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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post #391

On The Blog Recently

In My Reading Life

It took me over a month, but I finally finished Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. It's adult literary fiction, and the characters are so realistic that the book stressed me out. I had to take breaks and read other books.

In 1970s Florida, a man breaks into a college sorority house and murders several young women. The only witness is Pamela, a wannabe lawyer who has a complicated relationship with her sorority sisters. She teams up with other crime victims to bring the killer to justice.

This book is stressful because Pamela is way too relatable at times. She's a perfectionist who badly wants to be in control, but she makes mistakes because she's in over her head. The murder of her friends is more than she can handle alone. She'd never admit to being overwhelmed, though. Yeah . . . I feel called out. I could see myself behaving similarly in Pamela's situation.

I appreciate this novel because it's a unique take on the true crime genre. The book is fiction, but if you know the history of American serial killers, then it's easy to see where the author got her inspiration. Unlike other crime books, the killer does not take over the story. The author keeps the focus on the victims. They're complex characters with full lives. This is their story, not the killer's. I appreciate that.

I think the book could have been shorter. Sometimes the plot draaaags. However, I'm extremely glad I read it. This one is impressive.

Then it was back to Nonfiction November reading. I read How Civil Wars Start: And How To Stop Them by Barbara F. Walter. The book delivers exactly what it says in the title. The author analyzes modern civil wars and looks for common reasons why they start and end.

Here's how they start:

Governments become anocracies. (Anocracy is a transitional government between democracy and dictatorship.)
Citizens divide themselves into factions.
"Entrepreneurs" rise up to lead the factions and stoke division.
Social media makes everything worse.

If you're interested in history or political science, then this is a must-read. I found it fascinating. It's also distressing to see different countries repeating the same pattern. Hopefully this book will help us learn from others' mistakes.

The last chapters are extremely US-focused. If you don't care about modern US politics, then you might not find them interesting.

This was a good one. I learned a lot.

Okay, more Nonfiction November. I spent Thanksgiving reading A Fever In The Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot To Take Over America, And The Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan. It's about the history of a hate group, the KKK. In the 1920s, the Klan controlled the government of several US states and had a goal of taking over the entire country. The Klan leaders felt unstoppable. Then, one of them kidnapped a woman and got arrested. The high-profile trial and the woman's story were the beginning of the Klan's downfall.

Honestly, I had a hard time getting interested in this book. The first half is very textbookish. Lots of names, dates, places, events, etc. I understand why that information is important, but I zoned out a few times.

The second half of the book is about the trial. That's where I got hooked. I had no idea how the trial would turn out. I hoped the kidnapper would be punished, but we all know that consequences often don't exist for powerful men.

I guess I have mixed feeling about this one. I felt "meh" about the beginning and couldn't put the book down at the end.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy last week:

Nonfiction November was great. I learned many interesting things. I'm still working on reading everybody's blog posts.
If you celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope it was awesome. I was at work, but work was boring, so I read a book.
I started my Christmas shopping.
Playing Planet Zoo. I finally bought that videogame and have been playing after work every day.
I may have watched Elf five times. I have insomnia, okay!