Book: The President Has Been Shot

The President Has Been Shot

by James L. Swanson

Length: 227 pages

Format: Hardback
Price: Checked out from library

Basic Premise: A historical account of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, this book follows both the president and his assassin to Dallas, Texas in November of 1963.  It discusses what lead both men there, what happened that day and in the days that followed, and how history remembers it all.

My Take: 9.5 out of 10 (scale here)
OMG.This book was soooooooooooooooo good.  SO good. I told my students - I literally hid my head under the covers with a flashlight so I could finish this book.  It was that good.

Not being a big history buff or someone who is old enough to remember any of this, I wasn't expecting much from this book.  I picked it up because it's on my list and it was checked in at the library.  Within the first several pages, I was hooked.  Of course I left the book at school on accident, so I downloaded the free sample on my Kindle and read until it ran out, then cursed myself again for leaving the book on my desk.

I find it hard to say "I love this book" without issuing some kind of qualifier.  This book is sick, disturbing, and horrifically historic.  It tells what the president was doing, and then what the assassin was doing.  Then it goes back to the president, and then back to the assassin.  At any given point in the book, you know what is going on with the Kennedys and what is happening with Lee Harvey Oswald, the deranged psychopath who shot JFK.  The book examines the MANY mistakes made by the secret service agents, the Dallas Police Department, and citizens at large.  It was utterly fascinating; so much so that I made my mom, who was 8 when Kennedy was shot, tell me everything she could possibly remember about it, which mainly consisted of her not being able to watch what she wanted on TV because people were STILL talking about the president.

It was so good.  SO good!