My To-Be-Read List

Here are some of the books on my To-Be-Read list, in case anyone's interested. If you've read any of them, let me know what you thought!

The Expected One - Kathleen McGowan
90 Minutes in Heaven - Don Piper
To the Scaffold - Carolly Erickson
Peter and the Shadow Thieves - Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Inkspell - Cornelia Funke
Leapholes - James Grippando
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Peter and the Starcatchers - Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Shadowmancer - G.P. Taylor
Wormwood - G.P. Taylor
The Last Templar - Raymond Khouri
The Book of the Dead - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Templar Legacy - Steve Berry
Black Order - James Rollins
The Magdalene Cipher - Jim Hougan
Brethren - Robyn Young
The Last Cato - Matilde Asensi
Heretic - Joseph Nassise
Rasputin's Daughter - Robert Alexander
If You Could See Me Now - Cecilia Ahern
Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk
Bee Season - Myla Goldberg
The Egyptologist - Arthur Phillips
Myth's, Lies, and Downright Stupidity - John Stossel
Children of the Flames - Lucette Lagnado and Sheila Dekal

I know nothing about any of these books beyond a brief blurb that piqued my fancy. I haven't checked the library yet on these ones, but am looking forward to doing so tomorrow.

The title of one of these books reminds me of my favorite conspiracy theory. Come on--don't look at me that way! You know that you have a favorite conspiracy theory, even if you don't want to admit it. Okay. So here's mine. Anna Anderson really WAS the Grand Duchess Anastasia!

Yeah, I know about the DNA results. See, the thing is, though, that there is no proof first of all that the hair found in the book really was her hair. And the samples passed through multiple hands with multiple opportunities for contamination or--dare I say it? outright substitution. I think that had the test results not made a match with Franziska Schankowska, I might have been a little less positive that there was a conspiracy. However, there is absolutely no question that there is any possible way Ms. Anderson could have been Franziska Schankowska, beginning with the fact that Ms. Anderson turned up in a canal in Berlin BEFORE Ms. Schankowska ever went missing. Furthermore, have you ever looked at pictures of the Grand Duchess and Ms. Anderson? Have you noticed that it's the same person? Even my husband, who virtually never reads a book, is convinced solely on the basis of the photographs. He said that any idiot can tell it's the same person. Additionally, Ms. Anderson's ears were identical with Anastasia's. That's not a coincidence and it's not because she had her ears surgically altered to resemble those of the Grand Duchess.

I know that of the people who know and care about this, 95% or more of them would call me one of the biggest kooks on the planet. That's okay. I don't care. I care about truth. I care about the horrible life that poor woman had and I care that her family turned their backs on her for whatever reasons they had (treason on the part of her grand uncle, who visited Russia without the knowledge and consent of his country during time of war, and the great wealth of her family that was stored abroad in foreign banks). I care that people accused her of only seeking attention and making up those dreadful stories solely for that purpose. It is obvious that this woman was haunted by ghosts and demons most of us will never have to experience. I'm glad she's at rest. I'm glad for the people who continue to seek the truth. Among them is Peter Kurth, and you can see what he has to say about it here: Peter_Kurth.

So what's your favorite conspiracy theory?