Before I read this book, I thought the Nile River was simply the Nile River. I didn't realize it had to main tributaries- the Blue Nile and the White Nile. The river forms at the Lake No confluence, and refers to a massive stretch of river that flows from Lake Victoria until it turns into the Blue Nile. It was all really confusing to me, and I had to look up a map. At any rate, this book covers the exploration of the White Nile. There are tributaries and rapids that were previously unknown and untraveled by Europeans. Of course, the Nile was traveled by Romans and others, but not to the extent that it was in the 1800s. Missionaries traveling in the area reported some amazing sights, including Mount Kilimanjaro. That really sparked the interest of explorers and scholars, so expeditions were soon underway. Several famous names are mentioned, such as Sir Richard Burton, Henry Morton Stanley, Emin Pasha, and others. I recall listening to podcasts and reading other things about these men, but it did not register with me that their travels of the Nile were the WHITE NILE. I don't know why I didn't make the connection. I thought it was a really neat book, packed with a lot of information. 

 The Cascade Mountain Range is one of the major mountain ranges running through North America. Inside this mountain range are some pretty famous points of interest, including Mount Saint Helens volcano, Three Sisters, and Mount Rainier. (Being from Tennessee and never having traveled that far west, I thought this was revolutionary information.) Travel across this mountain range has been notoriously difficult during winter, especially in the days before paved roads, snowplows, and salt. In 1910, the region was hit with a massive blizzard, causing passenger trains and supply/mail trains to become trapped in many feet of snow. The relentless amount of snow made shoveling out virtually impossible. Once they were finally able to make some headway with that, an avalanche took them out. The onslaught killed nearly everyone, crushing them beneath ten acres of snow. Rescue operations in the aftermath were grim.

I actually picked this book up at the used book store and then wound up buying it on Audible too. I gave the book to my sister and kept the Audible version, which I just finished up late last night. I had never heard of this particular incident, and I am not very familiar with the Northwest region of the United States, so I learned a great deal from this book. In addition to what I learned about the disaster and the mountain range, I learned a good deal about rail companies and rail transportation in the early 1900s. I thought it was well researched, and very interesting and informative. I generally love a good disaster book, probably because I am a morbid person, so this was right up my alley. I was not disappointed at all. 

 This book is about Whitey Bulger, a big fish in the ocean of organized crime. He was at the top of the New England crime syndicate, while also informing the FBI on his cohorts. He was able to avoid trial for sixteen years, until he was finally captured while on the run in California. This book is an in depth view of the trial for murder and racketeering of Bulger. I found it to be well written. I am looking forward to reading more from this author. If anyone is in Tennessee, the Alcatraz East crime museum has a few items that belonged to Bulger on display. 

 Joseph Roth was born in 1894 in Austria-Hungary (which is now in Ukraine). He was a Jew, who grew up in a town with a large Jewish population. He attended college in Austria, but left to serve during World War I on the Eastern Front. He returned to Germany in 1918, where he began work as a journalist.

You can tell that this book is written by a journalist, however the book doesn't come across like someone writing dispatches or news reports. This book is filled with personal experiences and how life was for this individual during the run up to World War II. He spoke about the difficulties after the end of World War I for people. Times were tough. Things were still being repaired from the war, Germany was struggling to make payments for the destruction. Of course, anti-Semitism is not a new thing and was certainly festering like crazy in Europe at this time. He wound up leaving Germany in 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor, and I certainly do not blame him for that. He had a pretty good idea of what would happen to Jewish people living in areas controlled by Hitler, thanks to all the nasty speeches that he gave and how much he ragged on the Jewish population and blamed them for all of Germany's problems. This book was really insightful and gave a great image of what life was like for people living during these years. 

 This is a memoir of Chanrithy Him, a Cambodian girl who was just a child when the Khmer Rouge began their takeover. The book is written from a child's perspective, so a lot of the material is presented in an innocent manner and without a lot of political detail. A lot of times, people view wars in the context of military numbers and casualties, troop movements, and politics. Perhaps it is easier to think of only those things than it is to consider what people on the ground in these towns are enduring. It must be simply horrible to live through the noise and uncertainty and danger. The images of death and torture that people are subjected to must certainly affect them long term. The author bio on the book says that the author went on to study post traumatic stress in Cambodians in the years after the war. This was not my favorite historical nonfiction book of the year, or even that I have read this month, but it was moving and thought provoking. 

 This book is about Warren Jeffs and his control over the FLDS. The amount of control, manipulation, and abuse that this man and his cronies have dished out on every single member of the FLDS is nearly unfathomable. I am so proud of everyone who has taken a stand against his abuses. I am glad to know that he is imprisoned, but he is probably still calling the shots through visitors and phone calls. I hope that every one of these people that he has abused gets some level of justice and finds a life worth living. 

 This book featured a lot of celebs and other historical people. I got this book for fifty cents, and it was certainly worth that. I would like to take a road trip to visit some of these places. I liked this book. 

 This book covers the events surrounding the genocide in Rwanda, and what happened in the aftermath of it. For those unfamiliar, the Rwandan genocide began in April 1994 and ended in July 1994. The atrocities were perpetrated against the Tutsi ethnic group (as well as some Twa and Hutu moderates), and were committed mostly by militias. An estimated 500,000 people were slaughtered, but the true number may never be known. Checkpoints were set up to check identification cards that had ethnic labels on them. Those undesirables were taken aside and killed. Children and women were also killed, and often times were sexually assaulted. One method of killing was whacking people with machetes. Today, you can still see the bullet holes in several of the buildings in the regions most affected by the genocide and civil unrest. They also have a museum dedicated to those who died in this madness. If I were to ever travel to Rwanda, I would certainly stop by. This book addresses the questions of responsibility, justice, moving forward, and creating a cohesive national identity. It was an interesting book, overall, and I am glad that I finally got around to reading it. 

 Harold G. Moore was a United States Army Lieutenant General. He was born in Kentucky in 1922. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1942. He graduated in 1945 with the rank of second lieutenant. He had a pretty interesting career up to the point where he left for Vietnam, which is what this book covers. He led the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in the week-long Battle of Ia Drang. He was very significantly outnumbered by enemies. He led his men through what really seems like impossible odds, and eventually was able to drive them back after three days of heavy fighting. This was the first large scale helicopter assault during wartime, as well as using Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers in a support role. This must have been an absolutely harrowing experience, even reading about it doesn't evoke an appropriate amount of imagination.

I have watched this film a couple of times, but I never really got into it. I will have to watch it again since I have read this book and the second one. I got a bunch of Vietnam books a while back to kind of learn what my grandfather must have experienced, since he doesn't like to discuss his experiences over there. (Beyond complaining about his skin and Agent Orange.) I really appreciate that there are people willing to share their experiences so that others may have some type of idea what goes on. I also appreciated that this book wasn't full of political ideology/excuses/etc. I would recommend this for anyone interested in Vietnam. 

 I was really excited about this book, which I got for a dollar at the used book store. I didn't look at the reviews beforehand, or I would not have been so excited. I was beyond disappointed in this book. The story sounded great, but it was just boring and all over the place. Very unfortunate