#NonFicNov 2024 Week 3 Pairings
Book Pairing with Liz link is HERE: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. Usually I skip the “book pairings” week….but this year there was an oblivious connection between these two books.
Good news: Clark has done his homework. He blends history with fiction. He takes key pieces of history and makes them fantastical in his writing.
I learned about the origins of the KKK …how it was named and who started the first klan.
I learned about D.W. Griffith’s move “Birth of a Nation” from another perspective! The 1915 D.W. Griffith infamous ‘classic’ film is used to summon Ku Kluxes who are non-human entities of the human Ku Klux Klan. On (pg 81) Clark mentions “…make the invisible Empire strong.”
This is a reference to book (1930) by D. F. Horn Invisible Empire: Story of the KKK 1866-1871.
Personal:
Clark uses the mystery that hangs about the Ku Klux name to create a supernatural / horror story. I thought “Ring Shot” would be the central motif….but it turned out to be the “supernatural sword. Strong point: …bringing in alternate takes on history while mixing in more traditional fantasy elements. If you read this novella …be warned…there’ are a few pages of of slithering and crawling pieces of flesh! Skim if you are squeamish! #JICK
Good News: Writing: The pacing is terrific, all muscle and no fat. Every sentence has purpose. I read the audiobook and sat in front of the laptop…looking up so much info with Wikipedia! This book is a riveting history lesson. Chilling chapters 15-16-17 : Madge Oberholtzer (1896 – 1925) was an American woman whose rape and murder played a critical role in the demise of the second incarnation of the KKK.
Personal: Indiana is not a state I read anything about but in the 1920s it was the center of the KKK movement! But that is not so surprising: Indiana had 95% native born, 97% white the “purest state in the union!” Indiana had 315.000 members of KKK in 1923, more than in Georgia and Texas. I could not stop myself comparing the rise if KKK and the current politics in the Republican Party! Similarties spring to mind: men were the muscle (Congress, senate, local politicans); women spread the poison (political organization “Moms for Liberty”); ministers sanctify it all! (Ralph Reed’s Turn to Faith movement). Worth your reading time….
#Eye-Opener
NancyElin.blog 
Brilliant, so glad you could join in! I always find this the hardest week, hence hosting it two years in a row now!
Your time and effort is very much appreciated! Week of ‘pairing’ is a challenge for me as well…I’m not as good as you are with making book connections!
My husband read A Fever in the Heartland and thought it was a very good read. I think it would depress me a lot. Every nonfiction book that I have read that includes information about the KKK depressed me, but all of them were about Southern states and covered times I lived through.
Tracy, that is what surprised me in the book..there were more KKK in Indiana than in Georgia and Texas. But after readiing the history of states like Indiana or Nebraska…the KKK mentality is in the state’s DNA…probalby in ALL those read states you see on the election map. Just read a good CF/mystery by British author George Ballair! Classic, 1964 Scotland Yard investigation…have you heard of this author?
My husband recently read an early book by George Bellair and enjoyed it, so I plan to read some books by him also. We have purchased a good number of them in ebook format. Thanks for reminding me.
I now hope to read A Fever in the Heartland.
I read it non-stop…page turner and research on wikipedia to follow the history. This was never in my high-school books!