I bought this book, along with a couple of others, about this particular subject. I am trying to work through some of my unread items, and picked this one up. I appreciate the first hand account of the things that were witnessed in Darfur. First person accounts are so valuable in all historical events, but certainly in the cases of genocide. I cannot say that this was my favorite book that I have read on this topic, but I feel that it was worth the read and was informative. I cannot imagine being on the ground and witnessing such things and being able to do nothing. How horrific. How horrific for the innocent people who were treated in this way and killed. (This book is currently included in the Audible Plus catalog.) 

 This is the personal account of Louis Zamperini. His childhood was really interesting, and I wonder how he would have turned out if he had not gotten into sports and the military. A lot of kids that are out running the streets and getting up to mischief find themselves going through a positive transformation once they engage in sports and other constructive outlets. It was amazing that he went from troublemaker to being able to participate in the 1936 Olympics. He became a bombardier during World War II, and eventually found himself really suffering as a prisoner of war. His determination and resilience was so inspiring to me. I loved this story. It was really, really good. I would also like to watch the film that was made about this story, Unbroken. 

 This book is featured on The Last Podcast On The Left Reading List (Episodes 172-174, Ed Gein). This book is about Ed Gein, who was a serial killer active in the late 1950s. Gein inspired several of our favorite slasher characters, from Norman Bates to Leatherface. While his victim count was relatively small for a serial killer of this renown, his bizarre life has embedded itself into popular memory. Harold Schechter is a great crime writer, and I am looking forward to reading his other books. They have been highly suggested to me. 

 This book is listed on The Last Podcast on the Left Reading List. This books is about Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. This cult was responsible for the worldwide headline grabbing Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack in 1995, and was also responsible for the Matsumoto Sarin Gas Attack in 1994. I knew about this from readings and podcasts, but I was not aware of the murders and shenanagins that cult members were involved in. This book gave a really in depth look at the cult and the members, as well as the psychology behind cults. This cult has split into other active factions, especially after the arrest of Asahara and other members for criminal activities. I thought that Asahara was still alive, but he and six other cult members were executed in July 2018. This was a very interesting book, which I would recommend for anyone interested in cults, Japanese history, crime, or psychology. I love Robert Jay Lifton's work, and look forward to reading another book that I own by him. The only complaint I have about this book is that I bought it used and someone had written themselves footnotes in it, but their handwriting was illegible, so I have no idea if they had interesting thoughts to add. 

 This book is about Hans Jurgen Massaquoi and his experiences growing up during Nazi rule in Germany. As a World War II major, one of the things that I was never taught about was black people living in Germany. Obviously, I knew there were black people living there during this time and going through it with everyone else, but the focus in my education was almost solely on the Jewish population, prisoners of war, and political dissidents. I saw this book at a used book store and absolutely had to pick it up.

The author was born in Hamburg in 1926. His mother was a German nurse, and his father was a Liberian. His grandfather was the consul general to Libreria in Germany at the time. He outlines his experiences as a child growing up under the Nazi regime. He often faced the same racism that black people worldwide face, even today. It was interesting to see how oblivious he was as a child to the Nazi machine, but then a lot of adults were as well. Hitler Youth was a program that was pushed on children, of course, not mixed race children or black children. Unfortunately, he was made to realize he was Non Aryan, even though he was German born. He was treated poorly by teachers and students, and was even snatched up by some Brown Shirts at one point. He was also prohibited from getting education and having a professional career. However, he ran into a few teachers, civilians, and even Nazis that encouraged him and supported him in various ways.

He eventually was able to go to Liberia in 1948, where he was able to reunite with his father. Their relationship wasn't the best, and he moved to the United States. He served as a paratrooper in the United States military, and used his GI bill to fund his education. He became a well respected and lucrative journalist. He died at age 87.

This was a really important book to me, as far as improving my education and perspective on how different people and groups were treated during World War II. I know from my personal experience that the lives of black people during this time period was not something that was communicated. All of the groups who were subjected deserve to have their stories told. I really appreciated the author sharing his personal experiences. I would really suggest this book to everyone who is interested in this subject matter, or historians of all varieties. 

 I am a World War II history major, so I generally pick up any book on that topic that I can find. I grabbed this book for that reason alone, but I also love a personal account of a historical event. Personal accounts are so very important to the historical record, especially when there are still obtuse people out there that deny the atrocities committed during the Holocaust took place. So many people lost their lives that we owe it to the ones who didn't to listen because they are telling the stories for everyone. This girl went through so much. I cannot imagine how I would feel if I was carrying on my merry business and then was attacked because of my religion, ethnicity, or anything else. Living through war in general must be a traumatic, horrible experience, but most especially if you are one of the targeted demographics. I think this book is very important and encourage you to give it a chance. 

 I found this book about a week after I listened to a podcast episode. This guy was a weirdo. Nilsen was a serial killer who murdered at least twelve boys. He was active in England in the late 1970s to early 1980s. After luring boys to his home, he murdered them and kept the bodies for extended periods of time. How his neighbors didn't report him many times over for smells of decomposition, I will never understand. He finally got himself caught after flushing body parts down the toilet and causing a clog, in which they determined came from the weirdo on the top floor. This was a pretty good book, and learning about his activities in more depth was interesting. 

 This book has Kay working a crime scene in Cambridge. At some point, Kay gets some CCTV footage that appears to be from Lucy, but is of Lucy. Kay is alarmed by what she sees and the secrets Lucy has. Yawn. Lucy is always doing something she should not be doing. I cannot stand her, and that is a well established fact, but she is always doing something she should not be, with people she should not be. There is nothing new about it. Kay, of course, is self-absorbed and cannot imagine how many things she does not know about these people she is close to, and she just simply doesn't know who to trust. Does she ever know who to trust? I sincerely hoped that Lucy would vanish from this series by now, but I have resigned myself to the fact that we are never going to get rid of her. We also have to endure descriptions of her estate and her cars, as if one really cares. This was just a rehash of events, basically, and the reemergence of two people that should have been out of this series many books ago. I am disappointed thoroughly. 

 Gertrude Bell was born in England in 1868 to a pretty wealthy family. (July 14- we are almost birthday buddies.) She received a really good education, studying at Queen's College and Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford. She specialized in history, as it interested her and that was also one of the only subjects open to women at that time. (I am also a history major, so I loved this about her.) She traveled all over the place, spending a lot of time in the Middle East. In 1907, she worked as an archeologist (my dream career) with Sir William Ramsay in Anatolia. (A Thousand And One Churches is the book about that experience.) She also met with Lawrence of Arabia, who became her fast friend. They had attended the same school, were in essentially the same line of work, spoke Arabic, and traveled the Middle East extensively. She was held a prisoner for over a week one time. At the outbreak of World War I, she joined the Red Cross and then, along with Lawrence and others, offered up her Middle Eastern intelligence to the government. She was also present for the Armenian Genocide and reported on that. (I am currently learning about this particular event.) She did a multitude of amazing and adventurous things, and I am so inspired by her bravery and determination and love of learning. Sadly, her health began to decline, and she suffered from several illnesses. Her actual cause of death was an overdose of sleeping pills, but it is not known if it was accidental or suicide. She died two days before her birthday on July 12, 1926.

I absolutely loved this book. I cannot believe I had never heard of this woman, her work, or her interesting life at any point in my studies, yet Lawrence of Arabia was spoken about constantly. I think that more female figures, especially those historians and archaeologists, should be talked about and celebrated for their contributions to these fields. I feel that this book was well researched and offered up amazing details. The only real criticism I have of it, which is why I did not give it five stars, is that it seems slightly one sided. It seems like Gertrude Bell was very blunt, somewhat sarcastic, and a little bit obnoxious to deal with. The book made it seem like Gertrude was always the one getting the short end of the stick, (which she probably did in this time period and being a female), but it never seemed to raise the possibility/likelihood that she was just a hard person to deal with or get along with at times. We all know someone who just rubs everyone the wrong way, or that we personally do not get along with for some reason. I think this is the case, and perhaps she also felt like she was smarter or more well educated that other people and was condescending at times. I do not know, but I just felt like there was a little bit of bias in the book. I highly suggest this book if you are interested in Gertrude Bell and the details of her life and adventures, just bear that bias part in mind. 

 The Wilcox Expedition took place in July 1967, when two climbing groups merged together to climb Denali. (Denali was still referred to as Mount McKinley at that time, and the book does use that name part of the time as well.) Evidently, this mountain has weather events that are unpredictable. Weather can be nice in the morning, and then white out conditions by lunch. There has been a lot of issue taken with the lack of communication/planning/leadership, and while there was human error for certain situations, they did not have control over a super storm that hit the mountain. Unfortunately, this resulted in the deaths of seven out of the twelve that started this expedition. The bodies were left on the mountain, and some of them were never even found to attempt to recover.

I got this book on Audible Plus, which is free with subscription. I really enjoy the rotation of books that they put out, and this book happened to be one of them they added recently. I have had this book on my list for a while, because I am always interested in disasters. I have a morbid addiction to disaster books. Anyway, this book was about five hours to listen to and I really liked it and learned a lot about this particular expedition. I didn't know anything about it beforehand, so this was great.