JACKIE O: ON THE COUCH Latest Review Praise for Alma Bond’s Marilyn Monroe: On the Couch “Unlocks the secrets of her charm and attraction!” ― Dr. Abe Bortz, Co-Editor of the Book of the Month Club and History Book Club Selection Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK “If ever anyone could be said to read the minds of the dead, it must be Dr. Alma Bond. She has once again gotten into the soul and spirit of a tragic heroine, this time of Marilyn Monroe. As Bond sees her, Marilyn was a needy child, an intelligent woman, a driven actor, and a sexpot extraordinaire all in one, calling on her strengths when needed, resorting to pouty lips and seductive sway when all else failed. Able to go from sultry siren to dependent child in a matter of minutes, Marilyn was front-page news wherever she went. Norma Jeane, on the other hand, could walk through a crowd and never turn a head. In this book, a fictional psychiatrist—a stand-in for Dr. Bond—tries to help Marilyn reconcile her disparate feelings, her overwhelming need for approval from men, and her dysfunctional upbringing.  We all know the story doesn’t end well, but in Bond’s capable hands, we have a more thorough understanding of the devils that drive Marilyn to her self-destructive sexual and addictive behaviors. We want her to ‘just say no!’ but—like going to see Gone with the Wind and hoping it ends differently—we can only be voyeurs to her impending death. The book is well written, almost all of it from Marilyn’s point of view. Fifty years have gone by since her death, and she still remains a thoroughly memorable, iconic sign of her times. Bond captures that with finesse, style, and incredible detail.” ―Ann Beardsley, Scribes World Reviews  “Psychoanalyst Dr. Alma Bond has authored a series of ‘On the Couch’ books that examine the lives of the famous and the fictional, from opera singer Maria Callas to Lady MacBeth. She always brings a lifetime of knowledge and experience to her books. Coming in October is one that’s sure to interest the fans of the movie icon, Marilyn Monroe. Many books have been written about her, but Marilyn Monroe on the Couch ($23.95, Bancroft Press) provides insights to the actress who had talent beyond her luminous beauty and yet remained so fragile despite her fame. Dr. Bond focuses on her life from the 1950s and 60s, a time in which she sought the help of a Manhattan psychoanalyst to cope. It’s an illuminating book in ways that other writers sought to achieve but often missed.” ― Alan Caruba, Bookviews Title Information  ISBN:  978-1-61088-108-1(HC); 978-1-61088-114-2 (EBook) TITLE: Marilyn Monroe: On the Couch: Inside the Life and Mind of Marilyn Monroe  AUTHOR'S LAST NAME:  Bond AUTHOR'S FIRST NAME: Dr. Alma H. EXACT NAME OF PUBLISHER: Bancroft Press PUBLISHER PHONE NUMBER: 410-358-0658 PUBLISHER WEBSITE: www.bancroftpress.com PUBLISHER E-MAIL ADDRESS: bruceb@bancroftpress.com PUBLICATION DATE: October 15, 2013 PRICES: $23.95 (hardcover), $9.99 (ebook) NUMBER OF PAGES: 260 SUBJECTS/TOPICS OF BOOK: Biography/Historical Fiction My friend, Dr. Alma Bond, a psychiatrist, has authored a series of “On the Couch” books that examine the lives of the famous and the fictional, from opera singer Maria Callas to Lady MacBeth. She always brings a lifetime of knowledge and experience to her books. Coming in October is one that is sure to interest the fans of the movie icon, Marilyn Monroe. Many books have been written about her, but Marilyn Monroe on the Couch ($23.95, Bancroft Press) provides insights to the actress who had talent beyond her luminous beauty and yet remained so fragile despite her fame. Dr. Bond focuses on her fame from the 1950s and 60s, a time in which she sought the help of a Manhattan psychoanalyst to cope. It is an illuminating book in ways that others sought to achieve, but often missed. Publisher: Bancroft Press Initially, when I picked up a copy of Dr. Alma H. Bond's Jackie O On The Couch: Inside the mind and life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, I couldn't figure out what this book was all about, and quite honestly I have to confess that I never heard of the term psycho-biography used to describe the book. Dr. Bond is not exactly a novice author, as she has authored nineteen books and was a psycho-analyst in private practice for thirty-seven years. With Jackie O On The Couch, she has thoroughly researched the life of Jackie and combines the results of her travail with her scholarly understanding of the human mind, providing her readers with an engrossing window in the life of the former first lady of the United States. In a nut shell, it is as if we are attending Jackie's therapeutic sessions with her psycho-analyst, peeking through a keyhole like voyeurs, while she rests on a comfortable couch exposing her most intimate and personal life experiences. Jackie admits to being a private person and that living her life has always been more important to her than writing about it, however, now that she was terminally ill, she wanted to set the record straight, though only for her family. Trust me when I say intimate experiences, as Jackie lets it all out when she describes her relationships with her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, her second husband, Aristotle Onassis and her companion for a few years before she died, Maurice Tempelsman. And if you thought Jackie was prim and proper, you may have to reconsider when you read about her affair with Robert Kennedy, her brother-in-law. As for her philandering husband JFK, Jackie defends herself in not leaving him, and even admits that there was one affair that was “different and was not one of the playful pool-party type, indulged in purely for the fun of it. It was a real love affair that lasted for many years-her name was Mary Meyer.” In addition, Jackie doesn't mince words when describing her feelings towards her sister-in-law Ethel, Robert's wife, whom she states, “brought out the worst aspects of her character. I am ashamed when I think about it now, and I wish it had been otherwise.” As for her two children, Caroline and John, she has nothing but praise and kindness, and made sure that they would be well-provided for when she entered into her marriage with Onassis. We also have the opportunity to learn about Jackie's compassionate side when she reveals her inner feelings about the most tragic of the Kennedy sisters, Rosemary who was born with a mild form of mental retardation. In the final analysis, Jackie O On The Couch deserves thoughtful reading as the text bears witness to details about Jackie's life that most of us know little about, even though there may be lingering doubts as to how much of what is divulged is accurate and true. Nonetheless, I am sure after reading this compelling book, you will reweigh any previous impression you may have entertained about this complex and mysterious individual. -Norm Goldman, B.A. LL.L, the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures _________________________________ Jackie O: On the Couch Wins the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Jackie O: On the Couch: Inside the Mind and Life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, by Dr. Alma H. Bond, has been named the Best Book in the category of Historical Fiction in the Fall 2011 Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards. Dr. Bond's book is the bestselling historical fiction in the history of Bancroft Press. … Excerpts By Cottage Grove, OR (PRWEB) December 10, 2011 To read the rest of the Article, please click on the link below PRWEB Review Also Read It by Visiting http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/518747 October 6th, 2011 | Author: Dorri Olds …Excerpts This article is printed in the NY Resident Magazine October 2011 New York City author and psychoanalyst, Alma H. Bond, dove inside the head of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier “Jackie” Kennedy Onassis in her new book, Jackie O: On the Couch. After years of meticulous research, Bond combined her skills as writer and shrink to create a character so believable you feel as though Jackie O is in your living room.Jackie O is a fast read filled with intimate details of this fiercely private woman’s life. It’s as if Jackie herself is baring her soul to you… Read the full review by clicking on the blow link : Review by Dorri Olds By Feather Schwartz Foster …Excerpts The Fascination with Jackie O There have been dozens of books about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The fascination with her has not ceased even though it has been more than a dozen years since her death…….. Jackie O: A Class Act Jackie O. was the supreme touch-me-not. The epitome of classiness and style. The American Queen. Everything she wore was copied, and she wore only the best. She presented culture in an era where culture was dying. Dr. Bond devotes considerable space to Jackie’s sincere love of the arts, whether, opera, theatre, poetry, ballet or visual arts….. Jackie O: A Cool Lady Dr. Bond is a psychoanalyst with many years of experience, both in her discipline and as an author. In 260-pages, Dr. Bond does her best to warm up that quintessential touch-me-not, but Jackie O. is still elusive. The author does not hesitate to present some of her bad qualities – a shopping habit that leaves Mary Lincoln in the dust, often done from spite. She does not hesitate to enter into romantic relationships with already-married men, and seems perfectly content in the betrayal mode….. Read the full review by clicking on the blow link : Review by Feather Schwartz Foster Jackie O by http://baltimorebookreviews.wordpress.com/ Jackie O ON THE COUCH: Inside the Mind and Life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis Alma H. Bond PhD The remarkable life and mind of Jackie Kennedy Onassis is both intriguing and mysterious. But Dr. Alma H. Bond dispels the illusions of this iconic woman’s life by threading fiction based in fact. Dr. Bond has read over 100 books about the widow of J.F.K. and has clearly become entranced and fascinated by the possibilities of such a unique human being as a character and narrator. Dr. Bond has crafted an enchanting narrator out of the idea of Jackie, teaching us facts about her very private life we may not know. Readers who know much about the former First Lady will enjoy this novel for its thoughtful interpretations of events and people they are familiar with, while readers new to many of the facts about this American icon will find themselves enamored with Mrs. Kennedy, searching out facts about this very private woman’s life. The voice of this narrator is so well done, it feels less like Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy laying on the psychoanalytical couch and more like Jackie O chatting it up over mimosas. The narration sucks you in, makes you laugh, makes you cry, but most of all, it makes you think. The scenes are vivid and dense, especially through the moments of John F. Kennedy’s death. It is a relatively quick read considering how much it covers. A page-turner and impossible to put down, Jackie O is a must read. I often see photos and posters of Marilyn Monroe and I have never personally gotten into the craze. In fact, there’s a café I frequent in Boston, MA that has photos on the bathroom door and the female photo is of her. I am not going to be liked I am sure for saying this, but if this is some sort of iconic tribute, I’d really rather see Jackie. Although the last place her picture belongs is on a bathroom door. This book covers just about everything I would want to know about Jackie, from her upbringing with a womanizing father all the way up to her untimely death. Did you know Jackie was a book editor at Viking Press? Her maturation through her relationships beginning with her understanding of her father to her last, and likely most successful, relationship with a male companion is explored. Jackie was in a culturally transitional period in American history that drove some women to suicide and others to over-experimentation, but she knew how to keep her eloquence, tact, and taste. Even in jeans and a T-shirt making her own instant coffee, the perpetually envied and ever elegant Jackie O. Pub Date: 08/15/2011 ISBN: 9781610880213
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	This book is a triumph of scholarship and will stand the test of time and those who refuse to take a fresh look at this extraordinary woman. Jackie O: On The Couch 'Inside The Mind and Life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis Alma Bond, Ph.D Bancroft Press Baltimore, MD, 21209 9781610880213, $21.99, www.bancroftpress.com "I came into the world on July 28, 1929, six weeks late. I haven't been on time since." So begins Alma Bond's Jackie O On The Couch Inside the mind and life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Bond is a psychotherapist, prolific writer, and familiar face to readers of the Midwest review. In twenty finely wrought and sensitively drawn chapters, Bond creates a voice worth hearing. Her Jackie O is no cookie cutter card board creation. Not the stuff of tabloids or stoic first ladies keeping their chin up while their real voice goes unheard instead Bond gets inside Jackie's head and gives us a real flesh and blood human being with her ow n ambitions, desires, contradictions and a sensuality and psychology all her own.Right from the get go Jackie tells us that "life has always been more important to me than writing about it." Even so, Bonds insightful psychoanalysis reveals a Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis we can hardly imagine. In this book she takes us on a star spangled, celebrity studded journey through a series of constellations that dare to go where few writers have had the guts to venture before. Bond a practicing psychoanalyst with more than 60 years of shedding light on those dark corners of the mind that most of us dare not see brings to life a Jackie'O who is as hot blooded and passionate as the men in her life. Although Bond has fictionalized the likes of Maria Callas and Camille Claudel and is more qualified than most to put Jackie on the couch, her narrative reads like a suspense thriller and keeps readers on the edge of their chairs. Take Jackie's reflections in chapter 2 in which sh e tells us about her sister, Lee Radziwell. "Was it passive-aggressive of me to remain friends with and take the side of a man who had cheated on my sister, she wonders." Jackie goes on to dwell on how she betrayed her sister with Aristotle Onassis who ignited her passions as no other man had. (31) It is revelations such as this one that make this book a total page turner. We can hardly wait to devour the next course in this banquet Bond has put before us. In giving us the unscripted moments of Jackie's inner most life, Bond makes us feel as if this highly ambitious, complex and driven woman is speaking directly to us. At last we begin to grasp the woman behind the celebrity. He dreams, hopes, disappointments and finally her triumph over the cancer that ravished her at the end of her incredible life. Cassandra Langer Reviewer
	JACKIE O: ON THE COUCH is a fascinating fictionalized biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by psychoanalyst and longtime student of Jackie lore, Dr. Alma Bond. Meticulously researched, this compelling "memoir" reflects Jackie’s innermost thoughts and feelings, and convincingly comes across as a book that Jackie might well have written. We feel it will have widespread appeal.	Another Review Jackie O: On The Couch ‘Inside The Mind and Life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis Alma Bond, Ph.D Bancroft Press, Baltimore, MD, 21209. 260 pp ISBN 9781610880213 www.bancroftpress.com Reviewed by Cassandra Langer Ph.D
	JACKIE O: ON THE COUCH delves into Jackie’s childhood, and helps the reader understand how and why she became the person she was. It also explores JFK’s background and the ways it affected his marriage. Jackie’s deep love for Jack, the cat and mouse game he played before their engagement, his early inattentiveness, the difficult years they spent together, along with details of his outrageous womanizing, and their happier times at the White House late in the marriage, are viewed through her eyes. A poignant description of Jack’s assassination and funeral is recounted. The book also looks into the widow Jackie’s need for Aristotle Onassis. She debunks the idea that she married Ari purely for his money, and discloses previously unknown graphic details of her sexual awakening. The joyful early years and the gradual collapse of the marriage is described, as is Ari’s death. Jackie’s successful entry into the publishing world, and how the work helped to define her follows. A new Jackie emerges, who probably is closer to the one she would have become had she not been First Lady. Her new persona allows her to form the best relationship of her life, with the elderly, stout, and adoring Maurice Templesman, who gave her the love, devotion, and constancy she never received from her two husbands. The book carefully follows the progress of the non-Hodgkins Lymphoma disease that led to Jackie’s death at age 63, from her fierce denial to the gradual acceptance that she would not survive. About the author: Dr. Alma Bond retired from a highly successful practice as a New York psychoanalyst to write, and has been a full-time professional writer for the past 15 years. Primarily a biographer whose works include studies of Maria Callas, Virginia Woolf, and Camille Claudel, she is the author of 18 published books. Her latest, Margaret Mahler, A Biography of the Psychoanalyst, was published recently by McFarland Publishers, and is a Best Books Award Finalist of USA Book News, and also selected as Book of the Year Finalist 2008 by Foreword Magazine. Dr. Bond received a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University, and is a graduate of the post-doctoral program in psychoanalysis at the Freudian Society. Her website is Http://alma_bond.tripod.com. We hope you’ll see the enormous potential of JACKIE O: ON THE COUCH, a unique exploration of the life and loves of a great historical figure with enduring appeal to the public, and will want to read it. AND “I won’t lie to you. I was skeptical. But by page 2, I was hooked. Jackie O: On the Couch is not only informative, it is insightful and interesting. It boasts the trifecto of i’s. When I see Jackie O, or anyone legendary, on the cover of a book, I grab or request it before I really know what it is about. Very short-sighted, I know, but it can make for interesting reading. So when I saw this gem appear on Net Galley, I immediately requested it. I mean, come on – Jackie O is the woman we have to thank for the popularity of oversized sunglasses! The woman at the side of JFK! The woman who married Aristotle Onassis! Those are the three things that immediately come to mind when you think of Jackie O . . . until you read Jackie O: On the Couch. I had been skeptical when I saw that this was not actually a Jackie O book in a vault somewhere, but was the book of someone I had never heard of, writing about Jackie O’s life from Jackie’s perspective. But then I read that the author, who is wonderful, is a psychoanalyst, and in preparing to write this book, read 100 books on Jackie. So if anyone who did not actually know Jackie could be looked upon as an authority on her, it would have to be Dr. Alma H. Bond. I now know so much more about the enigmatic woman who was Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The book is beautifully written and offers a lot of insight into the world of Jackie O. It also pays attention to other significant historical figures like John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Bobby Kennedy, etc. Dr. Bond’s chapter on JFK as a father is so moving. This is the kind of book you hope someone would write about you when you are no longer of this world. So, if you are interested in the lives of those who are no more, but who made a significant difference in their lifetimes, then Jackie O: On the Couch is definitely the book for you.” ―Bibliophilia	"I came into the world on July 28, 1929, six weeks late. I haven’t been on time since." So begins Alma Bond’s Jackie O On The Couch Inside the mind and life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Bond is a psychotherapist, prolific writer, and familiar face to readers of the Midwest review. In twenty finely wrought and sensitively drawn chapters, Bond creates a voice worth hearing. Her Jackie O is no cookie cutter card board creation. Not the stuff of tabloids or stoic first ladies keeping their chin up while their real voice goes unheard instead Bond gets inside Jackie’s head and gives us a real flesh and blood human being with her own ambitions, desires, contradictions and a sensuality and psychology all her own. Right from the get go Jackie tells us that "life has always been more important to me than writing about it." Even so, Bonds insightful psychoanalysis reveals a Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis we can hardly imagine. In this book she takes us on a star spangled, celebrity studded journey through a series of constellations that dare to go where few writers have had the guts to venture before. Bond a practicing psychoanalyst with more than 60 years of shedding light on those dark corners of the mind that most of us dare not see brings to life a Jackie’O who is as hot blooded and passionate as the men in her life.. Although Bond has fictionalized the likes of Maria Callas and Camille Claudel and is more qualified than most to put Jackie on the couch, her narrative reads like a suspense thriller and keeps readers on the edge of their chairs. Take Jackie’s reflections in chapter 2 in which she tells us about her sister, Lee Radziwell. "Was it passive-aggressive of me to remain friends with and take the side of a man who had cheated on my sisters, she wonders." Jackie goes on to dwell on how she betrayed her sister with Aristotle Onassis who ignited her passions as no other man had. (31) It is revelations such as this one that make this book a total page turner. We can hardly wait to devour the next course in this banquet Bond has put before us. In giving us the unscripted moments of Jackie’s inner most life, Bond makes us feel as if this highly ambitious, complex and driven woman is speaking directly to us. At last we begin to grasp the woman behind the celebrity. He dreams, hopes, disappointments and finally her triumph over the cancer that ravished her at the end of her incredible life.