I’ve been terribly busy with travel and getting this house in shape for Mouseketeer’s arrival. There are only a few weeks left!
I have read, though, as I’m on a quest to read 50 books in 2015.
Over the past few weeks I have read the following:
Think Like a Freak – Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute (Fantastically strange read and a real page turner. I’m not even kidding.) -Zac Bissonnette
How to Use the GoPro Hero 4 Silver (as I picked one up) – Jordan Hetrick
GoPro: Professional Guide to Filmmaking – Bradford Schmidt & Brandon Thompson
How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck – Steve Stockman
Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way – Jon Krakauer
13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18 / 50 – Freakonomics, Beanie Babies, GoPro, Video Editing, Krakauer
This was just released today so I am starting it this evening:
In Missoula, Krakauer chronicles the searing experiences of several women in Missoula — the nights when they were raped; their fear and self-doubt in the aftermath; the way they were treated by the police, prosecutors, defense attorneys; the public vilification and private anguish; their bravery in pushing forward and what it cost them.
Some of them went to the police. Some declined to go to the police, or to press charges, but sought redress from the university, which has its own, non-criminal judicial process when a student is accused of rape. In two cases the police agreed to press charges and the district attorney agreed to prosecute. One case led to a conviction; one to an acquittal. Those women courageous enough to press charges or to speak publicly about their experiences were attacked in the media, on Grizzly football fan sites, and/or to their faces. The university expelled three of the accused rapists, but one was reinstated by state officials in a secret proceeding. One district attorney testified for an alleged rapist at his university hearing. She later left the prosecutor’s office and successfully defended the Grizzlies’ star quarterback in his rape trial. The horror of being raped, in each woman’s case, was magnified by the mechanics of the justice system and the reaction of the community.
Krakauer’s dispassionate, carefully documented account of what these women endured cuts through the abstract ideological debate about campus rape. College-age women are not raped because they are promiscuous, or drunk, or send mixed signals, or feel guilty about casual sex, or seek attention. They are the victims of a terrible crime and deserving of compassion from society and fairness from a justice system that is clearly broken.
19 / 50 – Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town – Jon Krakauer
