The Wager

I love a good nonfiction read and this historical telling of the Wager was captivating and horrifying. It got a little slow at times, but maybe I just haven't read enough seafaring books. As the subtitle summarizes, the Wager's voyage was beset with one calamity after another: typhus, scurvy, violent weather, wrecks, starvation, death, mutiny, and murder. Pretty much everything that could go wrong, went wrong. There were very few survivors left, but the ones that survived the horrors all seemed to have conflicting stories. Was there really a mutiny? Was the captain at fault? After reading this recounting I can tell you that I would last about 1 second on one of these 17th century British warships. Absolutely not. Hard pass. Don't read this before you go on a cruise to the Cape of South America. 

Killers of the Flower Moon

DAMN! This book was worth the hype! I loved The Lost City of Z, so I'm not surprised that I loved this as well. It's dark, disturbing, wonderfully researched and written. It's truly a marvel about a dark and bloody part of United States history. This book investigates the murder of dozens (the number is likely in the hundreds) of Osage Indians during the twenties as greedy white Americans tried to wrest oil rights from them. When some of the richest oil fields in the world were found in Osage territory, the tribe suddenly became some of the wealthiest people per capita. Try as they might the government couldn't force them to move or to take their oil away from them so greedy white neighbors hatched a plot to slowly kill them off. Local officials were crooked and it took Hoover sending over some of his investigators to help curb the deaths. It's a dark and sordid take that's worth remembering. I can't give this book enough praise.

Killers of the Flower Moon

DAMN! This book was worth the hype! I loved The Lost City of Z, so I'm not surprised that I loved this as well. It's dark, disturbing, wonderfully researched and written. It's truly a marvel about a dark and bloody part of United States history. This book investigates the murder of dozens (the number is likely in the hundreds) of Osage Indians during the twenties as greedy white Americans tried to wrest oil rights from them. When some of the richest oil fields in the world were found in Osage territory, the tribe suddenly became some of the wealthiest people per capita. Try as they might the government couldn't force them to move or to take their oil away from them so greedy white neighbors hatched a plot to slowly kill them off. Local officials were crooked and it took Hoover sending over some of his investigators to help curb the deaths. It's a dark and sordid take that's worth remembering. I can't give this book enough praise.