Since I don't want Erotica to be the Last Word of the Day, I wanted to quickly mention why I chose this somewhat weighty but absolutely beautiful biography as the book of the day. It fascinates me.

Consuelo was the American Princess Diana of her day--in the news, beautiful, admired and imitated. Like Diana, she was essentially sold into marriage to a much older and fairly disinterested man. She also wanted to bolt on her wedding day, but went through with it all, produced an heir and a spare, and, after much suffering, got out. But, unlike Diana, she played her cards well, remarried happily (to a sexy Frenchman!), and became an unlikely campaigner for womens' rights. AND there is the added bonus to the story: her bull-headed but somehow vulnerable mother, Alva, who pulled herself out of genteel poverty to marry two of the wealthiest men of her time.

More fun than some fiction!