PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up
1. What are you currently reading? Nobody Heard a Thing by Angela Henry Ava and Brooke were playing together after school. They had a dumb argument over ice cream and angrily went their separate ways. After they parted, while still in view of one another, Brooke was snatched in a "stranger danger" abduction, and never seen again. The case was never solved. Fast forward 25 years. The true crime culture is thriving and a documentarian wants to take a fresh look at this cold case. Ava, now a complicated 35-year-old, is upset and on edge as she relives her childhood trauma. But is she depressed, paranoid, or actually in danger? After all, whoever took Brooke got away with it, and she's the only witness.
I was unfamiliar with Angela Henry until I picked up this book, but she's good at creating a sense of creepiness and dread.
BTW, Ms. Henry is a black author. She specifies the race of each character in the book. This got me thinking – unless I'm told otherwise, I just always assume everyone I'm reading about is white. I never realized that before.
2. What did you recently finish reading? G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage. I spent more than a month on this deep dive into the life and career of the first FBI director. He saw much, having served under eight Presidents, and was at the center of American law and culture for decades. This book was balanced, detailed and well researched. But I did not enjoy it.
I learned a great deal about what happened in America during the the quarters of the 20th century, so I'm not sorry I read it. From John Dillinger to The Lindbergh Kidnapping to The Warren Commission to The Black Panthers, Hoover was a consequential player. So why wasn't I more engaged? Because Hoover lived an opaque life. After more than 800 pages, I have no greater sense of what brought him joy or pain or what motivated him – beyond grievance and the need for order.
Is this Gage's fault, or Hoover's? I don't know. But this book did not deliver what I'm hungry for when I pick up a biography.
3. What will you read next? Something light.
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