Truman Capote: In Cold Blood

This is another book I plan on using next year in AP language.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is the story of the Clutter murders in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. Perpetrated by two men who had never met the family, Capote tracks them in the days that lead up to the murders and the months that follow. He follows investigators, family members, and many connected with the case to its ultimate end - the hanging of the two murderers.

I loved this book. While this book is completely true, it reads like a mystery novel. Capote masterfully unravels the mystery and carefully reveals the secrets of the case. It was fascinating to read and is amazingly well-written. I feel like my only criticism is that it was a little unclear at first that it was non-fiction. I would have loved something at the end that described how Capote got the information he got. Did he follow the case from the start, or did he do his extensive research afterwards? Regardless, this is a beautifully written book and is hardly comparable with any other work of nonfiction.

I rate this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

PG-13 - some sex, violence, murder, and alcoholism

Comments

Dashka Slater: The 57 Bus

I picked this one up to possibly use in my AP class. It had been recommended to me by one of my coworkers and I was trying to decide if it was worth using in AP. The 57 Bus recounts the true story of two teens whose happenstance meeting on a public bus in Oakland, California. Sasha identified as nonbinary, liked to wear skirts, and went to a private school in Oakland. Richard was a black student, a good kid, but also tended to get mixed up in trouble. He went to a public school in Oakland's poorer side of town. One day, Sasha was riding the bus as they always did back to their house from school. This time though, Sasha fell asleep on the long ride. Richard and his friends boarded the bus as well, and seeing the skirt hanging off the edge of the seat, decided to see what would happen with a lighter. The material of the skirt burst into flames, and suddenly Sasha was burning. This story is unbelievably sad for both teenagers involved. In working with teenagers, one thing is tr...

Some Forgotten Thoughts--Eragon vs. The Belgariad

I forgot to mention something I noticed about Eragon in my last post. If any of you have read David Edding's Belgariad series, then you might have realized that many ideas about the workings of magic in Eragon follow along with the Belgariad . For example, the "Be Not" principle is a very important one in book three of the Belgariad and has some of the same effects that it does in Inheritance (book four of the cycle). "Magic" in Eragon can be equated to "sorcery" in The Belgariad . Magic in both series depends upon your personal strength. You can't bring people back from the dead (this is a common rule throughout all of the magical fantasy). Another similarity is that there are different kinds of magic. Shades are spirits trapped in the mortal world in Eragon . Eddings actually portrays basically the same idea as an actual demon. Mispronunciation or breaking of concentration will cause the Shade or demon to destroy the ma...

Robert Louis Stevenson: Pavilion on the Links

For anyone who has read Stevenson's short story "Pavilion on the Links" here is a short discussion of the story and a key passage. For anyone who hasn't, here is a short explication dealing with a passage from the short story. The prompt is as follows: In "The Pavilion on the Links," Frank Cassilis, the story's narrator, describes his friend Northmour: "My wife and I, a man and a woman, have often agreed to wonder how a person could be, at the same time, so handsome and so repulsive as Northmour. He had the appearance of a finished gentleman; his face bore every mark of intelligence and courage; but you had only to look at him, even in his most amiable moment, to see that he had the temper of a slaver captain. I never knew a character that was both explosive and revengeful to the same degree; he combined the vivacity of the south with the sustained and deadly hatreds of the north; and both traits were plainly written on his face, which was...

Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

Search This Blog