In the moments after I've finished reading a book...

I just finished My Thoughts Be Bloody, by Nora Titone.  The title is from Hamlet, "O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth."  The book, the first for Mrs. Titone, is the story of the Booth family, starting with Junius Brutus Booth in the early nineteenth century, through his immigration to America, starting a family, including sons Edwin and John Wilkes Booth.  The story goes into greater detail with the relationship of the two brothers from their childhood through to the death of John Wilkes after the assassination of Lincoln. 

This is not a book about the assassination; it is a book about family relationships and about a family who, in their day, were superstars very much like the Jacksons of our own day.  Mrs. Titone tells a masterful story--one that is relatable to all Americans--primarily about Edwin Booth.  So wrapped up in this story as I have done in other biographies (silly me), I actually weep when the point of drama is met in the story.  It's silly because, being a biography, we all know what the point of drama is, it's the facts we learned in history books.  We all know when it is coming and that nothing the author or the reader can do will keep that point from coming.  This time though, rather than just names and places dotting a timeline, there were real characters--brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers--wrapped up in this tale.

For me, it was very interesting reading this with different events going on in my life.  I started reading just about the time US Representative Gaby Giffords was shot by another deranged young man from our own century.  Even after reading this book, John Wilkes Booth's actions are no more comprehensible to me and every bit as troubling, every bit as tragic as those of Jared Loughner.  Always a Civil War and history buff, I have also been following the New York Times Civil War series on FaceBook, with daily dispatches commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the events (www.facebook.com/nytimescivilwar).

So, yes, I highly recommend this book.  Many times I'll say about a book, "give it a hundred pages and you'll start to get it."  This book needs no such qualifier.  Right from the beginning you'll be hooked into this American family--their relationships, their hardships, their offenses, their loyalty and for this family, their drama.