In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

This is one of the earliest "true crime" books. It's widely considered to be the first, but there are a couple others.

In 1959, the murder of the Clutter family shocks the members of a small farming community in Kansas. The brutality of it is the work of two criminals. One of them heard that Herb Clutter had a safe in his house and plenty of money in it. Dick decides to take that information and bring his friend, Perry, to the Clutter place and "leave no witnesses." The worst part is that the information is bad. Herb didn't have a safe.

The book tells the story from all sides. The killers, the friends of the victims, and general information is all organized to tell the complete story. From the last moments of the Clutters to the capture and outcome of the trial of the perpetrators.

For being such an early example of the genre, this book was really well done. Capote was intrigued by the crime and interviewing people before the criminals were captured. It took him six years to write the book.

One critique I'd like to offer up is the amount of time dedicated to the analysis of the criminals felt excessive. The real part that bothers me about true crime is it feels like the focus is on the killer(s), and people don't remember the victims. Killers don't deserve to have their name remembered - their victims do.

Other than the excessive amount of time spent "analyzing" the murderers, I did enjoy the book. It was interesting, and I couldn't wait to see what happened. I wanted to look it up so many times, but I was able to control myself! If you're interested in true crime, you might be interested in this book. I'm giving it a Good Book! review, but I also want to send out a RIP to Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter.

God, Freedom, and Evil - Alvin Plantinga

I'm going to start off by admitting I didn't finish this book. It was only supposed to be 122 pages, and I made it about 1/3 of the way in before I just couldn't take it anymore.

Apologetics is something I've been interested in off and on for a few years. It's supposed to be a reasoned defense for a religion, and I was looking for "third-party" views into Christianity. This particular book was supposed to deal with the existence of evil and free will. To me, it wasn't doing a great job.

The part I got through was about evil. The saying "If God is omnipotent and truly good, how can there be evil?" or something along those lines. It's something I've struggled with a few times. How did the author deal with it? Semantics. He breaks down why certain phrases don't go together and defines multiple kinds of inconsistency. By the time he was done with that one phrase, he'd basically rewritten it over 20 times. And he still didn't address the main problem. He used the same "there's probably a reason" and "maybe that evil happened because it was needed for a greater good."

What I read of this book was beyond frustrating. "Well, if we say it this way, it combines things that can't go together. What if we say it like this?" That's not the point. This was written in 1974, so maybe it was revolutionary when it came out. But if I can't make it through 122 pages, it is definitely not a book for me.

White Mouse - Nancy Wake

Nancy Wake was one of the names that kept popping up in the WWII resistance books I've read. She's kind of a legend, and when this book went on sale, I was excited to read about her life: in her own words.

Nancy considered France to be like home, so when the war hit, she wanted to help in any way she could. She got involved in the resistance and was separated from her husband. She took risks, held her own and had a sense of humor about most of it.

The writing style was conversational and easy to read. Nancy confronts the past with wit and humility. She tells stories without tons of detail at times, and it's something I've noticed in a lot of wartime autobiographies. When it comes to the sad events that shaped these people, they tend to gloss over their feelings or keep the details to a minimum.

If you're interested in the SOE, I think this is a pretty good book. The way it was written was interesting, and I was never bored. Good Book!