Mark Twitchell was born in Canada in 1979. He had aspirations of becoming a big name filmmaker, and attended the Radio and Television Arts Program at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. He ultimately graduated from there in 2000. Twitchell was using the popular dating site, Plenty Of Fish, where he found John Brian Altinger. He posed as a woman to lure Altinger to a garage he had set up as a kill room. I won't get into the murder here, how he was found out, or what happened at trial, but it was a wild ride.

This book is included on The Last Podcast On The Left's reading list, which corresponds with an episode about Twitchell. I had heard all of the information about this guy from the episode, but I do like to read the books on the reading list to get more details. I thought it was ridiculous that Twitchell said he was influenced by the old television show Dexter, but I suppose anything is possible. What is a stone cold fact is...this guy is a scumbag. If you are into true crime and learning about scumbags, put this one on your TBR. 

 This book covers a great span of history, from the 1200s to the 2020s. It particularly discusses the geography of Ukraine, and how borders have been an issue for them in establishing independence and a national identity for centuries. There were a couple of parts in here that really stood out to me, specifically the famine implemented by the Stalin regime and the activities of the people during World War II.

I didn't realize this book would have current events in it, such as the Russian invasion in 2022. I got this for a dollar at my favorite used bookstore, and I was expecting the information to cut off in the 2010s. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it included more recent events. All that I knew about Ukraine prior to reading this book was what I learned in college about their involvement in World War II. I learned a considerable amount of information about the history of the people of Ukraine, and I am glad about it. If you are looking to learn the same thing, this is a tremendous book. 

 This book covers the shooting of Larry Flynt, an American magazine publisher. He mostly published pornographic magazines, including Hustler. Flynt and his lawyer were ambushed on the street, with Flynt becoming paralyzed and his lawyer getting severely injured. The culprit was Joseph Paul Franklin, a neo-Nazi who was disgusted by an inter-racial photo shoot in Hustler magazine. Franklin had killed many other people, Black and Jewish, due to his disgusting racist beliefs. While this book does discuss this case, it also discusses life in areas where these hate groups flourish. There are a lot of common factors in how people find themselves indoctrinated into this gross mentality. Unfortunately for us living in the South, we know many people like this. A lot of them are leaders in our communities, which makes it even worse. I can understand more and more why there is such a negative impression of the Southern states and the United States in general, which is a huge digression from the nationalistic way that I was raised.

I learned that Larry Flint went around in a gold plated wheelchair, which I found to be extremely ridiculous. I guess if you have the money, you may as well spend it how you want. Neo-Nazism and other forms of White Supremacy are things that have been a constant in the United States for some time. Recently, these issues have really come back into the forefront of consciousness, especially since 2016. People are allowed to get away with hateful actions and ideologies with little to no consequences, and are applauded for it by a large group of people. This is a very scary time to be living in the United States, and this book from the past is just a look into what our present is like. If you are interested in White Supremacy, this might be a good book for you to read. It is currently available on Audible Plus if you have that. 

 On May 14, 1973, three men escaped from the Maryland State Prison. Carl Isaacs, Wayne Coleman, and George Dungee picked up Billy Isaacs, the 15 year old brother of Carl, and took off to Florida. The group were travelling to Florida, when they came upon the Alday farm, located in Donalsonville, Georgia. The escapees were looking for gas and valuables to aid them in their escape. The farm was owned by Jerry Alday, who happened to come home to find his home being ransacked. The escapees ordered Jerry and his father, Ned, who was with him into the home. Both were murdered. Jerry's other family members showed up at the property and were also murdered. His wife Mary, his brother Jimmy, his brother Chester, and his Uncle Aubrey were also victims. There are a lot of other details in this book about the crime, as well as the capture and court case.

This book is currently available to listen to on Audible Plus if you are interested in that. I thought this book was well researched and went over the escape of these inmates and their murders while on the run. The book does have some pretty grim details in it, so if rape/murder is a trigger for you...skip this one. Otherwise, if you are into true crime, this was a pretty decent read. 

 William Booth was an English Methodist preacher. Booth joined the Methodist Reform Church in 1851, becoming a preacher. During this time, he became engaged to Catherine. The two were married in London in 1853. He requested several times to be freed from pastoral duties so he could go off and be an evangelist, but those requests kept getting denied. He eventually separated himself from that to become an independent evangelist, though he preached basically the same things that the Methodist Reform Church did. He founded a Christian Mission to help spread his message of religion.

The Christian Mission that he founded became The Salvation Army in 1878. The Salvation Army was modeled after the military, having it's own flag and theme song. The premise was that members were "God's Army" and they were "putting on the armor of God" to do ministry work. The Salvation Army has expanded to many countries, and is a staple here in the United States. This group sought to provide homes, training, food, etc. for people in need. Of course, they wanted to preach at people and talk about how to stop vices, such as drinking and gambling. Opposition to the anti-alcohol position causes some really dramatic violence and ill words between the members and others. Booth was also called General Booth in this organization, which I found to be completely ridiculous.

I cannot deny that The Salvation Army has helped a lot of people. I know that the one in my city has a homeless shelter and food bank, which has helped a lot of people. The mission statement on their website says the mission is to preach the gospel and meet human needs in the name of God without discrimination. While not discriminating is great, it would be nice to be able to simply help other people by providing resources and education and not trying to indoctrinate them into any religious group. The history of The Salvation Army was something that I have never thought about. This book was a dollar at my local used bookstore, which is the sole reason that I picked it up. It was interesting to learn how this organization got started and see how much it has grown since then. The book wasn't boring to read, but it wasn't my favorite thing I have read so far this year. If you are interested in Christian missions or just how this organization began, this would be a great book for you to pick up. 

 Mike Rinder was introduced to Scientology when he was just five years old. That seems shocking to write, but I know that I was dragged to churches as a child, so it shouldn't be shocking that this experience happens to other people. After he graduated high school, he joined the Sea Organization, signing a billion year contract with the Church. Eventually, he rose up the ranks to become an international spokesman for the Church of Scientology, as well as the head of the Office of Special Affairs. He was instrumental in helping the Church achieve tax exempt status, which is deplorable. No religious organization should be exempt from taxes, especially when they are forcing their hand in politics. It was nice to see his current views on that specific topic. I like to see when a person returns to sanity.

I have watched all of the episodes of Mike Rinder and Leah Remini's show on Hulu. I have also read her book, and I was excited to see that he had one as well. I have the Audible version, but the physical copy is around 300 pages, which isn't terribly long. I liked being able to read in detail about his experiences in the Scientology cult, without other people talking during. If you have not seen the show/read Leah's book, you should. I also strongly recommend this book for those who are interested in deconstructing from religion, or who are simply interested in the experiences of former cult members. The experiences he had as someone who was higher up in the organization and who was not one of the celebrity members were very valuable to the discourse about how detrimental this cult has been to people. I really liked this book. 

 

Indigenous history was not covered extensively (or truthfully) in elementary and high school. Once I started my history major, I elected to take a Native American history course. Once I took that, I realized that there was so much I was misinformed about or that I simply did not know. Indigenous people have a history spanning centuries, rich with people who did so much for their people. It is also full of genocide and atrocities committed against them my Europeans. It is especially important to learn about Indigenous people and the issues they are currently facing, because legislation is still being passed and repealed to the detriment of the Indigenous community.

I expected this book to be longer than 300 pages, but it contained a great deal of information. It touched on current events, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, the fight to get rid of Columbus Day, and the issues of the Child Welfare Act. I thought this book was very valuable to modern discourse about the issues that Indigenous people are facing in this country today. Indigenous, LGBTQ, minorities, and women in general are being targeted left and right in this country. It is vital to know the history that allows these things to take place. I highly recommend this book, and it happens to be included on the Audible Plus catalog currently.

 

 I have to admit up front that this is not something that I would normally pick up and read. This book has been so hyped up all across social media, and my friend has been begging me to read it. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into it, which was probably more of a me problem than a problem with the book. I have to be really in the mood for a fiction book, and I got this one on a library loan and was trying to finish it. I think I would have enjoyed it much more if I was in the mood to read a fiction. That being said...

This book did a retelling of The Iliad, which I haven't read since I was in high school. I like mythology and I can get behind a retelling if they are interesting and well written. This one was both of those things. This book featured a lot of characters that are familiar from mythology, and I really enjoyed reading a more detailed personification of them. This book was extremely romantic in a way that I had not expected, and featured plenty of heart wrenching quotations that I immediately wrote down. I am glad that I finished reading this, because it was worth it in the end. 

 When people think about the Rockefeller family, the name that pops into mind first is John D. Rockefeller. He, along with William Rockefeller, founded the Standard Oil Company, amassing a great deal of wealth and power. If anyone has ever studied the railroad tycoons and oil tycoons, the ruthless business practices of John D. Rockefeller are probably well known to you. The amount of wealth this family has accumulated has been closed to researchers, but it is held in trust for the family. Several members of the family were involved in real estate and construction projects, including the World Trade Center, Museum of Modern Art, and the Rockefeller Center. They made numerous contributions to ivy league colleges. They have 81 of their residences on the National Register of Historic Places, and they are beautiful. Several members of the family were involved in art patronage, purchasing and donating many pieces to various museums. This book is packed with information about the art works.

I really enjoyed this book. I am very interested in family dynasties to begin with, but I also love museums and art. I loved learning about the philanthropy of the Rockefeller family, and all of the patronage they had in several well known art museums. They had a massive impact on the art world, and I wasn't aware of all of the things they had their hands in. I learned a great deal about several of the family members, but all that I learned about the art was hands down the best part of the book. This was superbly well written and kept my attention. I burned through this book. If you are curious about the Rockefeller family, I strongly suggest picking this one up. 

 

Thalidomide was used in forty six countries throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It was first marketed as a tranquilizer, then as a medication for anxiety, insomnia, and morning sickness. This medication was not properly tested, and negative results were swept under the rug. Somewhere around 10,000 babies were born with birth defects that were directly related to the consumption of this drug during pregnancy. Babies who did not die were left with a host of defects, including the limb defects that most of us are aware of. The limb defects left the babies with flipper-type appendages. There are many support groups for Thalidomide survivors, and there are some pretty famous Thalidomide survivors. One of them that I am most familiar with is Mat Fraser, who played the character Paul on American Horror Story: Freak Show.

I was shocked to learn that this drug had ties to Nazi pharmacology, mostly because it never occurred to me that there was a connection. Obviously, with this drug being introduced in the early 1950s by a German company with former Nazis employed there.... I am embarrassed that I missed the connection, really. As someone who specialized in World War II history and did some extensive studying about IG Farben, Bayer, medical experiments, and what happened to former Nazis, this should not have slipped under my radar. If you are interested in that particular subsection of history, this book is important. I had never heard of Frances Oldham Kelsey, but, thanks to her, the impact of Thalidomide on babies in the United States was greatly diminished. She was suspicious of this drug and did everything under the sun to block the FDA approval, keeping it off the market. The people who used the trial drugs were affected, but mass prescriptions were not given out like they were in other countries.

I had watched a documentary about this before, and I was very excited when I saw this book was coming out. I bought the Audible version, and I burned through this book. I think it was about ten hours to listen to, but the narrator had a decently pleasant voice. The book itself contained a ton of information about how drugs were approved for use in the United States at the time, and the individuals who were instrumental in this particular drug scandal. The author of this book absolutely put work in on the research, and you can tell. It is well put together. If you are interested in man made disasters or drug companies, this book would be a great one to pick up. I really enjoyed it, despite the morbid content.