Five Days in November

Five Days in November by Clint Hill & Lisa McCubbin  243 pp.

Clint Hill is the Secret Service agent know as the man who jumped on the back of President Kennedy's limousine after Kennedy was shot. Hill's reason for his actions were to protect the First Lady who was his charge. He already knew the President was fatally injured from his vantagepoint in the Secret Service car following the limo. In this book he recounts that fated trip to Texas almost minute by minute. He also explains what made this trip a nightmare for the Secret Service even before the shooting. Kennedy's insistence on riding in an open car in multiple motorcades through thousands of onlookers essentially made the President a sitting duck target for anyone wanting to do him harm. Frequent stops to allow the crowd to shake hands with JFK and Jackie added to the hazards. Hill doesn't gloss over the the gory details including his viewing of the President's head wound. As he was trained, Hill's account is factual and mostly unemotional (except where the emotions are wholly appropriate). I appreciate Agent Hill's account of an event that occurred when I was in kindergarten but was unforgettable even for a five year old.  

And They Called It Camelot

And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton, 458 pages

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis is well-known for the style and grace she showed as First Lady, as well as for the strength she showed after JFK was assassinated beside her in 1963. This novel seeks to give readers an intimate view of the events of Jackie's life from the point of view of the notoriously quiet and reserved woman. Spanning the years from first meeting JFK in 1952 through settling the will of her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, in 1977, several years after his death, this is the world seen through Jackie's eyes, full of splendid trips abroad and classy designs, but also tragedy in the form of miscarriages and stillbirths, and of course the well-publicized philandering of her late husband and also his assassination.

The book aims to be intimate and emotional, but somehow misses that mark. I felt like I was reading a memoir in which the author didn't want to get too deep into emotions or linger on particular events too long. The pacing never varied, and it felt like the author just wanted to make sure she hit all the big events instead of making the reader sympathize with Jackie. It's sad really: I felt bad for Jackie the person during all of the tragic events, but the writing didn't move me to feel for Jackie the character at all.

American Moonshot

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley  548 pp.

Since we are fast approaching the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing I thought I would read an appropriate book for the occasion. It shouldn't have been this one. Brinkley's main focus in the book is the politics surrounding the Space Race and JFK's life and political career. There is much about the opportunist, former Nazi, rocket scientist Wernher von Braun who became the one in charge of building the rockets for the Mercury and Gemini missions. Since the focus of the book was Kennedy's involvement in fueling the Space Race the later Apollo missions are an afterthought of the story. I listened to the audiobook and found the narration to be less than stellar. The constant pronunciation of von Braun's name as "Vaughn Brown" was irksome. The author's repeated flip-flopping views on some of the political figures made it seem like he was unsuccessfully trying to seem impartial. For a much better account of the Apollo moonshots I recommend Failure is Not an Option by former NASA flight director, Gene Kranz.

March: Books one, two, and three

March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, 121 pages

March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, 189 pages
March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, 246 pages

This award-winning three volume graphic lit series follows the Civil Rights Movement from the point of view of John Lewis, then a member and eventual chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As part of SNCC, Lewis led sit-ins at lunch counters and restaurants throughout the south attempting to end discrimination at these eateries SNCC participants strove to remain calm and nonviolent despite violence visited upon them by whites and the police . The group organized the Freedom rides, and the Mississippi Freedom Summer, both of which again exposed members to beatings from angry white southerners and to frequent arrests.
SNCC was one of the big-six participating groups in the March on Washington of 1963, and Lewis spoke at the event.
Lewis and the artists who created these books have done an excellent job in telling this fascinating story.