title: Being Martha: The Inside Story of Martha Stewart and Her Amazing Life
author: Lloyd Allen
description: Get ready for the slew of books on Martha Stewart now that her prison term is completed--some obnoxiously pro-Martha, others tenuous (since, after all, she is one of the world's wealthiest women), and some straightforward, without bias. Former Connecticut neighbor Allen definitely falls in the first category--all Martha, all the way. There is little, in fact, to report on the negative front; Allen had ample access to family and friends to paint a flattering portrait. To be sure, her ego reads loud and clear, like her yearbook quote: "I do what I please and I do it with ease." Tracing her background back to the Kostyra household, he touches on her multitude of successes--in modeling, stock brokerage, catering, and book publishing and as CEO--along with the well-documented ImClone troubles. Occasionally, as a seeming sop to the critics, he'll add a few words of so-called objectivity--for instance, she had "trouble connecting with people on an intimate level." On the whole, nothing is probed in detail; it's fairly clear that this not-so-authorized bio has been blessed by the powers that be.
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  **THE DRIVER**
  
  A John Milton Novel
  
    
  
  Mark Dawson
  
    
  
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  We stood at the turning point. Half-measures availed us nothing.
  
   _– The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous_
  
    
    
  
  “Each man’s death diminishes me,
  
  For I am involved in mankind,
  
  Therefore, send not to know,
  
  For whom the bell tolls,
  
  It tolls for thee.”
  
   _– ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls,’ John Donne_
  
   **#1**  
   **TABITHA BETTY WILSON**
  
  TABBY WILSON updated her Craigslist profile on the night she was murdered. She
  tweaked her personal information a little and added a new selfie that she had
  taken that same afternoon. It was a good likeness of her: she was wearing
  wispy red lingerie, her skin was smooth and blemish-free and she was wearing a
  crazy blonde wig that made her look a little like Lana del Rey. She looked
  fine, she thought. Her expression was sultry and provocative, almost daring
  men to contact her. She was slender and had big eyes, androgynous with that
  alien look that was so popular o