Killing the SS--#41 finished

 The rest of the title:  The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History.  This is a kind of series of books by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard--Bill being the former Inside Edition & then Fox News host that I think has reappeared on a smaller conservative/pro maga network.  If I remember right he was pushed out at Fox because of sexual harassment claims and since he is older, I am kind of surprised he made it back to TV, oh well.  I bought this book as an ex-library book so it was 50 cents--I figure none going back to Bill so was okay with it.  A good quick read about some of the investigations and searches done after WWII into finding Nazis and SS that were hiding.  Some talk of the Nuremberg trials and people involved too.  Nothing really too indepth but still a lot of information in the book.  I have read one or two of these Killing.... books and are about the same.

There was 1 WL for this book on PBS & I posted it & has been accepted so will be mailing it off later this week.

Whipping Boy--#40 finished

 The rest of the title is: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully.  The author was sent to a boarding school in the Alps of Europe and for that 1 year he was terrorized by especially one boy and a few followers of him.  The author's father had left him a very nice watch that these boys through out the window & was lost in the snow, that along with the other instances of bullying really stuck with him.  The author left the school that spring & didn't return, his mother re-married and life went on with lots of changes for him.  The author though as he got older could not let it go what the bully had done and as he became an adult and a writer used his research abilities to find out what became of the bully.  This is where the story really begins because the bully was part of a very elaborate scan/con that basically stole money from people desperate for business loans they hooked up with the bully leading them to a sort of European consortium that promised big but stole their interest money and more.  The group was caught and prosecuted in the US and the bully and a couple others did time.  The author tracked down the bully and met with him a few times over a few years not letting on that he knew the bully's details of this or that he tracked him down because he was the bully.  Eventually before the book was written that author did come clean about it & well makes for an interesting ending.  Good read and very interesting story, also very impressive how much research and interviews went into this.

There are 2 WL for this book on PBS so will probably post & mail off at some point.

The Automobile Club of Egypt--#39 finished

 This is a story about a family in postwar Egypt, late 1940s maybe.  They were landowners & had some wealth living in Northern Egypt but had to sell off the land and lost their wealth.  They moved to Cairo where the father found a job at the Automobile Club there--it was a club for the wealthy foreigners and the royalty of Egypt.  The story revolves around this family & the struggles working at the club and their lives.  Is a really good and interesting read about the time and politics of Egypt.  It does take a while to get the story moving and I am still not sure what the beginning with a modern writer being visited by characters he has written about have to do with this story.  It took a few weeks for me to finish this book & that beginning was confusing and never referred to again so maybe my memory of it is a little off but I thought it was off when I started it too.  Otherwise a good and interesting story.

There is 1 WL for this book on PBS so I will probably post & mail off at some point.

Throw Like a Girl: Stories--#38 finished

This is a short story book that I have had on my shelf for years and finally got around to reading it.  There are some good stories with a midwestern, small time vibe.  The writer was long time professor at University of Illinois so right in her wheel house.  As I was reading the stories, it seemed like a sentence or maybe a couple really hit me, I wish I would have written them down.  She seems to have a knack for that because each story seemed to have that powerful or thoughtful sentence that just struck me.  Good read overall.

I will go ahead and post it on PBS, there are no copies now so could move or could sit like many of my books.  I did get a big order on PBS late last week where I posted one and the person requested 5 more from my bookshelf moving some that had been there for years.  Glad to see them off to someone else.

Family Law--#37 finished

This is a book about a female lawyer in Alabama in late 1970s & early 1980s that befriends a young girl.  They met when the girl's mother was looking for a lawyer to get divorced.  The mother decides on a different lawyer but still the lawyer & young girl become friends, maybe mentor type.  Book looks at struggles each has over a few years leading up to a time when lawyer's house is shot up while lawyer and the girl were both at house.  An interesting read but just seemed like more was needed.  I enjoyed earlier book by author about people caught in a zoo when gunmen took over.  I guess connection between the two wasn't as strong and action seemed a little off but still some good story inside here.

There is 1 WL for this book so will probably post & try to mail off soon.

Enough--#36 finished

This is a book by former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson who became famous during the Jan 6th House investigation.  She worked under Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and was his go to person for getting a lot of things done.  She testified to what she saw leading up to Jan 6 and what happened on that day.  Book goes into her life leading up to that and then her life after Jan 6 and then through the investigation.  Sad that she delivered on the information which was damning in the sense that a lot of what happened was premeditated and was certainly allowed to go on with little effort to stop the invasion.  Why Trump is our president now is just baffling.  I am glad to have read this book and wish more people would also read this book as well as the many others out there about our president.

There are 22 WL for this book on PBS.  Not sure if will mail through PBS or maybe hold onto as I have with a lot of my other Trump books.  Will just have to see.

She Wants It--#35 finished

The rest of the title is: Desire, Power and Toppling the Patriarchy.  This is a book by the creator/producer of the streaming show Transparent.  I never saw the show but had heard of it.  I read Jeffrey Tabor book a couple years back which was more of his life than about this show.  I thought this would be more Hollywood type book but was really more about the struggles and changes the author was going through.  The show is based off her writing about her father who came out as trans to female.  Her sister also helped on the show and is a lesbian and during this show/book the writer Jill divorced her husband and became involved with a woman.  Jill also was becoming more butch and then toward end of book non-binary.  After I finished I checked wikipedia and Jill now goes by Joey and probably more identifying as trans--sorry if I am confusing this or getting it wrong working off memory of a quick read from yesterday.  Anyway was not expecting this much of their life changing while also working on this show.  Interesting read in many ways.

There are no copies of this book on PBS but right now putting on a pile since one of my work development goals was to read books about DEI topics and this one fits there.  Will probably post on PBS later.

They Can't Kill Us All--#34 finished

 The rest of the title is:  Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement.  This is a book by a Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery who covered Ferguson and Michael Brown's death, then followed that to Cleveland and Tamir Rice, and to other places where mostly young African American men were killed by police officers.  Lots of info on the local movements that started up with these killings and also sort of started the Black Lives Matter movement too.  Also a point he makes is that it is not just about the individual that is murdered but about how the people in area felt with their interactions with the police.  There was a great mistrust and for this reason even if shooting could be justified the people would not believe it.  

The author does have a 2nd book published in 2023 and I have it on WL on PBS.  Interested in knowing what he sees with today's political environment and especially the Trump admin forcefully removing DEI programs.  

There are 3 WL for this book on PBS but for now is a keeper for me.

Celine--#33 finished

This is another Peter Heller book but this one is not connected to the others.  Celine is a more elderly lady that is a private investigator that focuses on finding missing family.  There is some back story with her being part of an original Mayflower family and having that old money even though her mom divorced her first husband.  Celine also had a child back in high school and gave it up for adoption with her older son trying to get this story--mom Celine will not talk about it.  The main story is finding what really happened to a famous photographer about 20 years ago--he was ruled to have died from a bear attack just outside Yellowstone National Park.  She & her husband do some research and find clues that no one else pieced together--didn't really make sense to me.  Also someone was tracking them--not sure why after so long this was happening.  Spoiler, the photographer took incriminating photos of US involvement in Allende overthrow in Chile so I guess CIA still cared--I didn't really buy this but oh well.  They find photographer has been holed up in remote cabin this whole time.  Again didn't really make sense either but that is what it is.  I have enjoyed Peter Heller's books and did enjoy this one too for some reasons but the main story just seemed weak or maybe forced, oh well.

There are 4 WL for this book on PBS and again will mail it off at some point but no hurry right now.

The Madwoman and the Roomba--#32 finished

The author documents a year or so of her life and is pretty funny in many ways and also sort of crazy in many ways.  She is a professor in CA and also has radio spots on what sounds like a local NPR station where she throws in some comedy with her science.  Funny to read about just normal things confronting her and then throw in her 2nd husband inviting a Buddhist group to stay at their house.  I guess she has a couple earlier books that I didn't know about or then obviously hadn't read either.  I hadn't heard of her before picking up this book at at library sale--50 cents well spent.  Needed a lighter sort of read and this one fit the bill.

There are 3 WL for the book on PBS but since have enough credits for now will wait till later to post.  This book was also finished in March but just now getting around to logging it in.