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For Book Lovers

What I Will Read while I Wait to Pick up the Baby:

*"Devil's Knot." The Times has listed the fifty states and paired a true-crime book with each state. "Devil's Knot" is the story from Arkansas.

This is a story similar to the saga of the Central Park Five (from what I gather). A crime occurs; the police find some teenagers; confessions are coerced; lives are ruined. The actual crime--in the case of "Devil's Knot"--remains unsolved.

Squeamish about reading true crime? A writer recently observed that the pleasures of the genre are something like the pleasures of "Hansel and Gretel" (which is a crime story). We want to understand what happens underneath the surface: Is the smiling lady really a witch, and how do we prove it? We also want to look for human ingenuity in the face of evil. Scatter those bread crumbs: smart! Who knows if a true-crime book might help you to wiggle out of your own tight spot, eventually?

*"Born a Crime." Excellent title, excellent cover, and I'm surprised I haven't read the book yet.

*"The Perfect Storm." Everyone loves this account of a terrible storm at sea, and I did like Junger's follow-up, the mostly-neglected book, "A Death in Belmont." The nautical vocabulary--and a cast that I imagine features mainly men--has been a turn-off. But I'm ready to push past all that. If America loved this book, I can love this book.

Happy Reading!
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