Get Rec’d with Amanda – Volume 66

The King of Diamonds

The thrilling story of a brazen, uncatchable jewel thief who roamed the homes of Dallas high society—and a window into the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of the Swinging Sixties.

As a string of high profile jewel thefts went unsolved, “the King of Diamonds,” as he was dubbed by the press, eluded police and the FBI for more than a decade and took advantage of the parties and devil-may-care attitude of the Swinging Sixties.

Like Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief,” the King was so bold that he tip-toed into the homes of millionaires while they were watching television, or hosting parties. He hid in their closets. And dared to smoke a cigarette while they were sleeping not far away. Rena Pederson, then a young cub reporter at the Dallas Morning News, heard the police reports trickle in while she managed the night desk.

With gymnastic skill, this thief climbed trees or crawled across rooftops to get into these sprawling mansions. He took jewels from heiresses, oil kings, corporate CEOs. These were not just some of the richest people in Texas; they were some of the richest people of their time. Scotland Yard and Interpol were on the look-out. But the thief was never caught and the jewels never recovered.

To follow the tracks of the thief, Rena has interviewed more than two hundred people, from veteran cops to strippers. She went to pawn shops, Las Vegas casinos, and a Mafia hangout—and discovered that beneath the glittering façade of Dallas debutantes and raucaous parties was a world of sex trafficking, illegal gambling, and political graft. When one of the leading suspects was found dead in highly unusual circumstances, the story darkened. What seemed to be taken from the pages of an Edna Ferber story now crashed head-first into Mickey Spillane.

Like the stories of Fantomas or Raffles, the odd psychological aspects of the The King of Diamonds give us different kind of crime story. Detectives were stumped: Why did the thief break into houses when his targets were inside, increasing the risk of being captured? Why did he hide in their closets? Many times, he was so close he could hear their breathing as they slept. As one socialite put it, “It was a very peculiar business.”

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The Nameless Restaurant

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Skincare for Your Soul

Take Your Skin to the Next Level with This Guide to Korean Skin Care“This book feels like talking with a trusted friend, one so generous with practical advice and wisdom. I wish our Dermatology textbooks had chapters like these!” —Dr. Erin Tababa-Santos, creator of The Nerdy Derma

Have you always longed for that fresh, glowing, no-makeup look? With this step-by-step guide to Korean skincare routines, anyone can attain healthy skin. But Skincare for Your Soul takes it one step further; it guides you to a place where skincare is also self-care.

The Korean skin care journey. As much as we’d like, glowing, clear skin doesn’t happen overnight. But there is beauty in the process, not just the results. Author Jude Chao links skincare to self-care culture, giving readers a practical guide to developing an ideal skincare routine and using it to help manage stress, anxiety, and depression. The Korean skincare routine invites us to look at our skincare not only as a way to reduce lines and wrinkles or clear up breakouts, but as a tool for developing our self-care habits.

Steady improvement is the goal. Photoshopped perfection is neither realistic nor a healthy goal. What matters is caring for our mental health and building our self-esteem by intentionally taking time each day to give our skin some love. But it starts with changing how we view skincare and developing a routine that fits our personal needs and goals, and Chao helps you do that.

Dive into Chao’s book on K-beauty

An easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to skincare
A clear breakdown of skincare products (not brands), and pros and cons to help customize your routine
How Korean skin care can be a reliable and effective mental health management tool
Tips for avoiding common types of exploitative and manipulative beauty marketing

If you enjoyed books like The Little Book of Skin Care, The Skincare Bible, or Glow from Within, you’ll love Skincare for Your Soul.

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Someplace Generous

Generous Press is a new kind of romance imprint. Someplace Generous–a vibrantly diverse and inclusive anthology of romantic short stories–can be described in one word: yes.

Featuring stories by award-winning poets like Richard Siken, Rachel McKibbens, and Brionne Janae; acclaimed fiction writers like Temim Fruchter, Corinne Manning, and Max Delsohn; and popular thinkers like Jessica P. Pryde, Someplace Generous presents voices largely new to the genre of romance, each bringing a fresh take on what it means to tell a love story.

This first book from Generous Press, a new imprint committed to changing the face of romance genre-fiction, is a collection of twenty-two never-before-published stories about joy, passion, and generous consent.

In these pages, desire is centered and explored through queer, trans, Black, AAPI, Latinx, Jewish, disabled, and neurodivergent lenses, and the ages of authors and characters span generations.

The brilliant authors herein have spun lush, poetic tales featuring characters and perspectives historically excluded from romance narratives. Through a variety of styles, lengths, and subgenres–ranging from flash-fiction to short stories, speculative to satire to romcom–there is something here for every kind of reader.

Two Modern Orthodox Jewish women cross a magical threshold on the holiday of Shavuot. A Chinese American grandmother in a nursing home plays matchmaker, just in time for the Lunar New Year. A nonbinary sexworker with psychic abilities helps an older woman connect with her long-lost lover. Two disabled young adults find new levels of intimacy as they work to overcome shame. An enslaved couple jumps the broom and can see the future, which is freedom.

The lovers in Someplace Generous–whether they are sapphic vampires or undercover super-heroes, teenagers, or middle-aged mamas–choose each other, and along the way, they choose themselves, too.

Featuring twenty-two stories by twenty-two authors, Someplace Generous presents voices largely new to the genre of romance-fiction, each bringing a fresh take on what it means to tell a love story.

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