Friday Reads 1/17/2025

Alrighty then. It's Friday. Time to talk about books!

I'm feeling really scattered in my reading right now. I have a book for home and 2 work books.

Blood In the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson - This is really good so far. All 71 pages I've read. We are in the middle of the riot, which makes me wonder how the next 500 pages will be used. Thompson uses letters, documents, and interviews with the people involved to tell the story. This is my book for reading at home because it's very large. The book itself is tall and the margins are small. It takes a couple minutes to read each page, which is slower than my usual pace.

Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, America's First Serial Killer Family by Susan Jonusas - This is my work book. I read it at lunch, which means I can get maybe 30 pages read each day. Also, it's pretty grisly. These weirdos lived in a squalid, nasty cabin in the middle of nowhere and killed people for their money and any belongings they had with them. At least that's what I think they are doing. Some bodies were left out in the open in campsites and some were buried in the family orchard, so I'm not sure yet if they were going out on the prairie looking for people, or if they only killed people who cam to stay with them.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson - My library hold for this came in at the library. I started it, but I haven't taken it home yet. I've been reading a little bit here and there during breaks at work. It only has 175 pages, but I will have to focus on it soon to make sure I get it finished before it's due back at the library. I am really enjoying it. The characters are great.

I don't really expect to finish any of these this week, so I don't guess I'll predict what's next.