"American Heiress" by Jeffrey Toobin

This is a fascinating book that takes the reader right back to the early 'seventies with a detailed account of the kidnapping of Patty Hearst: her life with the crazy band of characters who constituted The Symbionese Liberation Army: their immolation by the Los Angeles Police swat team: Patty's arrest, and her subsequent trial for her part in a bank robbery. It seems like a different world--no cell phones, writers used typewriters, TV stations were just discovering the technology to do live broadcasts from outside studios--and California especially was in the grip of student demonstrations and a rash of bombings. It all seems like very ancient history, but Toobin's vast research brings the past to life in an enthralling account that kept me page-turning from beginning to end.