Friends Don't Let Friends Marry a Kennedy
My favorite book of 2024
What's your favorite book genre?
For me, it's memoirs and biographies.
Isn't it interesting how we all have a genre that we are just naturally drawn to?
In 2024, I made it my New Year's resolution to read fifty books, which, I am sad to say, I did not do (in my defense, I am also a huge politics and current events nerd who loves reading news articles, so I ended up doing that A LOT more around the election than I did reading books.) However, I did come close, and I wanted to share my favorite in case you are looking for recommendations.
This brings me to what may be my favorite (well-written and fascinating) and least favorite (it's so stressful and depressing to read!) book of 2024:
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan
As a millennial, I like to think that I know more about Camelot than most of my peers.
I remember JFK Jr.'s death, as it not only graced the cover of every tabloid at every grocery store check-out line but also because our next-door neighbors from New York made a memorial for him at City Park. (They were in the newspaper. I was nine, and it was a pretty big deal.)
When my great-aunt died, I inherited her JFK memorabilia collection, including an old Life Magazine with the late president on the cover.
My mom has always admired Jackie O., and she would mention her off and on throughout my childhood.
I knew about Marilyn, her breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday," and the slinky dress that future sex pot Kim Kardashian would later wear (and tear).
Despite doing my due diligence through the years (reading the People magazine after JFK Jr. died in 1999, doing various Google searches, and listening to RFK Jr. on many podcasts), I was nowhere prepared for the devastation in the pages of this book.
Jack's (nor Bobby's) wandering eye didn't stop at Marilyn - there were interns, secretaries, family friends, and strangers - many of who either transmitted or received an STD from the president (including his wife).
There was Mary Jo Kopechne, whose story I was blissfully unaware of. Sadly, I cannot unread what I read - Ted Kennedy was a murderer and a serial scumbag.
And Rosemary - poor, poor Rosemary. She was the apple of her brother's eye until, one day, she just disappeared. She loved her father, but he didn't reciprocate it. (But how could he when she was so "broken"?)
And what about Joan Kennedy?
Mary Richardson Kennedy?
Martha Moxley?
The list goes on and on (and on and on).
I love memoirs and biographies because they offer such an intimate look at the person and make you feel like you know them more personally.
Ask Not made me feel like I was in the car with Mary Jo, gasping for air and praying that help was coming soon.
In the first chapter alone, I felt like I was at the hospital with Jackie, the smell of death thick in the air (and splattered all over her dress).
"Carolyn, do not get into the plane with John Jr.!" I wanted to beg. (I wish I could find that old newspaper article about my neighbors. I can't remember if Carolyn and her sister were mentioned in the memorial or if it was strictly John-John.)
If you are looking for a great read (and a history lesson) in 2025 that you cannot put down, I cannot recommend Ask Not enough. History never looks how we think it does, and the pages in this book are all the proof you need.