Oksana Baiul is the first and only skater representing Ukraine to win at the Winter Olympics. She won gold at the 1994 Winter Olympics, and had a very successful skating career. This book features some of her photographs and her personal thoughts and accounts of her skating career. I found this to be a very enjoyable read, as she was one of my favorite skaters to watch as a child. 

 This book discusses the creation, marketing, and success of one of the world's most popular perfume scents- Chanel No. 5. This also includes a lot of information about Coco Chanel, and would be a great reference book about her life. It was really neat to learn about this iconic scent and how it came to be. I really liked her motivation behind creating the scent, and I also admire her desire to become something more than what she was at the time. I personally am not a fan of this scent, but I still enjoyed learning the history of it.

I have the Audible version of this book, and I believe it was around eight hours to listen to. The paperback version is just over 300 pages if you are interested. I appreciated the way the story was told. It was actually very interesting. The narrator was pleasant to listen to. This isn't something I would normally pick out to read, but I am glad that I got it. I learned a lot from this book. It also got me through a shift at work in peace, which is wonderful. 

 Thomas Andrew Keir is an Australian man who was convicted of killing his first wife, Jean. Jean's body was not recovered completely, but enough of her remains were able to be identified after extensive DNA testing was done. Keir's story about his first wife's vanishing was absolutely not believable in any way, shape, or form. He remarried some time after Jean vanished, to her cousin, Rosalina. Rosalina was also found dead inside the same home that Jean vanished from, strangled and then set on fire. Keir was charged with her murder as well, but was only convicted of Jean's.

The book was written by a police officer who worked on this case, and you can certainly tell that by the way the story is told. I listened to the Audible version last night while I was doing some work on my laptop, and the narrator was decent to listen to. I believe the listening time was something like six hours, but the paperback version of this book is just around 300 pages if you are interested in that. I had never heard of this case, which makes sense because I do not know about many Australian cases in general. I learned a lot about police procedure in a different country than mine, so that was fun. I am glad that he was convicted and managed to serve some time, though he was eventually released and immediately got back up to shenanagins. I felt terrible for the families of both of these women, and for the child who now has to live with a dead mother, a dead step-mother, and a father who killed them both and who was a terrible father and person in general. 

This book discusses Chinese voyages that reached the North American continent years before Columbus did. I was unaware that voyages such as these had taken place, probably due to my lacking American education that only focuses on Christopher Columbus, but it seems very reasonable that many other peoples could have voyaged that distance if Scandinavians also did. This book had a lot of information about the fall of the Chinese empire during this time, and it would have been a good book to read when I was in my Modern China class last term. 

 Bruno Lohse was born in 1911. He worked as an art dealer in Berlin prior to the onset of World War II. Lohse ultimately joined the SS in 1933, and was subsequently drafted into the Luftwaffe. He officially joined the Nazi Party in 1937. His close proximity to Hermann Goring allowed him to be elevated to the position of working inside the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. This was a special unit that appropriated (stole) cultural artifacts and artwork from those "undesirables" on the Nazi's target lists. In this capacity, he helped supply both Goring and Hitler with prized artworks and other collectables. He was imprisoned in the aftermath of World War II and tried for his crimes of looting and dealing in stolen items, but was able to continue on with his art dealings later in life. Lohse died in 2007.

This book was extremely interesting. It is commonly known that the Nazis and regular citizens stole from the apartments and homes of those who were abducted and deported by the Nazis. Those who were taken to concentration camps had their items stolen and sold as well- down to the gold in their teeth. The theft and crimes against humanity that were perpetrated during World War II are exceptional. It is staggering to consider how many precious artworks and artifacts have vanished or have been destroyed because of this. I enjoyed reading the Monuments Men book, and this book was suggested to me because Lohse was investigated by, and later friends with, some of the Monuments Men. If you are interested in this particular subject or in art history, I think you would enjoy this book. 

 

This book discusses the Oklahoma City Bombing, which occurred on April 19, 1995. (I was 7 years old at this time, and all I remember about this happening was a Garth Brooks music video that had images from the news coverage of this event in it?) Timothy McVeigh and two cohorts planned and carried out this act of domestic terrorism. Unfortunately, the targets were simply innocent people going about their regular business. This book discusses several of the victims, but the main focus is on the father of Julie Welch and the father of Timothy McVeigh. These two dads both lost their children in this attack, one as a victim and the other as a perpetrator who was later executed. It was honestly heartwarming to see these two be able to form a relationship with each other. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to do so. Many times, as soon as some type of incident happens, parents are immediately blamed. While I believe parents have a great role in these events, such as not monitoring what their children are doing, not keeping weapons locked away, not reporting behavior to police and doctors, etc., it isn't always the parent's fault. People in the perpetrator's family are often overlooked as well in cases like this. Society is so focused on the actions of the person and finding a resolution and some justice that their families are often dismissed or overlooked. They have lost someone as well, and are struggling to come to terms with what their loved one has done and if they bear any responsibility in those actions. This book serves as a great reminder to look at all sides of an issue and extend compassion in other places as well.

I bought this book with my Audible credits. The narration was pleasant to listen to, and the book was something around 7ish hours to listen to. I started it last night, but I was able to finish it out during work today. I am so grateful to have a job where I can listen to what I want while I work. If you are interested in the physical copy, it is under 300 pages. The book was written in a way that really made you feel like you knew the people in the story, from the victims to the parents. It was very tastefully done, and not a gory sensationalism of the attack, which is the avenue that some writers in this genre go towards. I really thought this was a great book.

 

This book is available on Audible Plus, and was less than 2 hours listening time. The physical copy is a scant 50 pages. If you are interested in learning a little bit about Satanism and the various forms that devils take, this was a pretty informative and interesting book.

 This book takes a humorous look into various insults, language, manners, etc from the Elizabethan era. I am here to confirm that today's insults are terribly lacking when compared with the eloquence of insults back in the day. This book also featured sermons and court records with statements made in the time to illustrate insults, criminal offenses, and language.

I LOVED this book. I thought it was educational and hilarious. It is really neat to see how language changes and evolves over time, as well as how it is utilized. This was a take on history that I really appreciated. I am looking forward to other works by this author. I personally have the Audible version, which was about 8 hours or so to listen to. The physical copy is just over 300 pages, so if you are interested in a quick, funny, historical read...try this one out. 

 This book is the textbook for my Modern Russia class, and I always count these books on my reading challenge, because I read them. It covers the period of Russian history from its inception to the more modern post-communist era. I really enjoyed learning about the history of Russia before Communism. I hate this class, however, and am expressly tired of reading about Stalin. If you are looking for a broad and informative Russian history book, this one wasn't so bad...especially for a textbook. Those can often be boring, but this one was pretty interesting. 

 Slay is the 30th book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. THIRTY BOOKS. I have seen comments that the events of this book could have been included in the previous book, Smolder, but I have no problem with it being two books. I have to admit that I loved this series until about the halfway mark and really started to dislike it. I kept reading because I had committed to it, and I kept hoping that it would improve. I honestly feel like the last four books have gotten better, however my complaints about the series remain mostly the same...

1.This book did not have the endless back and forth about some issue in a romantic relationship, which is then explained over and over to the next fifty people that walk into the room, THANKFULLY. That is so tedious and is one of the things that have turned me off in the latter half of the series. Anita does spend an extraordinary amount of time arguing with people though, and I think she has about a million things going on besides arguing for the sake of arguing.
2.I really liked the fact that this book focused on something other than sex. I don't mind the books having sex scenes in them, but I liked this series for the plot. There is always a crime or someone up to shenanagins that requires fighting and that has been lacking a lot in some of these later books and has been replaced by constant sex. I am glad that this book had some type of villain that required being dealt with, despite the fact that he was a terribly annoying villain.
3. I should rate it four stars simply for what happened to a character I HATE in this book, but I will refrain.
4. I wish we had more of Edward and Anita being partners. It was nice to have him back.
5. If we are going to do this wedding, can we do it already?? I get that the time frame has not been that long in the story's universe, but in my universe it has been like 10 books now and I am kind of ready to move on from all this wedding talk.
6. I absolutely hate Anita's family. I hated them from the word go, but I really hated them in this book.

At any rate, I thought this book was a great improvement and I feel like (for me) this series is on a bit of an upswing, which makes me happy. There were some really weird parts in it that could have not happened, but over all...much better than what I was expecting. I am looking forward to the next one.