I got this book as well as one about Columbia on the same day from the same thrift store, so someone around here must also be interested in space and/or disasters. June Scobee Rodgers gives us a look into her life with Dick, who lost his life in the Challenger shuttle explosion. I have recently watched a documentary series about Challenger and I cannot imagine standing around, excited to see the shuttle blast into space and then it explode. How heavy that atmosphere must have been, and how tragic for all of those who loved the crew. I was disgusted to learn about the factors that contributed to this disaster and the lack of accountability from some of those involved. June Scobee did amazing work after the death of her husband for the public space program, and she seems like an amazing woman to speak with. 

 When I was in fifth or sixth grade, I started reading the Dear America, The Royal Diaries, and My Name Is America books. One of those, I am pretty sure in the My Name Is America series, was about a child who was living in a Japanese internment camp. This was the first time I ever knew that these events happened. Nothing was ever mentioned about this in any history class I had taken in middle or high school. I did not learn anything else about it until I was in college, and only then was it mentioned in a few paragraphs. (Granted, I was not a US history major, but still. Seems shady.) I have since read several things about this, and when I came across this book, I immediately put it on my to read list. Much to my delight, I found it the other night included in the Audible Plus catalog This book is about a five hour listen.

The author's grandmother was interned in one of these camps in California after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II. She tried to get her grandmother to share her experiences during this time, though her grandmother shared quite a bit, she did leave some parts out. I can understand, as it must have been an extremely difficult time with a lot of things that traumatized a person. I would have liked to know more about what happened to some people that were mentioned in the book. Overall, this was a good book and I appreciate the experiences of someone who went through such treatment.

The most striking thing to me is the fact that things in United States history are always left out or glossed over to make this country seem like THE MOST AMAZING. People just completely overlook the fact that genocide was committed against indigenous people, that Japanese people were put into what were effective concentration camps, that Italian, Irish, and Chinese immigrants were treated poorly, and so many other things it would take me a week to list. I get so aggravated with the way the school teaches about Thanksgiving every year. Perhaps this is one reason why I didn't take the path of being a US history major. It was too irritating to me. 

 This is the personal memoir of Tionne Watkins, also known as T-Boz, and one third of the band TLC. She was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1970. This book details her entrance into the music industry and her rise to fame. Obviously, there are details about her music career, which were really entertaining. She got into quite a bit of shenanagins, which she didn't really seem to have consequences about...at least not any consequences like I would have imagined. She really went through a lot of stuff in the course of this book.

This book is currently available on Audible Plus to listen to for free. The book was about five hours to listen to. It was entertaining enough, and I enjoyed it. I learned a great deal about sickle cell, which the author suffers from. The stuff that I knew about this illness was next to nothing, so this book was an amazing educational tool for me. I liked the inside look at the music career. I liked a lot of TLC songs, and was shocked when Lisa died. It was neat to learn more about the band. If you are a TLC fan, you should check this book out. 

 This book was written from different perspectives, and provided a minute by minute play by play of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I thought the way it was written was interesting. I guess the switching of different perspectives made it seem more dramatically written as opposed to some other books that I have read. I would recommend this book. 

 This book made me so mad, I think I threw it about four times. I really enjoy this series, and am anxiously waiting on the next one. I was just so aggravated with the events that took place in this book and the obnoxious character of Merry's uncle. I really cannot stand that guy. I am so disappointed. I hope that a new book comes out soon and some better resolutions take place. 

 David Mearns is a marine scientist, oceanographer, and author. He specializes in search and recovery and shipwrecks. He hold five Guinness World Records for his work in the oceans, which I found really interesting. I enjoyed learning about the process of deep sea recovery, which he went into with extreme detail. Other reviews have mentioned this fact and said they got bored, but I did not personally have that issue. I was not bored at all. He has found several notable wrecks, which are detailed in this book.

I especially liked learning about the Lucona, which was sunk in 1977. The author was enlisted to find the shipwreck and video the wreckage for use in a criminal trial. As it turned out, the ship was damaged from a bomb planted in the cargo as part of an insurance scam. Unfortunately, six people on this ship lost their lives. This whole criminal case was really interesting, and I had never heard of it before I read this book. I also really liked the World War II era ships that were mentioned in the book, which appealed to my WWII History Specialization heart, haha.

I have always wanted to dive and snorkel shipwrecks, and I think that shipwrecks are beautiful. I have a couple of books about shipwrecks (Lusitania, Indianapolis, and the U869). I also have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to various shipwrecks. I hope that I have the opportunity one day to dive or snorkel a wreck. This book was amazing, and I would suggest it for anyone who is a fan of shipwrecks and oceanography. 

 This book tells the unique story of the USS Houston and her crew. The descriptions of the ship and the battles it took place in and other operations were very detailed and extraordinarily interesting. After the ship was sunk, only around 400 of the original crew of 1,100 survived. People often think that when a ship is sunk, it just slips beneath the waves, but that is certainly not the case for a warship in battle. There is oil in the water, ordinance that is exploding from battle, setting the oil on fire. These survivors of the initial sinking had to swim through burning oil, explosions, sucking water from the sinking ships, enemy fire...all of this while trying to avoid capture. Unfortunately, most of them were captured by the Japanese and sent to POW camps. There they endured the typical amount of torture and starvation, and many were put into forced labor on the Death Railway. I just watched a documentary series about that not long ago. This was a really good book, and terribly sad. 

 The Fantome was a schooner, also known as a tall ship, last owned by Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. (It was once owned by the Duke of Westminster, which I thought was a tremendously interesting fact, and it also mentioned several famous names that had been aboard prior to the last ownership.) The ship offered cruises along the Caribbean islands. Hurricane Mitch is the second deadliest hurricane reported. The loss of life and devastation left by this storm is amazing to read about. It developed in the most favorable conditions for a hurricane to develop in, causing it to reach Category Five strength in basically no time flat. It was also slow moving, which caused extensive amounts of flooding in Central America and the islands. I cannot imagine being in a hurricane at sea, and certainly not on a schooner. I would have died from fright before anything else would have had a chance to kill me. I cannot imagine being a Captain and having to make the decision for my passengers and crew that could cost them their lives. I won't spoil the book by going into what happened to the people on board, but whew! I just cannot imagine the struggle.

I have no idea why my used bookstore has so many books about shipping disasters these days, but I am happily here to buy them all up. I have never desired to take a cruise, and I have just been reading all of these types of books, which has really erased any faint desire I have to go cruising. My family loves to cruise, and I always thought they were silly for it. I love the ocean, but it is just so vast and so unpredictable at times. I certainly would never cruise during hurricane season. I am absolutely terrified of whales, and I think I am beginning to fear the ocean in general after reading so many of these types of books back to back this year. Perhaps I need to take a shipwreck hiatus. At any rate, the story was well told, and I learned a great deal about yachts, tall ships, and the Fantome in general. I had no idea people did cruises on these types of ships, though we have riverboat cruises where I live. (At least I know I can swim/float to the other side of the Tennessee River if we ever sank in it though.) I liked the description and detail of the Captain's plan and thought process in getting people off of the ship and trying to get somewhere to keep the ship safe. Books like this can often come across as boring when they weigh you down with information, but I didn't feel bored or suffocated by ship facts. I thought they were really neat to learn, and I appreciate any time I get to learn something. If you are a morbid shipwreck reader like myself, I would suggest giving this one a read. 

 I bought this book at a library book sale here in town, and I am glad I didn't pay a lot for it. It bored me to death. I hate saying that, because the subject matter of transgender persons is a serious topic that is much in the forefront of the news and law making these days. I certainly came to appreciate the struggle of someone who feels that they are not living their true, authentic life. I have never had to feel that way before, and I cannot imagine how hard that has to be. Not to mention the sideways looks and struggles on has to face if they are not what society thinks they should be. I'm sure that this book means a lot more to people who are struggling with these issues, but I was glad to learn more about these issues that I was unaware of. 

 This is the personal account of Melissa Jesperson Moore, whose father was the Happy Face Killer. I am always interested in the accounts of family members of people who are known serial killers, because the person that we know from trials and media can be a completely different person at home. By her account, Keith Jesperson was a violent person with moods that caused her to walk on egg shells. I cannot imagine growing up in a home with such turmoil, my parent being a serial killer, and having to reconcile that. This was terrifying.