Crash from Outer Space: Unraveling the Mystery of Flying Saucers, Alien Beings, and Roswell. Candace Fleming. 2022. [October] 288 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: On the evening of June 13, 1947, William "Mack" Brazel sat on the porch of his tiny ranch house near Roswell, New Mexico.
Premise/plot: In her newest nonfiction book, Candace Fleming spends time unpacking ALL the many, many stories surrounding "Roswell" and the "crash from outerspace." Layer by layer, decade by decade, source by source, witness by witness. It is a story of how a narrative is crafted and framed. It is a story that asks quite a few thought-provoking questions. Can you just take a person at their word? Is something true just because someone claims to have witnessed it? How much weight do you give to sources--whether a source be a person's eye-witness account, a person's diary, a photograph, a video? How do you know what sources to trust? What would motivate a person to lie? Do investigative reporters make mistakes? How easy it is to be fooled...and how painstakingly careful one needs to be.
My thoughts: I enjoyed how she chronicled the story growing and growing and growing from the 1940s to the present day. How it became this almost epic, mythic STORY that lives and continues to live in our culture. She chronicles the writers--authors and reporters--that have covered this story, this mesmerizing, fascinating story. One message I took away from the book was that it isn't enough for sources to appear to be true and trustworthy. Critical thinking--no matter your age--is always a good thing.
I also loved the use of photographs!
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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