The Man From The Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James

The Man From The Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James - 466 pages

Bill James, the famed baseball statistician, started researching the horrific murder cases in the early 1900s where entire families living near railroad tracks were being axe murdered across the country at an alarming rate.  He hired his daughter Rachel to help him with the research and together they discovered the true depth of depravities committed by "The Man from the Train" over a decade and a half.  Using modern methods and in depth investigative research the authors even believe they identified the killer a hundred years after the fact.  The case they lay out is very compelling and I for one believe they have found the culprit. 

Side note - it's kind of startling to the modern reader how common it was for axes to just be laying around in the early 1900s for wandering killers to find and use.   

Our Town: A Play in Three Acts by Thornton Wilder

Our Town: A Play in Three Acts by Thornton Wilder 103 pages

After reading the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, I thought I would read another play.  I chose Our Town because I remembered reading it in high school.  Our town takes place from 1901-1913 and follow the townspeople, Dr. Gibbs, Mrs, Webb, George Gibbs, and Emily Webb.  Narrated by the stage manager, it tells the story of the townspeople's everyday life in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire.  Told in three acts, the second act telling of George and Emily's Wedding and the third act revealing in death that people just don't see the joy in everyday life.