I recently had the pleasure of attending a book presentation by David Zucchino, my friend and former L.A. Times colleague. Dave is one the finest journalists I know: a courageous reporter who can talk to just about anybody, a gifted writer who makes even the most prosaic feature sing, and a generous, warm, old-school gentleman. His new book is Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. It recounts a fascinating and little-known tale about a massacre in North Carolina. The acclaim has come pouring in from the New York Times Sunday Book Review and many others. You can read more about him and the book here. In his previous books, Myth of the Welfare Queen and Thunder Run, Dave showed his intrepid ability to explore harsh terrain, whether inner-city Philadelphia or the battlefields of Iraq, find compelling characters, and tell their stories. In Wilmington’s Lie, he turns his talents to history. The result is an important and powerful work. I recommend it highly.