Tag: Literature

Crime and Thrillers

I’m currently on a true crime/crime fiction binge. I recently finished the Netflix original series “Mindhunter” and am halfway done with John Douglas’ book. I started looking into True Crime for  YA but couldn’t find much (will need to exercise more on this) so I made a post with a mix of YA Crime and Thrills.

  • The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & the Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller The gruesome murders of Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother made headlines in the late 1800s. The suspect in the murders is daughter Lizzie, whose alibi is seriously put into question. Narrated like a novel, it makes it hard to believe this was a real crime. The research that went into this book includes pictures, newspaper reports, and interviews (a hallmark of many a crime book). Did she do it?
  • Monster by Walter Dean Myers monster
    An award-winning book (Coretta Scott King Award, Michael L. Printz Award, National Book Award for Young People’s Literature) and a classic in it’s own right. At sixteen, Steve is held in a juvenile detention hall awaiting trial for the murder of a drugstore owner. He is an aspiring filmmaker, thus writing his story like a screenplay. It is unclear what Steve’s role was in the murder gone afoul. In-between his screenplay are journal entries that show a raw look at a teen suffering through doubt and fear for his life.
  • One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
    A group of teens enter detention. One doesn’t make it out alive. Follow the clues and motives, find who killed the creator of Bayview High’s gossip app. You get the stereotypes of each teen (homecoming queen, jock, the brain, the criminal) in detention and what they have to lose if exposed to their social circles. Why go the whole nine yards and kill the outcast? How badly did the killer want his/her secret safe?
  • Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe getting away with murder
    I am very excited to re-read this book due to a revised edition released earlier this year. Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy visiting relatives from Chicago when he was murdered for allegedly whistling at a Caucasian woman. His body was found three days later. The book weaves Till’s murder with America’s Civil Rights Movement. Revised edition includes new information by Till’s accuser which caused sensational headlines in late 2017.
  • Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
    I read this back in high school which became a guilty pleasure among the Agatha Christie novels I hungered for. Includes pictures from the Jack the Ripper Case. Cornwell did a great job framing the story however with a multitude of suspects in the Whitechapel Murders, this is but one of many to suggest who Jack the Ripper really was.
Bonus: The Stuff You Missed In History podcast is wonderful and has a few episodes on crime, suitable for history buffs at their own discretion. They do great research and narrate in a way that leaves you wanting more. Search under “Crime” to find episodes tagged. I like listening during my drives to and from work. Happy reading!

Catalog Confusion? Soviet Daughter : A Graphic Revolution

soviet daughter

I had recently created a small section of Biographical Graphic Novels and Non-Fiction Graphic Novels at the library I work at. It’s a little section but I’m proud of creating a visible assertion that graphic novels aren’t 100% superheroes. That non-fiction and memoirs have been in the graphic medium and will continue to grow.

So imagine my confusion receiving Soviet Daughter : A Graphic Revolution by Julia Alekseyeva to have processed. I figured it was a memoir and would be placed under our Biographical Graphic Novels because Julia uses information provided by her great-grandmother, Lola from her days growing up in the USSR to witnessing the Fall of the Soviet Union and moving to the United States. At the same time, moments of Julia’s story is interwoven, reminiscently reminding me of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, where she revisits her relationship with her father prior to his death. However the library system placed it as a Fiction.

So I dug deeper and ran across more confusion. Amazon lists Soviet Daughter under Amazon Best Seller Ranks as “Educational and Non-Fiction” (#164) but “Historical and Biographical Fiction” (#96). The publisher, Microcosm Publishing, markets it as a “graphic novel memoir unites two generations of strong, independent women against a sweeping backdrop of the history of the USSR.” A memoir is a biography, written from personal sources. If this was fiction, the marketing would say so since it would put the book in a tricky situation. WorldCat lists it as “Biography, Fiction” with Similar Items listing subjects including “Nonfiction/Biography/Memoir”.

Food for thought when looking at books in the library. The collection says a lot if books are placed in Fiction or Non-Fiction. For now, Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution will be under Fiction. If there are any changes, we’ll see!