July 2018 Group Read -- Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann

[Jade]

Hey Book Lovers!

I've just started a BOOKISH PODCAST! Please come and support it!! I'd love to talk about this book on the podcast too!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-W-I...

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

have you read it?

[Suzy]

Hi everyone - a little late to the party! I've been busy reading In Cold Blood and moderating that discussion, which was also multi-dimensional and lively as is this one.

I just finished this book and have just read all 152 entries in this thread - great comments and food for thought! I resonate with many people's comments, especially about how infuriating this whole thing was! How many people were taking advantage of the Osage families trying to get ownership of their headrights and their money, how complicite law enforcement and the federal government was in this and how very little effort was put into solving these murders and bringing justice. Tom White - a hero for those times.

All three parts of the book were interesting to me, creating a complete picture and accomplishing, I think, what Grann set out to do, which is to bring these murders to light almost 100 years later and to educate us about the beginnings of the FBI. Grann is such a fantastic researcher and author. I loved The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon as well.

I listened to this one and thought it well done, although I wasn't thrilled with the female who narrated Chronicle I. Were there pictures in the print book? I'm on a wait list at the library for the print, just to see if there are visuals.

Anyway, two great picks for this month!

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Oh yes -- plenty of photos

[Suzy]

Nancy wrote: "Oh yes -- plenty of photos"

Was hoping so, Nancy! On another note, I liked your question about true crime. I would say it's not my usual genre (I read waaaay more fiction), but I've enjoyed many non-fiction books that are squarely in the genre like ICB and others that skirt the edges like this one. I would put The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America in the true crime category, and like Grann, Larson had two aims - bringing to light the serial murders of Henry H. Holmes and telling the story of the building of the White City of the Columbian Exhibition. Also really well done.

[Kirsten]

Another good one by Larson is Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. It is about the wireless (telegram) and the case of Dr Crippen.

The case of Crippen is very famous in England. He's actually in Madame Tussaud's wax museum. (And related to us.)

[Patty]

Thunderstruck was fascinating. It reminded me of Dr. Crippen; I had forgotten about him.

[ALLEN]

Today I was reminded of two "procedurals" that did very well at the bookstores and later, at least one became a successful movie: A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr; and Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb by Bernard Lefkowitz. I also have running through my mind the fact a parallel thread is concerned right now with finding decent reading matter for H.S. English classes.

The former book, A CIVIL ACTION is the one that became a movie starring John Travolta; it's about a complex civil-litigation suit in an area of New Jersey that was deeply polluted and proved to raise the cancer rate in a nearby subdivision.

OUR GUYS details the infamous case where a high-school football team bullied and abused a young teenaged girl of limited intelligence by "getting her to like them." Obviously, these books won't do if parents or school boards insist they are over the kids' heads, or in the latter case if they remain stuck in a "nice people don't do that" groove. (Obviously, "nice people" by all the standard definitions do, as the Glen Ridge guys came from an affluent suburb.)

As you've probably inferred, my tendency is to get mature teens/young adults to accept that evil DOES exist outside of the Hundred Acre Wood -- and not to make them paranoid or prematurely cynical but to recognize evil where it exists. "If you see something, say something" is a buzz phrase that might apply here, if we are looking for social utility. Great for concerned adults, too.

I'm also an advocate for Jonathan Cullen's Columbine, of the three probably the best-written and researched NF (though the first two come close). COLUMBINE regularly makes best-of NF lists, along with such other modern classics as IN COLD BLOOD and MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Suzy wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Oh yes -- plenty of photos"

Was hoping so, Nancy! On another note, I liked your question about true crime. I would say it's not my usual genre (I read waaaay more fiction), but I've ..."

I'm just not a true crime fan. When I was younger I read some of Ann Rule's books, but even they got old; within the last year or so I read Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century which wasn't even the original title but was changed to sell more books, capitalizing on the name Ann Perry. When the author stayed on the crime and tried to get underneath the logic that caused it, it was good, but it had way too many superfluous details. I prefer true crime with purpose rather than the exposé variety.

[Kirsten]

True crime has really grown up since the Ann Rule days. It's much more literary these days.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church by Gregg Olsen

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

are some good ones.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Kirsten wrote: "True crime has really grown up since the Ann Rule days. It's much more literary these days.

[book:The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective|1..."

Summerscale is another one guilty of too much extraneous detail. She's a great researcher but has trouble sorting what's important.

[Patty]

I've read The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, and Nancy's right: Summerscale doesn't know when to stop putting in details. If only all her chapters were like her last chapter.

Concerning Dr. Crippen, I've also read Dr Crippen: The infamous London Murder of 1910 by Nicholas Connell. No salacious passages, but an interesting read.

https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/doctor...

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

and for the grandaddy of all poorly-written true crime accounts, there's The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery. He took what could have been a great story and just killed it. I'm sorry, but writing counts for me.

[Suzy]

I just learned of this one from a great review of a GR friend and it sounds really good! The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.

[Kirsten]

Simon Winchester is an excellent writer.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

technically this is the last day of the discussion, but for anyone who may have started this book, the threads never close. I'll continue to keep a watch on the thread so feel free to share your thoughts.

Thanks for all of the great conversation, everyone!!

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

oh, and the new September nominations thread is up.

[Patty]

Suzy, I really liked The Professor and the Madman. It's fascinating what goes into starting a dictionary.

[Suzy]

Patty wrote: "Suzy, I really liked The Professor and the Madman. It's fascinating what goes into starting a dictionary."

Oh, I'm glad to her this - I love words/language which is what appeals to me.

[ALLEN]

Kirsten wrote: "True crime has really grown up since the Ann Rule days. It's much more literary these days.

[book:The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective|1..."

Kirsten, thank you so much for our recommendations: Earlier this year I read If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children by Gregg Olsen (and Rebecca Morris). Based on that and your recommendation, I've slotted up A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church by Gregg Olsen. I read novels, too, but what's better than really good NF that solves a mystery and has social implications, too? - allen