Hello everyone. I hope you are having a good day.
I've told you I grew up in a small town in upstate NY. There were two major industries, paying lots of taxes. One company was nearing the end of its lifecycle, the other getting bigger and bigger. Although the area was modest, smaller older houses...no McMansions...the town had a lot of money. So, our school system was really good. The high school looked like it was straight from the TV series Room 222 (google machine it). We had a great football stadium, a large two floor library, an Olympic size pool, loads of tennis courts, winning sports teams, and a fantastic marching band. Now before you start streaming Revenge of the Nerds in your head and start chanting "Nerd, Nerd," yes, I was in the marching band, so were my sisters. The band was a huge showband, had professional show writers, and did a different half-time every week. It was exhausting and glorious. I've still never heard of a band going to such efforts. Being such a large band and really good, we were PAID to do half-time shows for the NFL. When I was in high school, we did 5 pro football games, 4 for the Bills at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, and 1 for the Patriots in Worchester. In addition, every student was promised a bowl parade at some point during their time in high school. In my senior year, we went to the Cotton Bowl. Yep, 600 kids in LaGuardia airport then flying to Dallas. Not only did we do the parade, but we got to attend the bowl game. It was really fun. We did other neat things, we went to the mall/office building where the movie Logan's Run was filmed, we went to a dude ranch, and we went to Dealey Plaza. All those kids on a bus turned quiet driving past the book depository and the grassy knoll. It was odd, seeing life going on, yet remembering the terrible past. Very moving.
I recently read The JFK Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. To be honest, I love history, and I would have read this anyway. Not only did I get to go to Dealey Plaza, but I have read many books by Brad Meltzer. He writes history books, children's books and my beloved thrillers. I haven't read his offerings for kids, but they look adorable. I have gobbled up his thrillers, so has my husband. Brad Meltzer deserves credit for making my husband into a "reader." If you are a thriller lover, get busy and start reading, but read all series books in order as they really build on each other.
The JFK Conspiracy will leave you entertained, educated and surprised. It is about a plot to kill John F. Kennedy long before Dealey Plaza, in fact, after he was elected president but before the inauguration. Yes, this is nonfiction but just trust me, read it. Meltzer and Mensch have researched this story so completely. Told in a manner that is lively and compelling. You will be flipping pages just like in the most suspenseful thriller. That's what it is, after all, a real-life thriller. Absorbing. I wish all textbooks were written like this, history relieved of being distilled to battles and dates, to something that gives you so much more understanding, is interesting and, frankly, emotional. To add to the richness, the facts here feature both the good and bad. Nothing is sugar coated or romanticized. You will be shaking your head. You'll wonder what would have been if things had been different, before JFK's swearing in, or if he hadn't been assassinated at all. If you think history is dry, and I admit it can be depending on the source, you need to read this. I promise, you will change your mind. You'll wish you could go back and take your school age history classes again, and that they were all taught with this brand of storytelling. Sign me up for not only all the fictional thrillers, but these nonfiction too.
By the way, the trip to Dallas was my first time on an airplane. I didn't know planes banked to the sides when turning. Shortly after takeoff, I loudly declared an emergency, since I was certain as we turned, that we were crashing into the Statue of Liberty.
