by Efrem Sigel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2020
An absorbing account that will especially speak to advocates of social and criminal justice reform.
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For a juror in a real-life murder case, the guilty verdict is only the beginning of his post-trial examination into the many institutional failures he feels led to the tragedy.
Abraham Cucuta, 35, was convicted in 2018 of first-degree murder for two “brutal and senseless” gang-connected killings. When the trial concluded, Sigel agonized: “Why? And there is plenty of blame to go around.” In this nonfiction book, the author, a former journalist, trains his reportorial eye on the courtroom proceedings as well as “how and why the failures of the New York City schools, its public housing projects and its criminal justice system, contributed to these outcomes.” He also apportions blame to the families that fail “to do what families are supposed to do for their children.” The victims, he notes, “were still children when they first began joining gangs, robbing tourists or peddling crack.” Sigel writes with compassion. If this were a real-life Twelve Angry Men, he’d be cast in the Henry Fonda role (although in announcing the guilty verdict, Fonda probably wouldn’t have spoken louder than he should, indulging in a regretful “piece of theater”). The trial takes up the first half of the compact, engrossing work, and Sigel serves as an otherwise objective observer, laying out the opposing attorneys’ cases and noting troubling holes in the prosecutor’s presentation (a lack of physical evidence connecting the accused to the crime). The author takes his commitment seriously: “While we owe the defendant a fair trial, we also have an obligation…to see that justice is done.” The second half of the timely book is devoted to Sigel’s “search for why.” He skillfully puts a human face on the denizens of run-down housing projects, overwhelmed schools, and the police. There is hope in the vivid success stories of nonprofit organizations trying to break the cycle of recidivism.
An absorbing account that will especially speak to advocates of social and criminal justice reform.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73242-550-7
Page Count: 146
Publisher: The Writers’ Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Efrem Sigel
by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
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National Book Award Finalist
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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More In The Series
by Shavone Charles ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
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