This goes into detail about Hermann Goering's suicide. There were a lot of theories about how he was able to kill himself while in jail. This book took a look at some of those theories and also delved into his life and crimes. I thought this was a good read. 

 This was a really interesting book about the personal experiences of a young guy serving in Iraq. I think personal experiences of all kinds are so important to the historical narrative, especially in documenting major events. I thought this book was really fast paced, and it kept my attention. I highly suggest this book for those interested in personal experiences about the Iraq War. 

 This book is the personal memories and experiences of the author, Carla Pekelis. She is a Italian Jew, and recounts what life was like growing up as a member of the Jewish faith and culture and as an Italian. The rise of Fascism in Italy and the anti-Semitism that was predominant had a major impact on her life. I picked this book up not realizing it was about someone in Italy, thinking that it was about a German or Polish girl. I was pleasantly surprised, as I have no read very many accounts like this one. This is very valuable to the historical narrative, and it is important to listen to all the voices we can regarding this subject matter. 

 This book is about a girl who struggles with a learning disability that makes math even more difficult for her. I was terrible at math courses, and I cannot imagine trying to have to contend with a math related learning disability. I can understand why she started dreading going to school and having panic attacks. I appreciate that is her experience and her story, but I found the book a little boring. It just wasn't my cup of tea. 

 This is the story of the abduction and abuse of Elizabeth Smart, in her own words. I have seen her in several interviews and she is a well spoken, thoughtful person. This book did not convey that. It was bland. I hate to say that I didn't like it, because the subject matter really isn't something to be liked, but I didn't like it. I wasn't really expecting her to go into graphic details, but there weren't very many details at all. That being said, her experience was horrific, and I am glad she got out of that situation. I hope that she continues to live her best life and be an advocate for others. 

 I'm not really sure why I bought this book, honestly, but I did and I read it. I believe there are always two sides to every story. There are certainly two sides to this story. Eminem has been very vocal about his mother and their relationship in the media. She claims that it was all made up as a public image. She also acts like nothing was ever her fault. Plenty of people grow up poor or in bad homes, plenty of people make poor choices, plenty of people get into drugs and alcohol. This woman seems to consistently flop from one drunk to another without ever taking stock of her own part in the nonsense and changing her life for herself and the children she is supposed to be taking care of. This woman seems to lack all sense of reason and accountability. I can see why he said some of the things he did about her and was estranged from her. If you are interested in Eminem, I would suggest the book, simply because it is written by his mother and it does give credence to some of his statements about her. It wasn't a great book, and I am glad I didn't pay over three dollars for it. 

 Fred Stoller is an actor/comedian and author. He has done a lot of voice over work for various animated shows and movies. This book talks about the year he spent working as a writer for the show Seinfeld. I love that show, and watch reruns all the time. I thought this would be a cool behind the scenes book to read about one of my comfort shows, but it was severely disappointing. It was mostly Fred Stoller lamenting the fact that he was not an A list celebrity on this show and in all of his other work. It also seemed to give the impression that he is much more interesting and a beloved celebrity in his own mind than what people actually feel. I think that he has been fortunate enough to have a pretty interesting career that most people could only dream of, and learning about that instead of lamentations would have been more interesting. However, this book was about an hour to listen to on Audible and it was included for free on Audible Plus, so at least I didn't waste money on it. I do not recommend this, even for fans of Seinfeld. 

 I absolutely hated this book. It was recommended to me via some list of the "best true crime books"....I don't know who came up with that list. Several of the books on the list that I wound up reading were no good. This book jumped around so much that it made it hard to follow. It was also extremely boring. It seemed filled with her own personal opinions and dislike for behavioral science. It had letters and and news interviews in it, but it was just not nearly as insightful as one would imagine. I would never suggest this book to anyone. It was just awful. I'm glad I gave it away. 

 Benito Mussolini was born in Italy in 1883. He attended a boarding school ran by Salesian monks, but left for Switzerland in 1902 to avoid having to serve in the military. He began studying several different philosopher's and adopted a lot of their ideas, which turned out to be quite unfortunate. He became involved in the Socialist movement in Switzerland, before returning to Italy in 1904. He wound up becoming a member of the Italian Socialists, but they kicked him out. He also served in the Italian Royal Army from 1915-1917, with the rank of First Marshal of the Empire Corporal. He abandoned his socialist ideas in favor of fascism. A lot of his concepts were similar to the Nazi ideals, such as the desire for more space they felt they owned and a racist undercurrent. He also wanted all the credit for any type of public works, better infrastructure, productivity, and economic increase. Of course he got heavily involved in World War II, which didn't work out as well for him as he had hoped. He was dismissed from his position of power, and summarily shot with some cohorts. His body was dumped on the ground where it was spat on and abused. He was hung upside down from a gas station and stoned.

This book is important in that it is two volumes of personal memoirs of Benito Mussolini. It is interesting to see how such a notorious figure came to be, and how he developed his ideas. I knew much less about him than I did Hitler and some of the prominent Nazi figures, so this book was worth it to me. The problem was that I got tired of reading him yammering on, much like I did when I read Mein Kampf, though this was certainly more lucid. This was great for insight though. 

 President Clinton was born in Arkansas in 1946. His father died three months before he was born. His father was still legally married to his third wife, so his marriage to President Clinton's mother was actually bigamy. He stayed with his grandparents for a time while his mother attended nursing school. His mother remarried, and President Clinton legally assumed his stepfather's name at age 15. President Clinton has stated multiple times that his stepfather was into gambling, alcohol, and domestic violence. He attended a few schools, but when he entered into Hot Springs High School, his life really changed. He was very interested in reading, became a student leader, was in chorus, and played the saxophone. He said in the book that he had really considered being a musician as a career, but decided he wanted to be a public servant. To specific events really made him think about this career- meeting President Kennedy and seeing Martin Luther King's speech on television.

He attended Georgetown University, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Service. He was part of a fraternal organization, and also was a member of the Order of DeMolay. (I looked into that further, and it is sort of an offshoot of Freemasons. He never became a Freemason, but was part of this secret society group.) He became an intern and a clerk in the Arkansas senator's office. He won a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford, which I thought was really cool. He didn't get a degree from there, as he left to go to Yale Law, but it was really neat that he had the chance to do that. While he was in school, he received some deferments from the draft (Vietnam). He actually made arrangements to join an ROTC program, but did not go through with that. He was very opposed to the war in Vietnam, but said that using the ROTC program to avoid the draft was not an honorable thing to do. I respect that very much. This came up during his run for President, which happened when I was about five so I never knew it. After all of that mess, he became the Governor of Arkansas. He ran for president in 1992.

President Clinton was inaugurated on January 20, 1993, and became the 42nd President of the United States. He has some inexperienced staff, which caused his approval rating to drop. He had also promised to support gay people in the military, but was opposed. He tried to get a stimulus package out to inner city people to help them, but Republicans certainly didn't want that (imagine that) and squashed it. He did get the FMLA passed, which was great, and reversed some restrictions on family planning (that we have now allowed to be royally messed up). One of the worst things that he did as president was have Janet Reno on his staff. I dislike her and her actions. He expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, signed the Brady bill to background check gun buyers, and the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. (I hate that policy, but I can see why he had to compromise after the opposition he got from the military.) He also signed the Free Trade Agreement into law, as well as the Omnibus Crime Law, and started the first official White House website. He also was very into the AIDS crisis and helping people with that. There are a lot of other things that he did, which I learned from this book. I didn't know much about his policies and actions as president, so I learned a ton. Some of the things he accomplished were really good things.

Of course, the most notable thing about President Clinton is his affair scandals. Truly, all that I learned about him in school was that he was number 42 and he got in trouble for his affair. That is ridiculous, because the policies were much more important than that. He should not have done what he did in general, but doing that overshadowed so much of his career and life story. I think there are a lot of things that he got wrong in his life, but people are a sum of all their parts. This book did a great job of explaining policies and life experiences without it being completely SCANDAL and CONTROVERSY and AFFAIR and CONSPIRACY THEORIES. If you are interested in learning about presidents, this might be a good book for you to pick up if you do not know much about Clinton.