I admit it. I’ve been a bit resistant to the whole E-Reader craze. However, Anthony got me a Kindle Fire for Christmas, and I have to say that I’m in love with this little device. Since the holidays, I’ve already read four books on my Kindle, including the wonderful Fire on Her Tongue: An eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry edited by Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy. Right now, I’m currently reading Stephen King’s 11/22/63, a book I’m really enjoying.
Amazon offers daily deals with some great Kindle books for only $1.99. I’ve downloaded some wonderful novels including The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. Still, my best Kindle find so far has been a true crime book titled Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America’s Heartland. The description of this book on its website says the following:
On a moonlit night in December 1900, a prosperous Iowa farmer was murdered in his bed–killed by two blows of an ax to his head. Four days later, the victim’s wife, Margaret Hossack, was arrested at her husband’s funeral and charged with the crime.
This beginning summary sounded vaguely familiar and interesting, so I downloaded the book and started reading. Much to my surprise (and delight!) I discovered that this book is about the real life case behind the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, a play I teach on a regular basis. Now I knew that Trifles was based (loosely) on a real life murder, but this book not only presented the investigation of the case but gave a lot of information about the life of women on the Great Plains during this time period. A young Glaspell, as a reporter, is also featured prominently in the book. Kindle allows the reader to highlight and make notes, and I know that I have found a lot of good background material for the next time I teach Trifles.
Still, I am not giving up on the print! There’s part of me that is amazed that my Kindle can hold as many books as what I have in my whole house. Still, bookshelves are bookshelves for a reason: to hold books, and not Kindles.
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The Scrapper Poet 