Read-Handed: The true-crime texts on our minds right now

3 weeks ago 3

updated 10/25/24

Welcome to Read-Handed, an occasional feature updating you on true-crime books, listens, research etc. that we’re in the middle of right now. We hope you’ll add YOUR recent reads — whether you dug the book or DNF’d it partway through — and what you’re looking forward to, too.

just finished

American Prison, Shane Bauer // Bauer is a real one. This is going to sound backhanded, but there were many ways this book could have gone wrong — officious tone, unbalanced levels of detail in the historical sections — but he and his editor/s nailed it.

current reads

Manson, Jeff Guinn // I’m listening to this one via Libby (you can also find the audiobook here). About halfway through, and deep into the “Charlie figures out his music-industry ‘connections’ think he ain’t shit” portion of the program that I feel like You Must Remember This covered extremely well, but Guinn is a pro, as is narrator Jim Frangione.
Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years, J. Anthony Lukas // I got becalmed on this one months ago; not sure why. I think it’s partly that there are frequent “POV” sections from various Watergate figures that Lukas renders in italics, which combined with my copy’s page toning just makes it physically harder to read for this middle-aged broad (whose mom was prolly right about not reading in the dark back in the day).

next up

Three Month Fever, Gary Indiana // It’s been sitting near the top of my TBR pile for a while; Elon Green recommended I promote it, so I shall.
The Man Nobody Killed: Life, Death, and Art in Michael Stuart’s New York, E…lon Green // This ARC showed up a week ago and I’m saving it as a reward to myself for finishing a gnarly stack of crackpot-JFK-theory inventory at Exhibit B. (Did you know Jerry Ford basically profiled Oswald based on Warren Report testimony, and turned it into a book? He did. The seventies were wild.)
Not Just Evil: Murder, Hollywood, and California’s First Insanity Plea, David Wilson // Or, “An Attempt to Chop Down My Library Hold List.” Anyone read this one or know anything about the case?

Any notes on these texts ‘n’ tomes? Need therapy for your teetering TBR stack? Scroll down to the comments.