This book is about US soldiers who were dropped into Mogadishu, Somalia via helicopter in 1993. They were supposed to capture two warlords and return to their base area, but that did not go according to plan. They wound up being pinned down by Somalians, resulting in seventy wounded US soldiers and eighteen killed. I first heard about this event because of the film, and I was very interested to learn that there was a book about the event. This was a tragic event, but it was a good book. 

 This book was great. After World War I, so many great houses and families fell into ruin. The way of life was ending, and I was very interested in learning more about what that was like for those people who had to go through that. So many heirlooms and expensive things were sold, parcels of land, and sometimes entire estates were done away with. The impact of World War I and then later in World War II is absolutely staggering to think of. I highly recommend this book. 

 Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, also known as Alexandre Dumas, was a Creole General from Saint-Domingue. At the time, this was a French colony, hence the French language and heavily French names. He was born in 1762, to a French nobleman father and a slave mother of African heritage. Since his mother was a slave, he was born a slave, however his father took him to France, which automatically gave him free status. Slavery was prohibited in mainland France, but accepted in colonies.

His father helped him enlist in the French Army, before he later served with the French Revolutionary Army. Through his exceptional service and intelligence, he was the first person of color in the French military to become brigadier general, divisional general, and general-in-chief of a French army. He took part in some major battles, including the Italian campaigns. (One thing I thought was exceptional about him was that he and Napoleon Bonaparte had words with each other.) I won't spoil the details in the book about his military service, because that was very interesting to me so there is no reason to ruin it for everyone else.

This book was very well researched. I had never heard of this man before, though I am very familiar with his son, also called Alexandre Dumas. His son is the author of The Count of Monte Cristo, as well as a multitude of other famous works. This man was an extraordinarily interesting person, and I can see why his son used his life stories as inspiration for some of his famous characters. Aside from learning about the man, the information about the battles was great. I wish that I knew more about the French Revolution, and this was a good book for that. I will have to get some others about this topic. I highly recommend this book. 

 You imagine that doctors of any type would be the people to protect you, heal you when you are ill, and look out for your best interest. You do not expect them to be the ones doing the killing. Well, I suppose you should, as history has shown us plenty of doctors who were involved in all sorts of horrible of things. It is even more revolting when it happens to children though. This book presented the facts in an order that was extremely captivating. I read this book in one day, and would recommend for anyone who is a fan of true crime. 

 Deborah Green, at the time of this incident, was a licensed doctor operating her own private practice in the United States. She was married to Doctor Michael Farrar, with whom she had three children. The family was living in Kansas City, where the children were enrolled in private school. She had some chronic ailments, and decided to give up her medical practice after the third child was born to become a stay at home mom. Several people made claims that she was very cold and aloof towards her patients and her family members. Her husband also said that she was not a very good homemaker, and he wasn't really impressed with her as a wife either. She was not very nice to him and had little to no interested in an intimate relationship. He also mentioned to the author of this book that she had been using prescription narcotics off and on throughout their marriage. Tragically, the family home caught fire and two of the children died inside, along with the dog. Deborah and one of the children were outside, with Deborah being absolutely calm during the whole event. Police were not convinced by her story and proceeded to investigate arson and claims of poisoning her husband. Eventually, she was charged with two counts of murder for the two children she killed, attempted murder for the child that made it out of the house, and attempted murder for poisoning her husband.

This woman is disgraceful. I hope that she is really enjoying her life sentence, but I believe she should have had done to her what she did to those kids. Her plea deal stated that she had to serve a minimum of forty years before she could be considered for release, which would be sometime in 2035. She would be in her eighties. I cannot imagine setting my house on fire and burning my kids to death in it. This book was well researched like all of Ann Rule's books. I think this one was especially good because it had first hand accounts from Deborah's husband in it. He spoke at length with the author, which I think added a lot of value to this book. It is amazing to be how awful people are. I am glad that one child survived and that the husband did as well, but I hate that for the two children who were senselessly murdered thanks to their "mother". 

 This book has so much information in it, that it was worth the couple of dollars I paid for it. This would be a good reference book, due to the amount of information concerning World War II. The biggest problem I had with this book was that it was very repetitive. It was also very long, and I think it could have been edited down a little bit. Otherwise, it was interesting. 

 Beyond the Wand is the personal memoir of Tom Felton, who rose to fame for his portrayal of the complicated character of Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series. The book begins with his induction into show business, and details from his childhood off screen. I would imagine that the majority of people read this book to learn about all of the behind the scenes stuff from the Harry Potter films, and I cannot pretend that I was also not interested in that. However, there is always more to a public figure than meets the eye, and I find it particularly interesting to learn how they got started in film and what motivated them to do so. Tom also speaks about some of his life struggles, which can be a source of inspiration for others. I really enjoyed this book. (He narrates the Audible version, so if you are an Audible listener, that is a bonus for you.) 

 Mike DeBardeleben was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1940. He was born into a military family, and thus moved several times in his childhood during the World War II years. He had a fairly rough childhood, with his father being quite strict and using very physical punishments for everything. He also grew a hatred for his mother, who was not caring enough to him and apparently neglectful. He joined the United States Air Force, but got into trouble and was discharged fairly quickly. After that, he really began his life of crime. His crimes ranged from thefts to counterfeit money. Ultimately, he was arrested for counterfeit money in Maryville, Tennessee. (That peaked my interest since Maryville is just an hour away from my house.) After that arrest, his other nefarious activities came to light.

I have major problems with this book. The title indicates that the book provides a chilling story. It did not. There was nothing chilling in this book. Most of the book was spent talking about his counterfeit operations. Another good portion of this book was about the court case, which can get very tedious and boring for people reading true crime. I didn't have a problem with that, really, but it was just annoying to me that I bought this book expecting to learn about a serial killer that I had not yet heard of, and I am wasting half my night reading about his counterfeit schemes. While I understand that it is important to the understanding of the man and how he became known to law enforcement, that is not the purpose of me buying this book OR what the title says it is about. I had to just do a Google deep dive to actually learn about this guy and his crimes. I learned more from that than I did this book. I am irritated with myself for buying it, even though it was on sale for $5. I do not recommend this book. Look for another one, or just google about the guy. 

 I think that people either forget or have never been told that the United States was deeply anti-Semitic (and still is) during this time period. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that coverage of World War II was mainly focused on the fact that Germany was trying to control the globe. Who cares if the leader of Germany hates Jews as long as he doesn't invade everyone! (Insert eye roll.) The laws enacted against Jewish people in Germany and invaded countries were just simply not a source of concern for the United States. Once there was absolutely no denying that the genocide of thousands of people took place, the media half heartedly called for something to be done. (But made no effort to do something.) They limited the amount of refugees coming in, and also got in cahoots with other countries to steal land from Palestine and create a country just so they wouldn't have Jewish people coming into their country. (I have a whole paragraph of opinion about this, but this isn't the time or place.)

The fact of the matter is, the United States did not cover the Holocaust in a factual and unbiased manner. They did not care what was happening to people as a whole. If they had covered this and taken these reports coming out of these places seriously, something could have been done to save plenty of people. Aid could have been given to people who were displaced and suffering effects of malnourishment and other diseases. The United Stated media in this time period was pathetic in this regard, and I see a lot of the same kind of nonsense throughout history. As a nation, we are so happy to turn a blind eye to things we do not want to talk about or be involved in, but happy to stick our noses where they are not welcome if it furthers our agenda. It's sad, really. It's terrible that so many people thought that their troubles were being reported to these great superpowers and that they were going to come save them while they wasted away and wondered if today would be the day they would die. It's gross.

Pick this book up, because this is an important thing to know and understand about media coverage of events like this. 

 I got this book after I read Leah Remini's book. Jenna Miscavige Hill is the niece of the current leader of the Church of Scientology, David Miscavige. Jenna outlines her life inside the Church of Scientology, throughout the higher ranks, the Sea Organization, and her ultimately leaving the Church. She explained how her family came to be involved in the Church of Scientology, and how they moved through the ranks. She included some family photographs in the book that were pretty interesting. She also explains some of the rituals and rules that one must abide by as a member of the church. The main issue that I have with this book is the use of all the Scientology acronyms and phrases, but they are important to the story. I would suggest this book for anyone who is interested in Scientology and/or cults.