Adolf Eichmann was born in 1906. He was a German-Austrian, and born into a Calvin Protestant family. He was not the best student in school, though he participated in several activities, including the violin. He began reading Nazi Party publications, and developed an interest in that ideology. He joined a branch of the Nazi Party in 1932, and, seven months later, became a member of the SS. In this role, he oversaw the deportation of thousands of Jewish people from their homes in occupied areas. Of course, from there they were sent on to camps. He was absolutely instrumental in the execution of thousands of Jewish people. He claimed at his trial to have been shocked and appalled by the conditions on the deportation trains and in the camps, but he was not. He was one of the main puppet masters who knew all of the details, and created a lot of the details himself. He also evaded capture for quite some time before finally being captured in 1960. He was executed by hanging in 1962.

This book was really good. It have a lot of details about Eichmann's life and his shenanagins during World War II. He was absolutely an architect of the Holocaust. If you are looking to learn more about this man or this subject, this is a good book to do that with. (Hunting Eichmann is also a good book that you should check out.) 

 This book is just more of Anita whining about people feeling negative about her being successful, attractive, having powers, having a bunch of boyfriends, having sex, working with guys while being a woman, etc. Nothing of any value really happened in this book, other than some sex, of course, and whining, also of course. I am getting so cross with this series, I am really at a loss for words. 

 This book took a deep look into the case of Tracey Roberts, a mother of three kids, and estranged wife to a wealthy businessman. Her first marriage was to a doctor, whom she shot at during at argument. After their divorce, she accused him of sexual abuse towards their child. She moved on to another doctor, who she tried to swindle out of money, subsequently ruining that relationship. She finally married another man, who was into business. They had two children together before the relationship went south. In 2001, Tracey was living in a home in Iowa with her children. She dialed emergency services to report that she had shot an intruder. Turns out, there were a lot of connections between them, which I won't get into so that I don't spoil the book for anyone wishing to read it.

I think that M. William Phelps did a good job researching this case. The facts were chronological. They were presented in a way that was accurate and readable. This woman was certainly a piece of work. I think a first degree murder charge was very accurate in this case. If you are interested in this book, it is currently free on Audible Plus, and also free on Kindle Unlimited right now. 

 Torey Hayden, special education teacher, always has some really moving stories to tell. I think it takes a special person to work with children, and an extra special person to work with children who have more demanding needs. In this particular book, there is a girl who never spoke and went into some pretty serious rages. It was really interesting to see how Torey handled the situations and how she made a connection with this girl. I liked this book. 

 Both books written by the Sheff's are very good books. This book, in particular, is written by the father. It is interesting to see the same situation from two different perspectives, (see the book Tweak by Nic Sheff), and very interesting to see what the parents go through when having a child that is addicted to substances. I have read several memoirs about people battling addictions, but I have not found nearly as many written from the viewpoint of another family member. I cannot imagine, now that I am a parent, how I would handle my child being addicted to anything. I have read this man's heartbreak, and my heart goes out to him. He never stopped loving his son and trying to do the best for him. People who stop speaking to their children for their sexuality or mistakes they have made should read this book and take a lesson in what unconditional love is. 

 I've seen a lot of negative reviews of this book, and I wonder if those aren't from people who are die hard MJ fans who refuse to believe anything negative about him. I personally found this book to be fairly unbiased and to line up with proven documentation. Court cases and allegations were mentioned, and some of the reviews said they weren't. Maybe I missed what they are talking about, but I think this book covered pretty much everything up to the point of publishing. Of course, a lot of things happened after this, including his death. MJ had some really strange mannerisms and strange things in his homes. He lived his entire life in the spotlight, and I can imagine his family dynamic was not always the best. I wonder how much of that impacted his mental state and personality. I also wonder how he was able to beat some of these charges, if not for payoffs. I thought this book was very interesting, especially since I remember a lot of this stuff being mentioned on tv when I was in high school. 

 This book covers the roles of women in wartime. Women have been nurses, cooks, doctors, spies, decoys, code breakers, sex workers, had roles in combat and roles as leaders. Women have supported boyfriends and husbands, saw sons off to war. Women have joined organizations to support military personnel and veterans. They have been employed in jobs at home while men were sent to war. They have sacrificed items and luxuries, grown victory gardens, and a host of other things. I thought this book was a great reminded of what all women do in roles of support to their countries and war efforts 

 The author of this book traveled to Plateau, Alabama, (a town that was once called African Town, built by former slaves, and renamed when the railroad came through), to interview the last surviving former slave from the last shipment of slaves that came through the Americas. In fact, the Atlantic Slave Trade had been outlawed some fifty years before the capture of Kossola. Kossola was born around 1841 in West Africa. He was in the Isha subgroup of the Yoruba people, who lived in the town of Bante. He was captured in a raid and transported to the United States on the slave ship Clotilda. He arrived in the United States in 1860, after 45 days at sea. He was given an American name, Cudjo Lewis. He gives a very detailed and moving account of his enslavement and his life thereafter. I could tell from his speaking that he really missed his home, his family, his culture, and his community. I am sure everyone who was enslaved did, but you could really see how much he was affected by his memories.

I am trying my very best to read as many of these shorter books as I possibly can so I can continue downsizing for my move, and this happened to be one of the ones that were in the 200 pages or less category. I finished this pretty quickly last night, as I couldn't sleep (of course). I have to say that my biggest complaint about this book was that it was difficult to read. The author wrote how the interviewee spoke, as opposed to how words are actually spelled. While it did give personality to the story, and made you feel as though you were talking to the subject, I hated that. I cannot stand reading text messages or social media posts where people cannot be bothered to spell out the words correctly, and this put me in mind of that. Other than that, the story was very engaging. I think it was great that this person was able to tell his story. It is so important to get accounts of people who lived through slavery, genocide, wars, et cetera. Without these accounts, we would be missing out on such an important part of the historical narrative. 

 The Barbizon Hotel was built in 1927 for use as a residential hotel for women. Men were not permitted above the ground floor lobby. (Men were admitted as guests in the 1980s.) The hotel featured sound proof rooms for those wanting to practice music and art. The book had several stories about famous female guests, which I found extremely interesting. Grace Kelly used to dance around topless in the hallways, which is certainly before her princess days. Sylvia Plath, whose work I adore, spent time here. Molly Brown lived here after she survived the sinking of the TITANIC. The Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School had three out of the twenty three floors for their own personal use, helping women develop "respectable" skills. A few other famous tenets were Lauren Bacall, Rita Hayworth, and Nancy Reagan.

Ownership changed a couple of times, remodeled, and repurposed. The hotel was renamed Melrose, and renamed again to Barbizon 63. It was refitted for use as condominiums, though several female residents remained under their original leases due to a rent control situation. The indoor pool is used by a fitness club, and the building itself is on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York City Landmarks list. This book was really interesting, beyond the celebrity stories. I love a historical building. A lot of times, people just think of historical buildings in terms of the age of the building. They often overlook the purposes of the building throughout generations, the residents, important events that occurred in them, and even the architects/architectural style. I love visiting places like this and learning about the history. As I am not going to be in New York anytime in the near future, this was a great way to visit a famous location. The book was well written and packed full of facts and stories. I really enjoyed this book. 

 I checked this book out from the library one day on a whim. I was not disappointed. I never knew there was an outbreak of the plague that was as severe as what it was in this book. I recall an article from a couple of years ago where there were a couple of plague cases somewhere here in the South US, but nothing on such a scale as this. It was interesting to see how they discovered it and how they went about getting it under control.