This has been a challenging year with this year's reading selections but finally a successful month. This month's challenges were to read a book written by a journalist and read a book by an author of color set in or about space.
For the past couple of years, there have been challenges involving true crime and Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann keeps showing up on that list. Finally a chance to dig into this book. It's set in Oklahoma in the 1920's about a series of murders of members of the Osage Indian nation and how the FBI came to be the kind of investigative agency it is today. Reading this book reminded me of how little I learned history-wise in school. I had no idea about this tribe, and how much money they earned from the oil fields under their land. There was plenty of corruption to be had all around, and lots of folks not be trusted. The book is interspersed with lots of period photographs which adds to the gripping story. It's not gruesome in a true crime sense, but definitely in a taking advantage of people sense. On a side note, the author recently wrote The White Darkness about a recreation of the Shackleton quest for the South Pole. Haven't read this one yet, but a person close to me who is a Shackleton fanatic said some of the photos are mislabeled to better fit the narrative, so there might be a grain of salt needed on this one.
I just now realized that I sort of cheated on the book about space. While Octavia Butler's book Kindred is a book written by an author of color, it's not really set in space. This one is more of a time travel/dystopia/historical fiction mash-up and it is fascinating. What happens when you travel back in time and end up getting involved in your family history (and frankly, some of the people in your family are quite terrible)? Lots of great pondering to be had concerning family, race, slavery, power - this book would make for a great discussion for any book group.
Are you doing the Read Harder Challenge this year? Check out our Read Harder page for book lists and other bits of information., opens a new window
~Karen for Ravenous Readers
