DETROIT AN AMERICAN AUTOPSY * MANANA MEANS HEAVEN

Detroit An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff - Remarks by other authors on the cover of this book suggest that there are funny moments, but the entire book is one sad and sometimes mildly sarcastic look at a city mired in civic failure.  It's so easy for people who don't have a connection to Detroit to say it's a terrible place, but when you grew up there, worked there, went to school there, and have roots in America from there, it's different.  For me, it's a very emotional thing, and while reading the book, I actually had really bad dreams full of fear.  I had to wait a couple of days and get into another book before writing about Detroit.  If you want to read about the crime, the physical devastation and the political crooks, this is the book for you, and I don't doubt its veracity.  It's sensationalized but probably not exaggerated.  In another post I'll write about Detroit and all the great places that are now gone, as well as some that are still there.   Manana Means Heaven by Tim Z. Hernandez - I you've ever read On The Road by Jack Kerouac, you remember the stream of conscious writing style that seemed to move so fast that you couldn't keep up with the road, the partying, the conversation and the people.  This is the story of Bea Franco, a young woman who met a young man on a bus in California.  Bea had two little children and she was fleeing an abusive and cheating husband.  Jack was a writer on the move, seeing his country and writing about his adventures in a little notebook.  It's a good story, well written by an author who was obsessed with finding "the mexican girl" in Kerouac's book.