I decided to read this series, because I had started the Anita Blake series by the same author. This book starts off introducing us to Merry Gentry, a fairy princess living under an assumed name and working for a detective agency. She takes a case in which she goes undercover, but is discovered. She is taken to see King Sholto, King of the Sluagh, who proposes an alliance with her against her insane aunt. Her aunt is the Queen of Air and Darkness. She wishes to continue the bloodline of the throne and tells Merry whoever produces an heir first shall inherit the throne. Merry must race her cousin Cel to produce an heir. I am not really crazy about erotica books, but this one was very interesting and I hope the rest of the series is good. 

 This book is a good reminder that a lot of crimes are perpetrated by romantic interests. People get picked up in bars, clubs or restaurants. After that, all manner of crimes happen. People who are sex workers are extremely high risk. Domestic violence escalates to murder a lot of times. A lot of crimes, especially those against women, are by someone that they know. That was my biggest take away from this collection of case stories. Always be careful, no matter who you are with. 

 This book is about two sisters, called Marie and Hortense Mancini. These two girls were brought to the court of Louis XIV of France. Their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, sought out strategic marriages for both of the girls to strengthen his political power. Marie Mancini became the Princess Colonna. Hortense Mancini became the Duchess Mazarin. They were determined to find some measure of happiness, and they cut a trail through many nobles, princes and kings alike. I thought this book was great and extremely interesting. I had never heard of these women before reading this book. I greatly enjoyed it and learned so much. 

 I hadn't really known much about Leopold prior to reading this book, other than one of his daughter's married a man who ultimately was part of a murder-suicide with his mistress. He seems like he was a completely unpleasant person to interact with. Certainly, his (and so many others) attitude toward African people and colonization was gross. I learned a lot about rubber plantations and the treatment of people in the Congo from this book. I would recommend it. 

 Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, often called Walt, was born in Minnesota. He followed in his father's footsteps, as he was also a doctor. He was an extremely well educated man, earning four degrees at the University of Minnesota. He began perfecting his surgical career at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. He tried out a new technique whereby a patient was hooked up to a donor patient to keep the heart pumping and oxygenated while undergoing surgery. He performed such a surgery on a child with a ventricular defect, which I found extremely interesting for a personal reason I will mention at the end of this review. He and his colleagues also did the first heart catheterization puncture. He also used the world's first external pacemaker. He was also a gifted teacher, instructing many students in cardiac surgery, and did try to keep up with all new information to hone his skills. He won several awards for his work in the cardiac surgery field. He died in 1999 at the age of 80.

I happened across this book and read it a while back. I have no idea why in the world I got so behind in my reviews and marking my things as read? Either way, here we are. I picked it up because I was interested in the history of open heart surgery. My mom is nurse, so I have always loved gross and morbid things, but the real interest was because my little cousin was born with a heart defect and has had several heart surgeries. I enjoyed learning about this man who pioneered so many procedures and to see how far this medical specialty has evolved today. This was a really interesting read. I hated that it didn't have pictures of the doctor, so I Googled him. When I did, I found out that he also had a brother who was a doctor. His brother was a transplant surgeon, and transplanted the first pancreas that was successful. If it said that in the book, I missed it, but it was neat to see how this family had so many medically keen minds. If you are interested in heart surgery for any reason, I would say give this a try. 

 This book is about Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, a member of the Bonanno crime family. Massino really began his career under Rusty Rastelli as a truck hijacker. He arranged several murders, including three captains who were in rebellion and his rival. He was brought in on a RICO case, where his brother in law turned on him and testified for the State. Massino himself became the first boss of one of the New York organized crime families to turn witness for the government as well. Another interesting fact is that Massino and his subordinates were the ones who accepted Donnie Brasco into their gang, though he turned out to be Joseph Pistone, an FBI agent. I never realized until I read this book. I picked it up on Audible with my credits, simply because I like a mafia book and I did not own this one. It was really interesting learning about some of these figures whose names were not quite as familiar to me as some of the others. I know the least about the Bonanno crime family figures, so it was worth the credit I spent. 

 Lionel George Logue was born in Australia in 1880. He attended Prince Alfred College between 1889 and 1896. He received elocution training from Edward Reeves, while also working for him. He set up his own elocution school afterwards. He even developed treatments for teaching World War I veterans who were suffering from post traumatic stress and had lost the ability to speak how to speak properly again. (I thought this was amazing, and was probably my favorite fact that I learned.) Clearly, his most famous client was the Duke of York, who had a terrible stutter. The Duke of York was determined to overcome his stutter, and sought out Logue for help. The methods worked, and the future King George VI was able to address the public on many occasions without stuttering. In fact, Logue was often called on if there was a speech to be made for the confidence and assistance he gave George VI.

I really enjoyed this book. I recently watched the film, but the book was better. I had read before that George VI had a stutter, but I had never heard a recorded speech that he made. It was really interesting to see how speech therapy has evolved over the years. I am certain that Lionel Logue was a massive asset to George VI. I also liked reading about the relationship that they had with each other. People often think of monarchs as stuffy and unreachable, but they are people too, despite the privilege. This was a good book. 

 Henry Symes Lehr was born in 1869 in Maryland. He wanted to establish himself with the elite of society, throwing massive dinner parties. He even threw parties where the pets of rich people ate at a fully serviced table while wearing clothes. George Jay Gould's wife, Edith, introduced Henry Lehr to her widowed friend, Elizabeth Drexel. Elizabeth and Henry were married a year after they met, but she was in for a shock- her husband was not sexually attracted to women. He benefited from the wealth her banker father left to her, and she benefited from his social status. In public, they had a wonderful marriage. In private, they did not. They remained in this arrangement for 28 years, until he died. There were a few details in this book that would have been scandalous at the time, such as his dressing in drag for a performance, his sexuality, etc. I realize that she wrote her personal account of this and was not a professional writer, but this was not put together in a coherent way. That is my personal opinion, and if you want to try this book out, go for it. I would not put my stamp of recommendation on it though. 

 I know people give a lot of flak to the Killing Series, but I like the series, and I liked this installment of it. This one is about the Nazis who fled at the conclusion of the war and the subsequent hunt for them. I have a book about the Hunt for Eichmann, and really am interested in this particular aspect of World War II. It amazes me that people are still finding former Nazis and sending them back for prosecution. I just read a news article recently about one who was in Tennessee being deported at age ninety something. I always recommend this series, so I will go ahead and recommend this particular book as well. 

 This book covers the building and transport of the atomic bombs for use against Japan during World War II. It also covers the Japanese policy of Bushido, which I find extremely interesting. I really like these books, and I enjoyed reading this one. I liked the way the information was presented, and I did learn a couple of things that I had not previously read before. It was a good book.