David Hackworth was born in Ocean Park, California in 1930. Hackworth lied about his age, joining the Merchant Marine at age 14. He wound up serving in the South Pacific during World War II on a Merchant Marine ship. He wound up officially enlisting in the United States Army in 1946. He served in Korea and Vietnam, eventually obtaining the rank of Colonel. This is the personal memoir of his military career. It was a pretty interesting book if you are into military history or these specific wars. I bought this at my used bookstore locally, and was pleased with the purchase. 

 I cannot believe we are up to 27 books in this series now. I also cannot believe I have hung in there as long as I have. If anyone has read any of my other reviews on this series, you are aware of how much I have come to despise Lucy, who used to be one of my favorite characters. Update: still despise her. Her mother, Dorothy, also makes an appearance in this book. Update: still despise her. There are a few other characters from previous books who I hated that have also made appearances in this book. Update: absolutely still hate them. Why is it that authors never want to kill off these characters that should be killed off?

I have always appreciated the research that the author puts into her books. You can tell that the timeline of her books advances with the actual timeline of our lifetime. There are mentions in this book of COVID, and the issues with that. There are mentions of the Capitol shenanigans on January 6th. She uses updated forensic ideas and techniques, which I enjoyed. There were a few technological concepts that I found a bit silly. Overall, this book has been better than some of the other more recent ones, and I am hoping the series continues to move back to where it was when I was really enjoying it. 

 This was required reading for my Ancient Greece and Rome class. I was not looking forward to reading it in the first place, and I hated every second of reading this. 

 Oliver Cromwell was born in England in 1599. He was college educated, and elected to be a Member of Parliament in 1628. He also served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1653 to 1658. He was a controversial figure, and even advocated for the execution of King Charles I.  

Antonia Fraser is one of my favorite female historians. I have read almost all of her books. After this one, I think I have two unread ones left by her. She always exceeds my expectations with her research and attention to detail. I learned a lot about Cromwell, and I wish I would have gotten around to reading this before vising the museum in Anniston, Alabama that had a couple of his items on display. This was a good book, and one that I will be using for reference in my next European History class. 

 Josephine Bonaparte was the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Josephine was born in 1763, and was married in 1779 to Alexandre, the Viscount of Beauharnais. Alexandre died in 1794, executed via guillotine, leaving Josephine a widow. She became the mistress of several people, including Napoleon. Napoleon ended up marrying Josephine in 1796, and they were married until 1810. This book discusses the behind-the-scenes liaisons and shenanigans that Josephine got into, as well as her relationship with Napoleon. The was a pretty interesting book, and I am glad to get it off my unread shelf. 

The Silk Road refers to a network of trade routes that connected Africa, Asia, and Europe. These routes were essential for moving goods, people, and ideas across the continent. This book offers a lot of information about the type of items moved across these routes, as well as how vital the routes were in the migration of people and the spread of information and ideas. This book was suggested reading for one of my classes, and I was pleased with what I learned from it. 

 Dennis Craig Jurgens was born on December 06, 1961 in Minnesota. His biological mother, Jerry Sherwood, placed him for adoption. He was adopted by Harold and Lois Jurgens, a Minnesota couple. The couple had previously adopted one other child, Robert, and adopted four other children after Dennis. Lois was an abusive parent, which was observed by her own family members. Dennis died on April 11, 1965, and the investigation into his death went a whole bunch of nowhere. I strongly believe that had a lot to do with the fact that her brother was a police officer. Years later, the biological mother wanted to find out information about her son, as he would be of legal age. She found out about his death and was determined to see justice done for what she knew was murder. This book details the abuse that was dished out by Lois, the failure of the justice system and the adoption services, and the inquiry into the death of Dennis. This book contained a lot of details that are a bit graphic, so if child abuse isn't something you care to read about, skip this book. 

 This book discusses the murders of two Catholic priests who had been on a mission to convert Native Inuit people to Christianity. I have a very negative opinion of religious conversion and missionaries in general, so I assumed this book would enrage me. It did. For several reasons. It is unfortunate that people cannot live in peace without having others come in and ruin everything. It is unfortunate that these people had to then deal with all the nonsense that came along with White people and their laws over the actions of a few people. All of this could have been avoided if people minded their own business, but...alas.

The physical copy of this book is 320 pages. The Audible version that I listened to is currently available on Audible Plus to listen to for free with your membership and lasted around 8 hours. I listened to it in almost my entire shift, finishing it last night when I got home. The narration was decent, and easy to follow along with. The book itself was informative, as I have never heard of this case before picking this book (because it was free to listen to). If you are interested in older true-crime stories or those involving Native peoples, this might be a good book for you to check out. 

 This book discusses some gross and morbid science facts. If you are into gross, morbid science facts, this is a fun book. It includes things about animals, nature, and the human body. There is a healthy mixture of just plain weirdness and things that are good to know.

This book was suggested to me by someone, and if I could remember who, I would thank them. I have the Audible version, which lasted me my whole shift at work, so around seven hours. The physical copy is 330ish pages if you prefer that medium. I enjoyed the writing style of this book. It was informative, engaging, and humorous. There were a lot of neat facts that I learned from the book, which I shared with my coworker against her will. 

 

This book was moving and also highly entertaining. The author's mother was a quick-witted woman with a lot of tenacity. She managed to outsmart the Nazis and their cohorts to survive the war. People living during this time period endured a lot, especially if they were a targeted population. This book offers many examples of that. I also found it interesting to see how the author was treated after the war when he entered a normal school setting. This book is available on Audible Plus, which is the version I listened to. It took about five hours and I finished it at work. The paperback version is less than 200 pages if you are interested in a short read.