people tried to erase,’ 'the women who ‘did their jobs,’ and who came to be known as the Black Angels.”

About the book:

“New York City, 1929. A sanatorium, a deadly disease, and a dire nurse shortage. So begins the remarkable true story of the Black nurses who helped cure one of the world’s deadliest plagues: tuberculosis. During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed 1 in 7 people, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, began quitting. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility, dubbed “the pest house” where “no one left alive.” Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this story follows the intrepid young women, the “Black Angels,” who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city’s poorest—1,800 souls languishing in wards, waiting to die or become “guinea pigs” for experimental (often deadly) drugs. Yet despite their major role in desegregating the NYC hospital system—and regardless of their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View—these nurses were completely erased from history. The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the center of this riveting story celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival.”

themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com