The single creepiest moment I have ever read came from Melanie Benjamin. It was in her first book, Alice I Have Been, and revolved around the slimy (imagined?) pedophile Lewis Carroll removing, slowly, his white cotton gloves before photographing half-naked young girls. Still gives me the heebies to think about it. And while I can see that it takes a mighty fine writer to evoke such pure heebie-jeebie-ness, I almost can’t forgive her for it. I almost had myself convinced I couldn’t read her again.
THANK GOODNESS I didn’t let that stop me from reading her newest, The Aviator’s Wife (thanks, STK)! I thoroughly, absolutely, completely enjoyed it.
I knew little to nothing about Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her heroic husband Charles. Basically just an outline of the facts – they were married, they had a small child kidnapped from their home and found buried near by, Charles was rumored to have favored Naziism during the beginning of the war era (and this last one only because of Philip Roth’s Plot Against America). I thought this story was so fascinating, so detailed, so ugh frustrating at times. I found myself wanting to shake that Anne by her shoulders and tell her to snap out of it a handful of times. Regardless of that fact, I was so interested in her story – there was SO MUCH more to her than I had known, and I spent an hour or so reading more about her online and looking at pictures of her family.
I have a good feeling about this book – I think it will be compared all over the place to Paris Wife and Loving Frank. Solid 4/5 stars.
Lit Picks. 
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