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Summary: To Bookworm
Review: Out of curiosity, how are we supposed to e-mail you without an address?
Rating: 
Summary: I lived the story
Review: Debora Green and her surviving child are vary close friends of my family and have been for many, many years. You notice I leave Mike Farrar out of the equation. There are reasons, and for those of you bright enough to spot the overwhelming bias in this book, bravo for you. I am a huge Ann Rule fan, mostly because I have always found her to be fair and unbiased when she writes these horrific tales, however, upon reading Bitter Harvest, I found myself disturbed, yes, but not just because of the terrors in the lives of these people. My disturbance came from the fact that it leans so heavily to Dr. Farrar being Mr. Wonderful and completely innocent.Anyone around knows the real story. I'm not saying Debora was, by any stretch of the imagination, perfect. Yes, Debora was a raging alcoholic. That is not a fact that she has ever denied. Yes, there were many problems in that family, but to Debora, her children always came first and formost, however, alcoholism is a serious disease and there were times she was ill-equiped to handle motherhood. That didn't mean she wanted her children dead. There are many things I could say about that night, the night of the fire, and how the investigation was handled. There was a disturbing lack of evidence in this case, and Debora is now serving a "hard 40" which in Kansas, is considered life. But the big thing I will say is, if you read this book, if you waste your time on this biased and completely unfair story, while you read of "Lissa," who is my friend, think of this...Lissa loves her mom dearly. She still does and always has. She visits her almost weekly, making the hour-and-a-half each way drive to spend just a few hours talking with her. She still has many demons to overcome and has had a hard road to trsvel. But she supports and stands by her mother steadfastly. I believe Ann Rule usually gets to know the people she writes of, but in this case, she has no idea about these people, Debora or Lissa, and she only knows of Mike the fascade he put on for her. Keep your eye on this case. There are new developments in arson investigation and some of the top experts in the world are interested in Debora. If you want to know, please feel free to email me. It is my hope that the truth of this story gets out someday.
Rating: 
Summary: Good and Juicy
Review: "Bitter Harvest" is excellent. How can one review Ann Rule? She's always great! This is a riveting story about a highly intelligent woman gone haywire. (The woman read a book on her wedding night...) It's got a bitter divorce, a Betty Broderick-type mom ripping the husband to the kids, an affair, alcoholism, poisoning, and a couple of murders. It's a thick book, but it's so hard to put down, it's a fast read. Totally worth every penny. Thanks again, Ms. Rule!
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Summary: Biased By Far
Review: Became a recent Ann Rule fan after reading an article about her in Readers Digest. Have read 8 of her books in less then 2 months, with Bitter Harvest being the 8th. I can't begin to tell everyone how disapointed I was in her portrayal of Debora Green. I'm not in anyway siding with Dr. Green but Ann Rule had no right to appoint herself judge and jury from page one and try to get her readers to go along with her. I always do my own follow-up of the cases after I've read her book and I'm glad to learn that Debora may get a new trial and that her daughter Kate(Lissa) is by her side. Ms. Rule has updates on her website on all her books also but has neglected to mention this one. Shame on you ANN RULE!!!
Rating:
Summary: held my interest until the end
Review: This isn't one of Ann's best but is still very good. Dr. Debora Green was, in my opinion, either under the influence of drugs /and or alcohol if she really did set fire to her beautiful house, killing two of her three children. I'm not excusing her, according to this book she didn't make a very desirable wife or mother, but this didn't give her husband an excuse to cheat on her. Dr. Green was supposedly a brilliant woman, but on her wedding night she supposedly chose to retire with a book. This sounds almost like me. I SAID ALMOST! I believe there really is a fine line between genius and insanity. I love Ann's books, but in this one she seems to take the side of the adulterous husband, who should have just left if he didn't want his family anymore. Some people have the psychological makeup that causes them to snap under extreme pressure, especially when they are substance abusers. I hear
Dr. Green may be getting a new trial, due to the discovery of new evidence. I hope she is proved innocent, if only for the sake of her remaining daughter, Kate.
Rating: 
Summary: Referring to the abridged audiobook - Not Very Good
Review: This is my first True Crime book ever and an audiobook at that, but I was very disappointed by the experience and if I hadn't been trapped in the car with the choice of listening to PBS interview some flute player from blabistan or these tapes I would never have made it through.
First of all, the writing is pretty sad.
"Deborah is a vivacious funny woman with a great sense of humor,
but she was prone to fits of rage, but she was a good mother, but she used the kids as a wedge against mike, but she was an alcoholic, but they both stuck together never really knowing why they got married in the first place....." Seriously, it goes on like that for pages and pages.
Second, the lady reading the book, I forget her name, is a bit of a stuffed shirt, sort of like the lady interviewer on PBS radio and the one really funny moment in the book is :
"Deborah was an articulate speaker who was always the life of the party, but she was an introvert prone to fits of rage where she would use profanity such as A-hole and F-hole" when the narrator had to swear it clearly was uncomfortable for her and the result was so funny I laughed so hard I had to rewind.
Anyway, it pretty much fell on its face and the worst part of it all, is we never find out what really happened for sure because its a true story and nobody knows the answer.
Rating: 
Summary: Riveting but disturbing
Review: It's been several years since I've read an Ann Rule book, but I remember liking her writing style. So, when this story didn't get off to a running start, I trusted Rule to have chosen an interesting story to tell and knew it would soon turn into a riveting tale. I was not disappointed. The cliché, "you can not make this stuff up", applies here. This is not a feel good story, but it's a very interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Ann Rule, Rules
Review: Loved the book...Like the "victim" wife in Rule's book, "Last Dance" (who I just wanted to slap) I wanted to slap Green's husband for leaving those kids with her for a minute. This book is keenly written, and it is yet another book by her that I could not put down.. Great story..Way worth the time and money.
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