The Transcontinental Railroad was a project that begin in 1863 to build a railway that connected the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. The goal of this massive project was to provide a way to continue (and increase) trade, commerce, and travel. In addition to that, many new towns sprang up near these train depots and refueling stations. A great deal of what is considered America's Heartland was previously undeveloped, aside from Indigenous populations, and this access and cheap travel fare provided a boom in Westward Expansion. The project was complete by 1869.

The main focus of this book was on the men who worked on this massive project. The Central Pacific Railroad began a recruitment campaign to bring in Cantonese workers from China. Somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 Chinese workers were on this project. Xenophobia was absolutely a thing, and these workers often faced all types of racism, violence, and exclusion from the whole of society. While the railroad company considered the Chinese to be a great resource for cheap labor, the government put immigration restrictions in place to prevent too many Chinese from immigrating. In addition to that, the companies used their ridiculous racism to pay miniscule wages to Chinese workers, in comparison to any White workers they had. (Which I find exceptionally distasteful in many ways for many reasons.) The workers worked six days a week, pretty much around the clock in shifts, in brutal weather conditions. Most of the work was manual labor, so strenuous indeed. White workers were also housed in sleeper train cars, while Chinese workers were regulated to tents. Really, the entire thing was nonsense. Somewhere around 1,200 Chinese men died while working on this project. In contrast, the Union Pacific Railroad hired veterans who had experience with railroads during the Civil War, as well as Irish immigrants. Irish immigrants were also treated differently than their White counterparts, however they were treated considerably better than the Chinese workers on the other end of the line. Irish workers were less tolerant of discrimination and poor management from the railroad companies, causing many to quit the job.

I think that it is an absolute shame that the history of Chinese immigrants is not taught in school. Perhaps it is in some places or in other schools, but it certainly was not here. I have to admit I did not receive the best education in grades K-12, and a lot of what I eventually learned/learned the facts about happened in college. I never even learned about this in college, and I never did understand why sometimes racism was mentioned in regards to Chinese people. People have adopted children from China for a long time, and I thought it was really stupid to desire these Chinese babies because they were cute and apparently very intelligent, but then turn around and be racist and ugly to that entire group of people. I was aware of the Japanese internment camps during World War II, but not about the heavy discrimination that Chinese faced.

This book was a pretty lengthy read. I cannot say that I was very interested in learning about the Transcontinental Railroad when I bought this book, but it was very cheap at the used book store and I really like this author. His work is always very detailed and well researched, and the information is told in a way that keeps my attention and my desire to finish it in place. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn about the history of the Chinese in the United States, because it has a lot of valuable information in it. Infuriating, but valuable. I really learned so much from this book. 

 Prince Philip was born in 1921 to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. He was titled Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. The royal family was exiled when Prince Philip was eighteen months old. After the family fled Greece, they resided in Paris, where Prince Philip was educated. Despite the anti-German sentiment resulting from World War I, three of his sisters married German princes. During World War II, Prince Philip served in the Royal Navy. Obviously, he went on to marry the future Queen Elizabeth II and have children with her. He went on to serve as the Duke of Edinburg for over fifty years.

This book did a wonderful job of taking a look at the early life of Prince Philip, including his personal family tragedies and his exile from Greece. I bought this book because I started watching The Crown on Netflix, and realized I didn't know much about Prince Philip beyond him being the spouse of Queen Elizabeth II. I learned a great deal about him from this book, and also bought one about his mother that I have not gotten to yet. I also liked that it only covered a small section of his life, because it would have been a lot of information to cover with all of his activities and charity functions later in life. I enjoyed this book. 

 This book outlines many of the stand-out people in the Rothschild family. The family begins their rise to extreme prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a court factor for the royals. (Despite being a European History major, I had never heard of the term court factor before reading this book, so I was glad to have learned at least one new thing. For those who are reading this and do not know what that is, it is a Jewish person who controlled the finances.) He established his own bank, and left his wealth to his sons. The family continued to expand into different business ventures, make a lot of connections, and manage to become one of the most wealthy and powerful families in history. This book has a ton of information in it. It was well researched, and I learned a lot about this family. Highly recommend if you are interested in family dynasties and their philanthropy and reach throughout the decades. 

 This book discusses the murders of Vincent and Margaret Sherry. Vincent Sherry was employed as a circuit court judge and as a criminal defense attorney. He was also a conservative Democrat. His wife was a Republican, which is a very strange combination of people to be married and live together when their political views are so opposite, but that is not my business. Vincent had defended members associated with the Dixie Mafia several times in his capacity as a criminal defense attorney, including the "Godfather" of the Dixie Mafia. Interestingly, police believed that this was a professional hit, and thought someone from the Dixie Mafia was involved.

Dixie Mafia is one of the dumbest names for a group of people that I have ever read in my life. Of all the words in the English Language, that is the combination we are going with. (Stuff like this really does not help the perception of Southern people in general. I used to get really offended when people talked about the ignorance of Southern people, but they were very clearly onto something. As an adult who was educated in the South, it is very lacking. I am glad that I attended college elsewhere that had a higher standard of education.) I have digressed. The Dixie Mafia (insert eye roll) is a organized crime group located primarily in Biloxi, Mississippi. This group was apparently formed in the 1960's, and is still active today in some capacities. The group is made up of, you guessed it, White Southern men. They are into a lot of illegal activities, such as murder, arson, gambling, prostitution, and extortion.

It took quite a while to unravel all of the connections between Vincent and Margaret Sherry and the Dixie Mafia and get to the reason behind the murders. I happened to find this book at the library the other day and picked it up, even though it is not on my selected books for the month of June. I have been busy trying to get all of these books completed, so I suppose it is lucky that I suffer from insomnia. At any rate, this book was written like a mystery thriller, but with actual facts about an actual case. I thought it was pretty captivating, and I am glad that I picked it up. This is an older case, but I had never heard of it prior to finding this book. 

 

This book covers the Smuttynose Ax Murders of 1873. Smuttynose Island is an island of almost 30 acres that is part of a grouping of islands, called the Isles of Shoals. These islands are located in New Hampshire and Maine. On the night of March 06, 1873, Maren Hontvet, her sister, Karen, and her sister in law, Anethe were asleep in the house owned by Maren and her husband. An intruder entered the house and murdered two of the women, leaving one to escape. Help was dispatched to the house, and an investigation took place. A suspect was immediately named and apprehended. The evidence of this case was interesting and so were the conspiracy theories of some of the other residents.

This book is currently available to listen to on Audible Plus with your membership. It was a little less than a 14 hour listen for me, but I do have my listening speed up to 1.3-1.5, depending on the narrator. I picked this book out because I really like the older true crime cases, specifically Victorian Era crimes. If you are interested in state history, this could work for both New Hampshire and Maine. I learned that the murder weapon is on display at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, so if you are interested and near that area, you can check it out and learn about the case. As far as this book goes, the writing style was amazing. I really enjoyed the way that this author was able to tell this story in a way that was factual but that also kept my attention. I usually lose interest in super long audiobooks, but I did not lose interest in this one. The author absolutely did his research on this book. I have learned since that he has other books, and I am interested in checking those out as well.

 

 I am so glad that this author came up randomly on my Facebook feed. I bought three of these poem collections on Kindle. I have thoroughly enjoyed going through all of these poems. I have a lot of favorites, and I am looking forward to reading more work by this author. A lot of the poems are sad and apply to a situation in my life that I cannot seem to move past, so those particular poems meant a lot to me. 

 This book covers a spate of arsons that took place in Accomack County, Virginia. The fire departments were volunteer, meaning these people had regular jobs outside of the fire department. I grew up in a family who served in a volunteer fire department, so I understand the exhaustion and appreciate the service of these people. These fires continued for months, with several calls per night. While reading this book, I was shocked there was a building left to burn by the time the culprits were discovered. I do not want to ruin the book for those who are wishing to read it by discussing the culprits and why they went on a spree of arson, but I will say that people do some really odd things. This was a very interesting case.

I saw this book at my local used bookstore, but they wanted more for it than I was willing to pay. I just found this completely by accident while I was waiting for my kids to check out their books at the library the other day. This book was not on my selected reading for this reading challenge, but since I am ahead of myself, I decided to go ahead and get it anyway. I thought it would be a really interesting read, because I like true crime, but also because it is near to the area where I am planning to relocate. I appreciate local history, so this was a good book for that. I liked that this book included the history of the area, as well as information on the fires and legal proceedings. This was one of the better books I have read in the past couple of weeks. 

 This book covers the case of Paula Herring, a babysitter who was murdered in Nashville in 1964. Her injuries consisted of gunshot wounds to the back and chest area, strangulation, and beating. Due to various statements, a suspect was named in this crime: John Randolph Clarke, the son of a Republican judge. The evidence against Clarke really was suspiciously obtained and not really cut and dry. There were a lot of weird circumstances surrounding the trial as well. All of this led many residents to believe that there was some type of bizarre government conspiracy going on. (Nashville isn't a small town, but compared to some major cities in the United States, it isn't the largest. Despite being the capitol city, small town mentality and conspiracy is still a thing. I typically get annoyed with everything being a conspiracy theory, but sometimes they aren't based in theory...they are fact. This is one of those cases.) The author of this book does a very good deep dive into this weird case and shady evidence. It was a very interesting read.

I was interested in this book for a couple of reasons. I typically am interested in true crime books, which is a bit stereotypical of me, but it is what it is. I also live in the Chattanooga area, which is just a couple of hours from Nashville. Nashville is a nice place to visit, if you stay away from the weirdo country wannabes barhopping and standing in the middle of the street as though they have no sense. I was a bit put off by this book because it was written by a private citizen who was suspicious of this case, but sometimes that is the best way to get valuable information. I thought this book was pretty well written and the author clearly has done a good deal of investigating. I believe wholeheartedly that the author worked hard to bring the truth to light, and I have to admit that I am not shocked at all that this type of thing went on. I am not displeased with this selection at all. This book is currently available on Audible Plus if have the membership. It was something like a six hour listen, so if you are in the market for a shorter true crime book to listen to...here you go. The physical copy is just over 300 pages, so also not a terribly long read in physical form either. 

 John Cavaness was a doctor in the Little Egypt area of Illinois. He had a fairly busy practice, but still found time to make house calls and was willing to work with people who could not afford expensive medical services. He was pretty well respected and loved in the community for his medical ability and his kindness toward his patients. Unfortunately, he did not have such a stellar reputation for his close friends, family and coworkers. His first wife left him, and his second wife also left him eventually, citing domestic violence. During the course of their marriage, he began abusing alcohol and drugs. He even found himself in legal trouble after crashing into a car that resulted in a death. One of his four sons was found dead in his yard in 1977, and police had some varying theories about how he died. Dr. Cavaness was suspected due to the fact that he made it known that he was displeased with his eldest son and had recently taken out a life insurance police on him. Tragically, another son was also found dead, and police began to heavily suspect their father was responsible. The investigation and subsequent legal proceedings were very interesting to read about.

This book is pretty old, but it holds up. The research into the crimes of Dr. Cavaness was very meticulous and well done. The story was told in an informative and respectful way to the victims. I would like to say that crimes like this are shocking, but, unfortunately, things like this occur with disgusting regularity. Stories like this really make you think about the professionals that you know and what they could be doing or going through behind the scenes. Domestic violence is horrific and so many people go through it behind closed doors. If you are interesting in reading this book, it is currently available to listen to on Audible Plus. 

 I came across this author randomly when their poems began showing up on my Facebook feed out of nowhere. I was immediately drawn to the sad nature of the poems I was seeing, because I have lost someone that was extremely important and loved by me. This Memorial Day was fairly difficult, which is when these poems started showing up. I immediately bought all three books on Kindle, and this is the second book of the three that I have read. I am very much looking forward to starting the last one, and I hope that this author puts out more.

I enjoyed this collection of poems even more than the first one that I read, which was A Foetal Heart. This collection had so many really good poems that struck a chord with me. I especially liked What We Did Not Have, Such Dark Silence, and Blunt. I am really looking forward to the third collection, which I will be reading tonight. If you like short collections of poems, I would strongly suggest trying out one or all of these books.