Author: Jocelyn Crowley File Type: pdf After twenty, thirty, or even forty years of marriage, countless vacations together, raising well-adjusted children, and sharing property and financeswhat could go wrong? GrayDivorceoffers a provocative look at the growing rate of marital splits after the age of 50, showcasing the voices of men and women who are considering, going through, or have undergone one. With empathy and insight, Jocelyn Crowley, who has written widely on family issues, uncovers the reasons for why men and womendivorceand the penalties and benefits that each pay for their choice. From the outside, many may ask why couples in mid-life and readying for retirement choose to make a drastic change in their marital status. Yet nearly 1 out of every 4divorcesis gray. Crowley sheds light on whydivorceoccursseeing marriage in a different lens, understanding the seismic shift in individual priorities, and the impact of the increase in life expectancy. With a deft eye, she analyzes the experiences of women and men as they go through this life transitionspecifically how women are affected economically while men are affected socially. With a realistic yet passionate voice, Crowley shares the personal positive outlooks and the necessary supportive public policies that must take place to best help new divorcees. Engaging and instructive,GrayDivorceis a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary American culture.

Author: Simon Baatz File Type: mobi From Publishers WeeklyIn 1924, Nathan Leopold, 19, and Richard Loeb, 18, both intellectually precocious scions of wealthy Jewish Chicago families, kidnapped and brutally murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in an attempt to commit the perfect crime. Historian Baatz, of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, replays the crime (on which Meyer Levins 1956 novel Compulsion was based) from the killers point of view, detailing their intense, often sexual, relationship that culminated in the murder. But they left a crucial piece of evidence and eventually confessed to the murder. Clarence Darrow cleverly had the boys plead guilty to avoid a trial, and the legendary defense attorney went head to head with States Attorney Robert Crowe in a sentencing hearing before Judge John Caverly. Both sides trotted out psychiatrists to testify whether Leopold and Loeb were mentally ill. Darrows gamble paid off in life sentences. Loeb was murdered in prison in 1936 Leopold was eventually paroled in 1958. Baatz gives an acute portrait of the two murderers bound together in a web of fantasy, but his heavy reliance on novelistic techniques (there!he had done it) and meandering pacing prevent this from being as convincing as his exhaustive research deserves. B&w photos. (Aug.) br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. FromStarred Review Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb have been the objects of derision and curiosity ever since the sensational murder they committed on Chicagos South Side in 1924. These two privileged teenagers, who killed little Bobby Franks, a neighbor, alsofrom a privileged family,just for the thrill of achieving the perfect crime (a murder that would never be solved), have become almost legendary bad boys.Baatzs comprehensive account of the case succeeds in identifyingtheir peculiar personality traits as well as what it was in the nature of their relationship thatmade thembelievein their infallibility in performingthe ultimate crime. All of Leopold and Loebsintense planning quickly unraveled, however, whenthe victims body was discovered soon after the murder the murderers had counted on the body never being located. The second strong point of this exhaustively researched and rivetingly presented account is the thoroughness with which the authorreconstructs the police investigation and the trial itself a vivid portrait of the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow, who defended Leopold and Loeb, is a fascinating by-product. One of the best true-crime books of thisor any other season. --Brad Hooper PIt was a crime that shocked the nation, a brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child, by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb had first met several years earlier, and their friendship had blossomed into a love affair. Both were intellectualstoo smart, they believed, for the police to catch them. However, the police had recovered an important clue at the scene of the crimea pair of eyeglassesand soon both Leopold and Loeb were in the custody of Cook County. They confessed, and Robert Crowe, the states attorney, announced to newspaper reporters that he had a hanging case. No defense, he believed, would save the two ruthless killers from the gallows.Set against the backdrop of the 1920s, a time of prosperity, self-indulgence, and hedonistic excess, For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a lost world, a world of speakeasies and flappers, of gangsters and gin parties, that existed when Chicago was...