Welcome to Litsy!

We never get to hear the stories of the five women murdered by the mysterious Jack the Ripper. We‘re only told they were the undesirables, the whores of Whitechapel. Here, the author gives us a look into each of their lives, and the systemic pains that led up to their last moments. These women deserved love and a chance at happiness. Instead, they were murdered horrifically in darkness, while at their most vulnerable, painful moments. We may⬇️

The loss of these five…lives is a tragedy…You may view with some distaste the lifestyles of those involved…whatever drugs they took, whatever the work they did, no-one is entitled to do these women any harm, let alone kill them. —Mr. Justice Gross, R v. Steven Gerald James Wright (the “Suffolk Strangler”), 2008

I far preferred the audiobook for this one. Rubenhold did a wonderful job of humanising these women, as well as addressing the importance of Not forgetting them amidst the infamy of their killer. It is sad just how much of the views of these women in their day are making a come back today. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Trying this again as an audiobook. Fingers crossed.
#HallieRubenhold #TheFive #audiobook #JackTheRipper #SecondChance #SecondAttempt

#Wardens2024 #ReadAway2024 #BookSpinBingo

🤯❤️‍🔥 Absolutely nothing in this that I didn‘t love! The narration imo was phenomenal. Highly recommended🤓📚

I am in the introduction. Not even in the actual book yet, just the introduction! And I have already learned so much! For some reason the killing spree of Jack the Ripper and the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria being in the same time period just never clicked. Then there‘s the monetary system. I had some googling to do on that. Again I haven‘t even touched the main book yet! 😳😳😳

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane

This book chronicles the lives of the five women who were the confirmed victims of Jack the Ripper. Contrary to popular belief, not all the women were sex workers but all had difficult lives, suffered from alcoholism, were subjected to poverty, abuse, and lived on the streets, making them the perfect targets for the monster hunting among Whitechapel‘s vulnerable population.

Finished my first pick from @Birdsong28 #auldlangspine list. After reading this I am very curious to learn more about mid-1800 London. The workhouses and rented beds intrigue me. Id like to know how the city transformed. I may have liked more details about the cases, perhaps because I‘m in Corrections. The victims were quickly written off as vagrants and prostitutes, the book uncovered so much more. They shared a thread of addiction and loss.

Rubenhold tells the stories of the women killed by Jack the Ripper, giving them back something of a voice in a world that has so frequently reduced them to a gory historical footnote.

Empathic and heartbreaking, the poverty, inequality, lack of social mobility and opportunity for the poor in Victorian Britain are brought devastatingly to life.

Humanising and moving.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of my reading goals for 2023 was to finish all my #bookspin and #doublebookspin reads. I finished all 24, and 23 out of the 24 I finished during the month they were selected. I love what a wide variety of books this encourages me to read.

@TheAromaOfBooks #bookspinbingo

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks 🥰

Thanks so much for hosting!

The Five is a fascinating and insightful read, one I really wish I‘d got to sooner. If you‘re on the fence about picking this one up, let me be the one to tip you over to the side of “yes”. True crime readers will likely find it dry and scant on grisly details, but hopefully will recognise the reason for that and understand its importance in the broader context. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-five-hallie-rubenhold/

★★★★★

Unexpectedly excellent.

#fREADom #UniteAgainstBookBans

I feel this may be an #UnpopularOpinion but this books fell a little short for me. The social history element is fascinating, the mere fact that it gives the Ripper victims their identities back makes it an important book, and Rubenhold has clearly done a lot of research, but I felt there was an element of the author interpreting evidence to fit with her pre-determined opinion, and despite the research, a fair bit of supposition.
#RushAthon

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

In 1888 a series of brutal killings took place in Whitechapel, London. Jack the Ripper has gone down in infamy. But an obsession to identify the killer both then and now has meant that the victims of these terrible crimes have been largely forgotten. Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly all met their end at the hands of this monstrous killer and their lives deserve to be remembered.

I like the focus on the women and learning about them. However, I found myself zoning out. The women were distinct individuals and they each had their own story, yet they were the same. I hate saying that in this book though the author doesn‘t find that particular super distinctive part of each woman.
3 ⭐️ - Interesting just to learn they weren‘t what/who the Ripper narrative makes them out to be.

January was the best reading month I've had in a very long time. I managed 5 bingos in my #bookspinbingo! Audiobooks, novellas, and breaking my nonfiction reading into smaller daily chapter goals really made a difference in how many books I could get through.

#bookspin #doublebookspin @TheAromaofBooks

Such a brilliant book about the lives of the 5 (canonical) women killed by Jack the Ripper. Victims are so often ignored in favor of glorifying a killer. Rubenhold recitfies this by telling the stories of Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, & Mary Jane, all of whom experienced horrific circumstances & were usually homeless (& asleep) at the time of their murder. Illuminating and necessary. More victims deserve to have their stories told like this.

4/5

This is a fascinating book the illuminates the lives of the five women Jack the Ripper murdered. It corrects the historical record, for example most of these women were never prostitutes, and details their journeys to poverty and homelessness in Whitehall in a devastating narrative that forces the reader to see each woman as an individual not just some insignificant part of a story that has become almost mythological.

#bookspin: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold
#doublebookspin: Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy

@TheAromaofBooks #bookspinbingo

I have chosen my 15 favorite books of the year. I couldn't narrow it down more than that. I don't know how anyone chooses one favorite book. These are five of my favorites. Pictured are three spooky gothic books, a cozy scifi about the human condition, and a nonfiction book giving murder victims their humanity back.

My November Wrap Up

The Five was definitely my best of the month. I hadn‘t read much about Jack the Ripper before, but this look at the lives of the women he attacked was riveting. (For a great fiction pairing I‘d recommend People of Abandoned Character, which I read in Oct.)

Others I really liked: Sourdough, Scorpica, Life on the Rocks, Bi, and Fatty Fatty Boom Boom. Only 7 for #NonfictionNovember, but I‘m satisfied with that.

Such an important book! We've spent the last 134 years being fascinated by the gruesome deaths of Polly, Annie, Kate, Elizabeth, and Mary Jane. We've elevated their killer as an antihero who killed "prostitutes", when he was just a monster and have dehumanized these five women who were his victims. I'm so glad this author did all this research and wrote this book. I'm so glad I learned about the lives of these five women.

At the time of the murders, the belief that Jack the Ripper was a killer of prostitutes helped to reinforce the moral codes of right and wrong. However, while it served an agenda in 1888, this often repeated line fails to serve any obvious purpose today. Nevertheless it is still the one "fact" about the murders upon which everyone can agree. And yet, it does not bear scrutiny.

I needed an audiobook to listen to until my next requested one is available and I was reminded of this book I've been meaning to read. Thankfully it was available immediately on Libby.

It was interesting reading this just after People of Abandoned Character, and seeing a nonfiction version of the victims I just read of in fiction.

It‘s disheartening to know that society made such stark assumptions about all five of these women based only on the facts that they had suffered various hardships and were divorced/ separated/ otherwise on their own and very down on their luck. (Also I‘m not surprised- has the view of ⬇️

Honourable mention to "The Stranger Diaries" by Elly Griffiths

Walking the streets of London, ON, made me extra depressed as I thought about how the divide between those well off and the poor is still beyond staggering and much of the attitudes towards them are the same.
So much of what happened to these women was just by chance, by a change here or there in circumstance. Rubenhold succeeds at showing you what happens when society deems you as nothing or worthless from the get go.

The 5 in question are the 5 victims of Jack the Ripper. The author looks at what is known or can be reconstructed (there is a lot of “would have“ and “must have“ ) of their lives up until the night each met her end. Except for the last victim they were vulnerable because they were homeless.

A fascinating look at the lives of the poor, particularly poor women, in Victorian Britain, what success and failure meant for them.

Gee does this description of the 1870s-1080s feel familiar or what? Lovely to know we now have the same conditions that spawned Jack the Ripper (most likely because they never really went away)

📚The Five, Finding Gobi, The Flight Attendant, The Four Winds
🖋F. Scott Fitzgerald
📺 Friends, FBI franchise, Felicity
🎥 The Favourite, Forrest Gump, Frozen, Finding Nemo, A Few Good Men
🎤Fleetwood Mac
🎶Fame by David Bowie, Fairytale of New York by The Pogues, Fields of Gold by Sting, Fix You by Coldplay, Funkytown by Lipps, Inc.

#manicmonday #letterf

#manicmonday #letterf @CBee

Tagged
Susan Fletcher
Fake or Fortune
Five
5, 6, 7, 8 by Steps

#AlphabetGame #letterf

Tagged book very good

Make a great day everyone 🌞

My favourite #letterf book. She also recently did a podcast based on this book called Bad Women: The Ripper Retold. The book goes deeper into the lives of the five cannon Ripper victims and goes beyond the sensational headlines. #alphabetgame

#AlphabetGame. Today‘s letter is F.

Fantastic nonfiction!
#alphabetgame #LetterF @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Had to go to my 2021 reads to find a 5 ⭐ #letterf read! #alphabetgame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

An absolutely stunningly researched and brilliantly narrated piece on the real lives of the 5 canonical Jack the Ripper victims. No sensationalism, but it brings to life the real struggles and hardships of women in the Victorian era and paints a heart rending picture of what lead them to Whitechapel and shows their humanity and shines a light of truth on history rather than making assumptions.

My next read is another sort of retelling. This time it‘s the non-fiction retelling of the lives of the five women killed by Jack the Ripper.

Excellent book with plenty of information about the living conditions of women during the Victorian age. Hallie Rubenhold tries her best to reconstruct the lives of the five women killed by Jack the Ripper, from their childhood to the day of their violent death. The focus is really on these women's lives, Jack the Ripper is barely mentioned, which I find refreshing.

Exhaustively researched, Rubenhold tells the stories of the five women known as the canonical victims of Jack the Ripper with great respect and impeccable attention to detail. Dismantling the perpetuating myth that Ripper preyed on “common prostitutes,” their stories shine a light on the role misogyny played in their deaths and in the societal narrative still surrounding their deaths today. An important read for any true crime consumer. 4⭐️

Cookbooks and true crime and Litsy. Oh my! #barnesandnoble #saturdaynight

First book for #womenshistorymonth is one of my super favs — The Five: The Untold Story of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold. I absolutely suggest this well researched and presented nonfic. It reads like a historical documentary you‘d hear on TV. Totally accessible to all levels of interest. Also a podcast! Great to learn about Victorian era + women‘s history in that time

I was surprised the author was able to find as much information about them as she was. I was extra surprised to read about Mary Jane Kelly, but I won‘t spoil it! I listened to the audio book and my mind wandered occasionally, but not much. I was interested enough a few times to rewind, as well, so as to not miss what was just said.

Book 2 for #NYWD22 - This has been on my TBR since it‘s release and @Patchshank ‘s list gave me the final push to pick this up. Rubenhold does an amazing job revealing the lives of Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane and gives us an accurate description of poverty in Victorian England. I listened to this in bursts, because the realties of these women were grim.

I just finished this audiobook (not typically an audiobook fan). I wouldn‘t call this an “enjoyable” book by any means , given its content, but it was most certainly worth the listen. I‘m glad to know these women‘s stories…even though listening to how they were treated was totally enraging.

I finished my December reading with the tagged audiobook, and it was a great nonfiction choice. With it, I managed to include at least one nonfiction every month this year. I had an overall great reading month with 20 completed books, making it my best #BookSpinBingo this year. That includes 5 #1001books, several MG/YA choices for the #TRS2021 list, and a few Christmas audiobooks as well.

#ReadingStats #MonthlyStats

I was amazed by the amount of information in this book about Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Kate, and Mary Jean. The author researched so many details of the lives of these women killed by Jack the Ripper and was able to tell fairly complete life stories of 4 of the 5. Hearing the details of their lives and life in general for many poor, working class women in Victorian London was both heartbreaking and infuriating.

#Nonfiction #audiobook

I now have an even greater appreciation for the positive impact birth control has on women‘s lives! 😌