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What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Hampton Sides’ Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin, which is excellent. If you’re into historical nonfiction and you’re interested in Martin Luther King Jr., the history of the FBI, the history of criminal investigative technology, manhunts, or 1960s America, I absolutely recommend this book.

I enjoyed Hellhound on His Trail so much that I rushed to the library before I’d even finished it to get another one of Sides’ books. so I could continue to bask in Sides’ clear, lucid prose and his excellent and extensive research. That second book, Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West, is good but not as propulsively enthralling as Hellhound on His Trail.

I think this is partly because I personally find 1840s & 50s America less interesting than 1960s America, and partly because the story more diffuse, skipping across a wide range of people in a wide-ranging territory (all the way from St. Louis to California), so it doesn’t build up momentum in the same way that the collision course between King and James Earl Ray does - or the post-assassination manhunt for James Earl Ray.

What I’m Reading Now

I am continuing Sarah Jeannette Duncan’s A Daughter of To-Day, the tale of young Elfrida’s maturation as an artist (she has segued from an artist on canvas to an artist of the newspaper article) and member of bohemia. It has currently developed an odd little love triangle, BOO. Hopefully that will resolve in an acceptable fashion - I say, without much hope at all.

I’ve also started War and Peace, but I’m thinking that I’ll probably set aside a day to post about that - perhaps Friday? - so it doesn’t clutter up the reading meme each week.

What I Plan to Read Next

Still waiting for interlibrary loan to send me Heaven to Betsy. Come on, interlibrary loan! I’m champing at the bit here!

In the meantime I have Roller Girl, a Newbery Honor book this year which is about a girl who gets involved in roller derby. That sounds promising!

It also reminds me of my long-standing ambition to read Shauna Cross’s Derby Girl, the book that inspired the movie Whip It. Maybe that should be my next ILL request...

Date: 2016-02-04 06:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] evelyn-b.livejournal.com
UGH SO MANY BOOKS I DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ, why do they have to sound so interesting? Unwanted love triangles and all. :(

/not a real problem.

I am EXCITED for you to start posting about War and Peace, but you knew that. And I hope ILL gets its act together, because I'm curious about Heaven to Betsy, too.

Date: 2016-02-04 02:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] osprey-archer.livejournal.com
The love triangle has resolved satisfactorily! So at least there's that. And Elfrida remains unconquerably devoted to her art.

I will probably make a longer post about this book sometime soon if I can get my act together.

Date: 2016-02-04 08:19 pm (UTC)
ext_1611: Isis statue (Default)
From: [identity profile] isiscolo.livejournal.com
Actually I have the reverse feelings about 1840s and 1960s, so I think I will take your sidewise recommendation and see if I can find the Kit Carson bio!

Date: 2016-02-05 01:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] osprey-archer.livejournal.com
It's definitely worth reading! It's got a lot of stuff about the Mexican-American War and the New Mexican/Navajo conflict, as well as the Kit Carson parts.

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