October Reader’s Circle

The Douglas County Historical Society’s monthly book club, Reader’s Circle, announces its October meeting on Wednesday, October 25th at 12:00 pm at the General Crook House Museum. This month’s book will be The Kid by Creighton graduate, Robert Hansen.

Born Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was a diminutive, charming, blond-haired young man who, growing up in New York, Kansas, and later New Mexico, demonstrated a precocious dexterity at firing six-shooters with either hand—a skill that both got him into and out of trouble and that turned him into an American legend of the old West. He was smart, well-spoken, attractive to both white and Mexican women, a good dancer, and a man with a nose for money, horses, and trouble. His spree of crimes and murders has been immortalized in dime westerns, novels, and movies. But the whole story of his short, epically violent life has never been told as it has been here.

In The Kid, Ron Hansen showcases his masterful research and inimitable style as he breathes life into history, bringing readers back into the late 1800’s and into Billy’s boyhood as a ranch hand just trying to wrest a fortune from an unforgiving landscape.

Reader’s Circle meets on the last Wednesday of each month, except for November and December, and selects books that are either from a Douglas County author or relate to Douglas County history. However, in honor of the state’s sesquicentennial celebrations the scope is being expanded to include selections on the Nebraska 150 official reading list. Attendees to each meeting will be offered coffee or water along with an assorted tray of snacks.

If you are interested in participating in the Reader’s Circle, please call 402-455-9990 ext.101 or email Members@DouglasCoHistory.org. Cost to participate is $5 for members and $10 for non-members.