I lived through a tornado outbreak in 2011. It was a wild day and night, and there was so much damage all over the area. That was nothing compared to the damage that the tornado outbreak of 1974 produced. This book was devastating to read. People went through so much in such a large swath of land. So many were injured and killed, and so much was destroyed. 

 While everyone is aware of what happened to Jewish people, and every other group that was not up to Nazi standards, many are unaware of what happened to the Germans after World War II. Poland in the post war era contained a large German population, some who had lived there for ages and some who had come to move into appropriated housing. Around 200,000 Germans died in Soviet concentration camps. Germans were subjected to the slave labor they had implemented themselves. Certainly, those German who were under the watchful eye of their former Jewish targets really had a rough go of it. Many were subjected to the same beatings and starvation rations that the Jewish populations had faced themselves. Humanity should not be subjective, yet it very often is.

I am a history major that specialized in World War II, and none of this information was communicated to me in any class that I personally took. When I found this book and read the title, I was very curious about this. I read this book, and was terribly disappointed in the author's attitude. I actually learned a lot more about this situation from the Smithsonian website than I did this book, which annoyed me for having wasted the money. What happened to people under the hands of the Nazis is abhorrent. What happened to the German people in retribution is also abhorrent. Neither group is innocent of committing crimes against humanity. Neither group should be applauded for their behavior, no matter how understandable one may find revenge. Children, especially, on any side of war should never be starved, beaten, tortured, or anything else. The author takes a very celebratory tone, and while I do understand feeling that way for the genocide that was inflicted, it is really disgusting to be pleased with treating people this way period. 

 This case interested me from the moment it first made headlines. I got this book at the thrift store, and I was really excited to learn more about this case and this woman. Jodi Arias is a character. She could not keep her story straight for anything. I feel that the author presented the facts of the case and the nature of their sexual relationship pretty unbiased and in a straight forward manner. A lot of people wanted to just claim she was a sex crazed maniac, but I don't think that was her problem at all. I think she was jealous. I think she felt more for him than he did for her, and she didn't like it. I don't think the fact that they had sex, or what kind of sex they had, was the sole cause of her killing Travis, and I do not understand why there are people that seriously say that. I thought this book was very informative, and I liked it a lot. It did kind of repeat information in the last part of the book, maybe like the author was trying to recap, but it was slightly boring in that part. 

 I read another book about the methods of execution that were employed throughout history, which was really good. I was excited to find this one by the same author about blunders. Who doesn't love when things do not go as planned, even with executions. I thought this was a very entertaining book, though slightly morbid. 

 I checked this book out from my local library after another book of his was suggested to me. They did not have that book at the time, but I found this one. People came up with some really creative ways to torture and punish someone. I wonder how many confessions they got were true and how many were just made to get the torment to stop. 

 I remember seeing a movie about this lady years ago, and I picked this book up at a used book store to learn more about her. This was certainly not the most interesting historical biography that I have ever read, but it was entertaining. I finished it fairly quickly and learned a lot about Evia Peron and her life. It was a decent book. 

 This book is about Tom and Patricia (Taylor) Allanson. Tom was the second husband of Patricia, whom he met in 1973 after her divorce in 1971 from her first husband. At the time, Tom was also going through a nasty divorce. Patricia was interested in someone else, but she thought Tom would be the best choice. He could provide her with the lifestyle that she wanted. Tom's parents were not fans of Patricia, and she wasn't really keen on them either. Tom and Patricia wound up marrying each other anyway, in a Gone With The Wind themed wedding in Georgia, (insert eye roll...that really helps perpetuate the Southern stereotype). The family drama between these four was INCREDIBLE. The drama resulted in the shooting of Tom's parents. The amount of lies and stories these two told, you'd need a flow chart to track. Patricia was eventually also arrested when it was discovered that she had been poisoning Tom's grandparents once they made her a beneficiary on their insurance documents. Insanity.

This book was a wild ride. An absolute rollercoaster. I can hardly imagine dealing with a family like this, or letting someone come in and cause such drama. Rule did an astronomical amount of research for this book, and you can tell it. She told this story in a way that was page turning. This is probably one of the better, more interesting books of hers that I have read. This case was just wild. 

 The author of this book is a well traveled correspondent, who covered the War on Terror post 9/11. She reported war activities, and spoke to several people in the Middle East, on both sides of the conflict. I do not think she provided an unbiased view of this military action or the conditions in which people were living. She was very biased and was very clear on her position on United States policies and decisions regarding the invasion and wars in the Middle East. I cannot say that she was necessarily wrong about her views, plus everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Her writing style was certainly readable, and this was not the worst book that I have read on this subject.

I think that we often look at this war in terms of what it cost us. How many of us have family members and friends who have been on at least one deployment since 2001? How many of us have lost someone in combat or because of suicide or other injuries when they came home? We are born and raised in a very nationalist country, under the guise of patriotism. There is a difference in loving your country and supporting the people who protect it, and worshipping nationalism as a cult. A lot of people here do the latter. Once you realize that, you get sort of disillusioned. I think we fail to realize that there are real people over there who do not speak this language being screamed at and ordered around in words they do not understand. They are being promised things they do not get. They are watching people they love be killed while bombs are exploding all around them. It has to be very traumatic. I can see both sides of this particular argument, at least from the civilian point of view. This book was a good reminder that people are lied to by friends, neighbors, husbands, and their governments. It was a good reminder to view people as people, despite what the actions of a few do to sway us towards a stereotype. 

 The book outlines the case of Sheila Blackthorne Bellush. At the time of her death, she was a 35 year old with six children in total. Two of those children belonged to her ex husband, Allen Blackthorne. The couple did not have an amicable divorce, and Mr. Blackthorne felt the need to stalk and harass her. As it turns out, he hired a private detective to track her down when she moved, and then planned to hire someone to beat her up. Jose Luis Del Toro was the actual perpetrator who shot Sheila in the face and slit her throat in front of her children. The conspirators all faced various charges, with her ex husband being handed two concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole.

One quick note about this case: I looked up the case to see if there had been any changes since I was reading this well after the fact. Shortly after incarceration, Mr. Blackthorne was nearly beaten to death by a prison gang during an assault. (My person feeling on this is too bad he wasn't.) He wound up dying in prison in 2014, at the age of 59. (A lot longer than his ex wife was able to live.)

Ann Rule was very thorough in her research into this case. She presented the facts in a very comprehensive way. I appreciated the level of detail that went into the character development throughout the book and building the case. This was one of the better books that I have read by this author. 

 This book is about Mount Lucania, part of the mountain range Saint Elias. In 1937, Lucania was virtually isolated, due to being deep in this mountain range and surrounded by glaciers. A group of people decided to try to scale this mountain, and in doing so ran into some difficulties that caused them to have to fight for their lives. It was a good book, but less dramatic than I anticipated. If you are into mountain climbing or stories of survival amid disaster and dangerous circumstances, this may be a book for you.