Not sure about you, but one of our top secret dreams is to be sent on a mission by the President. Like, how cool would that phone call be? We'd happily just go get coffee for the prez, so long as the person sending us on this two-creams-one-sugar mission was sitting in the oval office.

Thing is, we might be romanticizing a presidential mission a bit. Part history, part mystery, all page-turner, James Patterson's 2009 Alex Cross's Trial tells the story of a do-gooder lawyer named Ben Corbett who returns to his Mississippi hometown to investigate a series of lynchings on behalf of then-president, Teddy Roosevelt. What he finds shocks, disturbs, and ultimately changes him, throwing him into the fight of his life, though whether his small town is any better off for his visit remains to be seen.

So, yeah…Maybe the President contacting you directly isn't automatically awesome.

To be clear, Patterson, the book's author, is a legend in his own right. His books have sold more than three hundred million copies worldwide (source), and he holds the record for the most number one New York Times bestsellers (source). On second thought, maybe we'd rather get Patterson coffee…

Whether you're itching to watch a lawyer kick butt and take names, just trying to read every legendary writer ever, or really trying to plan your response should a call from the oval office ever come in, grab a copy of Alex Cross's Trial, and let's get going.

Are you the kind of person who stands up for what's right? Do you fight for the little guy or gal when the odds are stacked against him or her?

Chances are pretty good you said yes to those questions—after all, we're all generally trying to do what's right as we make our way through the world. But here's the thing: what's right isn't set in stone. It might seem like it is from where you're sitting, but the simple truth is that what's right is a matter of personal experience and opinion, and it also changes as time goes by and society shifts.

For instance, at one point, enslaving people was seen as totally right by all sorts of folks. And at the same time, it was also seen as completely and horribly wrong by all sorts of other folks. Now while we're firmly on Team Anti-Slavery, our point is that there was a time in U.S. history when being on the opposing side didn't immediately announce that you were a terrible person. Instead someone could think enslaving people was right—and have plenty of other folks totally agree with them. Is it upsetting to think about? Yup. But it's also true.

Alex Cross's Trial is all about what happens when different ideas about what's right come into conflict in the face of Jim Crow laws. While we hope you never confront such high stakes in your own life, taking some time to really dig into the nuances of how concepts of correctness come into being can only serve you well down the road.