[Review] Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigations of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 5 June, 2018 (originally released May 13, 2014)

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Genre: Non-Fiction/True Crime/Crime Investigations/Hate Crimes

ASIN: B07BC6DQ53

Edition: Audiobook (available in hardback, eBook, and paperback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 4 September, 2020
Warnings: Strong Language, Mentions of Hate Crimes, Mentions of Death, Association with the KKK

Summary:  

The extraordinary true story of the black detective who goes undercover to investigate the KKK, the basis for the forthcoming major motion picture written and directed by Spike Lee and produced by Jordan Peele.

When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a PO box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he'll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community.

A few weeks later the office phone rings, and the caller asks Ron a question he thought he'd never have to answer: "Would you like to join our cause?" This is 1978, and the KKK is on the rise in the United States. Its Grand Wizard, David Duke, has made a name for himself, appearing on talk shows and in major magazine interviews preaching a "kinder" Klan that wants nothing more than to preserve a heritage and to restore a nation to its former glory.

Ron answers the caller's question that night with a yes, launching what is surely one of the most audacious and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner, Chuck, to play the "white" Ron Stallworth while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself.

Black Klansman is an amazing true story that unfolds like a crime thriller and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back.

See more by Ron Stallworth at his website.

[Review] Romanov by Nadine Brandes

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 20 June, 2019

Publisher: Dreamscape Media LLC.

Genre: Young Adult Romance|Magical Realism|Fantasy|Eurasian Fiction

ISBN: 9781974927258

Edition: Audiobook (available in hardback, eBook, and paperback)

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Review Written: 4 September, 2020
Warnings: Historical Death, Magic, Spellwork, Torture

Summary:  

The history books say I died.

They don’t know the half of it.

Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.

Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .

That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.

See more by Nadine Brandes at her website.