July CultureCat: Violence, Crime & Justice

JULY CULTURE CAT – VIOLENCE, CRIME AND JUSTICE

Welcome to July’s CultureCat where we will be reading about Violence, Crime and Justice. This is a wide theme with many different parallels. We have violence against women, hate crimes, domestic violence, gang violence, political violence and police corruption just to mention a few. There are investigative books that look into just about any angle of these theme words, and the fiction choices are unlimited.

Just to get you started, I’ve listed a few books, both fiction and non-fiction that would fit this month’s theme:

Non-fiction

* In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
* Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
* Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
* Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi
* The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

Fiction

* No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
* The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
* Room by Emma Donoghue
* The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
* The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

I also did a tag-mash of the three key words of violence, crime & justice and from the huge list these books caught my attention:

* Lord of the Flies by William Golding
* Ragtime by E.L. Doctorov
* To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
* A Time to Kill by John Grisham
* Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

There are series galore that highlight our theme words of Justice, Crime and Violence written by the likes of Louise Penny, William Kent Krueger, Ian Rankin, Tana French, Denise Mina, Jo Nesbo and Craig Johnson, etc.

So lots of choices depending where your interests lie. Please remember to let us know here what you are going to be reading and your thoughts on the book. Also please remember to list your reads on the Wiki: July Wiki

I am hoping to read Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer, Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald, and A Small Weeping by Alex Grey.

I just finished reading a book which fits this category: The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson.

However, I have several more books which qualify including: 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence by Howard Means, The Eyes of Willie McGee: a Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard, Ghosts of Mississippi: the Murder of Medgar Evers, the Trials of Byron De La Beckwith and the Haunting of the New South by Maryanne Vollers. I will probably read one or more of these.

I think I'll use The Long Drop, by Denise Mina, which tells the (true) story of serial killer Peter Manuel.

A couple came up on my tbr with all three tags, so I'll most likely go with one of these:

Lucky: a Memoir / Alice Sebold
The Last Juror / John Grisham

Lots of crime fiction on my shelves.

Just finished In Cold Blood, liked it very much. I'm thinking of Columbine by Dave Cullen.

In searching my tags, I discovered I'd already read a book for this CultureCat earlier in the year: Black River Road, by Debra Komar. If you're looking for ideas and are interested in little-known true crime stories, or true crime stories that happen in Canada, then this would be a good choice.

I'm going to read a book which I've had for a long time - my copy was published in 2004, and I think I got it either then or shortly afterwards, so it's probably out of date to a certain extent, although still important. It's The Natashas by Victor Malarek, about the global sex trade, particularly focusing on the trafficking of young women from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

I have on my list for CATWoman, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Looks like it will fit nicely here as well.

Another great nonfiction read that would fit the theme is Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, about the inequality and inequity in the American criminal justice system. I read it earlier this year and heard Stevenson speak; his work with the Equal Justice Initiative is really inspiring.

I'm going to be reading The Gangs of New York as my nonfiction, and The Tenth Justice as my fiction. I may add more--I've got some books by Gregg Olsen on my soon-to-be-read-tbr pile that would fit--but we'll see how far I get!

I always seem to be one month ahead or one or months behind the challenge reads! I just finished Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. I listened to it on audio which I strongly recommend. What a consummate story teller he is. The lilt of his South African accent is inviting and genuine. I would highly recommend this memoir. See more commentary on the page.

>13 beebeereads: I'd heard the audio was really good. I bought it from Audible, but couldn't get it to work on my mp3 player (it's the only Audible book I've had trouble with). :-( They tried to fix it for me, but it still wouldn't work. They ended up refunding me for it. Unfortunately, it appears my library does not have the audio, either.

>14 LibraryCin: Sorry to hear...I saw a review of the print book that said the reader can "hear" Noah's voice as well in print. So if you can't get audible, I think the print book would be well worth the read.

>15 beebeereads: But, I don't know Noah's voice...

>16 LibraryCin: Oh, I am happy to suggest resources where you can listen to Trevor Noah. :) His YouTube page has a lot of stand-up, though there are multiple different target audience countries there and so random clicking might not be particularly amusing. Personally I saw this Mexican jedi sketch that's featured there a few months ago and it had me in hysterics -- which I didn't expect because I find a lot of comedy pretty crass, and the premise had me a bit worried. A longer form interview with Terry Gross (click huge blue play button at left) is the first place I heard of him, though it is about Born a Crime so possibly full of spoilers. I think he's also on American TV, but I'm not sure when or where....

>17 pammab: Thank you for all that. Ill take a look later. Im in canada and he may air somewhere, but im not sure when or where.

I'm going to read The Blood of Emmett Till. And maybe Just Mercy.

Not quite sure what I'll read yet, but it seems like most mystery novels would qualify!

There is a YA novel I read this spring that works well for this category so I will recommend it. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. It was riveting, well-told, and currently relevant.

I have a few on my TBR to choose from. Non-fiction new releases include The Pierre Hotel Affair: How Eight Gentlemen Thieves Plundered $28 Million in the Largest Jewel Heist in History and The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI and Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI For Fiction: Girl in Disguise by Greer Macallister about a young woman who worked her way up in the Pinkerton detective agency. But I have chosen as my first read The twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti From a review "Can a man be both a violent criminal and a good father?" I find the premise intriguing and look forward to reading this book.

I have completed Friday on my Mind by Nicci French, featuring Frieda Klein, a psychotherapist who has helped the police solve crimes in the past. On this occasion Frieda finds herself accused of murder. She decides to go on the run to discover who the true murderer is. The second half of this book had me riveted. I did not want to put it down.

I completed it a bit prior to July 1 but I highly recommend The Blood of Emmett Till. Here are my comments from my thread:

Wow. Just wow. This is an excellent historical telling of the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy killed in 1955 by white men in Mississippi. Emmett was visiting Mississippi for the summer; his home was in Chicago. Tyson does an excellent job of sorting through what is known, what is suspected, and what can be concluded from this brutal and senseless murder of a young Black boy at the hands of white supremacist men, angry at his apparent disrespectful comments to one of their wives. Even if Till did the worst of that which he was accused of doing: grabbing the hand of a white woman at a store counter, asking her for a date, wolf-whistling at her later as she went to her car for a pistol.... none of that even remotely deserves the kind of brutal beating and slaying to which he was subjected. His body was found a few days later, bloated and damaged, floating in the Tallahatchie River with a gin fan tied to his neck with a stretch of barbed wire. The murder is tagged as a significant catalyst for the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.

Most of the book is an exploration of history. What happened in Leflore County of Mississippi on August 28, 1955? Tyson shifts deftly between historical record and rational deduction.

It's his epilogue, though, that lands a direct hit. He persuasively describes the white supremacy that yet permeates our society, perhaps not the virulent and visceral white supremacy of the men who murdered young Emmett Till, but the polite and practiced white supremacy of progressives (like me), well-intentioned members of society who remain immobile in the face of today's persistent and pernicious societal segregation, today's Jim Crow. Tyson is not throwing stones, but his analysis is compelling and level-headed.

This is a surprisingly quick read and highly recommended. It's a great history lesson and a thought-provoking work.

I just read the short story Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies by Brooke Bolander, which is about violence, crime, and (arguably) justice.

I have completed my first read for this month's theme. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town was well-written and the author lays out the problems facing young women attending colleges and universities. Unfortunately, I don't see a quick solution to this as long as rape is perceived as a "sexual" crime, or something that a woman "gets herself into".

My first read for this month's CultureCAT is a short report, nearly 20 years old now, which I dipped into as background reading when I was writing up my PhD, but bought my own copy as I knew I'd want to read it subsequently. Public Scandals-- Criminal Law and Sexual Orientation in Romania by Human Rights Watch Staff details the changes in the law in Romania relating to homosexuality since the overthrow of the communist regime in 1989, up till the revision of the law in 1996. It also details the routine abuses of the law by law enforcement agencies and others (including awful violence towards those accused of, and imprisoned for, homosexuality), and how the ambiguities contained within the law (particularly the provision relating to causing 'public scandal') enable those abuses. This was a very detailed and thoroughly researched report, and was thoroughly depressing reading. With the advent of the last two decades of course this will now be out of date, but I suspect not as out of date as it should be. 4.5/5.

I just finished A Fête Worse than Death by Dolores Gordon-Smith, a historical mystery that I think qualifies for the CAT. It involves violence at both the individual level (there are multiple murders) and the national level (the solution to the mystery involves events that took place during World War I).

As I finished The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti I happened to be listening to On Living by Kerry Egan, a hospice chaplain. She talks about the "gray areas" of life and whether a good man can also be a criminal or a good mother can also be a drug dealer. This commentary was very relevant to the moral dilemmas presented in Twelve Lives. The story is intriguing and the twists in the plot lines keep the reader going to the very end. More commentary on the work page.

Just posted the August thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/265235

I have completed a fiction read for this theme. He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond, an author who is considered one of the pioneers of British Noir. I found I admired the style of this book more than the actual story.

I've completed two qualifiers for this month. First was Flamingo Road by Sasscer Hill. The protagonist/finder is a Baltimore cop whose childhood was spent largely behind the scenes in horse racing with her father the trainer. She agrees to take an assignment that makes use of her childhood background and various complications ensue. Not hard-boiled or gritty but also not Agatha Christie. Strong female characters. I enjoyed it and am hoping it becomes the start of a series.

The second book was Conviction: a novel (Rebekah Roberts novel by Julia Dahl, third in a series. The protagonist/finder in this one is a young woman working as a freelance reporter in New York city. Her mother grew up an Orthodox Jew which has provided the back story for all three of the books. I don't know how faithful the cultural portrayal is to true life but I've enjoyed having something different for setting. I liked the first one, found the second one disjointed and somewhat disappointing so I nearly didn't read this one. But I persevered and I'm glad I did because it was much better.

I'm finally reading Columbine. I'd been planning to read this for years but kept putting it off because of the difficult subject matter It seems this summer is my time to read tough books--I recently finished The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women.

I have also read The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor. The main character, Edward Savill, is a clerk from the American Department in London, sent over to assess the legal processes in New York, during the time of the American Revolution. Needless to say he finds himself in the middle of a multiple murder mystery. It was a bit dry at times but a fairly good read.

>32 bluebird_: Columbine is very good.

Another book with plenty of crime and violence is Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald.

COMPLETED Caleb Williams by William Godwin. Murder and justice as seen in the 1790s.

I ended up reading 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence by Howard Means, which is a comprehensive account of the Kent State tragedy and puts the shootings in context of the times of political upheaval and change, particularly in relationship to the Vietnam War and the extending the war into Cambodia which Nixon had just ordered.

I will probably not be reading any additional books for this challenge this month.

Mudbound / Hillary Jordan
4.5 stars

The opening chapter has brothers Henry and Jamie burying their seemingly unlikable father. From there, the book backs up in time to tell of Laura and Henry’s marriage in the late 1930s, into the 1940s, and their move from a city to rural Mississippi to run a farm, Henry’s dream. But, they have Henry’s father, Pappy, living with them and their two daughters and making their lives miserable. Jamie has been over in Europe fighting in the Second World War. Henry employs three black families on the farm, one of which is the Jacksons, and Laura employs Florence Jackson to help in the house. The Jacksons eldest son, Ronsel, has also been fighting in the war. Things get worse for the families once Jamie and Ronsel come home. It is the South, after all, and racism and the KKK are still alive and kicking.

Wow, this was really good. It mostly wasn’t fast-paced, but I wanted to keep reading. It was told from multiple points of view, so that made things a little more interesting (and it was easy to follow whose viewpoint it was, as the chapter was not only introduced with their name, their name was the “running title” at the top of each page for that chapter). Ugh, some of those people are so hateful! Even the nicer people have unlikeable reactions, in some cases! This is likely to be one of my favourites for this year.

Well, I finished my fiction read, though this has been a Really slow reading month because work has kept me so busy. For now, though, I can at least say the month led me to The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer, which was a great escape from a busy life! Full review written, and I'm adding it to the wiki now...

I'm reading Less Than a Treason, the latest Kate Shugak book. Kate is recovering from being shot and investigating a death and a disappearance in the Park.

I just finished Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon, an amazing book told in epistolary form that deals with young people caught up in the New York Justice system of the 1990's.

I read a number of books that would fit the tag, the best fit for sure was To Kill a Mockingbird. Best book I read so far this year.

I just finished The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade, dealing with the "fourth wave" of human trafficking in the early 2000s, that of eastern European women sold into prostitution in Western Europe, Bosnia/Kosovo, the US, Israel and elsewhere.

I read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.

I just finished Beastly Things.

>25 DeltaQueen50: I also finished Missoula by Jon Krakauer, about cases of rape on a college campus and how the justice system deals with such crimes . It was a very disturbing read, especially as I have one daughter in the university system and another about to enter it. I am trying to convince them to read it too.

I'm still working on American Woman by Susan Choi, a fictionalized account of the Patty Hearst kidnapping.

>46 mathgirl40: Paulina, I was just over at your thread and commenting on your review of Missoula. It is a disturbing read, but one that needs to be out there. I hope your daughters do give it a try.

>47 DeltaQueen50: I do hope they read it too. If I had sons, I'd want them to read Missoula as well.

As I was summarizing my July reading, I think that The Drawing of the Three would fit this theme - there is definitely a lot of violent crime in this book!

Edited to add that the other book I managed in July, The Mysteries of Udolpho had plenty of crime as well.