I'm not sure where I bought this book, or why I bought this book, but I read it. It was considerably more well written than I anticipated. The subject matter was interesting and engaging, without being terribly gross....let's face it...Hugh Hefner was kind of gross. I've read some reviews about how Holly Madison makes it seem like she wants people to feel sorry for her, but also not feel sorry for her because she is special and everyone else is a whore, but she is not. I didn't really get that impression, but I think that she may have tried to make herself feel a certain way about her experiences. It was a far better read than I anticipated. 

 This book is the personal account of Michael Corbitt, a Chicago kid who was beginning to be involved in a life of crime. Sam Giancana took notice of this upstart and got him a job in the police department. The leader of the Chicago organized crime syndicate knew that it would serve him to have as many friends on the police force as possible. Eventually, he was caught out for conspiracy to commit murder, and refused to inform on any of his mob associates. After his release from prison, he wrote this tell all book, which was a good read. 

 This book is about Chicago Mobster, Sam Giancana, who began his life of crime quite early on. He really got started when he became a hit man for Al Capone himself. He had business associates in high places, including the Shah of Iran. He knew Marilyn Monroe, who had ties to high ranking politicians. He helped the Kennedy family with their political agenda, only to be double crossed by them in the end. This was a really good book. I learned a lot. 

 Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow are two religious fanatics that were involved in a number of shenanagins. Chad was married to a woman, Tammy, with whom he had five children. He was a grave digger and author by occupation, but then decided to open his own publishing company as well. He claimed he received visions from God and dead relatives, and also had near death experiences. His wife died under mysterious circumstances, and her body has since been exhumed and he has charges pending for that. Lori Vallow was married five times in total. (Nelson, ended in divorce. William, with who she had her son Colby, ended in divorce. Joe, who she had Tylee with, ended in divorce and he later died. Charles, who was murdered by her brother Alex and with who she adopted JJ. And Chad.) She got into some wild religious stuff with Chad Daybell, believing that they were part of the chosen and would start a new society. People that were not chosen were "dark spirits" or "zombies" and needed to be eliminated. Chad convinced her that Tylee and JJ were dark spirits. Lori's brother Alex is believed to have been the one that did the killing for them, but he died before any charges could be brought or he could be questioned. I also firmly believe they had a really gross, weird relationship with each other.

I remember seeing Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow all over the news. I also remember seeing their mother having a grand old time in Hawaii with her gross cult leader husband while her children were missing. I remember seeing that and thinking those kids were NOT missing and she knew exactly where they were, which is why she wasn't concerned in the least about their disappearance, and I was quite sure they were not alive. If there were ever two people that should be shanked in the shower in prison, it is these two. I watched the documentary on Netflix and then bought this book the same day. It has a lot more information than the documentary had, but there is no firm conclusion as both of these miscreants are still awaiting trial. I hope that justice is served for these two kids and everyone else that these two have damaged. 

 This book was really interesting. It mentioned several queens, who all met with unfortunate ends. This is a small book, and it only provided a brief overview. I gave it five stars because it was interesting and entertaining. It helped pass the time and added to my reading challenge. I would love to read some more in depth biographies than what is provided her about some of the women, but it was good. 

 This is the undercover expose of the Italian crime syndicate by Joseph Pistone. Thanks to his work and this book, we have the wonderful film Donnie Brasco. I really enjoyed both the film and the book. I think they are both very interesting. 

 This book was written from an eyewitness to the Nuremberg Trials, who was working as a court reporter during the trials of twenty three men who stood accused of committing torture and murder upon patients who did not consent to medical research. Each chapter relates to a specific method of experimentation. I liked that format, because it was much better that going back and forth several times in an attempt to cover each crime committed. The descriptions of what these people went through is mind blowing and revolting. Human testing has been a thing since medicine began, but this was in the absolute extreme. A lot of the time, it felt like reading the script to a movie like Hostel...this was just a place for those in a position of power to get their kicks by torturing people during a time when it was acceptable to do so to a specific population without fear of repercussions. If they happened to learn something, super. Human nature is terrifying. I also enjoyed the transcripts and trial photos being featured in this book. 

Walter Freeman II was an American doctor that specialized in lobotomy procedures. He thought that lobotomies were a great procedure, and wanted to simplify the methods of execution so that they could be performed in psychiatric hospitals. Most of those hospitals did not have a sterile surgical suite, anesthesia, or on hand surgeons. To answer that issue, he invented the transorbital lobotomy. The transorbital lobotomy was done by placing an instrument that looked like an ice pick under the eyelid and against the top of the eye socket, whacking it with a mallet through the bone, and into the brain. He started doing these procedures one after another, traveling around to different facilities to demonstrate. He had a falling out with his partner over his behavior. It is believed that he performed up to 4,000 lobotomies, with around 100 of those dying from bleeding in the brain.

Mental health services have evolved so much over the years, but could be better still. At least we aren't back in the middle ages where we are lining up 200 or more people and doing this procedure on them all day. That is cruel and insane to me. The surgery causes most of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex to be severed. A vast portion of lobotomies were performed on women, signed up for this procedure by their husbands who deemed them hysterical or strong willed, which is enraging. The purpose of this was to get rid of symptoms of various mental disorders, but it often left patients (or victims) with seizure disorders, lacking the social skills they had before, altered communication, and altered mental status. It is horrible and disgusting to think about how people were treated and essentially experimented on.

This book is available for $1.99 or free to borrow on Amazon Prime Books. The Kindle version is only 85 pages, and the Audible narration is just over two hours. The book is not as detailed as I would have liked, but you can only fit so much into this short of a book. It was a great jumping off point for learning about this topic if you are interested in it.

 A string of murders has Merry and Company back on an investigative tangent. I love a mystery, and was very interested in the resolution of this one. Merry is also having a hard time dealing with all of her various relationships, court intrigue, fae who are now living out of both courts, and paparazzi. It's a lot to follow, sometimes I need a flow chart, but I feel like I am getting to know each of these characters very well and they are all familiar to me. Looking forward to the continuation. 

 The author of this diary was the wife of a well known New York City judge. Given his position, she was able to meet a lot of key figures involved in the civil war. She had a lot of opinions on Mary Todd Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, and a lot of military leadership. She also spoke about the hardships that the soldiers experienced. Warfare, even in modern times, is expressly difficult, especially when it carries on for years. Soldiers during this time experienced more disease, lack of food supply, inadequate supplies, and the travel took much longer. I appreciated that she made mention of this, despite her being set up with a life of plenty, even during war times.

I did not expect to like this book at all. I am not really into Civil War history, but I bought a bunch of books on sale a while back to learn more. Diaries like this are usually either amazing or very dull. I assumed this one would be terribly dull. It was the exact opposite. This diary was really readable. This woman was PETTY. She was witty and sarcastic, and I really enjoyed her personality. You really get a sense of someone's personality through their writing. I will say that some of her information is incorrect, but her observations are really great for gaining insight into life during the Civil War.