I have never in my life before completed a nonfiction book. When I was assigned a nonfiction book in school I would skim through the pages, ask my friends about the story before class, or simply guess at the answers and take a few low test scores, but I never read them. I actually did this for most books I was assigned in school until my junior year of high school when we were assigned To Kill a Mockingbird, which I loved.
I say that to say that I recently read two non-fiction books and loved them both. The first I read is Chasing Lincoln's Killer, and I give it a 7/10. One of the reasons I picked it up was that even though it was nonfiction it was short, so I figured I would give it a try. I read it over three days (reading along with another book I still haven't finished), and was disappointed to learn that the book was the 'young adult' version of a much longer book called Manhunt: The 12-day Chase For Lincoln's Killer. Having read the short version, I'm not sure if I can read the longer version, but I would really like to, because the story is very informative and is told narratively, as opposed to dictatorially which is what drove me away from nonfiction in the past. It was good and interesting to learn all of the events that followed Lincoln's assassination, and I'm thinking now of reading other such books.
I then read a book called Shot in the Heart, which I give a 9/10. I'll be honest and say that what made me pick up this book was its name and cover, but after reading the praise for the book (also on the cover) I realized it was nonfiction, but because of the first nonfiction I completed, I decided to read it. It's a book about a famous killer from Utah, his family, his life, and his troubles, named Gary Gilmore, told by his youngest brother Mikal Gilmore. I found myself relating a lot to the author, despite the vast differences in our childhoods, from what I read of him, told by him, in a lot of ways, we've grown into similar people, or at least, in the way we look at things. I felt the same compassion mixed with confusion and anger that he felt for his brother, and every such troubled child. Maybe it's just the way he told the story, that would make anyone feel the emotions he went through, and have the same level of compassion, but there are some stories that he includes from his adult life that mirror some of my own experiences, or at least the reaction I had to them. The story was great, interesting, and really opened my eyes a little bit to another side of America, and a history that is often overlooked.
As an aside, reading Mikal Gilmore's book made me think of researching and reporting on someone's story who only gets the smallest of passing mentions in Mikal's book, but who I found immensely interesting.
Topic: Rate the Last Book You've Read (Read 11895 times)
