So I’ve kind of fallen down on the non-fiction in quarter three. This is the fault of my current non-fiction read. I’ve been trying to read Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe for months now. Is it because it’s a bad book I hear you ask? No, it’s an incredible book, too incredible in fact. Patrick Radden Keefe is doing an amazing job at making me hate this family more than I did before I started it and I really didn’t bloody like them before. The Sackler family are TRASH and the entirety of their wealth has come from the exploitation of vulnerable people and the absolute audacity of them to blame the millions of people’s whose lives they have ruined is RAGE INDUCING!!
I would like to point of that I’ve only finished the origins of the family wealth, Arthur Snr. was a psychopath IMO, so I’ve not even got to the really horrifying part and I’m already so angry that I can only read a bit at a time.
I don’t believe in heaven or hell but when it comes to these people I’m happy to shout for the hell they all deserve to be in.
Can you tell I’m mad?
Look out for the review whenever I manage to finish!!
I might actually need to pick up an autobiography or something to get me through the end of the year. I have I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy lined up as my next non-fic though and I can’t see that helping the rage! 😀
Dr. Feelgood: The Shocking Story of the Doctor Who May Have Changed History by Treating and Drugging JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, and Other Prominent Figures by Richard A. Lertzman, William J. Birnes – 3⭐
This had a lot of potential but ultimately turned into a bit of a JFK conspiracy theory. That’s not to say the conspiracy theory doesn’t give you something to think about around JFK’s assassination, it’s just not why I picked up the book.
The reason the book started out so strong is we got a real insight into Jacobson’s origin story and I for one couldn’t wait until we got to his ‘busy’ years of treating the elite of Hollywood and Washington. That’s not what we got. Instead, as I said, it veered off into JFK assassination theories. Lots of questions were left unanswered and I feel I didn’t really learn too much about ‘Dr Feelgood’. I think this is a speedy and interesting introduction to him though and I can see myself getting lowkey obsessed with learning more about this particular snake oil salesman and his client list!
Doctor Max Jacobson, whom the Secret Service under President John F. Kennedy code-named “Dr. Feelgood,” developed a unique “energy formula” that altered the paths of some of the twentieth century’s most iconic figures, including President and Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis. JFK received his first injection (a special mix of “vitamins and hormones,” according to Jacobson) just before his first debate with Vice President Richard Nixon. The shot into JFK’s throat not only cured his laryngitis, but also diminished the pain in his back, allowed him to stand up straighter, and invigorated the tired candidate. Kennedy demolished Nixon in that first debate and turned a tide of skepticism about Kennedy into an audience that appreciated his energy and crispness. What JFK didn’t know then was that the injections were actually powerful doses of a combination of highly addictive liquid methamphetamine and steroids.
Author and researcher Rick Lertzman and New York Times bestselling author Bill Birnes reveal heretofore unpublished material about the mysterious Dr. Feelgood. Through well-researched prose and interviews with celebrities including George Clooney, Jerry Lewis, Yogi Berra, and Sid Caesar, the authors reveal Jacobson’s vast influence on events such as the assassination of JFK, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy-Khrushchev Vienna Summit, the murder of Marilyn Monroe, the filming of the C. B. DeMille classic The Ten Commandments, and the work of many of the great artists of that era. Jacobson destroyed the lives of several famous patients in the entertainment industry and accidentally killed his own wife, Nina, with an overdose of his formula.
Dr. Feelgood: The Shocking Story of the Doctor Who May Have Changed History by Treating and Drugging JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, and Other Prominent Figures
Amazon UK
mindforbooks.ie 
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