April Non-fictionCAT: Law and Order

This month's reading topic is Law and Order. Crime, courts, the legal system: You can take this topic in many different directions; here, I'm highlighting a few ideas to get you started.

True Crime
Nonfiction writing about real-life crime is, in my opinion, way scarier than fiction. Some famous true crime books include:
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. A seminal work in the genre, about the murder of a farm family.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larsen. A serial killer loose at the Chicago World Fair of 1893.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. Southern gothic true crime.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. About the Manson murders, written by the chief prosecutor.
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule. I believe this was the first of Rule's bestselling true crime books. She actually did work beside Ted Bundy, the serial killer.
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell. One of many books about one of the most famous unsolved series of murders.

If your interest in true crime is the policing, and not a specific case, try:
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. The basis for the television series.

Legal Issues
Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity by Lawrence Lessig. Technology, law, and the arts.
The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea. Immigration and border control.
Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals. Integration and civil rights.

Courts and Trials
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik. Ginsburg is a member of the US Supreme Court.
A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr. Corporations on trial for environmental harms.

Don't forget to add your book to the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2020_Non-fiction_CAT#April:_Law_and_Orde....

What are your ideas for this topic? What are you planning to read?

I was thinking of Manhunt which is about the search for President Lincoln's killer.

I think my most likely option (as long as my library doesn't close!) is:
The Autobiography of an Execution / David R. Dow

I have Dodge City by Tom Clavin set aside for this challenge.

I have put a hold on Helen Garner's Joe Cinque's Consolation.

I'm too much of a wimp to read true crime, so I'm going for a lighter read: comedian Mark Thomas' 100 Acts of Minor Dissent.

Conveniently, I have 18 Tiny Deaths out from the library, so I will use it for this CAT. It's about the woman who designed miniature crime scenes used to teach forensics.

Some of the books you mentioned were favorites of mine when I read them.

I think I will read Race against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era by Jerry Mitchell. It was published in 2020 and thus will also fill in one of the BingoDOG squares.

I think I'm going to read Killers of the Flower Moon for this challenge. If I don't get to finish The Notorious RBG for biographies in March I will add that as well.

The nearest I've got is The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, which I think involves court cases and changes in the law.

I have a book called Alligator Candy on my Kindle and it's a true crime story about how the author's brother was kidnapped and murdered.

I think I will read L'abolition by Robert Badinter. It's about the suppression of the death penalty in France.

I will likely read The Five which I had planned for Reading Through Time: Crime and Mystery in February, but my Libby hold did not come through. I am almost at the top of the list so this will work for April instead.

I'm thinking of The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel about the search for stolen and hoarded artwork following WWII.

>14 VivienneR: Oh good one! I did not think of art theft and forgery, but here are some from my shelves. Now I am changing my mind about what to read.
Stealing the Mona Lisa
Priceless
The Forger's Spell

I also saw a film Sour Grapes about wine forgery. Not sure the touchstone is here though.

I would highly recommend The Feather Thief for this challenge. It's the weirdest heist story I've ever read about.

>15 LadyoftheLodge: I'm glad to see your response because I wasn't sure if it fitted the meaning of the category.

The Forger's Spell looks good!

>16 LittleTaiko: Perfect! I have borrowed that book from my library three times and returned it unread. Maybe having it for a challenge will be the incentive I need.

I wasn't thinking of art theft either. I have The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser in my TBR pile and might read that.

>16 LittleTaiko: >18 JayneCM: I'm another who really enjoyed The Feather Thief - I happily recommend it, too!

>5 pamelad: Just realised that Eggshell Skull would fit. Might be less depressing than Joe Cinque's Consolation, and I already own it.

>1 NinieB: I've read Helter Skelter twice. Engaging.

I have an ER book that I think would fit: Wyatt Earp's Cow-Boy Campaign: The Bloody Restoration of Law and Order… by Chuck Hornung.

>3 LibraryCin: Well, shoot. The one I really wanted is locked up at my library. I will have to try again. The other backup options I'd hoped for have waiting lists for both audio and ebook (about 2 months). I've put the audio on hold, anyway, and may post when it comes unless I find something else in the meantime.

I have been meaning to read In Cold Blood for forever, so I think that's what I'll pick for April.

I happen to have Jane Austen and Crime by Susannah Fullerton on my shelves, so that'll most likely be my pick! :)

I've decided to count my recent read, Say Nothing in this category. Much of the story surrounds illegal acts, evidence gathering and legitimacy, jail terms and more. Whether crimes were committed is a matter of dispute since many of the participants insist that their actions took place during a war and should be construed as justified in that context. It is a fascinating and well-researched narrative non-fiction that is told in a way that reveals the complexity of the issues and serves to remind us The Troubles are still unresolved for so many.

Just realized this CAT is for April...oops

>26 beebeereads: This sounds fascinating, and resonates with the question that is left with me after just finishing the autobiography of Nelson Mandela: what degree of violence is justified to fight a wrongful situation imposed by the government? (though of course the two situations have little in common apart from this question)

>27 chlorine: I highly recommend. Mandela is actually mentioned in the book having been a hero dissident for many in the struggle.

>28 beebeereads: I have it wishlisted. :)

I have a couple of possibilities for April.

First, I've had The Trial of Madame Caillaux on my book shelf for YEARS. It's about a murder trial that fascinated Paris while World War One loomed.

I've been looking at And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank - and all I've done is look because it's long, and dense, and the subject matter is horrifying. I'm not certain I can tackle this much dark right now, but I may give it a try.

I also ran across a book on Kindle Unlimited that looks like it might have potential: The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder that Shook the Nation by Harold Schechter. We'll see.

Finished Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee. As a newly-graduated lawyer, Lee worked for a year as a judge's assistant and observed many sexual assault cases, so she thought knew how hard it would be to get justice for the assault she experienced as a child. She persevered.

I've finished 100 Acts of Minor Dissent which was wonderful - Mark Thomas is one of my favourite comedians. In this challenge, he aimed to perform said 100 acts within a year, focusing sometimes on fun or silly things, but also more 'legal' issues such as tax-dodging multinationals, or his own classification by the Met Police as a 'domestic terrorist' (which he took to court, and won the case).

Completed Mata Hari: A Life from Beginning to End in the Hourly History series of biographies of women in history. This book did double duty for the MysteryKit challenge of Espionage and the NonFiction Cat for Law and Order. I like the Hourly History books for a quick read and overview of different people and events in history. Mata Hari was certainly a fascinating and outrageous woman, even though she did not seem to be a very successful spy. Yes, I read it in about an hour!

I have completed Alligator Candy for this month's law and order theme. I had a few problems with the writing style of this book, but mostly I think I just wasn't in the mood for a book with such a grim subject as child murder.

Just finished Notorious RBG and loved it.

>14 VivienneR: I enjoyed Monuments Men. Edsel wrote an adventure story featuring unlikely heroes.

On the injustice of human justice (and what can be done about it), Waterboarding a Phoenix: and Other Meditations on Justice, Governance, Time & Thought might be of interest. There is an open Members' Giveaway listed on LibraryThing for the paperback edition.

If ignorance of the law is no excuse
is knowledge of the law an excuse
to render justice so difficult to access
that we end up damned if we know it
and damned if we don’t

Whose justice is it, anyway?

from 'TIME COCOONS OF INJUSTICE' in WATERBOARDING A PHOENIX p. 33 (emphasis added)

I have finished Die Inquisition, a very short introduction to the topic. Concise and clear.

I finished In Cold Blood - fantastic read. Truman Capote did an amazing job bringing to life the murder of a family of four in rural Kansas in 1959.

>38 LisaMorr: I've never read In Cold Blood, but I've been meaning to since I read Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, which was fabulous. There is considerable discussion of Lee's relationship with Capote and her role in the creation of In Cold Blood - you might enjoy it if you haven't already had a chance to read it.

I've been having trouble settling into a book for this challenge, but I think The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder That Shook the Nation is going to work.

I have nothing for this month except possibly The Five. It is more about the victims' lives though than the actual crime itself. Hopefully this will fit anyway?!

>40 JayneCM: Libraries classify The Five as criminology, so I say it is right on target!

Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde / Jeff Guinn.
4.25 stars

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker (later known as “Bonnie and Clyde”) both grew up extremely poor in the slum of West Dallas, Texas. They both loved their families very much and visited as often as they possibly could, even while on the run. They knew they would die young, likely violently. They stole fancy cars, and robbed some small banks and small stores and gas stations, which really only gave them enough money for food and gas. They had very little left over, and mostly had to sleep in “their” car. When they had extra, they often brought it to their families.

I knew nothing of Clyde and Bonnie beyond their names and that they were criminals/gangsters on the run in (I thought) the 1920s (it was actually only for a couple of years in the early 1930s). This book was so well-researched. I feel like, if it’s not (it might already be), it should be the go-to book about the two of them. Their crimes did mostly start off as robberies and stealing cars, but in their haste to not get caught, there were shootouts and people got killed. There were a few other murders thrown in that weren’t part of shootouts, as well.

It was slow to read, but nonfiction often is. That being said, it was fascinating and I was interested all the way through. Now, there were multiple confrontations and shootouts, so I did get a few confused toward the end, and some of the criminals who came and went from the “Barrow Gang” also got a bit confusing, but overall, this was really good. There was also a section of photos included in the middle.

>39 Dejah_Thoris: Thanks for that recommendation - I will check it out! And definitely recommend reading In Cold Blood when you get around to it.

>41 NinieB: Phew! So I do have a book for this challenge after all!

>42 LibraryCin: That looks great. I have always loved Bonnie and Clyde after seeing the movie many years ago.

>43 LisaMorr: You're welcome - and I didn't mean to put In Cold Blood off so long. After Furious Hours I wanted to wait a bit before I picked it up, but it's been plenty long enough now!

>42 LibraryCin: My friends and I were fascinated with Bonnie and Clyde, after seeing the movie! I have not yet read anything about them though.

>44 JayneCM: >46 LadyoftheLodge: You both should read it! I've not seen the movie, but it seems it took a LOT of liberties with the true story!

Earlier this month I read Race against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era by Jerry Mitchell >8 sallylou61:.

I've just finished reading Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep, which marginally fits this challenge. The book is divided into three sections: the stories of (1) the Rev. Willie Maxwell who took out numerous life insurance policies on five of his neighbors/relatives and then murdered them and tried to collect on the policies, (2) Maxwell's lawyer and Democratic politician in Alabama Tom Radney who defended Rev. Maxwell in his trials until Maxwell himself was killed and then represented Robert Burns, Maxwell's murderer and (3) Harper Lee who attended the trial of Burns, and carefully researched the life and death of Maxwell planning to write a nonfiction book about it. Almost half of the book is devoted to Harper Lee, discussing her writing, her relationship to and research for Truman Capote for his In Cold Blood, and why she did not write another book after To Kill a Mockingbird. In each of the sections murder is covered, and the book is classified as a crime book.

I just read the Stella Prize winner, See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill and would recommend it.

I was aware that Robert Badinter was a lawyer and a strong opponent of the death penalty which existed in France until 1981. I was not aware that he had been the minister of justice who wrote the text of law and brought it in front of the legislative assemblies who made it pass. This happened happened following the election of a left president (François Mitterrand) and a legislative election which brought a left majority in the National Assembly, the first French legal chamber.

L'abolition is Badinter's account of his struggle against the death penalty. It starts with some trials in which he attempts (and always succeeds) in convincing the jury not to ask for the death penalties, and ends with his drafting of the law text, with the technical details that entails, and the debate among the first then the second legislative chambers that accepted it. The book also follows the discussions about the topic in public and politic life. Throughout the book Badinter manages to project how he feels about the issue, how he feels that death penalty is simply wrong, and the book is overall very moving.

I was amazed to learn that France was the last of the western european states of the time to use the death penalty. I was also amazed to learn that other european countries, for this reason, refused to extradite criminals to France. It seems at that time we were the unruly students concerning human rights.

Starting The Prison Book Club by Ann Walmsley, a memoir about running a book club for prison inmates. (no touchstones atm)

>1 NinieB: Do you think it fits this month's theme?

The Fact of a Body / Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
3.5 stars

The author thought she wanted to be a lawyer. She had known since she was a child that she didn’t believe in the death penalty. When she took a position in a firm in Louisiana that defended people on death row, she was shown a video of a confession by Ricky Langley, a pedophile who murdered a 6-year old boy in 1992. She learned of the story just after his second trial that found him guilty of second degree murder, which took the death penalty off the table, although his original trial had put him on death row. The author then had to face her own family history, and writes in this book about both Ricky’s life and trials, as well as her looking back on her own life and confronting what had happened to her.

It took a bit at the start to get “into it”, as I couldn’t figure out where the two stories intersected, or why she went back and forth between the two. It’s a good thing she started each chapter with a place and year, as she did jump around quite a bit between time periods in both her and Ricky’s lives. It took me a while to get interested in her own story, particularly, but it did get more interesting as the book went on.

>47 LibraryCin: I think the "story" of Bonnie and Clyde and also the movie made them seem glamorous and exciting, when in actuality they were criminals.

>53 LadyoftheLodge: Not only that, nothing was glamorous about them barely having enough money to eat. Or having to sleep in their car.

I read The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser which explores the attempts to solve the "World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft" which took place on March 18, 1990 and still remains unsolved.

I hit a slump this month, and didn't get my book choice read, rats.

Here's the May thread in case anyone is interested: https://www.librarything.com/topic/318877%20#

>40 JayneCM: The Five is a Kindle Daily Deal today, so I've just bought it.

>58 pamelad: Hope you enjoy it!

I finally finished Studies in Murder by Edmund Pearson, a collection of true crime essays from the 20s-30s. I found it a bit dull, with the longer pieces too detailed. I'm thinking that it was highly regarded as a nonsensational recounting of some (at the time) very famous cases.

Finally finished my read for this, The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. Very interesting read, both to find out about the women and as a general portrait of the lives of poor women in Victorian London.

>61 JayneCM: Just started this again! I had to return it to Libby and I got it back again yesterday. I've been wanting to read this for ages and so far am liking it, if one can like a book about the wretched poverty the author describes.