Mommy’s Little Girl by Diane Fanning

Mommy’s Little Girl: Casey Anthony and Her Daughter Caylee’s Tragic Fate by Diane Fanning

I’m one of the people who followed the tragic case of Caylee Anthony from the time her disappearance was finally reported to the police. I kept up with the online posts and of course, Nancy Grace who covered the case week after week and keeping it in the news for months.

So – I’ve heard the jail recordings, heard the breaking news nightly, etc – but I still learned some new tidbits from this book. I was curious if I would find anything new – and Diane came through for me It was also nice to read the story in chronilogical order along with Fanning’s scenario of what happened from the day Caylee “disappeared” until the story was covered aggressively by the media.

Anyone I talked to who followed the case – was familiar with basics of the case, felt bad for Cindy and George Anthony. Who wouldn’t be heartbroken for the loving grandparents who lost their granddaughter? There is Lee Anthony who seemed to be the caring brother and uncle – frantic to find his neice and to protect his sister. Over time, my impression of the Anthony’s changed. While I agree wanting to help and protect loved ones, I felt myself agreeing with Cindy’s frustrated family members as I read the book.

We will each draw our own conclusions about how Caylee died, about Casey’s guilt or innocence, whether the other Anthony’s have any knowledge of what really happened and much more. But Diane Fanning’s book is a great way to sort through all the media reports and to clearly see the timeline and the events as we know them to be at this time. Once the trial gets under way, I think it will also be helpful to have this “pocket guide” to verify or dispute claims made by the attorneys and witnesses. I have my own thoughts about what happened to poor little Caylee, but my heartfelt hope is that the person responsible for her death are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Out There by Diane Fanning

I’m sure most people heard about the astronaut love triangle and the former Shuttle astronaut who drove from Texas to Florida to confront the woman who had taken her lover’s attention. That is the story that Diane Fanning tells in this book.

If you enjoy true crime and haven’t read any Diane Fanning books, I highly recommend that you pick one up. This book is very good too.

She begins by recounting the confrontation we heard about in the news. That was the part of the story we all knew. Former shuttle astronaut drives to Florida to meet up with a woman who had captured the heart of her boyfriend. Two astronauts and a woman in the Air Force were involved and Lisa Nowak’s arrest photo certainly didn’t look like her NASA photos.

After recounting the news information, Diane takes us back to meet a very driven young girl who always dreamed of going into space. She watched the monumental mountains in US space history in the late 1960′s and she wanted to go to space. In the 1960′s that was a far off dream for any woman. Fanning tells us about much of NASA history and some military history as it related to women being permitted to fly.

We come along on the journey as Lisa Marie Caputo strives for excellence and pushes herself toward that dream. She graduates from high school and goes to the Naval Academy. There she meets her future husband Richard Nowak.

The family move all over the country, but each stage of their lives brings Lisa closer and closer to NASA. In the mean time, space travel is changing and eventually woman are being accepted into the astronaut program. We watch as Lisa learns of the Challenger explosion and as she wonders if the space program will continue in the US. Her dream gets so close before she loses friends in another shuttle disaster.

I really enjoyed how Fanning shares the internal and external forces that push Lisa Nowak as she marches toward her dream of going to space. No matter what happens in Lisa’s world, she keeps that positive face for the world, but inside the cracks are starting to show.

Her good friend Bill Oefelein becomes her lover and although her marriage is still together, his marriage ends when his wife learns about the affair. But, over time, Bill’s romantic interests change and he becomes involved with Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman. We learn that Bill eventually told Lisa that their romance was over, but his actions sent her mixed signals.

Diane Fanning gives us insights from many perspectives and many inspects into the lives of astronauts before, during and after space travel. I learned many things about NASA and the space program that I never knew and these details certainly added to the story. For anyone who would like to learn about the people behind the headlines in this bizarre case, I highly recommend Out There by Diane Fanning.

Nikki Leigh
www.nikkileigh.com

Baby Be Mine by Diane Fanning

I’ve been a fan of true crime books for many years and have several favorites that I read. However, in March of 2006, I met Diane Fanning when I moderated a panel she was on at the Festival of the Book. To prepare for our panel discussion, I read two of her books and I was hooked. She takes the true crime book to a new level that I appreciate.

She doesn’t just give the well publicized facts of the case, but she digs deeper. In Baby Be Mine, she gave a lot of information which some may consider to be unnecessary and I was a little confused at first. However, as I continued to read, I realized she was giving us information about the collateral damage that was caused by this act of violence. The repercussions were felt by many people in many areas and not just the immediate family of the victim.

I found the information she wove into the book about similar crimes to be very enlightening and it gave more depth to the Bobbie Jo Stinnett murder. For this case, murder does not seem like a sufficient description of the crime perpetrated on her. I appreciated the additional information that was included in the book and feel it made the content even more compelling. I have two other books of Diane’s in my to be read pile and hope to read them soon.

Review By Nikki Leigh – www.nikkileigh.com