David Grann
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Author:
Series: 25 untold stories

This is Grann's all-too-real account of the Reign of Terror, the time between 1920 and 1924 when a shocking number of Osage Indians were murdered for their oil money. J. Edgar Hoover's relatively new FBI was brought in to solve the murders, and the investigation shaped the way that organization functions even today. Rumor has it that Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are developing the movie adaptation.

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The White Darkness

The White Darkness

Author:
Series: Arctic Adventures

Ann Kingman of Books On The Nightstand fame was my guest on episode 161 of the podcast. We discussed favorite gifts for the holiday or any other season and she gushed about this incredible story, calling it a "nonfiction novella." By the bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, this is the story of Henry Worsley who was obsessed with Ernest Shackleton, the Polar explorer in the 19th century who tried to be the first person to reach the South Pole and later tried to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but Worsley was obsessed, partly because he was related to one of Shackleton's men and so he grew up knowing about these adventures. In 2015, Worsley, at the age of 55, he decided that he wanted to cross Antarctica alone on foot. Worsley had a big sled, filled with three hundred pounds of supplies that he strapped around his waist, put on cross country skis, and set off across Antarctica to complete this journey. David Grann gives us an inside look of what Henry Worsley went through on this journey. Worsley kept an audio diary and would radio back his experiences so Grann uses this to great effect. Kingman says you really feel like you're right there. It is a fast read but that's a good thing, otherwise you'd be up for hours because this qualifies as unputdownable. It's a little bit Into Thin Air, a little bit National Geographic. This was her pick for almost anybody you have to bring a gift for, even if you don't know what they might like to read. Chances are there's something in here that anyone would love.

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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

Author:
Series: Summer Adventures

From the publisher: "The #1 New York Times bestseller from the author of Killers of the Flower Moon. In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called 'The Lost City of Z.' In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for 'Z' and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century."

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