This is the personal memoir of Wolfgang Samuel, a German boy who was living and experiencing World War II. At the end of the war, many German civilians fled their towns when the Russian front began approaching. Wolfgang tells about his flight with his Mother and sister and the friends that helped them along the way. His father was serving in the Luftwaffe as a Captain, so it was just part of his family. His paternal grandparents were in the West, but his mother chose to go East to her parents. His maternal grandmother wound up joining them in their flight after some other things happened to their family.

This book was really very interesting, and I was never bored reading it. It took me a while to finish because this was my car book, but it was extremely dramatic and engaging. I think people often refuse to separate German people from Nazi actions, and I know there is a fine line on some people...however, this child was certainly innocent of the wrongs committed by the German war machine. Children in Nazi Germany were subjected to Nazi teaching in their schools, and a lot of them had parents who were ardent believers in Nazi ideals. Children are not born hating, they are taught to hate. This particular boy noticed a lot of things and asked a lot of questions that could have gotten him in terrible trouble if his members of his family had been different. Children in wartime are absolutely victims. They are victims of their parents' choices and the choices of their governments. They experienced hunger, fear, death, rape, etc. They saw what their female members had to do to bring home food or find a place to sleep at night. War is a terrible thing for anyone, but children are so affected by big things that they have never experienced and have a hard time grasping. I am so pleased to see that at least this kid made it through the war and became a decent human being. I highly recommend this book for people interested in the German civilian war experience. 

 This is an interesting book from the perspective of German military leaders. I got this book for a dollar at a used book store, and was excited to read about a perspective other than the Allied one, which is usually what we read when I was working on my degree. I thought it was very informative, and I couldn't beat the price I paid for it either. 

 This book is horrifying! I cannot imagine being able to understand things and hear everything and not be able to communicate with anyone. I am go glad that Martin was able to come out of his illness and be able to communicate once again. I would be absolutely devastated if this happened to anyone in my family, especially my children, and I would lose my sanity if it happened to me. I highly recommend this book. It was very interesting. 

 This book took me a while to get into. I don't know if it was the book, or if I was in a reading slump, so I will not say anything negative about the book to that effect. It just took me a while to finish. It contained a lot of information about the Gulf War, which was great since I know virtually nothing about it. This book discusses the military strategy of the United States while they were operating in the Gulf War. I imagine there are conflicts between generals and leaders of strategy and intelligence all of the time, so that was not a shock to me. I did like learning about all of their differences and how their decisions impacted everyone else, especially those on the ground. 

 This was a really interesting book about the life of premier geisha Mineko Iwasaki. I got this book on sale at a bookstore called Second and Charles that just opened in the city where I life. I had never really considered how one entered this profession, and I was also misinformed about what this profession consisted of. Mineko really had a lot of interesting experiences throughout her career, which started before she even hit double digits. This was a really in depth look at a different culture, profession, and way of life. I was really very interested in this book. 

 This book follows twenty three Marines from the First Recon Battalion. Evan Wright was embedded with the Marines and wrote a very popular article in Rolling Stone Magazine about the Iraq Invasion. This has been on my to read list for quite some time, and I have been avoiding anything about modern warfare for personal reasons. I finally got around to reading this, and I was not disappointed. I thought this was a very engaging depiction of modern warfare and wartime experiences. I will comment that I would have the worst time getting along with some of the people you are forced to get along with. Some of these guys have insufferable personalities. Otherwise, I enjoyed this book. There is a miniseries on HBO under the same title that I plan to watch. 

 This was a very interesting book. This detailed the career of Reinhard Gehlen, who was a high functioning spy for the Nazi's. He was very good at his job and ran an efficient ship in this department. Other Allied intelligence agencies would have loved his services. I thought that it was really neat to read about World War II spies, because I do not know much about them. This was a good read. 

 This book is about the life and times of Anthony Casso. He got into a life of crime at an early age, and had quite the knack for it. He was involved in plenty of schemes, and was even responsible for, at minimum, fifty murders. Reading about all of his activities was quite exciting, and I was also very curious about how he managed to turn into an informant. This was a pretty good book, typical for Philip Carlo. 

 This book is a broad overview of the girlfriends and wives of some of history's most famous gangsters. It was entertaining and fairly informative. It wasn't as in depth as what I generally read, but it was okay. 

 Both books I have read about the Los Angeles Mafia have been mind numbingly boring. This one was certainly one of them. This was about undercover cops and those working specifically on the Mafia problem in Los Angeles. I hated it. I don't recommend, but if you read, hope it works out better for you.