Edward VII was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was born in 1841, and died in 1910. He served in the role of Prince of Wales for almost sixty years before finally attaining the throne. In his role as the Prince of Wales, he completed duties of a mostly ceremonial nature. His mother did not think he was keen enough to have any political dealings or influence, and he was largely kept out of it. This book begins with his birth an early education, which I thought were absolutely awful. Queen Victoria was known to not like infants, and I think that Edward (called Bertie by the family) was negatively impacted by that. I also think that he was negatively impacted by being a royal child. He simply was not treated like your run of the mill child that got to play and do whatever. He was required to do the most asinine studies and forced into prim and proper behavior, which I cannot imagine is easy for a child. The book was slightly slow and boring through these early years, but got more interesting as he aged and began to take on more roles and get into shenanagins. I enjoyed reading about his world travels and the people and places he came into contact with. He was certainly, what would would nicely call someone like this, a womanizer. He very much enjoyed eating, drinking, gambling, and other such activities. He reportedly (and most probably) had a good number of illegitimate children, often taking on the role of godfather instead of father to them. His wife, Alexandra of Denmark, was well liked throughout Europe. He, of course, cheated on her left and right. One notable mistress of his is Alice Keppel, the grandmother of Prince Charles' (the current Prince of Wales) mistress Camilla Parker Bowles. (Yes, I know he married her, and I am not a fan of hers. It is also interesting to note that Edward and Charles have many of the same qualities...fashionable dress, parties, whoring, and being stuck in the Prince of Wales role for an obscene amount of time.)

Edward VII ensured that his son, George V, was better prepared for his role as a monarch than Edward himself was. He also fostered good relationships with most of Europe, though not with his nephew, German Emperor Wilhelm II. He was not impressed by the political views and aspirations of Wilhelm, and was proven right when World War I broke out just four years after his death. He was a very personable man, and was generally well liked, despite his anti-German feelings. I really didn't know much about him, as I have only really read about the daughters of Queen Victoria, so I learned a lot from this book. I also really enjoyed seeing the technological advances coming around, such as cars, electric lights, telephones, etc. I am so used to reading about royals way before this period or in the current period, that it was really interesting to see the reactions to the technology from people in the Victorian Era. Overall, this was a pretty informative book. 

 Tara Westover wrote this memoir about her life growing up with survivalist parents. I have watched that show about Doomsday Preppers, and this kind of reminded me of that. I would hate to have parents that made me live like that. The parents in this book honestly reminded me of some families from where I live that I have been in contact with- when you think of stereotypical backwoods mountain Southern folks, that is exactly what I mean. Super "religious", cynical and fearful of education, and of course the weird way of describing things. People one hundred percent do say "book learning" and "studies". People also speak with double negatives. I have seen reviews saying that people really do not speak like that, and that is certainly not true. I have also seen a review criticizing her calling her Mom Mother because she was born in the 80s. I was also born in the 80s, and I call my Mother that a lot. (Mother most of the time, sometimes Mom, and also Lisa.) I do not understand why that is something that seems weird? I'm not sure that I would have considered her life isolated, though I do believe she was severely undereducated. I believe that she was abused, and I also believe that the perspectives of all players in a family like this vary. People live their experiences and recall things that happened and block out other things. A lot of times, perpetrators brush their actions off and victim blame. I'm glad that the author developed a thirst for knowledge and travel. A day is not wasted if you learn one new thing a day! (My personal motto.) I hope the rest of her life is more amazing than the first part of it.

I have had this book on my to read list for quite a while. I found it at the local library, and, since the summer reading program is still going on, I figured this would be a good opportunity to pick it up and see what all the hype was about. To be honest, I was slightly let down. I thought it was going to be some revelation from all the rave reviews. Frankly, it just didn't do it for me. That isn't to say that it wasn't a good and interesting book, because it was. I just had high expectations that were not quite met. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in memoirs, survivalists, or just different family dynamics. 

 This was a very moving book. I cannot begin to imagine the struggles of people who went through the Holocaust, especially as one of the targets of the Nazi regime. I also cannot imagine the post traumatic stress that the survivors undoubtedly had. The author says that she trained herself to remember her experiences, which we are reading here. Her brain tried to reduce her trauma and stress by blocking out certain things, which is terrifying to even consider. This is why it is so important that we take these accounts seriously and take them to heart to prevent other people from ever going through such things. 

 This is the personal story of Bob Greene, whose father was a World War II veteran. His father took a turn in his health, and Bob went home to help him in his final period of life. In speaking with his father, he discovered that Paul Tibbets live in the same town. Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that carried the atomic bomb to Japan. Bob and Tibbets eventually connected and became decent friends. The stories and the relationship was really amazing to read about. This was a great book. 

 In this book, the author attempts to explain the good qualities of religion, and how they make people feel. Religious gratification can make people extremely emotional. When you have indoctrination from a young age, extreme emotionality, and twisting religious text to fit whatever social or political narrative you need it to...bad things can happen. Mass suicides, suicide bombings, terrorist attacks, etc. It's bizarre to me how people can get whipped up into these types of frenzies, but we do see it time and again across a variety of cults and religious teachings.

I chose this book out of the sheer interest I have in cults and religious fanaticism. I thought that I would be extremely interested in this book, and I hate to say that I was not. I was fairly disappointed in it, actually. It was extremely dull in my opinion, and I really had to focus to get through it. It just did not hold my interest the way that I expected it to. The most interesting part was the end, which really should have been the beginning of the book. I think this book could have been better. 

 In this book, we find a body on the MIT property, and it is believed to be a computer grad student who had previously went missing. Kay is concerned that Lucy has something to do with it, which wouldn't be a shock in the least. Kay, Benton, Marino, and Lucy are always tied into every single murder and mishap that goes on it seems. It is really impossible to believe that people have this much drama in their lives, just because of their career paths. I have stuck through this series for twenty one books now, and will continue on just out of principal, but that whole arc is tired. Lucy is not behaving much better in this book than she does in all the others. I wish she would go away. Marino is still a petulant child at his age because Kay is just all about Benton and now him. He needs to get over himself. Kay needs to get over herself. Everyone just needs to get over themselves and stop being involved with weirdos. What pages there are dedicated to forensics and crime solving are as well as ever, but we have to contend too much with nonsense from the main characters. I am starting to really understand all of the negative reviews that keep popping up the longer this series runs, which is sad. 

 I always enjoy reading the memoirs of Augusten Burroughs. His sense of humor and expressions are something I have grown to love. I have a lot of addiction memoirs, so I assumed I would like this one as well. I certainly did. Everyone's experience with substance abuse if different, and it always is of interest to me to see how people became dependent on things and what the catalyst was for them to change their lives. I can't wait for another installment from Augusten. 

 This is the memoir of Monica Holloway, who lived quite a morbid life. She made a friend, who happened to be the daughter of a mortician. I thought this book would be very interesting, because it had a very morbid description, but I didn't like it. I am not negating her personal experiences, but I was not a fan of the book. 

 Caroline Knapp lets us into her struggle with alcoholism. I have been involved with people who were addicted to various substances, but I have never really dealt with someone who was an alcoholic. This book gave me a really good understanding of what the struggles with alcoholism can be like. It was a little bit repetitive, but addiction is repetitive. I think everyone who is curious about what it is like to deal with alcoholism would benefit from reading this book. 

 This book is an in depth look at the life and times of Doctor Thomas Dent Mutter. Mutter began his career as a plastic surgeon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mutter's education led him to try some experimental things that had major impacts on modern medicine. He was a pioneer in the use of ether for anesthesia. He also made it standard practice to clean surgical instruments. Mutter himself was quite the character, from his personality to his clothes. This was a very interesting and engaging book. I would love to check out this museum. This would be a good book for anyone who is into medical history. I enjoyed it.