Jodi Arias has launched a book club from behind bars and is sharing her reviews of her favorite reads online.
Convicted killer Jodi Arias, who was found guilty of first-degree murder on May 8 for the death of her ex-boyfriend, Mormon motivational speaker Travis Alexander, announced Jodi’s Book Club on Twitter on August 5.
On a newly-launched website, Jodi Arias reviews classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – and uses the opportunity to take a few swipes at the justice system.
“I understand now why it’s a classic,” she wrote.
“There is so much quotable material in this book.
“A few that stuck out to me: <<The one place a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentment right into the jury box>>.
“And: <<It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you>>. (Atticus Finch). I cried three times reading this book.”
Jodi Arias is able to upload the messages through a friend who chats to the inmate almost daily and then sends tweets out to followers under the @JodiAnnArias account, NBC News reported.
On the website, Jodi Arias reveals she is also reading books about Mormonism, including Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, which is critical of the controversial origins of the faith.
“This is an unbelievably true story of religious fanaticism taken horribly too far,” she writes.
“I typically do not read books with this type of subject matter because some of it is deeply disturbing.”
Jodi Arias adds that the LDS Church might be unhappy with her reading the critical book: “I found it very educational and in an unexpected way, I was endeared to Joseph Smith more than before reading it in spite of the book’s focus on his failures and shortcomings. It showed he was a flawed human being. Only Jesus was perfect, Right?”
“The author also clearly delineates the LDS Church and the splinter groups NOT associated with it that practice polygamy. On a side note: I crossed paths once with some bona fide FLDS polygamists in the Grand Canyon of all places. They looked plucked directly from the 19th century.”
The site says Jodi Arias is currently reading Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records by Kevin Todeschi, and she has also posted reviews about Into the Wild, Seabiscuit and Memoirs of a Geisha.
At the foot of her site, a note reads: “When Jodi finishes reading; at her request every book, periodical and newspaper she receives is donated to less fortunate inmates.”
On Sunday, Jodi Arias tweeted to her followers to stop sending her books as she is currently “max’d out”.
Though the accused murderer has no access to a computer or cell phone in her Phoenix jail cell, close friend Donavan Bering has been tweeting on Jodi Arias’ after almost daily phone conversations.
Donavan Bering and Jodi Arias met while Bering was also in jail, and she told NBC News she has been an ardent supporter of the killer since the beginning.
Jodi Arias is now waiting for a retrial for the penalty phase of her case. A new jury will be selected and they will decide whether she faces the death penalty or life in prison.
She was convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, who was found shot and repeatedly stabbed in his shower in June 2008.
Jodi Arias’ retrial is expected to be conducted in September, and an exact date could be set at a hearing scheduled for August 26.
