DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT : THE SERIAL KILLER OF NAZI-OCCUPIED PARIS
by David King

For four years, during World War II, Paris was in the throes of the Nazi Occupation. The French would suffer from hunger, fear, tyranny and terror. It would become their darkest time in history. Admist all of this wretchedness, one man would inflict the most heinous crimes on the innocent. He was true evil incarnate.
On a particular night in March of 1944, thick black smoke streamed out of a town house in the fashionable district of the 16th arrondissement. The smell was especially putrid. Nobody was home and nobody could enter. Firemen were called to the scene and a window was smashed open. The horrific odor was traced to the basement where a coal stove was burning. Dismembered human body parts were scattered throughout. It got worse and there were more nightmares discovered.
The owner of this illustrious place became the instant suspect. He was Dr. Marcel Petiot who, ironically, was called "The People's Doctor" because he was kind, generous and gave free medical treatment to the poor. Supposedly, he was a member of the French Resistance (Petiot constantly bragged about that) and saved many by his vast network. He would charge an exorbitant amount of money with no questions asked of him. The evacuees were so anxious to leave that they readily agreed. They were never seen or heard from again. The number of missing persons kept increasing. At the time of Petiot's arrest, it was up to twenty-seven murders but the total, many believed, was even higher.
The trial was a total farce due to the prosecution's negligence of asking questions that missed the main points, ignoring the convoluted and contradictory answers and never seeming to be in control of the situation.
Petiot, on the other hand, was in his element. He was the star of the show being both brilliant and arrogant which the spectators ate up.
Death in the City of Light is quite a book. The amount of research (incredible details) is astounding. At times, it can be quite grisly but the tale is so absorbing that you cannot turn away.
If you like to read true-crime, this one is a winner.
Highly recommended.

ASSASSINS OF THE TURQUOISE PALACE
by Roya Hakakian

In 1992, on a beautiful autumn evening in Berlin, eight men who were members of an Iranian and Kurdish opposition group gathered for dinner at a small restaurant. This event was something that they had all looked forward to for days. It would be short-lived. No sooner had they started eating, when two men walked in and shot twenty-six bullets in two rounds. There would be four survivors.
The next day began the guessing game concerning the perpetrators. It would not take long for the federal prosecutor to focus in on the regime of Iran. Since 1980, one year after Khomeini rose to power, a list was created for "enemies of Islam." Anybody who was considered an opponent: artists, writers, intellectuals, political activists were silenced, thrown in prison or executed. A total of five hundred people were being hunted down all over the world.
The eventual trial would last four years and the verdict caused quite a shake-up.
The book is superb with both riveting and beautiful writing. I was captivated from just reading the first page. Author Roya Hakakian is a Persian poet and her previous book, a memoir, "Journey To The Land Of No" is gorgeous and lyrical. So, she obviously knows how to dazzle the senses.
Not to be missed.
Very highly recommended.

DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC : A TALE OF MADNESS, MEDICINE, AND THE MURDER OF A PRESIDENT
by Candice Millard

Four months after being shot by a crazed individual named Charles Guiteau and close to death, James A. Garfield wondered what kind of legacy he would leave behind as the president of the United States. Had he lived, he could have been, most likely, the best man to ever serve in the White House. Up until this time, his life had been truly extraordinary. Born into abject poverty (his father died when Garfield was barely two years old) his mother instilled dignity, an incredible work ethic and a solid educational background in him. This would be his backbone.
As a student, he loved to be challenged and was always pushing himself. Garfield turned out to be quite a scholar. When he couldn't pay the tuition for his schooling during his first year, he worked as a janitor. By the second year, Garfield was promoted to assistant professor and taught literature, mathematics, and ancient languages along with three other subjects.
His brilliance continued when he became a general in the Union Army and won an important battle. Soon after, Garfield was elected to Congress. He fought for the equality of freed slaves.
His speeches were legendary. People would listen spellbound, so when he took the podium at the Republican National Convention in 1880 to nominate John Sherman for the presidency, his oratorical skills so completely captivated the audience that at the end of the speech, they were screaming for him not Sherman. Their reaction stunned him. He tried to put them off to no avail.
Garfield was nominated and won the presidency most reluctantly.
What a tremendous book! The writing is absolutely superb. Candice Millard captures everything that went on during that time period so astutely and you just cannot stop reading nor do you want to. There's so much fascinating information that will not be divulged but here are some tidbits: the doctors who treated Garfield and what they did and did not do is very disturbing and appalling; Alexander Graham Bell attempts to save the president (not by the telephone) and works long hours trying to perfect his latest invention; the madman's reason of why he shot the president; the political infighting behind the scenes.
If you're a history nut or just want to be blown away by exceptional storytelling, get a copy of this book. You won't be disappointed.
Very highly recommended.

THE ARROGANT YEARS : ONE GIRL'S SEARCH FOR HER LOST YOUTH, FROM CAIRO TO BROOKLYN
by Lucette Lagnado

Four years ago, Lucette Lagnado wrote The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit which was a portrait of her father, Leon, who walked the boulevards of Cairo so proud of himself and of what he had accomplished. The book was a terrific story and now a follow-up memoir has just been published.
In The Arrogant Years, Lucette writes about her mother, Edith and herself. Edith grew up in Old Cairo rather poor. There was no father (he had left early on) and Edith's mother, Alexandra, obsessively doted on her daughter. A lover of French literature, Edith would become a schoolteacher and a librarian. She was beautiful, vibrant, intelligent and charming and caught the eye of a much older man one day in a cafe. They got married and she had to give up her career much to her dismay.
By the early 1950s, the political situation had changed in Egypt. King Farouk was forced to abdicate. The Jews were terrified (under the kings they were protected) and started leaving the country in droves.
Lucette was born during the chaos in 1956. Seven years later, the entire family would try and rebuild the hearth in New York. Being an immigrant in a new country was tough and Lagnado tried desperately to fit in. Her many trials and tribulations (at the age of sixteen, she would be quite ill with Hodgkin's lymphoma) only made her that much stronger. While her confidence grew, her parents' struggles deepened.
I didn't want this book to end, at all. I read everything even the Acknowledgments which, most times, are long-winded with a million names. She makes it interesting breaking sections up by countries because the people who helped in her research were all over the world.
Lagnado is a wonderful writer and really knows how to showcase a family's history with such honesty and emotion.
Very highly recommended.

FINDING EVERETT RUESS : THE LIFE AND UNSOLVED DISAPPEARANCE OF A LEGENDARY WILDERNESS EXPLORER
by David Roberts

Seventy-seven years after disappearing from the face of the earth, Everett Ruess has become somewhat of a cult figure. For five years, he wandered around the Southwest in the early part of the 1930s, by himself, with two burros. His voyages would last for several months. Ruess was quite young when he started at the age of fifteen. He was so passionate about the wilderness that he wrote, painted and did engravings about it. His dream was to live independently and to showcase his art. In 1934, Ruess vanished. What remains are letters, journals, poems and artwork. Ironically, the fame that he pursued as a vagabond is very much alive and he has quite a following. But it's the mystery of what happened to him that is the most puzzling and theories abound.
I thought this book was terrific. It's extremely well written and quite readable. In no time at all, you are absorbed in the tale. The author has a background in writing about adventure and history (22 books) and he does justice with this one.
Recommended.

THE LONG NIGHT : WILLIAM L. SHIRER AND THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH

It's still known as "The Big Book" (over 1,000 pages) and when it was published in 1960 one million copies were sold. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich would become William L. Shirer's one true masterpiece and it would sustain him, financially, for the rest of his life. (He wrote it because he had no solid employment and needed money, badly.) The way Shirer envisioned it, nobody else could could produce such a monumental tome on the Nazis' rise to power and then their ultimate defeat. He lived it, in Berlin, for six years broadcasting all of the important events working for CBS news.
Shirer would never have imagined that one day he would become the first American reporter giving eyewitness accounts of the German Army's conquests in Austria (the annexation), France (the armistice), and anything else that showed Germany's superiority. People all over the world listened to the broadcasts. What Shirer read, though, was not what what he had originally planned to say. He would write up a script and the censors would cross out just about everything. Shirer wanted to speak the truth but instead most of what came out of his mouth were lies: sheer propaganda. It drove him crazy. Fortunately, he was able to document anything that he heard either from officials or other foreign correspondents via letters and journals. He kept a diary in which he laid out his true feelings (most of this would be used in his master work).
In The Long Night Steve Wick was able to recreate William Shirer's incredible experience by using his collection of papers held at the library of Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa ( Shirer's alma mater). The book is both an eye-opener and a page-turner.
Recommended.

WE IS GOT HIM : THE KIDNAPPING THAT CHANGED AMERICA
by Carrie Hagen

1874 was a pivotal year for Philadelphia. The city was going to host America's centennial celebration. They were thrilled to have taken it away from New York. Amidst the planning stages, a horrific crime took place that almost derailed the historic event.
Charley Ross was playing in his front yard, in Germantown, when he was kidnapped (enticed by candy). The following day the first of many (23) ransom notes arrived demanding $20,000.
For months the police in both Philadelphia and New York searched for the little boy (four years old) inspecting every building. The public was only able to follow the news via newspapers and the search became nationwide.
Carrie Hagen does a tremendous job in laying out the characters, showing the ineptitude of the police force, the despair of the family, the frightened hysteria of the citizens, the depravity of the criminals. Some great tidbits concerning the origins of Germantown and other parts of Philadelphia are woven into several chapters.
There's eight pages of black-and-white illustrations and the Appendix gives the unabridged versions of all the ransom letters.
She is got me. From page one to the end, I was hooked.
Very highly recommended.