Author: Radley Balko & Tucker Carrington
We all pride ourselves with the American Judicial system and believe that every person has the right to a free and fair trial. I knew that there were all kinds of racial prejudice and bias in the past, but had no idea that this was still quite rampant in some states in the 21st century. Author Radley Balko, an investigative journalist for the Washington Post and Tucker Carrington, a criminal defense lawyer delve into the archaic coroner system in Mississippi and the ensuing travesty in its court system. They expose how the deep rooted racial biases coupled with junk science and overzealous prosecutors have put innocent people behind bars for decades on end.
The book is an excellent work of investigative reporting and is highly readable. You will be shocked at how injustices like this have been swept under the carpet for so long. Hopefully this book will raise awareness of the issue and force judicial reform in states like Mississippi.
Author: Elizabeth Flock
The book charts the course of three mumbai couples' love and marriage. The three couples are from different ethnicities and religions and cover North and South India as well as Hindu and Muslim couples. Veer and Maya are both originally from Rajasthan, while Ashok and Parvati and Tamil Brahmins often referred to as Tam Brahms. Shehzad and Sabeena are the muslim couple and you will learn from the book how limited their intersection is with people of another faith.
Ms. Flock starts their stories with their first love interest and I am amazed at how much each of these couples have shared with her. Some of them, like the muslim couple are fairly conservative, yet Ms. Flock is privy to some of their darkest secrets. There are many intimate details described in the book that I didn’t think that Indians were that comfortable sharing that too with a journalist.
Each of these stories is a novella in its own right and there is little connecting the three of them together. Ms. Flock alternates between the stories in an effort to hold you in suspense just as the plot thickens. It was a fascinating read for me, especially as it provided a reminder of the contemporaneous news events in India of the last two decades. I really identified with the characters and found it to be quite a page-turner. I am not sure how much it will appeal to an audience that is not familiar with India.
