by Marja Mills (Get the Book)
Harper Lee, author of the national touchstone, To Kill a Mockingbird, withdrew from the relentless vortex of fame and never published another book. Her silence, like that of J. D. Salinger, has been a compelling literary mystery. When To Kill a Mockingbird was chosen for One Book, One Chicago in 2001, Chicago Tribune reporter Mills traveled to Lee's Alabama hometown, certain that she would never get anywhere near the author. Instead, Mills found herself living a literary fairy tale, as Alice, Harper's older sister by 15 years, still working as an attorney in her nineties, ushered Mills into their book-filled home. Soon Mills, much to her astonishment, is watching football games, going fishing, and sharing meals with Alice, Nelle (Harper is her middle name), and their friends. When the Lees express their hope that Mills will record their reminiscences and set the record straight, she rents the house next door and devotes herself to listening to tales of the Lee family; Nelle's relationship with their childhood neighbor, Truman Capote ( Truman was a psychopath, honey ); and the nearly overwhelming repercussions of Nelle's novel. Mills' struggles with lupus bring her even closer to the sisters. As she portrays the exceptional Lee women and their modest, slow-paced world with awed precision, Mills creates a uniquely intimate, ruminative, and gently illuminating biographical memoir. --Booklist
by David Bromwich (Get the Book)
The 18th-century Anglo-Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke (1729-97) has been called "the father of modern conservatism," largely because of his opposition to the French Revolution. However, Bromwich (Hazlitt: The Mind of a Critic), in this new intellectual biography that covers the first three decades of Burke's professional life, sees his subject's work as more nuanced and complex. Drawing on Burke's correspondence, as well as his public writings and speeches, Bromwich presents the portrait of a serious thinker who cannot be easily categorized as either conservative or liberal-Burke spoke out about abuse of power, even supporting the American colonies, yet at times seemed to distrust democracy. The author focuses primarily on Burke's work, supplying just enough biographical details to provide context, resulting in many quotations with in-depth explication. This approach is especially successful in the chapter featuring "The Sublime and Beautiful," the 1857 treatise on aesthetics that reveals Burke's exceptional rhetorical abilities. VERDICT Bromwich has brought his considerable research and writing skills together to present a readable, thorough picture of Burke's earlier years. --Library Journal
by Michael Morton (Get the Book)
In this absorbing first-person narrative, first-time author Morton shows readers how it is possible in our justice system to be convicted of a crime without substantial evidence. One afternoon in August 1986, -Morton returned home from work to find that his wife had been bludgeoned to death. He became the prime suspect, even though there was nothing to tie him to the murder. Tried and convicted, Morton spent 25 years behind bars in Williamson County, TX, until the New York-based Innocence Project took on his case and secured his release using DNA evidence. The happier side to all this is that Morton holds no grudges, and, back at home, he has found peace through a new marriage and a new life. The narrative deals mostly with the man's personal traumas during his incarceration as well as his prison experiences--readers may prefer one or the other of these or they may learn about his courage to find forgiveness despite everything that has happened. -VERDICT Written in a crisp style, this book should appeal to almost any reader who is interested in true crime stories. It is a must-read for students and professionals in criminal justice. --Library Journal
by Gregory N. Fleming (Get the Book)
Flemming relates the story of the capture by pirates of Philip Ashton in 1722, and in the process he reveals a fascinating history of pirates during the first decades of the 18th century, "the golden age of piracy." Ashton, a fisherman, was taken captive during a raid off the coast of Nova Scotia by the pirate crew of the notorious Edward Low, a captain more vicious than Blackbeard. Ashton survived his capture for nine months before escaping on a deserted island in the Caribbean where the ship had stopped for water. He spent 16 months there, alone, before he was rescued. By the time he made it home to Marblehead, Mass., he'd been away three years. Ashton's account was written down and published by his minister, John Barnard-a less severe protege of fire-and-brimstone Puritan preacher Cotton Mather-and Flemming's detailed contextualizing of pirate life was taken from court records, survivor narratives, newspaper accounts, and logbooks. From battles with warships to the way the pirates split their plunder, Flemming's focus on individual actors adds a welcome depth to the history of piracy with this engaging and harrowing account of "America's real-life Robinson Crusoe." --Publishers Weekly
