The Autumnal Equinox is the day of the year with the sun crosses the celestial equator moving southward. What does that mean? Can I mapquest the celestial equator? Here’s what I grew up with: it’s the day in September when day and night are of equal length. I love the fall, which is kind of weird because I’ve only experienced it once, when I visited Dartmouth College for fall quarter in my senior year of college. I’m a Californian and we don’t have changes in season so much as time changes. Still, the concept of leaves changing color, fires, baked apples all sound so inviting so I celebrate the first day of autumn every year.
While I’ve read many books about the season, they are children’s books that I read to my kids when they were preschoolers, so my recommendation is The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry about an event that occurred in autumn, the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Numerous reviews call Charles McCarry the best living American writer of espionage. I haven’t read enough to know, but I’ve read this book and it’s fabulous. This is a whole new twist on the assassination that assigns some of the responsibility to Kennedy himself. The assassination plotters aren’t the Cubans, the Soviets, the Mafia, the CIA or LBJ. I’ve never heard or read of the theory in The Tears of Autumn, yet after reading the book, the theory seems so clear.
The Tears of Autumn was published in 1974 and is Mr. McCarry’s biggest seller. It fell out of print and then was reissued by Overlook Press in 2005 along with other Charles McCarry books (thank you Overlook!). The main character is Paul Christopher, an American James Bond without gadgets, but with a sense of honor, toughness and intelligence. I’m stunned we don’t have a series of movies about him.
So, start a fire (if you’re in So. California then you’ll need to turn on the air conditioner), sip some hot apple cider and follow Paul Christopher around the world solving one of the greatest American mysteries in the 20th century.
Tags: recommended reading
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I’ve heard that’s good – thanks for the tip!
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I am looking forward to reading this one. How about some apple pie with the hot cider?
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