Most of us are likely familiar with Matthew Perry from his role as Chandler Bing on the cult classic show, FRIENDS. FRIENDS was THE SHOW when I was in middle school, because I am old, and I remember watching it weekly and going to school and talking about it with my peers. (I must admit that Seinfeld and Frazier were my favorites, but I did enjoy FRIENDS a great deal.) Matthew Perry did a great job bringing Chandler Bing to life, and that character is much beloved by fans all over the world. This memoir does provide a few behind the scenes moments from the years of filming FRIENDS, but that is not the sole focus of this book. If that is what you are wanting to read it for, you may be disappointed. Matthew Perry does a deep dive into his life, discussing his entrance into acting, some of his other work, people he has dated, and his long struggle with addiction. I was not personally aware of his struggle with addiction during the filming of FRIENDS, because I was in middle school, but I did learn about it later on. I hate to see anyone struggle with mental illness and addiction, because it is a damaging and cruel disease. I was also unaware of his near death experience, and I cannot believe I missed seeing that in the news. I'm happy to see that he has made some changes in his life and things are looking up for him.

I very much enjoyed this book, as much as one can enjoy reading about someone else's struggles. I think he did a wonderful job of being open about his struggles, and maybe that will help someone else who picks this book up that is struggling with some of the same things. Sometimes, people think "that could never happen to me" about the negative impacts on your body, but this book shows you that it can catch up to you, no matter who you are. I also appreciated his respectfulness in talking about his relationships. This wasn't a salacious tell-all. I also really enjoyed his humor that came through on every page, regardless of how dark the issue at hand was. If you are a FRIENDS fan, or someone who enjoys celebrity memoirs, this would be a great book for you. If you are someone who reads addiction and mental illness books, this would also be a good book for your library. I really enjoyed reading this, and I cannot believe it took me so long to get to it. 

 This book does a deep dive into the role that white women in the South played in the slave trade. The role of white women as slave owners is significantly downplayed, and I say that as a white person who was (sparsely) educated in the south from Kindergarten through 12th grade. History in general is extremely whitewashed, but especially history regarding the slave trade. White women had a strong role in the lives of slaves, especially the ones in the house. A lot of the time, they were raised in slave owning families, learning how to (mis)treat slaves from an early age. White women were certainly able to own slaves, or inherit them, and were able to make decisions about them without the opinion of their husbands. White women controlled clothing, food, chores, childbirth, and even down to the last drop of breastmilk. A lot of the time, these women dished out punishments that were just as brutal and disgusting as their male counterparts. It is really shameful that women are portrayed as "too kind" or "too obedient" or "too ignorant" to have had a part in this gross behavior, because that is just simply not the truth.

One thing that I have heard a lot is the "not all slave owners were bad" just like "not all Nazis were bad" and that is true. There were some who made sure that their slaves were fed, clothed, had medical attention, that their families stayed together, etc. There were also Nazis who helped hide Jewish people and made sure they were fed and treated as well as possible. Despite those facts, the overall amount of miserable people who perpetrated these acts far outweighs the few good ones...and the fact remains that people were still slave owners, buying human beings and treating them like animals. It's easy for people, especially white ones (extra especially for white Southern ones), to skate over the worst parts of this and only look at the least abhorrent examples. It is something that should not be done.

I actually would have rated this book five stars, which is rare for me to do, but I refrained simply because of the amount of legality that this book contained. That can be tedious to read for a lot of people. This book is currently available to listen to on Audible Plus, and if you have the opportunity to use that feature, do. If you have or want a physical copy of this book, read it! I highly recommend this book for everyone, definitely for white women, but especially for white Southern women. As a white Southern girl myself, this information was NOT taught in school. White women were portrayed as silent wives who would only handle slaves working in the house, but who never had any dealings with buying, selling, punishments, etc. That is not accurate at all based on the research done in this book and others. Even if you know your family did not own slaves, or if they did, it is still very important to know this information to understand the generational struggles of people who had family that were enslaved. We can all be more empathetic and strive to be better people to each other regardless, and education is a great first step in doing so.

As a final side note, if you have not yet read Medical Apartheid, you really should. That book goes into great detail about the role that slaves and African American people in general played on modern medicine thanks to being forced into experimentation, which is something else people are not taught in school. 

 This book is about Mildred Harnack, nee Fish, who was born in Wisconsin in 1902. She and her husband moved to Germany in 1929, where she began her career as an academic. She had a Bachelor's degree in Humanities and a Masters degree in English. She taught literary courses, and was known to be a very interesting and capable lecturer. She witnessed the Nazi rise to power and all of the shenanagins that ensued. She worked closely with some people in the Nazi Party, all the while being the beating heart of a major underground resistance movement. I won't spoil the story, but it was really very dramatic and interesting. I had never heard about this woman, or this particular resistance group until reading this book. I actually only picked this book up because it was a World War II book that I did not yet own, and I am very pleased that I did. It contained a lot of information that I was previously unaware of, or not very well versed in.

I bought this book on Audible quite a while back. I know I say this a lot, but I wish that I would have gotten to it sooner. I have a terrible problem with mass buying books and then taking months (or years) to get to them. It is a habit that I am trying to stop, thus reading my backlog and not buying as much this year. The Audible version was pleasant to listen to, I had no issues with the narrator. If you prefer a physical copy, the writing and research are both well up to par. The book met my expectations for education and entertainment, and I would recommend this if you are interested in World War II, or just women in war in general. 

 This is the personal account of Mel Mermelstein and his experiences during the Holocaust. He is very detailed in his recollection of how friends and neighbors began to change and others began to disappear. His recollection of living conditions and food conditions were also thoroughly noted. You get a real sense of the despair and terror that he and so many others felt while living under oppression and while being interned in concentration camps. I simply cannot imagine having the mental fortitude to endure that, much less the physical capability. It is amazing to me that so many people managed to survive the starvation, experiments, terrible living conditions, and slave labor.

This was a deeply emotional book, so if you aren't into that type of thing, I wouldn't read this one. If you are interested in World War II and the Holocaust, this is not one that I would pass up. This is a book that I have had for a couple of years that I found at my local used book store. I have so many books that I am finally getting around to reading this year that are absolute gems, and this is one of them. Personal accounts of travesties like this are so important to this historical record. I hope that the author of this book was able to find some peace after getting this all out on paper. 

 On March 25, 1942, around one thousand Jewish women were herded onto a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Most of these women were teenagers, all unmarried. They all thought they were selected for government service employment, and thus left willingly. They wore their best clothes, packed their items into suitcases, and said goodbye to their families. Unfortunately, all of that was a cruel deceit...the women were transported to Auschwitz. Not very many of them would survive their internment in that notorious concentration camp. The author of this book did an amazing level of research for this book, and the in depth interviews that were conducted with the survivors were so supplemental and valuable to this book.

I got this book with my Audible credits quite a while back, and I was finally able to get around to it. I have made a list of books to read for each month, and this happened to be a selection. I am pleased to be working my way through some of these books I have had on backlog. This book was really good, and I hate that it took me such a long time to get to it. I thought that the author did a tremendous amount of research, and presented all of the facts in an informative and readable manner. I especially appreciated the interviews and quotations from survivors. It is so important to have the words and experiences of people who lived through historical events, so that people who did not experience it can get an accurate image of what things were like. I really enjoyed this book, despite the tragic and cruel subject matter. If you are interested in the Holocaust or World War II in general, I would strongly suggest getting this book. 

 Georgina Gordon was born at Gordon Castle, Scotland, in 1781. She married John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford in 1803. She was originally meant to marry Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, but he died before that could come to pass. Georgina and her husband had three daughters and seven sons. During the course of her marriage, she became involved with the artist Edwin Landseer, who had painted a portrait of her on commission. She wound up outliving her husband, dying in France in 1853.

I actually picked this book up because I thought it was about Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, but that was my mistake for not reading the title all the way. I think I got this book for a dollar at my favorite local used bookstore, so it was a great by either way. I learned a lot about this very interesting woman and her life, and if you are into nobility and such...check this book out. 

 The Cocoliztli Epidemic hit the Indigenous people in the Mexican highlands, specifically the Aztecs, in 1576. There were conflicting views about what the illness could have been, though recent research indicates the presence of salmonella. Small pox was also passed around, thanks to European colonists. There are recorded mentions of fever and bleeding as well, so it could have been something new and never seen again, or simply a combination of a lot of things that were uncommon to Native populations. I was really looking forward to learning more about that in this book.

This book speaks heavily on the consequences of this massive amount of deaths on the colonizers. The labor force was decimated, affecting both colonizers and Natives. Colonizers raced in to snatch up the land, and force assimilation on the Natives. The spread of Christianity is also mentioned in this book, because the colonizers wanted to spread religion. The decimation of the Native population put a damper on the spread of religion and the forces assimilation they were trying to accomplish. Christianity as a whole is a genocidal religion at the cultural level. It is really interesting to consider what the religious landscape would look like in colonized areas, if people minded their own business and stopped trying to force people to believe what THEY think is right.

This book is currently free to download and listen to with your Audible Plus membership. The book isn't a terribly long listen, less than eight hours, so if you are looking for something that isn't terribly long, this may be a good one to select. I downloaded this book specifically to learn more about the Cocoliztli Epidemic of 1576, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn a lot more than just that. This was an informative and thought provoking book, and I am planning to look and see if there are more books by this author. 

 Louisa Catherine Adams was born in London in 1775, though she did a lot of growing up in France. In 1797, she married John Quincy Adams. (She would go on to become First Lady of the United States of America from 1825 to 1829.) This book chronicles her trip from St. Petersburg to Paris with her son. At the time, Napoleon had returned to France from Elba, throwing the region into chaos. She was able to see and speak with people who were experiencing life under these circumstances during this time period.

Personal accounts and experiences are so vital to the historical record. I often say I miss the days of Journal keeping, but I suppose in this modern era that would be in the form of social media posts and videos. I especially liked this book since I coincidentally picked it to read while I was visiting somewhere this weekend that had items that belonged to Napoleon. (His dressing set and camp plate were included in that, as well as a cane.) It was interesting to put an outsider's personal account to someone's physical objects that I was seeing. This was a really good book for that reason, and it was also great to learn a little bit about Mrs. Adams. I think we learn more about the male Presidents than we do their wives, and I am glad to be expanding my education on those figures of history. 

 From April 29 to May 24, 1943, German U-Boats took heavy losses during the Battle of the Atlantic. Prior to this, Allies had been losing ships at a much heavier rate than their opponents. At the this period, there were about 240 U-Boats that were operational, and 118 of those were at sea. One of the most notable death's during this period was the son of Admiral Donitz, which I had no clue about before reading this.

I have had this book for a long time, and I wish that I would have gotten around to reading it sooner. This was a very informative book. I am much less knowledgeable about sea battles during World War II than I would like to admit, so this book was thoroughly beneficial to me. The research was done very well, and the writing was very interesting. I burned through this book, because it was dramatic. I am just a bit late getting to my reviews because I was gone all weekend. If you are looking to learn more about U-Boats or sea battles, I would strongly suggest picking this book up. 

 George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, was born at St. James's Palace in 1762 to King George III and Charlotte. During adulthood, he threw himself into shenanagins with reckless abandon. He was very fond of alcoholic drinks, but he was most fond of mistresses. Most notable of those was Maria Fitzherbert, the future grandmother of another famous mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles. He spent amazing sums of money on clothes and furnishings for his home. He eventually became the Prince Regent when the mental health of George III took another decline, serving in that capacity from 1811 to 1820. Upon his father's death, he assumed the role of King, becoming George IV, with his Queen being Caroline.

I did not know that the Regency Period had anything to do with George IV, but apparently it did. I appreciated learning about that. This book went into great detail about his interreference in politics, specifically regarding the issue of Catholicism. It also went into detail about military appointments and strategies, which I found very interesting. As a side note, he got on well with the Duke of Wellington, and I just so happened to see his personal signet ring and some papers in his handwriting at a museum this past weekend. (Which is one reason I am late on updating my Goodreads.) This book was very well done, and contained a lot of information about George IV to only be one singular volume. I really learned a lot from this book and enjoyed it.