This book tells the story of Blackwell's Island (known today as Roosevelt Island). This island was home to two prisons, a poorhouse, and an insane asylum. The treatment of ethnic minorities has always been a grim read, but especially in this book. I recall reading about asylums while I was in psychology class, so the treatment described here was of no shock to me. It is revolting how people treat those that they do not understand. It is also ridiculous what one could be committed for and declared insane for. I was surprised that Nellie Bly was mentioned in this book, because I remember doing a book report on her in elementary school. This was well researched and well written. I had the Audible version, which was a several hour listen. I turned it on while cleaning and listened to a good portion during that point. I enjoyed the book, even if the subject matter was grim. It would be interesting to see how much has or has not changed in modern institutions of this caliber. 

 This was a great perspective on D DAY. I have read quite a bit from the Allied perspectives, so I was pleased to find this one. This was a pretty quick book to read, and I enjoyed it. 

 I got this book for fairly cheap at a used book store, and I am glad I didn't pay more than a dollar for it. I was not impressed with this book at all. I mean, anything is possible, but I am just not buying this story. Perhaps the author did suffer from False Memory, as some other reviews suggest. Parts of this book were really interesting, and made me believe that she believed what she saw. Other parts of it were just terribly dull. I do not recommend. 

 I thought that I would really like these books because I liked Torey Haden's books. I did not. I hated this book. I thought it was boring and I did not care for the writing style. I will never read another Cathy Glass book. I have seen a lot of good reviews about it, but I do not think they are for me. 

 This book gave a short overview of a lot of cursed objects. Some I had heard of before, and some I had never heard of. Each story was short, but gave enough information about each item to make it interesting. Some of my favorites were The Bronze Lady, The Black Angel, and The Black Aggie. I personally love touring cemeteries, because there are often some really beautiful sculptures and memorials. This book really had some interesting artifacts in it.

I follow this author on social media, and I enjoy following his travels. He always makes very interesting and engaging posts, so I had high hopes for this book. I also got the Cryptids book by this author, and I am looking forward to starting it soon. This was a fun book. I have the Audible version, which was about five hours to listen to. 

 This book covers the Halifax Explosion of 1917. The explosion occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on the morning of December 06, 1917. The SS Mont-Blanc (France) collided with the SS Imo (Norway) in the Narrows Straight. The SS Mont-Blanc was carrying explosive materials, and a fire that started as a result of the collision ignited the explosive material. The explosion occurred approximately twenty minutes after the initial impact. The resulting explosion blew the ship apart, raining down white hot metal onto the towns near port. Towns a hundred miles away felt the explosion. The gun, a 90 millimeter, was blown three and a half miles from the ship. The blast shockwave leveled buildings, docks, and railways. 1,600 residents of Halifax were killed immediately, and a further 9,000 were injured. More of the injured died later. Recovery efforts began right away, and clearing the debris and repairing damage began, but it took a long time to rebuild and clean the mess.

The most interesting thing about this book was the aftermath of the explosion. A long time after, the explosion was still measured against modern explosions in terms of destruction and loss of life. Robert Oppenheimer studied this explosion while he was working on the Manhattan Project, which I had never read before. (It was reported that the Little Boy bomb was the equivalent of seven Halifax explosions.) Trauma care greatly improved after the explosion, and we are still building upon that newly learned information today. This book was really good. I really enjoyed learning all of these detailed facts. This book was referenced on a podcast episode I listened to about the disaster, and it did not disappoint. It was really well written and researched. If you are into disasters or shipping in general, check this book out. 

 This book is mentioned several times on a podcast that I listen to, called CULTS. I didn't realize this book was as old as it was, but I was very pleased to run across it since I have heard it mentioned so many times. Some of the information is out of date, in regards to leaders of cults/operations of specific cults. Overall, it was very interesting and still relevant. Margaret Singer has a lot of thought provoking takes on these situations. I can see why the book is quoted so frequently. 

 The absolute poverty that this woman and her cohorts lived in was staggering to me. She lived in pathetic housing with hardly anything to eat. She was in a plural marriage, with several children between herself and the other wives. Her husband was part of a family full of mentally unstable people, all raised to belive that polygamy was the ticket to Heaven. Her brother in law was a complete nutcase, who ordered the murder of several other people, including his own family members. This book was heartbreaking to read. 

 Shoko Asahara was born Chizuo Matsumoto in Japan in 1955. He founded Aum Shinrikyo in 1995. The religious principals are a combination of several Eastern religions, and also some Christian elements. He referred to himself as a Christ and a Lamb of God, which I found to be really odd, given the beliefs of Eastern religions. This cult was a doomsday cult, only the end of the world would come in the form of nuclear devastation. He told his followers the world was going to end in 1997, which it clearly did not. He also said the United States would instigate a World War III, and of all the things he said, this one may be the only plausible one. They got up to a lot of shenanagins, including holding cult members against their will, creating disturbances, and even murdering one member who tried to leave. They created an assassination list for people who spoke against the cult and the members, which included members of the media and government. They tried to cause an anthrax problem by spraying anthrax spores all over the place, but it didn't work. The first major incident was the Matsumoto Incident, where the cult used sarin gas they manufactured to kill eight and injure over 500 more. Police only got one person for that attack, but this entire plot was finally brought to light after the more infamous 1995 Tokyo Subway Attack. In that incident, members released sarin gas into trains during rush hour. This wound up killing 13 people, seriously injuring 54 people, and affecting 980 more people in some way. They found all kinds of drugs and weapons in cult buildings after these attacks, which shouldn't have really been a shock. 17 cult members were convicted and sentenced to death, with the executions being carried out in 2018.

This book is on The Last Podcast On The Left reading list, so if you are following that list, or are a fan of that podcast, add this to your to be read list. The book was well researched, and offered a great deal of information about Aum Shinrikyo, Shoko Asahara, and the things they got up to. The cult was still active into the 2000's, changing the name and symbol. The current name is Aleph. I cannot believe that this cult is still active and was still having documented shenanagins going on as recently as 2019!! You would think they would have moved on after all this stuff happened and the founder and leader that was supposed to be the Christ, who was a clear scam artist, was put in prison and then executed, but they apparently are in really deep. The most recent attack in 2019 occurred when one of the members rammed a crowd of people with his car in retaliation for executions. This was a wild ride. 

 I hated this book. I absolutely hated it. I did not like the way it was written. It was boring. I could not get into it. I started another book by this author, and I could not read it either. I am not a fan of this author. I really thought I would like this book because I love Torey Haden books, but this is terrible.