It's November and the forthcoming release of a nonfiction title by the granddaughter of Abraham Zapruder, got me thinking about books related to the Kennedy assassination. There are plenty of books about this event (too many to count!), so using this new title as a guide I concentrated on books that focused on the impact of JFK's assassination on an individual or family.
This led to three fiction titles covering a range of genres: time travel, hard-boiled mystery, and historical fiction, tapping into the personal impact theme of the new memoir.
11/22/63 by Stephen King (2011) - a high school English teacher learns how to time travel and is convinced he can 'fix' history for himself and others by going back and preventing the Kennedy assassination
Ask Not by Max Allan Collins (2013) - a detective investigates the deaths (suicides, accidents, murders) of Kennedy assassination witnesses who's stories all conflicted with the Warren Commission's "one-man, one-shooter" conclusion
Top Down by Jim Lehrer (2013) - at the behest of the daughter of a former Secret Service agent, a reporter investigates why the security bubble top was not in place during Kennedy's fatal ride through Dallas
Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film by Alexandra Zapruder (Nov 2016) - the granddaughter of Abraham Zapruder relates how his home movie impacted her family as well as the American public
Twitter: #44U or #4-4-U
It's #Four4UFriday!
The guiding theme for this #44U list is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, although the titles are not simply continuations or spin-offs on Miss Austen's tale. The four titles below offer a different twist on the story of Pride and Prejudice and cross over into a variety of genres: horror, mystery, historical fiction, and contemporary women's fiction.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Graham-Smith (2009) - the mash-up combining classic literature with horror, that kicked off the mash-up craze.
Death Comes to Pemberley
by P. D. James (2011) - six years after their happily ever after, all is not well for Elizabeth and Darcy when the relatives come to visit and a murder occurs.
Longbourn by Jo Baker (2013) - looks at the downstairs life of the Bennett family servants during the time of events related in Pride and Prejudice.
Eligible
by Curtis Sittenfeld (2016) - a fun, 21st Century re-envisioning of the
classic with all the same characters in modern day roles and
situations.
Give these a try and see if you don't look at Miss Austen's classic in a whole new way. Enjoy! :-)
Twitter hashtag: #44U or #4-4-U
For July's audio title, I went with a suspenseful Mystery although with a bit of a twist on the narration. This time there are two narrators to amp up the tension as you follow the alternating voices of the two main characters!
Use the For Listeners tab to find this month's audiobook, then scroll up and down the screen to explore other ideas to consider for your listening pleasure.
