imyourmausoleum's reviews
1679 reviews

Simon Winchester is one of my favorites. I have enjoyed every book of his that I have read so far. This book held a really interesting history of the Atlantic that I hadn't ever really considered. There have been so many events, from natural disasters to manmade issues. It never would have occurred to me to put them together to make a concise history.

 I have always had an interest in family dynasties, and the Kennedy family certainly falls into that category. I probably would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I wasn't so sick of RFK JR being on my news feeds saying nonsense with his creepy voice. He is a resounding disappointment to the Kennedy family, and I wonder what the prior members would have thought about him. At any rate, this book was interesting enough to read. This author has written multiple books on the Kennedy family if you are interested. 

 Nick Irving, Special Operations Direct Action Sniper, details his deadly record during his military service in this book. It is always interesting to know the motivation behind joining the military, because it is my personal experience that the people from my hometown joined to get out of this town. It is interesting to see what the motivation is for becoming a Special Ops person, and learning about some of the training, which takes some real determination to complete, is like. People love a war story, especially the ones that have never experienced war. I am sure this book would appeal to many like that. Overall, the book was a decent read.

I have a whole collection of books from the Global War on Terror that I have put off reading for personal reasons. I hope to finish this stack of unread books in the coming year and move them out of my house. If you follow my reviews, I apologize in advance for the number of books of this content that will be in your feed next year, but they must go. 

This book was suggested to me by someone who thought I would like to learn more about the history of pirating. The book was pretty interesting, going into detail about one of the most well-known pirates, Captain Morgan, and all of the things that they got up to.  If you are interested in pirates or sea history, this might be something to look into. 

 Edward Wayne Edwards was born in Ohio in 1933. Edwards grew up in a Catholic orphanage, where he claims he was abused by nuns. After having read other books about the abusive nuns in other schools...this claim is likely true. Edwards joined the Marines but eventually went AWOL and was discharged. Edwards held a series of random jobs and frequently moved around the country. Edwards was wanted by the FBI at one point for multiple robberies. He was wanted again in the 1980s for arson. Edwards was eventually apprehended for the murders of five people, though the number is expected to be much higher. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection but died of natural causes before his execution date. This book was written by his daughter, April, who details a childhood filled with poverty, uprooting, and extreme violence. April discusses Edwards and his extreme physical abuse of her mother and all of the children. He was also abusive to animals, killing them and attempting to kill them. His temper and personality were fear inducing and the lack of care that he showed towards his family was terrible to read. There were many instances of outright cruelty in this book that were just disgusting.

I have the Audible version of this book, which is several hours long. It took me a few days to listen, as I am unable to listen to books at my new job. The physical copy of this book is around 400 pages. I am a firm believer that people often dismiss the family members of those who have done terrible crimes. I think that is especially true in the case of children. People often assume that the family of the criminal must have known what they were up to, helped them do the thing, or covered up for them in some way. That may be true in many cases, but it is certainly not true in all of them. Especially when it comes to the children. Children are often unaware of what adults get up to in their spare time. Children are also often victims of various types of abuse, as is the case with the author of this book. Often, children do not gain clarity on their childhood experiences until much later in life and often require extensive therapy. It is easy for the public to condemn the family of the criminal along with them, but that should not be a default thing to do. I appreciate the author for being willing to share her story and her conflicted emotions about her realizations. I hate to say this was a good read, but it was. 

Hurricane season in the Americas typically occurs from June through November. Hurricanes have occurred throughout the centuries, but it is easy to forget about that. This book provides a pretty detailed history of hurricanes that have impacted the Americas and the ships in the waterways over five hundred years. This was a pretty interesting book, but I do typically like books about disasters and weather events.

Cari Lea Farver got a new job and began a new relationship with a man. Unfortunately, her exciting new life updates were short lived when she vanished into thin air in 2012. Police began investigating her disappearance but could not come up with many leads...until they made a surprising connection between her new man, Dave, and his former fling, Liz. Liz Golyer posed as Cari, harassing Dave and everyone else. This case took so many turns it was unreal. I was SHOCKED when I watched the Dateline episode about this. If you are interested in the Dateline reading list...here you go. If you are wanting a true crime book with a curvy road...this is it. I wasn't sure I was going to like this book by the daughter of Ann Rule, but it was not too bad.

 This book discusses the impact of not only World War II, but the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima on people who survived. Survivor stories are vital to the historical record. People that lived during a certain time and experienced a historical event are able to recount so many important details. The author of this book is a renowned psychologist, and thus studies the psychological effects of the bomb and the experiences on the survivors. I found this book to be exceptionally interesting and moving. I cannot even begin to fathom what living through something like this must have been life. 

Alfred Lee Loomis was born in Manhattan in 1887. He was born into a prominent family, mostly doctors and political influencers. He was a graduate of Yale, where he studied science and math. He loved vehicles and yachts and often raced yachts with the Astors and Vanderbilts. He established a laboratory for his private use near his mansion in Tuxedo Park. Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, James Franck, and Enrico Fermi all met at his lab multiple times, as he was able to afford equipment that was not available in most universities. His work would be recognized enough to have him inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. Loomis would go on to invent LORAN, long range navigation, which assisted the war effort and was in use for decades after. He also contributed to meeting about the Manhattan Project, ground controlled radar, and developed technology for sinking U-Boats.

I wish that I had read this book sooner. I did not know a thing about Alfred Lee Loomis until I read this book. I did not realize how many irons he had in the little fires around World War II. He was an interesting person, and his work certainly contributed a lot to the course and outcome of World War II. This book was really good.

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was born in Berlin in 1902. This memoir recounts her life and activities. She was an avid swimmer, a talented artist, and an innovative filmmaker. She dabbled in acting, with five successful films to her credit. She is mostly remembered as the propaganda filmmaker for the Nazis. Her propaganda films were really very well done, despite being supplied for the side of history they were supplied for. This book shows the human being behind that legacy, which I think is important. We often see people as strictly good or strictly bad or strictly in service to crazy folks. Over here in the US, we are going through a lot of tough realizations that people are not always who we thought they were- celebrity or otherwise. I found her writing to be engaging, despite this being a pretty long book.