Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson has spent his career working for the poor, the mentally ill, for youth tried as adults, and for other people somehow disadvantaged and lost in the American justice system. It's hard work, and it doesn't pay well. Every day he's faced with horrible stories of lives lost and damaged - yet he keeps at it with grace and diligence and perseverance.

In this book, Stevenson discusses his legal cases, uses notable individual stories to exemplify his points, and outlines the cultural need for compassion.

The book is heartbreaking, yet optimistic. The plight of some of their clients is truly upsetting - innocent people on death row, children abused in all ways and incarcerated with adults, mentally ill individuals without medical treatment. Stevenson and his Equal Justice Initiative staff have made great strides in cases argued and won with the Supreme Court.

It's the kind of book that forces you to look around you and wonder how you can make some difference. I can't argue a case before the Supreme Court. But I could lend a hand to the homeless. I could try to be a role model for disadvantaged kids. I could ... do something. And that's where it starts.

Zietoun by Dave Eggers

It's easy for the rest of the world to forget the utter devastation that Hurrican Katrina brought to New Orleans in 2005, but for those who experienced it first hand it's unforgettable. For those affected by the inadequate supplies, ineffective government response, and inexcusable military force in the wake of the incredible storm, it's still a part of their lives even a decade later.

This nonfiction narrative novel follows the dramatic story of one Syrian immigrant man separated from his family and called to help where he could during the aftermath. Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his wife, Kathy, own several rental buildings in New Orleans and a successful, well-known painting and contracting company. Kathy and their four children evacuate before the storm hits, but her husband stays behind to manage their buildings and minimize damage.

For days after the storm, Zeitoun travels the neighborhood in a canoe, helping residents who did not evacuate, feeding pets left behind, and helping wherever possible. He's proud of the work he's doing, believing that maybe God called for him to be there. And then he's arrested.

This story is interesting, informative, and horrifying - but also, I found  the narrative drags a bit in the middle section (I listened to the audiobook on CD and it took a very long time for me to get through that section of the book). 

We chose this title as a book discussion at the library, and the group talked quite a bit about how they viewed Zeitoun after reading the book, and then again in light of more recent news stories concerning him. After you read the book, research a bit to determine for yourself.

Sutton by J.R. Moehringer

Willie Sutton was one of the last great bank robbers and a folk hero to the Depression-strapped Americans who lost it all thanks to the crooks in suits that ran the banking industry. But Sutton was also quite a storyteller, which is what captivated former journalist Moehringer: Sutton wrote two autobiographies (which contradict one another), and the police reports don't tell the same story as the newspaper accounts. So Moehringer spun a fiction story between the "facts" of the known story.

The book takes place on the day Sutton is released from Attica State Prison, Christmas 1969. He's picked up and put up by a New York newspaper reporter and photographer who have been promised the exclusive on his first 24 hours of freedom. Willie takes them on an epic roadtrip through his past and all over New York City - much to their chagrin. Between stops, we get Willie's story through his reminiscence - but reporter and photographer get barely anything; we hear Willie's thoughts, but they're left in the cold.

I'll read anything J.R. Moehringer writes (I loved his memoir "The Tender Bar" and read Agassi's "Open" because he was the ghostwriter) and this one was no disappointment. He's so good at putting you right into the action that non-fiction (or pseudo non-fiction) feels like great fiction.

At 15 hours long, this audiobook is practically "real-time" - I felt like I was spending Christmas Day in the car right along with Willie, reporter, and photographer. I loved the story, and many times I was compelled to further research a fact or character to find out how much was real. It's a great inside look at a period of American history that tends to get written off in broad strokes of Depression, poor, blah blah. I feel I better understand the frustrations and struggles through Sutton's story (even if it's hypothetical, pseudo-fiction, and unreliable).

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver

I often wonder how much world knowledge is lost when the only "knower" dies without passing along their story. Somebody knows what really happened in every conspiracy, murder, tragedy or drama - but we may never know the truth if it's never spoken.

And that's the core of this story, too: Noa never took the stand in her own defense, and the mother of the victim wants to know the true story of what happened on New Year's Day. But it's a tangled web of deceit and lies (and goes much deeper than that one day). Awaiting her inevitable execution, this story is really all Noa has left to hold onto and she's not giving it up easily.

I loved that this book unspooled gradually. The book just dips you into the pool and you figure things out once you're already wet. At first you don't know who's dead - then you learn it's Sarah. But who was Sarah to Noa? Clue by clue you learn more and the story Noa's holding reveals itself. But it's probably not the story anybody really wants to hear.

This is an excellent book, and I devoured the last 100 pages way too late after my bedtime because I could not put it down.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Surprisingly, this is one of those books that you just can't put down. I really didn't anticipate liking it - the library discussion group chose it, and I'm just not a big war fan. But I got truly sucked in from the start.

Louis Zamperini was a troubled kid who made good by learning to run "for" something, instead of "away" from things. His Olympic dreams seem inevitable - and then he enlists for the war effort. Hillenbrand (who also wrote Seabiscuit) does an excellent job of quickly drawing you into Louis' story - he's a very personable guy, and you're cheering for him and laughing at his antics right away. Who wouldn't love this guy?

But the answer to that question, we learn, is a horrifying Japanese prison leader nicknamed The Bird. Zamperini's story takes a tragic, almost unbelievable turn after his enlistment; the fact that it's true doesn't make it any easier to understand.