Task #19: A book of nonviolent true crime

[Clay]

I saw The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War listed as True Crime on the NYPL site, so I think I may go with that.

[Nupur]

I just finished reading Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup for this challenge- the crime being corporate fraud. This is a riveting book and could be used for any of these three challenges- Non-violent crime, Business book and Book by a journalist.

[Renee]

I’m reading
Readicide, about the killing of the joy of reading. I’m a retired reading teacher, and I feel it’s criminal what is being forced upon students and teachers. Technically it’s non violent, and that’s my choice. Some of you will not approve, some of you will, and most don’t care. I feel that the love and joy of reading is being tasked to death.

[Carol]

Go Renee! I agree with you 100%. I do this challenge to push me to try something new.

[BookWormBen]

I'm going to read "The Dinosaur Artist."

Thank you to Rincey for recommending this on your Booktube video!

[Luella]

I am going to read The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts

[Cendaquenta]

This might be a silly question, but is poisoning considered nonviolent? I just got The Royal Art of Poison: Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul.

[Suzanne]

I'm reading The Library Book--it's quite good so far.

[Kimberly]

Could The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History work for this category? It's been sitting on my Kindle for years. I'd love the nudge to finally read it.

[Lauren]

Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abegnale - I really enjoyed the movie adaptation and I cannot wait to tackle this.

[Keighly]

Hi y'all, would American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road count? I'm not sure if selling drugs is a nonviolent crime

[Kelsey]

Keighly wrote: "Hi y'all, would American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road count? I'm not sure if selling drugs is a nonviolent crime"

I'm currently reading this one for this category! Violence can be a byproduct of selling drugs, yes, but I don't think selling drugs is inherently violent. I think it counts. 😊

[Ashley]

I am OBSESSED with Bad Blood! It's so insane and reads like fiction!

[Tracy]

Renee wrote: "I’m reading
Readicide, about the killing of the joy of reading. I’m a retired reading teacher, and I feel it’s criminal what is being forced upon students and teachers. ..."

OMG I never heard of this book so I just looked up the page..... The DAMN STICKY NOTES!!!!!!!! How is my 3rd grader supposed to get anything out of a book if she has to keep stopping to find something to post a sticky note about on every page?? I was horrified. Just let her read the freaking book!!!!!

I try to keep them interested in reading by reading chapter and picture books to them at home ( we had a lot of fun with a choose your adventure last night), and getting them excited about and involved in my challenges. Its working :-)

[Candace]

I found a book for this task that could be used to double dip since it has under 100 reviews - Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records

[Bonnie G.]

Candace wrote: "I found a book for this task that could be used to double dip since it has under 100 reviews - Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records"


That sounds like a great choice for a business book, but unfortunately selling user data is not a crime.

[Allie]

Bonnie wrote: "Candace wrote: "I found a book for this task that could be used to double dip since it has under 100 reviews - Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records"


That ..."

I'm going to disagree *in theory* but I also can't really confirm if this book is about the *illegal* sale of medical data. Because isn't selling personal medical data a crime? At least in the U.S. I thought HIPAA laws and all that required that you give permission for anyone to use/share/dissseminate your data, and if you don't grant that permission, it would be a crime and therefore count? But the blurb on this book doesn't specify whether or not permission has been granted in its use, so I can't confirm it would count for this challenge either.

[Bonnie G.]

Allie wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "Candace wrote: "I found a book for this task that could be used to double dip since it has under 100 reviews - Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical R..."

Disseminating medical records with identifying information about a specific person violates Hipaa. But otherwise, if records are anonymized, the limits are few.

[Allie]

Bonnie wrote: "Allie wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "Candace wrote: "I found a book for this task that could be used to double dip since it has under 100 reviews - Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling..."

Ohhh, thanks for clarifying that. Not very familiar at all with the medical side of things.

[Kelly]

Martha wrote: "The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed . It's on its way from the library."

Great and interesting read.
You might like Big Lonely Doug by Harley Rustad. Published just in September of 2018. Doug is estimated to be about 1000 years old...

[Kelly]

Planning on either the Bettencourt Affair or The Man in the Rockefeller Suit.

[Michelle (RavenLily)]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Part true crime, part history, part travelogue, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is loosely centered around a murder investigation that took place in the 1980s, but the real focus is on the complexities of southern culture and the eccentric people that Berendt met while living there.

[Kelly]

Michelle wrote: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Part true crime, part history, part travelogue, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is loosely centered aroun..."

fantastic book!

[April]

Michelle wrote: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Part true crime, part history, part travelogue, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is loosely centered aroun..."
it is a great book, but murder tends to be a violent crime..... :/

[Megan]

Michelle wrote: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Part true crime, part history, part travelogue, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is loosely centered aroun..."

I wouldn't consider murder a nonviolent crime. The dude was shot and killed.

[C. S.]

I'm going with The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll

[Nancy]

I've had some true crime on my TBR for a long time that I may use for this prompt. One is Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend. Another is Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation.

[Nancy]

Susanne wrote: "Does anyone know any good YA/middle grade books or comics/graphic novels that would work for this task? That's my usual approach to tasks that I don't find very appealing. :)"

How aboutSpies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement or The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA Moles? You can find other YA choices on the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults page: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/nonfiction

[Bant]

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land is so good. It is very compelling.

[Robin]

Ann wrote: "What do you all think about Susan Orleans's new book The Library Book? It seems like it could fit for nonviolent. But then arson is considered a violent crime."

I came here just to ask this question! It's settled, I'm counting it.

[Robin]

Renee wrote: "The Stranger In the Woods by Finkel, man lives as a hermit in Maine, his crime he robs a camp for supplies. While B & E can be violent, he wasn’t"

Ooh, maybe I'll do this challenge twice over? I haven't read The Stranger In the Woods yet, but have been wanting too. I try to keep a steady diet of Maine-based writers and stories, thanks for the reminder!

[Allison]

Susanne wrote: "Does anyone know any good YA/middle grade books or comics/graphic novels that would work for this task? That's my usual approach to tasks that I don't find very appealing. :)"

You could try Tricky Vic: the impossibly true story of the man who sold the Eiffel Tower by Greg Pizzoli.

[Genie]

I am reading The Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World about Jho Low, who stole around $5 billion, by pretending to everyone to be something he was not. Sometimes called “the modern Gatsby.” Intriguing book, lots about sovereign funds, offshore bank accounts, and investment banks.

[Phil]

WouldThe Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TVwork? It's been sitting on my shelves for two Christmases.

[Emma]

I'm thinking of Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil as my pick for this topic :)

[Kristina]

I just read Molly's Game for this and it was a quick and interesting read (although reader beware - brand names and luxurious places/things are name dropped at a level I haven't seen since American Psycho)

Wondering if Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness would also count. Two people die, but it's because of criminal negligence, not because of an act of violence...

[Mya]

I read The Map Thief last year. I enjoyed the historical bits about cartography that are interspersed more than I did the modern story. (I believe the map thief is a narcissist, and I'm not a fan.) In addition to those bits, it is an interesting look at information security, & how institutions such as libraries manage it that task.

[Stephanie]

I read Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud. It was a fascinating idea for a book and interesting to read. However it was overall pretty flimsy and I came away wanting more.

[Rachel]

Shannon wrote: "I loved the movie so I'm going to read Catch Me If You Can! Luckily my library has it!"

I read this one too! It was a fun read.

[Melody]

Thank goodness the prompt is for nonviolent crime! Popsugar 2018 had a 'true crime' prompt that I struggled with because I'm not a huge fan of gory murders and such.

I can recommend For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink, which I read for that prompt last year. It was a more exciting read than you may think!

This year I'll probably pick up an art crime/heist book. I have Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures and I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger earmarked.

[Sarah]

'MAN ON WIRE' by Phillipee Petit.
It's about his incredible stunt of walking a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974. There's also a fantastic documentary about it that came out in 2008.

[Bobby]

What if the crime itself was nonviolent, but the perpetrator was executed for it? Does that count as violent? I would like to use The Return of Martin Guerre for this challenge, and I can think of other cases in which people were executed for such crimes as treason, religious dissension, adultery, and sodomy.

[Aly]

This might be a stretch, but do y'all think American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts would count for this?

There's money laundering, medical license violations, prescription fraud, and honestly a lot of people knew what they were doing when they helped cause the opioid crisis and it's one of worst American public health injustices of the current era.

[Laura]

I read The Feather Thief and thoroughly enjoyed it. The crime itself was interesting, but what I found most compelling was the historical background and the on-site into the underground feather market.

This book was easy to read and I’d highly recommend it for this challenge.

[Bonnie G.]

Using Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup for this. About halfway in and it is quite a story.

ETA this book is a worthy choice and for those who double dip (I don't) this also hits book by a journalist and business book so its a 3-fer.

[Brandon]

I finished with Bad Blood. I appreciate wanting to include everything, but there's not much in the middle 100 pages that isn't very similar to what you've already read about in the first. It shifts near the end when they are trying to bring the company's crimes to light. Still, it is an interesting story, and I give it a 3/5.

[Sally]

Gonna have to check for spoilers in future. Just finished The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, which ultimately includes violent crime. Still, no regrets. It's an gripping read, and it ticks the written-by-a-journalist box

[Nancy]

I was cleaning out my email inbox and found a list of non-violent true crime that might be helpful to some. Here's the link: https://offtheshelf.com/2018/09/10-tr...

[Karen]

Nancy wrote: "I was cleaning out my email inbox and found a list of non-violent true crime that might be helpful to some. Here's the link: https://offtheshelf.com/2018/09/10-tr......"

I found American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin. I've had this book forever. Do you think this fits the nonviolent prompt?

[Mieke]

Would Truly Devious count for this challenge?