What We Are Reading Today: Good Kids, Bad City by Kyle Swenson

Updated 08 March 2019
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What We Are Reading Today: Good Kids, Bad City by Kyle Swenson

  • The book tells the story of a man who ended up in jail for a crime that he did not commit

From award-winning investigative journalist Kyle Swenson, Good Kids, Bad City is the true story of the longest wrongful imprisonment in the United States to end in exoneration, and a critical social and political history of Cleveland, the city that convicted them.

“This is a book for anyone with a social consciousness,” said a review published in goodreads.com.

Another review added: “This book was hard to read, not because it was bad but because it is so hard to believe that things such as these stories told in this book are ones that are still happening in the world today.”

The book tells the story of a man who ended up in jail for a crime that he did not commit and the stories behind the city, the people, and the reasons why it happened and why it took almost 40 years for him to be release.

In a review published in The Washington Post, Mark Whitaker said Good Kids, Bad City “is a powerful addition to the growing literature on the failures of America’s criminal justice system, particularly in dealing with African American men.”

Whitaker added: “But it is also a gripping, novelistic account of what happened to the three defendants and their lone accuser after the convictions, a frank confession of the methods and emotions of an obsessed reporter, and a poignant meditation on the dark side of Cleveland and what became of that once-proud embodiment of Midwestern virtues that allowed this travesty to happen.”


What We Are Reading Today: Miracle Children

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Updated 23 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Miracle Children

  • This book is an extraordinary look at the American higher educational system, and the lengths in which people will go to get there

Authors: Katie Benner, Erica L. Green

“Miracle Children” tells the story of a small private school in the US state of Louisiana that found itself at the center of a college admissions scandal after providing fake transcripts and fictional personal essays. 

The book expends some jaw-dropping reporting from the two authors about the school, TM Landry, that seemed to get amazing results for their pupils.  It presents a nice balance between historical perspective and investigative journalism. It is a well-researched, factual presentation of racism in education, both in the past and present day.

This book is an extraordinary look at the American higher educational system, and the lengths in which people will go to get there.
Through their journalistic investigation, Katie Benner and Erica L. Green put focus on the couple that ran the prep school along with some of the students that attended it.