Sarah being creepy. I found it on a news blog in Ohio about how she caused a ruckus at a book reading when 700 people showed up.
This book is about Sarah's vacationing at spots revolving around the people or places associated with the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield & McKinley. It's been a while since I've read a book of non fiction. The internet has been by go to for more educational reading because I've been bored by historical books no matter how fascinating because of a lack of strong cohesive narrative. My two favorite historical books to date are Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo as they've used had particularly strong narratives to tell their stories. Dispite my prejeduce towards fiction, I liked the book as Sarah is hilariously, paints an extremely vivid picture, is charmingly dark & I learned a lot that I didn't know or had forgoten. Honestly, my issues with narrative popped up in this book too as there was no build up or no climax, just small stories, cool connections & lots and lots and lots of tangents.
Abraham Lincoln
My favorite section of the book by far. The most interesting due to Lincoln being such a beloved historical figure, the most dramatic assassination with the theater, a narrow escape & a manhunt to catch Booth. Maybe I should have figured how many museums have relecs from the assassination but I had no idea. I also never really pondered how personal some of these relecs are. For examble, one museum that Sarah visited included fragments of Lincoln's skull & later in the book she said that Teddy Roosevelt was given a ring that included some of Lincoln's hair when he took office.
There were multiple references to James Wilkes Booth being a pretty boy assassin so I figured I'd throw in a pic. The most interesting aspects of Booth to me was that he was genuinely pissed when he found out that he wasn't going to be revered like John Brown a man he looked up to despite being a radical abolitionist. I also like how his brother Edwin, a Shakespearean actor world renowned in his day as the best Hamlet saved Lincolns son Robert Todd Lincoln from being run over by a train.
James Garfield
Garfield was killed by Charles Guiteau an indirect supporter of a group of republicans loyal to Ulysses S Grant, was a nut job and apparently a bit of a social outcast. I say social outcast because Sarah spends a good deal of time discussing that when Guiteau joined a free love sex cult in Western New York, he was so bad at attracting ladies that his nickname was Getout. Guiteau defended himself in court and gave a real show though his crazy behavior. Unfortunately for him the insanity plea was viewed as a cop out and he lost. One of the most interesting things about the assassination to me was that Garfield would have probably been fine if the doctor who first assisted him didn't put his dirty fingers in the bullet holes trying to dig out the bullet. Guiteau was later quoted as saying that he didn't kill him but only shot him.
William McKinley
Pretty boring assassination as far as assassinations go. McKinley was shot in a receiving line at the Pan-American Expo held in Buffalo NY. The assassin Leon Czolgosz was an anarchist influenced by Emma Goldman who ironically shunned him when he introduced himself on their only meeting. Czolgosz wrapped his hand holding a gun in a bandage and when the president went to shake his hand he shot him. Not the strongest way to end the book but overall I liked it a lot and would consider reading another one of her books if the subject interested me.
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