Things I've Read
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Awesome. And long. It took me a month to get through this - I took a few breaks to read something a little lighter. This is easiest to read if you have a background in the history to begin with and if you take notes, because he flies through those millenia.
Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
This books looks at the last days of Martin Luther King Jr's life, and those of James Earl Ray's leading up to the assassination. Sides outlines two men on a collision course - you know what is coming and I really wished something could have stopped it. He looks more at King's inner life than Ray's, which was fine by me.
The 87th Precinct Novels by Ed McBain
My favorite part about this series? It begins in the late forties/early fifties and zooms up to modern times, all with the same cast of characters. It's like the opposite of how kids on a soap opera age. I read a bunch of the ones from the 80s a few years ago, and I've started from the beginning. I'm up to Bread, so far.
Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich
This was all right. She made some good points about how the power of positive thinking can have a dark side (ie, you brought cancer on yourself). Ouch. The essays felt very surface, though - I wanted them to delve into topics more deeply than she did.
Hunting Evil by Guy Walters
This was a tough one to get through - well, I wouldn't want a history of Nazi war criminals to be light reading. The author wandered, in my opinion - the book could have been organized more tightly. Also, it's just horrifying subject matter. How did Nazi war criminal escape? Because no one cared enough to stop them. After reading this, I was angry at everyone.