Great historical figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr., often become obscured by their seemingly familiarity.

To get to know MLK Jr. better ,we recommend these 5 eBooks from our collection:

5. Dangerous Friendship: Stanley Levison, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Kennedy Brothers by Ben Kamin — for a history that reads like a spy thriller, check out Kamin’s landmark book. By focusing on the little known Levison’s friendship with MLK Jr., we see how it gave Hoover’s FBI the opportunity to wiretap the civil rights leader. JFK gave the go ahead, although RFK later expressed misgivings.

4. Martin Luther King and the Morality of Legal Practice by Robert Vischer Especially a good read for those in the legal profession, Vischer’s work shows how MLK’s principles of human dignity and sacrificial love can be applied to the profession of law.

3. We have a tie. We highly recommend both these eBooks for their unique and focused studies of MLK Jr.’s oratory: Ring out Freedom by Sunnemark & MLK’s Biblical Epic: His Final Speech by Miller.

2. John A. Kirk’s Martin Luther King: Profiles in Power emphasizes King’s relationship to the wider Civil Rights movement, with, as the title suggests, an emphasis on King’s use of power in achieving his goals.

And for our number one recommended eBook…….

We hope that this year’s MLK Day finds you reading up on the great man — and that you choose one of the above recommended NYLI eBooks!