Weep for the Living

My daughter who is a very big fan of "Court TV", as am I (this is where she heard about "Weep For The Living")-told me about their review and couldn't wait to read it. It was everything they said and more. How this woman survived the brutal torture at the hands of her husband is difficult to understand. She evidently has a very strong will and desire for life. She is definitely to be admired. Neither one of us could put the book down. We highly recommend it. The title is perfect. Society all to often forgets their is a victim and all attention is put on the defendant, maybe this will help turn this kind of thinking around. Our only regret is that it took a long time to locate this book, couldn't find anywhere ...It definitely should receive more publicity. ...

A psychological thriller and at the same a true story of both a heinous crime and emotional and physical survival. The story is beautifully told of a married couple, each individually well respected, and why the marriage went wrong. Anne Butler asked herself this question many, many times during her amazing recovery from five 38-caliber bullets fired at point blank range. The book delves in depth her answers and also shows remarkable aspects of her community -- the friends she never knew she had and the success of the Louisiana criminal justice system in putting here estranged husband in prison for good. Follow the steps leading up to the shooting, the recovery (as it is to date), all aspects of the trial which was a perilous trip for Anne Butler as well as for everyone touched by the bizarre crime and finally her forgiveness of her assailant. Anne's prose reads as though she is talking directly to the reader, explaining in detail her pain, her anxiety over her children, her conclusions, and her own realization of how wonderful life can be when you are in the bosom of friends.

Anne Butler's horrific but astounding account of a near death experience at the hands of a tormented and twisted cold blooded and clearly calculated killer, is truly more stranger than fiction could ever be, particularly when it is her own husband, that pulls the trigger, not once, but over and over again. From the moment I began to read this amazing piece of literary prozac truth, I knew that there would be no stopping until I had devoured it, sifting the underbelly of it, carefully, weeping and laughing with her as each moment of her life leading up to that ghastly moment and each step thereafter, unfurled. I couldn't stop until I had finished it--all in one setting.The book shocks you, saddens you, but it also somehow speaks to the heart of us all; how one can find strength in the midst of literally death and dying; how one can keep her priorities straight and think on, in her case, her two brave yet fainthearted children. I admire how this true-to-life protagonist fought back. Not in a physical way at first, but with the inward will and drive to beat it all and to beat him at his game, a game he had by all accounts mapped out, hoping to win. But he didn't get his wish. This woman fought with the stuff that warriors are made of. She got through surgery after surgery, and from all accounts, it appears she still has more to endure. The need to be around for her children, for her family, and for her friends, surely were the driving pathos, not to mention the love of her stately home and her thriving buisness.All I have left to say is kudos to a woman who's made from lion's cloth, to woman who's got grit in her craw. Anne Butler, was in deed carried in the arms of angels, but to me she is an angel. To have lived to tell the story is victorious. I am so grateful to have read her book. And now when I am going through my dark tunnels, and I think that I can't make it, I just think on Miss Butler, and quietly and thankfully I go on.

A book to read that will keep you captivated from beginning to end. The author tells her story as an experience that nearlly cost her her life. A true Southern Belle in the heart of Louisiana's plantation country running her familys plantation as a B & B. She tells her gripping events as she looked down the barrell a foot away of the 38 special that put 6 bullets in her body. Her courage to assume death to survie her attacker as he stood over her reloading. She talks of the unbelievable pain she has just been rendered, then feeling how serene her body felt as she was carried in the "arms of Angels" for survial. A mother of two children with their thoughts in her mind as she is shot. Who will take care of my children? If you like reading mysteries, this true mystery will keep you on edge as you turn each new page of her account and candid revelations. Knowing the author personally, her near death, and the people surrounding her makes this a more compelling book to read.