Bad enough that GR has succumbed to the dark side once again and banned Linda Hilton but the release of toxicity has also brought about the untimely release someone unmissed and unlamented from the boobyhatch.
And look! She's unwell enough to still be talking to herself.
I thought Rick Carufel was in charge of her care, he's off my Christmas card list now and no invitation to the New Years party.
37 pages in and I must say it's already quite an experience. First off, Howard covers approximately 55 yrs in 208 pages so it seems that maybe there just isn't that much to tell. Howard starts out when she was 19, tossing in a couple sentences about having Ann all to herself until the age of 15 and that her parents gave her the example of a strong, loving marriage and all the advantages of a very well off lifestyle.
Chapter 1 is prefaced with a headshot of a young Margo and she is gorgeous, too bad it's only skin deep. As Howard starts her narrative she freely admits to having no ambition, no desire to do anything other than find a husband because that's what girls after college, which Howard left after her first senior term.
The tone of Howard's writing is jarring, she sounds like that 19 yr old girl. It's unsettling. On page 1 she name drops Hubert Humphrey and Dr Bob Stolar, a dermatologist of some renown. Ann Landers knew a lot of powerful and influential people.
Talking about her internship for Humphrey (new dating pool!) Howard easily admits that not only does filing bore her she couldn't be bothered to figure out how to do it correctly. Oh, well. She sounds a little testy about JFK never hitting on her. Page 6 and Howard name drops 4 names including JFK and Henry "Scoop" Jackson.
She talks about her suitors and marriage proposals, three proposals and one engagement before she settled on suitor number 4. She talks for one paragraph about the beginnings of the women's movement and how it never interested her because she liked to bat her eyelashes. So do I but then I guess even at the same age I was already more complex than Howard. She comes off as completely self absorbed and rather dim.
She talks about learning later on the difference between loving and in love and we move on to chapter 2 which starts with a picture of the bride and groom, take 1. Husband #1 is thrown under the bus- he is cold, distant, ambitious, alcoholic and married. He proposed, she accepted and then this charmer tells her he needs to divorce wife #1. This does not deter Howard and I have this feeling that the dumber the decision the harder Howard is going to cling to it. Her parents and friends beg her not to do this but being the dumbest thing to do Howard keeps going.
I wore a demure Priscilla of Boston lace gown with seed pearls. The veil was anchored by a crown. (I would love a do-over on that one.) -from Eat, Drink and Remarry. My first thought? A bigger crown?
for the first three years of her life
They honeymooned in Spain and Portugal, Howard remembers Beluga caviar and the really rich older man she met by the pool who was a child of the shah and "endlessly fascinating".
Home again and after the thank yous are written Howard discovers she is pregnant. Easy pregnancy, hard labor, beautiful, sunny baby. Howard has a baby nurse for the first three months. As the three month period we'd engaged her for neared an end, I realized I hadn't been paying much attention to what she had done to care for Abra, and I still needed her to give me lessons in how to do this mothering thing myself. -from book
She talks of a difficult marriage, a distant husband and father and wonders if that is why she was so detached from her children when they were little and she says she regrets this and then wonders if a warmer, more loving husband would have made her a better mother. My younger two children seem to have some understanding of these early difficulties of mine and have forgiven me. The eldest, Abra, I feel has not- although it was she who had the most attention from me for the first three years of her life when she was an only child. - from book.
Am I the only one thinking somebody is angry and it's not Abra?
She had a bad marriage and a lot of money. Sounds like a description from a 40s pot boiler.They bought the townhouse of the owner of Mogen David wines and she had her "own" saleswoman at Stanley Korshak.
Howard relates a little story of being invited to dinner at the house of someone Coleman knew through business. After dinner in the parlor Howard asked who was the woman in the portrait? The wife said, "Well, that's me." Honest to God the next thing out of my mouth was,"No! Who would have a portrait of themselves with their old nose?" We were, and this is no exaggeration, shown the door three minutes later and the evening was over. (But seriously, who would not get a new portrait?) - from book.
Somewhere, back a few pages Howard mentions her mother starting the Ann Landers column and moving away from "the twin thing" and how the "twin" piggy-backed on it and became Dear Abbie. The resentment oozes.
Indeed, there seems to be a lot of resentment and pouting going on and, so far, Howard comes off as having all the depth of onionskin.
37 pages, my friends, this is going to be a looong, bumpy ride.
I think there should be an age limit on becoming a BBA because poor Margo is just becoming a really bad joke as she tries much too hard to become one. Unbecoming and embarrassing. 
There's nothing golden about this girl- she's acting more like a cheap piece of Walmart costume jewelry.
Notice in the first ss she claims I'm "cheating" the system by upvoting her book on Listopia, that might be difficult because I don't think I did. Then she comes out and tries to "subtly" threaten my Vine status.
In the second ss she points out my review, which was a rating first before GR pulled it because saying I didn't think the author would agree with me is about the author not my actions, was posted very soon after she tried her "brilliant marketing strategy". Yes, and I have said that I don't reward bad behavior, one star for the cheater. This is the "coaching" from Linda:
If you have read my review of her book you will notice that none of the suggestions from Linda are there but I do point to several specific middle and near the end examples to prove that, yes, I have read the mess.
So she put together a "package" of my reviews and comments? Wut? Amazon does not care what you do elsewhere just what you do on their site but obviously Maggie thinks that this will, what? I don't know. Notice that when I point out specific points in her book she sidesteps?
In the third she talks about my blog, probably the one I wrote after she called me. Wonder what they would think if they read her blog where she claims to have made this whole mess up to generate interest in her book? Or the one where she lists reviews from GR and tries to mock them?
Yeah, yeah, I'll back mine over hers any day of the week.
THen in the last the ominous "proper channels". Are you kidding me? This is the woman who came back to GR under the stealthy name of spencemaggie to argue with posters on my status after she was banned?
Poor Maggie, still stripping on the corner, begging for quarters.
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