Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was born in Berlin in 1902. This memoir recounts her life and activities. She was an avid swimmer, a talented artist, and an innovative filmmaker. She dabbled in acting, with five successful films to her credit. She is mostly remembered as the propaganda filmmaker for the Nazis. Her propaganda films were really very well done, despite being supplied for the side of history they were supplied for. This book shows the human being behind that legacy, which I think is important. We often see people as strictly good or strictly bad or strictly in service to crazy folks. Over here in the US, we are going through a lot of tough realizations that people are not always who we thought they were- celebrity or otherwise. I found her writing to be engaging, despite this being a pretty long book.

Colditz Castle is a beautiful Renaissance era castle, located near Leipzig, Germany. The history of the castle is lengthy, going back to the 1000's. The castle has seen many periods of remodeling and reconstruction due to age and circumstances but still retains a beautiful facade. In 1523, the castle park was converted to a zoo that housed one of the largest collections of animals in Europe. The castle has also seen use as an asylum for the mentally ill, a facility for tuberculosis patients, a workhouse for the poor, and a sanatorium for the wealthy. Today, the castle has been restored to look as it did before World War II. It currently houses a museum that provides tours and part of the building serves as a youth hostel.

This book focuses on the use of Colditz Castle as a prisoner of war camp under the control of the Nazis. The castle was converted to a maximum-security prison for prisoners of war. Escape was virtually impossible, though there were many attempts with several successes that are detailed in this book. The first prisoners at the camp arrived in 1940 and were British prisoners who had escaped from another camp. The camp housed prisoners from Canada, France, Poland, Belgium, Britain, America, and the Netherlands. After 1943, the Nazi powers that be decided the camp would only house British and American prisoners of war. The majority of the prisoners sent to Colditz were previous escapees or those who had attempted escape from other camps. One of the prisoners of the camp, 2LT Desmond Llewelyn, would later go on to play Agent Q in 17 James Bond films. The ways that the prisoners attempted to escape were amazing. I am not sure I would have ever thought of a fraction of the things that they did to try and get out. (The tunnels are part of the castle tour.)

I have the Audible version of this book. It is pretty lengthy, so if you are interested in a long listen...this is one you could consider. The physical copy is under 400 pages. I have read several books by this author, and each one of them have been wonderfully well written and the research is impeccable. I enjoy this authors ability to teach about historical places and events while letting you get to know the people involved, all while keeping your interest. I have a couple more books by this author that I am looking forward to reading for my 2025 Reading Challenge. I learned a lot from this book.

The flooding of the Mississippi River began with heavy rainfall during the summer of 1926. By December 1926, areas were faced with flooding that was well over their anticipated levels of destruction. Into 1927, levees were breached in at least 145 known places. 700,000 people were left homeless, as water flooded over 27,000 square miles of land. Farmland, crops, and livestock were decimated. Around 500 people died as a result of this flooding across the area. The flood affected Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. The damages were worth about one third of the federal budget. If this would have occurred today, the damage would have totaled in the trillions. This flood resulted in the Flood Control Act of 1928, which utilized the Army Corps of Engineers to control the Mississippi River through dams and levees. It is also extremely important to note that 75% of the people that were affected by this flood were African Americans. Many were working in the agricultural industry and the bulk of them were of low socioeconomic status. Over 200,000 African Americans were forced to live in temporary housing, mostly in relief camps. Many of the African Americans that were affected by this flood would join the Great Migration, moving North to look for factory work with better pay, and better living conditions.

There were several factors that contributed to the level of disaster that was reached. Certainly, unprecedented amounts of heavy rainfall were the main cause. Pumping systems to get rid of the standing floodwater were subpar. The destruction of a levee to prevent major flooding in New Orleans caused major flooding in St. Bernard Parish. Poor planning for impending disaster also negatively impacted people. Levees were simply unable to withstand the inundation.

This book was very well researched and extremely informative. This book was of particular interest to me in the wake of the flooding that Tennessee saw with Hurricane Helene. It was interesting to compare the response from local, state, and federal governments in both instances. I live just three miles from the Tennessee River, and flooding during heavy rainfall is always a concern. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in disasters, African American history, or those interested in river control.

Aaron Hernandez was born in 1989, only one year after me. He played football in college for the Florida Gators and went on to play professionally for the New England Patriots. Despite his talents, Hernandez found himself in trouble with the law, with his team, and with his family over the years. All of this would culminate in his arrest and conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd. He was also indicted for two other murders (Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado) while in prison. Hernandez ultimately died by suicide while incarcerated.

I have stated in a previous review of this case, I think that Aaron Hernandez was certainly a victim of abuse as a child. I think his father was an absolute miscreant, but I think he loved his father and was heavily impacted by his death...though I couldn't tell you why. I also believe that he was a victim of sexual assault as a child, which we know can have negative impacts on a person. There are also speculations about his sexuality, which could have an impact on his emotional and mental state. I am also a firm believer in CTE and am certain he was suffering from that. He also used drugs. None of these things excuse what he did, but all of these things combined certainly hold water when looking for an explanation about his behavior and actions. All of these factors should be considered when looking at psychological profiles and case studies.

This is the second book I have read about Aaron Hernandez. This book was mentioned on the Dateline episode that covered his case, so I went ahead and read it as well. James Patterson does write some solid nonfiction, and his ability to tell a story and keep people's interest is notable. I still have a very conflicted opinion on Aaron Hernandez, but this book was decent. If you are interested in the Dateline reading list, this case, or sports, this might be a good one for you.

This book covers the Kaufman County, Texas murders of two prosecutors and one prosecutor's wife. The first victim, Mark Hasse, was shot and killed while walking from his parked car to the courthouse. At the time, Hasse was the chief assistant district attorney. This murder occurred on January 31, 2013. The second and third victims were Michael and Cynthia McLelland. They were murdered on March 30, 2013. Michael was the criminal district attorney at the time. This case had some interesting twists and turns. The book was sufficiently researched and descriptive about the players in the case and the court proceedings. Decent true crime read. This case was also featured on Dateline, for those interested in the Dateline reading list.

This book discusses the Nazi occupation of France. French winemakers organized against the Nazi invaders to save their crops, their wine surplus, and their lives. This book was well researched and told this tense story in a way that kept my interest. I was actually unaware of any of this, but, of course, why wouldn't they loot the wine along with everything else? I think this is a colorful snippet of French history, as well as World War II history. It shows there were people fighting to save their livelihoods, history, and culture which is often overlooked. I enjoyed this book.

Merck is a German drug company that produces many well-known medications. This book focuses heavily on their accounting scandals and other issues, but did offer information that was relevant to my project for school. Merck was involved in the Holocaust by providing drugs to experiment on concentration camp prisoners. Merck was able to come out of World War II, a leader in chemicals and drugs, which are used worldwide today. If you are interested in drug companies, this may be a book for you.

IG Farben was a German pharmaceutical and chemical conglomerate that was split up in the post-war years. Bayer was part of this company, before emerging as a standalone company, despite their wartime activities. This book outlines the history of IG Farben, the companies under their control during World War II, and all of the atrocities that they participated in. Medical experimentation was one aspect of IG Farben horror, but they were also the architects of Zyklon B. I read this book for my final capstone project, and it was very informative and useful for that project.

 

This book reviews medical experimentation against interned persons at various concentration camps, as perpetrated by the Nazi regime and the drug companies they were in cahoots with. I read this book for my capstone project that I am getting ready to turn in and found it very useful in explaining how the Nuremberg Codes were created.

 

 This book is currently available on Audible Plus. It was about four hours long, but the physical copy is under 300 pages if you are interested. If you are a WWE fan, this might be of interest to you. There are some stories about Mick's time in WWE, but the book does center around his love of Christmas. I was actually completely unaware that some Santa subculture existed, and certainly was not aware that Mick Foley was into that. I think it is wonderful that he was able to find something that brought him joy at a time when he was struggling with CTE and other health issues. I am not a Christmas lover, so this book was a little outside my normal realm of reading material, but it was okay for a short book.