The Book Bit: June 2020 Ed.

We have had a busy month here. We're officially moving again, but for the very last time. We closed on a house about two weeks ago and it's been crazy ever since. The packing is about halfway done and I cannot be more thrilled that this is our last move. This will be house #10 for me and my husband, house #6 for my oldest, house #4 for my middle child, and house #3 for my baby. We've moved a lot over the years and I'm so happy to finally be putting down roots. It's been long enough.

Anyway, enough about my personal life! I managed to get some reading done this month, squeezed into the wee hours of the morning and during nap times when silence is completely necessary and welcomed. I had a weird mix this month, but they all turned out amazing. Let's get started.


"Columbine" - Dave Cullen

I'm going to be completely honest, I knew next to nothing about this school shooting. Except that it was a big deal. I was only ten when it happened, but I remember having shooter drills in school the following year. And then bomb drills and scares for the rest of my public school career. The reason I decided to read this is because it was written by a reporter that was there, covering the shooting while it was happening and openly admits that the media surrounding Columbine was spectacularly inaccurate. He evens admits to some bad reporting on his part.

Have you ever wondered what drove those two boys to walk into their school and start shooting their classmates? Was it revenge? Was it a response to bullying? They seemed like normal guys. They both had good grades, they had jobs, they fit into their own little crowd, so what happened? This book is a deep dive into what happened in the years leading up to the attack, the attack itself, and the aftermath. Journals, psychological evaluations, warrants that were never served, how the weapons were bought, what people noticed, what people didn't notice. We're given it all. We're also given what happened to the survivors, who people often forget about. So many people focused on the lives that were lost (as it should be) that everyone seemed to forget about those that survived. And so many survived.

While I was reading this book we were all under stay home orders. It's the first April in 7 years there hasn't been a school shooting. For seven straight years, there has been a shooting in April. And the most likely reason there wasn't one this year is because everyone was forced to stay home. I think the saddest thing about this book is how little we've learned. It's been twenty years and we're still no closer to solving school shootings. How is this ok? How are we ok with this?

Here's some things, as a parent and/or educator, that you can do moving forward. Determine if your school has a lockdown plan specifically for school shootings. Determine if your local police department that services your school has a plan of action (a major error in the time of Columbine) regarding school shootings and/or bomb threats. Check in with your kids. It gets harder as they get older, because you want them to have their independence and, as a parent, you're probably getting space for the first time in a decade, but check in with them. Listen to them. Really listen. You know your kid. Use that knowledge to make sure they're doing alright.

I am 100% convinced after reading this book that one of the kids that committed this terrible act didn't even want to do it. He was depressed, he felt alone. I'm convinced the main reason he did it was because he knew that the end result would be his death.

Ok, I'll stop now. Read this book.


"Red Queen" - Christina Henry

This is the sequel to "Alice", you can find the review for that here. I absolutely adored "Alice" when I read it years ago. It's the retelling of my nightmares and it's been my favorite book ever for years. Imagine Alice in Wonderland, but if Wonderland was the darkest place in humanity and our beloved characters Cheshire, the White Rabbit, the Walrus, and the Caterpillar are all evil, vile slum lords that kidnap, rape, and torture young girls. Nightmarish. And Henry pulls it off with such flair that I cannot comprehend the inner workings of her mind. I want to meet this woman, because she is a true master of horror (in my not so professional opinion).

After fleeing the Old City, Hatcher and Alice are on a mission to find Hatcher's missing daughter. As they travel through the wasteland they encounter magic beyond what they'd seen in the Old City. Magic that was supposed to be long gone. As they enter a labyrinth of tests, Alice and Hatcher are separated and Alice must face her fears alone. Not only must she save herself, but she must save the ones she loves.

I will say, this book didn't work for me as well as the first one, but then Henry set the bar pretty high. I missed Hatcher in this book. A lot. But I loved getting to see Alice in the action on her own. Proof that women don't always need to be rescued. We can do that ourselves. If you haven't looked into these books, you absolutely must. I cannot recommend Christina Henry and this story enough. Just don't read them if you scare easy.


"I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" - Michelle McNamara

This is a true crime book and probably some of the best true crime writing I've ever experienced. McNamara was a genius when it came to true crime. She was obsessed with unsolved cases in general, but she got in deep with, who she dubbed, the Golden State Killer. He went by many names, The East Area Rapist, The Original Night Stalker, The Visalia Ransacker, the problem was he moved in and out of different police districts. For years, the police simply thought he'd vanished until they started hearing about similar crimes in another district that sounded too familiar to be coincidental.

His crime span was ten years, from 1976-1986. There was a lot of DNA evidence, but we didn't have the knowledge or the technology at that time to do anything with it. So the cases were filed, swabs set aside, rape kits put into storage, unsolved, untested for decades. The internet sprang up. Amateur sleuths started pecking at the cases. Files were released after being passed around and around to detective after detective and remaining unsolved. DNA testing and knowledge grew by leaps and bounds. CODIS became a thing. Though the Golden State Killer had been inactive for decades, his crimes still needed to be paid for. The victims and survivors still deserved justice. McNamara walked us through her information, the thousands of puzzle pieces she collected and turned into something amazing. She knew exactly how much information to give without it being overwhelming for the reader, something that's hard to balance in true crime writing.

Unfortunately, Michelle McNamara died before getting to finish this book. It was devastating to read. As a reader, I felt like she was so close to solving it and I would have loved to read her ending to this novel. It was finished by a few armchair sleuths she worked closely with, but I still wanted to know her final thoughts. They found so many more leads she wanted to pursue, information she had painstakingly collected, all leading somewhere, but she never reached it.

Read this book. You won't regret it.


I don't know how I only managed to read one fiction book this month, but that's how it worked out! Do you have any recommendations for me? I'd love to know what you're reading. Even though we're moving I still plan on doing my reading. It may be less than normal, but I always carve out time for my books. See you guys soon, happy reading!