Oct 30, 2024, 08:13
by
Julie Hanson, Samish Library Assistant
Good day to all!
Before the mini book review, I am sadly announcing the temporary closure of the library. While it is closed, please look to the Samish Digital Library on Libby for available e-books and audiobooks.
1491: The New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
A 2005 non-fiction book by American author and science writer Charles C. Mann about the pre-Columbian Americas. It was the 2006 winner of the National Academies Communication Award for best creative work that helps the public's understanding of topics in science, engineering or medicine.
The book presents recent research findings from different fields which suggest human populations in the Western Hemisphere—that is, the indigenous peoples of the Americas—were more numerous, had arrived earlier, were more sophisticated culturally, and controlled and shaped the natural landscape to a greater extent than scholars had previously thought.
The author notes that, according to these findings, two of the first six independent centers of civilization arose in the Americas: the first, Norte Chico or Caral-Supe, in present-day northern Peru; and that of formative-era Mesoamerica in what is now southern Mexico.
I listened to this book. The reader does an excellent job presenting facts, opinions, and the ever-changing world of anthropology due to technological advances and newly discovered artifacts. This is our book club read for October.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.
As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
This non-fiction book that reads as a who-done-it. A story about a cesspool of corruption, greed, and manipulation of both humans and law leading to homicide for profit, inheritance, or conveyance. While it did result in the creation of the FBI, even that aspect is somewhat suspect.