This book was suggested to be my a World War II page that I follow on Instagram. This was a very interesting book, and I was glad to read it. I learned a lot about code breaking and how that worked during this particular time period. I never knew how they found the right people to be code breakers, so that was really intriguing. I enjoyed this book a lot.

 Thomas Cochrane was born in Scotland in 1775. He was a descendant of several members of Scottish aristocracy and military men. He obtained title when his father died, becoming the 10th Earl of Dundonald. He was a crew member for several ships that belonged to the Royal Navy, before joining the Navy at 17. He developed a reputation for not being able to get along with his shipmates, and being insubordinate to his officers. He was, however, a very capable seaman, and did a lot to benefit the cause during the French Revolutionary War. He was back at sea, serving in the Napoleonic War, where he again proved himself to be a capable seaman. He also entered the political arena, serving on the House of Commons. He did get himself into some trouble though, involving the Great Stock Exchange Fraud. I won't ruin the book by giving away too many interesting details.

This is a great book for those interested in Naval service, or in British Naval service. I hadn't heard of this man before I was gifted this book by a friend who was in the US Navy. It was a pretty good book, and not very long either. 

 Between July 1 and July 12, 1916, there were a series of shark attacks along the New Jersey coastline. The first attack occurred in Beach Haven, and the beaches remained open after that attack. There were several reports of large sharks made by ship captains, but apparently were not taken seriously. The next attack occurred north of Beach Haven in Spring Lake. The third and fourth attacks were in Matawan Creek, where a captain had reported an 8 foot long shark, but was dismissed. The last attack occurred a half hour after the previous two attacks in the same area. Only one of the five victims survived. Of course, the media tried to downplay the danger to beach patrons, as this was going on during a heat wave and polio epidemic. People were looking for relief from the heat and from the worries of illness. Of course, after the subsequent attacks, the media began actually reporting there was danger, causing people to avoid beaches. There were several sharks caught in the wake of the attacks, including a blue shark. a sandbar shark, and a great white shark. It is also suggested that a bull shark could have been responsible.

This book was pretty interesting. I love the ocean, and I am aware that sharks are out there and some do attack people. Oddly, I am less terrified of the possibility of a shark attack that seeing a whale. I am absolutely terrified of whales, as illogical that is. I did think that it was interesting that this is what the book and movie about Jaws was based on. I didn't realize it was based on an actual historical event. The book was well researched, and the story flow made it easy to stay interested in. I would recommend this book for people interested in disaster or crisis books, as well as those who are fans of the Jaws franchise. 

 Cleopatra is one of the most famous names to come out of Egypt. She was born in 69 BCE, and was the last active ruler in the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Her reign lasted from 51 BCE to 30 BCE. I found it really interesting to learn that she spoke a dialect of Greek and was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn Egyptian language. After her death, Egypt became part of the Roman Empire. She had a multitude of siblings, as her father had several wives. She famously had a relationship with Julius Caesar, and becoming pregnant by him. She had her brother/coruler poisoned and elevated her son with Julius to coruler. Her second most famous relationship was with Marc Antony, with whom she had twins that he acknowledged as his children. She died via suicide in 30 BCE, to avoid being brought to Rome for reasons I did not mention in this summery.

I really enjoyed The Witches book by this author, and hoped that I would love this one too. I did not love it as much as I did the other book, but it was still a good book. I have read some other reviews complaining about the writing and editing, and I have to say I did not find it to be as good as The Witches, which is all I have to compare it to. I did think that it was researched well, and once I got through the first 50 or 100 pages, I enjoyed it much more. I would consider that a slow starting book. I did learn some interesting things that I did not know about Cleopatra, so it was worth reading to me. Plus, I got it used, so it was worth the money I spent. I like this author and would suggest checking out her work, especially The Witches. 

 This is another short book in the Haunted America series. Some of these places I have heard of, but a lot I had not. I was particularly interested in the railway, as Andrew's Raiders are well known in this area. In fact, they are buried with a monument in the Chattanooga National Cemetery not far from my house. This area is rich in Civil War history, and I am always interested to see these sites and learn more about the goings on. These books take no time to read, really, but I do like the short history lesson and adding new places to my must visit list. This one is also available on Kindle Unlimited. 

 I had never heard of this disaster before, and I am actually not sure how I managed to come across this book. It is possible that it was on a list of disaster books that I Googled. At any rate, I learned a lot of information from this book. It covered multiple people and perspectives of the events. I cannot imagine living through something like that. I can understand why it was described by so many as hell on earth. It seems like this would be something that was mentioned at some point during school, but I had to take Tennessee History and I didn't learn anything interesting the whole time I had to take that. I wonder if this was mentioned in Texas state history, but other reviews of native Texans suggest it wasn't common knowledge. This was a really dramatic and horrific read. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Texas, United States History, or disasters. 

 Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. Opening in 1792, this theatre has hosted some of the world's best talent. Giuseppe Verdi's work was showcased here, which I would have loved to have seen. The theatre had a long history of shenanagins, grandeur, and fire before the fire that is the focus of this book. On January 29, 1996, a fire completely destroyed the theatre. The only thing that was saved, was the acoustics, which has just been measured two months before. Arson was immediately suspected, as there had been no storms or any other circumstances that would have caused the place to ignite. (I won't give away any of the juicy details and ruin the book.) Reconstruction began in 2001, and pictures of the current building are beautiful.

I really enjoyed Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, and when I saw this one on the library's sale table, I HAD to get it. I love the writing style of this author, and was pleased with this book. I think the way he is able to tell the story in a way that keeps your attention while also communicating history and details is amazing. The research was great as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 

 This book is about a group of Nazi hunters employed by the United States Justice Department. They are on the trail of some Nazis who were supposed to be hiding out in the United States. These were members of the SS. I thought this was a very interesting book, and was very interested in how they went about finding them, scattered to the wind. 

 This book is about the Hartford Circus fire, that occurred in Hartford, Connecticut on July 06, 1944. The circus was produced by Ringling Brothers- Barnum And Bailey. Somewhere between 6-8,000 people were in attendance, but there is not a definite number. Some estimates give around 10,000 people. There were a lot of factors that contributed to the loss of 167 people and the injury of hundreds more. One of those is that circus shows were still being held under tents. The tents were made of canvas, treated with a waterproofing method that included the melting of wax cut with gasoline and brushed on the canvas. Fireproofing was not done. Another factor was the decreased amount of circus workers. A lot of the workers were gone because World War II was still going on, which made the few that remained responsible for double the work. The tents were erected over dry, freshly mowed grass, with wood shavings put down for flooring. A lot of the exits were blocked by equipment and the chutes for the big cat performances that were done at the beginning of the show. (At the time of the fire, the big cat show had just ended, and the cats were still inside the tent.)

The descriptions of injuries in this book were quite grim, so if that isn't something you can deal with, probably do not read it. Many of those that died were not killed by smoke inhalation, as is common in a lot of fires. They actually burned to death. I have always personally been terrified of a drowning death, but death via fire is so ghastly that it has moved to the top of my fear list. Many of them were actually burned by the waterproofing substance that melted and ran down on them. Those that survived still had serious burns to contend with, not to mention the absolute trauma of the event, seeing the things they must have saw... horrible. Some bodies were never identified.

I would like to mention that at the beginning of the book, a few other circus fires were mentioned. One of those was a train that was smashed into by another train, whose driver was asleep and missed all the signals to stop. Many of those are buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. They are marked as unknowns, as they could not be identified, and are buried under an elephant tombstone. It's called Showman's Rest, and is a popular destination for obscura tourists and others.

This was a really good book. I had never heard of this fire before I read this book. I also really liked that it included a lot of pictures of what the circus looked like before and after the fire, and included a diagram of the seating. I've only been to one circus and it was held in an arena, not a tent. I was about eight, so I was very unfamiliar with circus tent performances. I always get amazed at the lack of fire safety when I read books like this, and I am unsure if it is because fire safety has changed so much in the years after these types of events, or if it is because I grew up in a firefighter household. Either way, it is nice to see that there have been steps taken to try to prevent similar experiences from happening. I thought this book was very well researched, and the story was written in a way that was gripping and factual. 

 This is the third book in the Anita Blake series, and is a good one. Anita is back at it, on the trail of the culprit of a series of vampire murders. She is still resisting advances by Jean-Claude, and the relationship is becoming more complicated by the second. I really enjoy the evolving relationships between all the main characters in these past three books, and am looking forward to where their stories take them in the future. The fact that Anita is choosing to protect the whereabouts and identity of Jean-Claude in this book is a huge leap from the attitude she had in Guilty Pleasures.