Synopsis:

A shooting at a Chicago beach leaves several dead and dozens injured. In the year before the attack, four individuals emerge as possible suspects.

An apathetic computer programmer.
An ex-college athlete with a history of head injuries.
An Army veteran turned Chicago cop.
A despondent high school student.

One of them is the shooter. Discover who and why.

Progress: Page 49 of 354

Update: This book started off a tad confusing. The premise is that a shooting happens, that’s the opening scene of the book. Then we are introduced to several characters, and the book description tells us that one of these people is our shooter. We will discover who it is along the way. But since we haven’t named these people, just descriptions (like the student, the veteran, the ex-athlete) it was a little hard to track them at first. Now that I’m learning more of their personalities I think I have it figured it out now. They have images in my head that accompany them now, so that stumbling block should be tackled. I also have a suspect in mind, but at the same time it feels like the easy answer so I suspect it is not that person. Stay tuned, we’ll find out together.

Synopsis:

It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn’t exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas in Nevada’s desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government-but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades.

Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing itself was filmed there. The prevalence of these rumors stems from the fact that no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside the base. Until now.

Annie Jacobsen had exclusive access to nineteen men who served the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged 75-92, and unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. In Area 51, Jacobsen shows us what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building super-secret, supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror.

This is the first book based on interviews with eye witnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top-secret base into a gripping narrative, showing that facts are often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make.

Progress: This is a bit of a cheat, I apologize, since I haven’t actually started this book yet. But I heard a very intriguing interview with Annie Jacobsen on the Lex Friedman podcast. She was there talking about her new book, Nuclear War. Nuclear War is about what the process looks like for a nuclear bomb to be unleashed. Who makes the call? What happens then? How long does it take? What if they’re wrong? Well, I want to read Nuclear War desperately, but I don’t have a copy of it yet. So, while I wait, I am reading another of her books. Also, if you haven’t checked out the Lex Friedman podcast, I highly recommend it. He has a ton of interesting conversations with fascinating people.