The Dark is Rising

Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series is comprised of five books: Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree. It is a masterful job, in my opinion, of integrating Arthurian mythos with otherwise unrelated Celtic myths (including large swaths of the Mabinogion). It's well worth your time, and is far better-written, I think, than the vastly more popular (to the point that it's ludicrous I'm even making this comparison) Harry Potter series.

Scopes Trial

The Scopes Monkey Trial was one of the most important events of the early 20th century. John Scopes was tried and convicted of teaching evolution, but his loss in the courtroom was vastly overshadowed by his victory in the court of public opinion. Most of the pro-creationist argument was deftly skewered by Scopes' pro bono lawyer, Clarence Darrow. The prosecution's main lawyer, William Jennings Bryan had a nervous breakdown after the trial, and died shortly thereafter.

One of the best-regarded books on this subject was written by a man best-known for his science fiction, L. Sprague de Camp. His book, The Great Monkey Trial, takes advantage of Scopes' memoirs, and breathes a life into the proceedings that is not easily discerned merely by reading the transcripts.

H.L. Mencken, one of my favourite writers on nearly any subject, wrote a column on the trial-- Mencken, by the way, is credited with naming it the "Monkey Trial". The column linked to here is from positiveatheism.org, a site I have no more than passing familiarity with. Mencken wrote a number of other articles about the trial, Dayton TN (where the trial took place), and circumstances surrounding it. He's worth reading on any topic he writes on, though.