Really good book. This is written without much bias although he does treat most of the politicians like they truly are, assholes. This is the second book in a row I've read about a single year. The other one was April 1945, but its actually about the entire year. Really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone. Kinda cool that my little brother was born on the Bush/Gore election.

This was a really good, but different kind of book. The author goes from one thing to another, whether its grabbing headlines, or completely changing the subject. Either way, it just flows a lot easier than you would think. I'm sure there is a better word for it, but I haven't really read anything like this before. Enjoyed it tremendously.

Incredible book. For whatever reason I didn't log this book as read when I was done so I don't remember particular examples but this overall "fictional" version of this story seems spot on to me how it would play out in real life. The way politics are going in this country, it wouldn't be a bad idea to read.

There are so many different excerpts from this book that it would take pages and pages to fill out everything I find interesting or important. He is such a good writer that he can take something like this, which is widely written about, and make it interesting, shocking and at times brutal. There was only 1 very small part of a certain chapter that I got lost in the academia jargon but it seemed no other way to make it more simplistic. Almost the entire book is written for people who may not have vast knowledge of the Soviet and Nazi regimes in their peak of power. The Nazi brutality is more recognized and in popular literature/culture and it has to do with several things, mainly that they were a part of the "good guys" and fought alongside the British, American, French, ect. troops. Without the Soviet Union making a stand at the gates of Moscow and turning the tide to drive the Germans back westward, the outcome or length of the war would have been drastically different. The number of troop, and sadly civilians, who died in the Eastern Front is staggering and not easy to wrap your head around. I believe it's at the very top of any war for the amount of casualties in just the Eastern Front. So while Germanys war crimes and atrocities are more known in the West, I still knew the Soviets were ruthless killers too, but I misunderstood the severity and the destructiveness that the Soviets not only brought to the Germans but against their own people in the satellite soviet show more states and even Soviet Russia as well. Not just covering the time of WW2 between the 2 regimes, but it goes back and covers the Holomodor in mainly Ukraine between 1932-1933 that was a famine mainly Stalin-made and not naturally occuring. It breaks down their policies in a cold and straightforward way and can be a chilling read from start to finish. The amount of data and facts (numbers, locations of exact, or as close to it as they can get, numbers of people who died, including their nationalities and the particular way they ended up dying since there were several means of mass killing. Incredible book, if you haven't already picked that up by reading this far of my summary. show less

I had to look this author up because at several different points in this book I wasn't sure whether this was satire or for real. It's not a large book and will definitely leave you thinking about it even after you set the book down. I won't totally spoil it but towards the end of the book, you'll get a better idea on which side the author is on. Either way it's very thought-provoking but this isn't something I would want an impressionable person with strong right-winged tendencies to come across. But since I'm not a book-burner, lets hope for the best.

A review for this book would not do it justice, and it just doesn't feel right to even try. The way he tells his story is captivating, even though you know more or less how the story is going to end. His passion, anger, brutal honestly, love, hurt, are felt plenty of times throughout this book and this author has a gift of expressing his emotion in a way the reader can almost get a sense of how he felt at the time. Wow, great book. When I went to go pick up my poboys for dinner from R&O's, a couple younger people, a guy and a girl, acknowledged my book and said how much they enjoyed it. (Whenever I go somewhere where I am expecting to wait, something like food or the pharmacy, I'll bring whatever book I'm reading at the time and read while I wait on whatever it is. Because I'm cool like that, that's why.)

I saw this book yesterday for the first time at the bookstore, and that's pretty shocking considering how often I visit that bookstore in that particular section. But there were about 15-20 of the same type of books (with a small summary and mostly pictures with descriptions) in all the different theaters/fronts of World War 2. They might have had others besides WW2 but the good majority were. The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5, is that a lot of the wording in the different descriptions get monotonous and repetitive. But sadly, that isn't really the authors fault because these tragic events happened over and over and they have some records from 1941-43 in the back of the book that shows the unbelievable number of people killed along with their nationality and if they are a man, woman or child. I was shocked at how many children were killed right along side the adults. Maybe some of them were just psychopaths but I know some of those German members of the Einsatzgruppen had to be seriously damaged and f'd up by the mass killing they took a part in. It says that Himmler got word that some of the men, especially the ones with a wife and kids at home, were really starting to crack up because of the slaughter. Himmler replied something like, "he better get in line with the program". The next paragraph said after that he was witness to one of the massacres and he nearly (or did) fainted after seeing it himself. Following his personal experience, the top brass came show more together to find more "humane" ways to commit ethnic cleansing/genocide. This is where the idea formulated to have mobile vans filled with poisonous gas, and that way they would still be killed but the soilders wouldn't have to look them in the eye. Some of these photos were new to me and if it doesn't seem like this could have even happened such a short time ago, but it brings the stories to visual proof and you're going to feel some feelings after going through them all. But I still highly recommend that you read this book. It's mainly pictures with captions with only about 10-15 actual typed pages, so it's super easy to read and can be done in a day, Even for the slower reader, it's doable in a weekend. show less

You can probably go look at my tags for this book and if this is your kind of thing, like it is mine, you were hooked at political violence without even getting to genocide or Trump yet. But seriously, this book is really, really good and a few parts of the book have been similar to other books I've read, but I like that because maybe I can remember most of it. And duh, of course certain points have been used in other books I've read, that's basically because I read a lot about the same shit and it's being repeated because it's actually fucking true. But there were several times when I really thought to myself, "damn, this is really, really good and this woman is super-cool". 5+Stars

5+ stars!!!! You hear a lot of times how a certain book/author is hilarious but then it's just generic or corny and people shouldn't use that word so carelessly? This guy is super freaking funny and more than a few times you will laugh out loud by a joke or his explanation of something.But other than that, it's also really informative and explains something as complex as the global drug trade and its policies in a way that's interesting and obviously completely factual. If the first 20 - 30 pages or so don't get you a little chub and wanting more, don't worry...I feel horrible that I actually considered putting this one down and starting it some other time and pick something new, and that's something I can only do if I'm really not feeling it because im so fucking OCD that i force myself to waste time reading something crappy because I cant put it down. This time I'm really thankful for that!!!! Won't regret reading this!!!

It was a little bit more outdated than most of the books I read, but it does refer to the Iraq War of W. and Guantanamo Bay so it's not like it got cut off during the Kennedy admin or anything. I guess I'm just weird about not reading history/political science books that that were published too long ago. And its gotten even worse post-Trump. Reading a book that was published before 2016 seems almost irrelevant to me now since I feel he's messed up our system for a generation or two (if we can make it that long). But I digress.....I definitely enjoyed this book and it's got a lot of information in it and you don't have to be a war crime/history buff to follow along and understand it. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is the authors tend to use hyperbolic language (speaking of trump)en discussing each different subject. They covered many different examples from several different periods and each time, the event they were discussing was " worst in human history, arguably the worse anyone has ever seen, the worst even to ever happen in Italy, the worse thing to happen in the netherlands between 1950-1960..." That last one was a joke but it's not that far off. I can't be the only person who thought that while reading this. And a couple parts were repetitive but I guess that's going to happen when writing a book such as this. Solid 4 and I would recommend for anyone interested in war/war crimes to read this one.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would (even though I like Chelsea Handler, this is different from a lot of the books I read) and it was super-easy to read. I used to love her show and thought her personality was hilarious. I think she has other books and I enjoyed this one so much that I plan on reading others she may have. I actually have 2 copies of this book, on accident, because my thriftbooks account accidentally ordered a few books I got from there a second time. And when I say my account did it, I mean it was most likely my fault not paying attention while going on a major book buying spree. Sadly, it happened more than once so I know of at least 4-5 different titles that I have multiple copies of. I guess there are a lot worse things in life than that. #nerdproblems

It was an easy read with a lot of information dating from BC to the present. A good beginners guide to get your feet wet with politics but I also think someone with plenty of knowledge on the subject would enjoy it because its not elementary either.

Great book but at times it was a little too much philosophizing for me. I understand that is the nature/subject of the book and it's not the authors fault for being smarter than I am, but I still enjoyed it even though it wasn't the most easiest of reads. Back in the day these dudes were sitting around getting high and writing down every single thought that came to their mind. I wonder if we have any "philosophers" these days who write about this stuff or is it only in the past. These philosophers quoted in here span thousands of years. From Aristotle time and B.C. to mid 1900's and even some later than that. It couldn't have went all those years and then not have any new material in this current time.

This is probably in my top 3 books of all-time. It really is incredeible and his reporting is thorough and shocking. I didn't believe I would learn anything new by reading this but I just wanted to get a refresher on the day and the days leading up to Jan. 6th. Well I couldn't have been more wrong. There are more than several times in the book that it was my first time hearing, and some rather shocking stuff. You can tell his sources are legit by the way he tell it and so many of them going on the record. I didn't read the first book, Front Row At The Trump Show even though I wanted to. But now I'm going to go back and read it because it would be a good way to remember all of that foolishness, cause there was so much of it. J. Karl is an amazing writer and journalist. Trump told him he "didn't think he was going to make it" but I think he's way past that.

5 stars for sure!!! It was a lot better than I expected it to be but luckily it mixed a lot of history with talking about the food each chef served and it was way more to it than just culinary talk. I love how the author separates and perfectly breaks apart the 5 different stories. This book is a hidden gem and I highly recommend it. A book about 20th century world history, genocide, revolutions and food. Who couldn't love reading about that??

It was ok until I saw he was a huge Rush Limbaugh supporter and from there it was more obvious he was a regular asshole, piece of shit cop. I wanted to stop less than halfway through but I have this problem where I can't do that, no matter how bad the book may be. I'm going to try and work on that because there are too many good books to waste my time with this racist hate.

A memoir of an SNL member isn't normally the genre i read but I like him from Weekend Update so I got it and tried something other than political science/american history/genocide/revolutions that I'm normally reading. It was funny from the beginning to the end and it's super easy to read. I give it 5 stars easy, but I didn't realize that he is better taken in small bits and not 4 days of reading his book. He became a little too much for me and his shtick was wearing me down. But luckily it ended right before then and I can continue to be a fan of his. Also, I didn't realize he was married to Scarlett Johansson and that he went to college at Harvard, along with going to high school in Manhattan. So I can kinda see why so many people seem put off by him. But I like him and I think he's funny but several times throughout the book I actually rolled my eyes because he was giving his peers some generic "the best at what they do, better than me because I'm so humble" (that's me paraphrasing). Other than at, go get the book and enjoy the many good stories, especially the one with Jimmy Buffet and his family.

This book was really incredible. I've always been fascinated with war and consumed many books and movies about it but at the same time war disgusts me and I can't think of too many times when it is necessary...this book really shines a light on a lot of war, anti-war controversial issues. I give it to this author because by drawing on world history and conflict, she's gotta know a lot of shit about a lot of shit. 5 stars for sure and this is one of the many books that I think people should be required to read. I love her style of writing too. She's written another book called "Paris 1919" and I'm probably going to read that one too eventually just because this one was so awesome.

Incredible book but even better story about the author and the book itself. It's hard to believe when people think of war crimes in ww2 everyone assumes it's Germany and the concentration camps you're talking about but the Japanese War Crimes were just as, if not more, sadistic than the Nazis. It's hard to imagine this being such recent history. The author of this book actually becomes a part of the story because she committed suicide about 7 years after finishing this book. She was working on another book about another Japanese war crime, the Battan Death March. She started deteriorating fairly quickly and killed herself. Her husband writes an epilogue to finish the book and it's really interesting and so tragic. I also didn't know the lengths Japan was currently going to try and whitewash this part of history and just like they are Holocaust deniers, they are also many people who say the Rape of Nanking didn't happen, or didn't happen to the extent that it did. I hope this book serves the purpose of opening peoples eyes to the brutal truth that the Japanese military did to Chinese soldiers and civilians. 5 stars for sure. The author has an autobiography written about her and I'm interested in reading that too.

I loved this book and I love the way the author tells the story. He goes through 5 different periods in U.S. History that showed a particular hysteria and explained how it formed, then how it went from the fringes of society to more mainstream outlets, and then it says how all of them were eventually exposed as fraud. They all have common characteristics and similar base story so the individual target is always this underworld powerful cabal trying for global totalitarianism, or something very close to that but that's the gist of it. And then at the end the author goes through different ways to combat extremism and different ways to not fan the flames of hysteria when they inevitably crop up in American History.

I couldn't tell if this was non-fiction or not and after reading it, I still had my doubts but this is non-fiction. The characters in this book all had big personalities and the author seemed totally genuine and honest in regards to how she was feeling about something or her inner dialogue. I'm a huge fan of sports betting and that's what got my attention of the book. It's a fun hobby but it's so easy to see how people can/do destroy their entire life because of gambling. But I really enjoyed reading about her fast-pace, chaotic lifestyle and she'll make you feel that rush and excitement just by reading her account of it. I can't see any reason to knock this book for really anything so I give it 5 stars, but since it was about sports betting, it probably began as 4.5 before I even started it.

Definitely not what I thought it was going to be like, but pretty good still. It dealt with the aftermath of the tsunami and the gut wrenching process which would follow if you lost your parents and entire immediate family, including children. You can tell how much she is pain and then you can even feel her getting better, with new obstacles now. The comments about the book on the back and front made it seem it was one of the best books of the year. I don't know about that but its worth reading for sure.

is the 2nd book I've read about North Korea (I now have 4 of them) and I'm officially obsessed. It's not that fact that it's this side show with a maniac ruler and the fairy tales the citizens are made to believe. After reading this, you will understand the severity of these camps and how truly horrible they are. Something should be done, on an international level, to hoThisld the Kim family responsible for crimes against humanity. There are plenty to choose from. It's easy to think about how hideous these camps are but it's another thing to hear a story of an actual human being who is trying to adapt to a world outside of North Korea. Words like love, companionship, friendship were foreign to him and to many defectors who now live in countries such as South Korea or the U.S. And to think that President Trump had summits with this guy is truly disgusting but 1 of the only 500 huge, horrible things that 45 did that something this vile is a footnote on his presidency, if that. Says a lot. Kim is a despotic maniac who murders his own people and controls their thoughts throughout their lives. He should not be praised but taken out. We'll go after Sadaam and Iraq for fraudulent weapons of mass destruction but stand by and do nothing as he murders at will. Not only do we not do anything but until 2003 we provided them food and fertilizer, especially during their horrible famine in the 90's. Not saying we shouldnt help out a nation in a famine crisis but it should come with show more stipulations to change stuff up. show less

This was the 2nd Chris Wallace book I've read recently. The other Countdown book I read was Countdown to 1945 & the atomic bomb creation. I've always been fascinated with the bin ladin story since it happened in May 2011, and this book definitely put a nice timeline and there were many details I havent heard before reading this. I still give it 5 stars but my only problem with it is some parts are just over the top corny. And I get it, that's kinda how I imagine Chris Wallace to be because I'm a big fan of him as a journalist. But there were a couple times where the added drama didn't even need to be there considering how dramatic this story is. Great Job. Highly recommend.

Read this book a while ago when I was over at G-G's, maybe just getting there when I read it. That part a couple times, about halfway through, I justified to myself why it would be ok to just quit reading it and go on to another book. This book right here showed me just how powerful my O.C.D. is over my rational mind. I thought I was going to enjoy it since it was about Katrina and my love for history, fascination with natural disasters and being someone who went through it and experienced it (although it was a lot different from what others were going through. I did lose my piece of shit damaged car, and that was like the only thing at that point that I owned and was mine. It did knock me out of college (and of course solely this) and prevented me from becoming the pompous, high-brow vegan with a lot of gay friends and the famous writer or intellectual that I was so obviously meant to be)...all those things make me think I would at least not hate this book. Wrong. I actually hated it. And I know it's probably not healthy to have such strong negative feelings towards a book I just read, but it's definitely like that. The premise behind the story could have probably been much more interesting if she did not explain her entire outfit and her friends husband who is some rich, sleazy wh0 happens to be in a current, high profile lawsuit, but whatever. I do love how she gives a nod to her son and his life when she throws in there that she helped her son and his partner move show more into their apartment, and that information had no relevance to anything else that she was talking about but she did it so her son would know he was accepted and I think that's really cool. I don't know how the dad felt about this particular subject, on his monthly fishing trip with the guys the old fashions were piling up and someone says something off-putting about your son, so you catch him one time in the right eye and put him down, because he's gotta show the guys that his son didn't get any of that punk shit from him. And all of that could have been avoided without exposing the child for your own self-satisfaction. Other than that it was just bland and ok. t doesn't matter at all to what I'm about to say...I loved this book and it got me into other Ben Macintyre books, all on the subject of espionage, which I happen to find fascinating. I still remember parts of this book and individuals who were characters in the book unlike I do for most books I read, which that sounds kind of sad like I can't comprehend what I'm reading, it's just that I read a lot of books and a lot of them are about roughly the same thing. I would say this is his best book without having read all of them just because I'm that confident of how hard he brought it. Since reading the book, I've seen many things on television, podcasts, other books I've read refer to the Double Cross system in ww2 and I still find that entire system as fascinating as the first time I read about it in this book. I've even wanted to read a book on the other individuals in Double Cross that went on to some notoriety (or at least a book written about them which I think is pretty cool) because Ben Macintyre makes these people seem so interesting. Names like Tricycle and Zigzag (Ben Macintyre also wrote a book titled "Agent Zigzag" and I own a copy of it but for some reason I began reading it but distinctively remember not finishing it for whatever reason, it must have been an important one because I would love the ability to put down a shitty book and move onto the next. I think I'll try that but I can't get trigger happy and jump the gun on every instance that I question a book or had higher expectations. I plan to use it only when it's a must) show less

A couple times, about halfway through, I justified to myself why it would be ok to just quit reading it and go on to another book. This book right here showed me just how powerful my O.C.D. is over my rational mind. I thought I was going to enjoy it since it was about Katrina and my love for history, fascination with natural disasters and being someone who went through it and experienced it (although it was a lot different from what others were going through. I did lose my piece of shit damaged car, and that was like the only thing at that point that I owned and was mine. It did knock me out of college (and of course solely this) and prevented me from becoming the pompous, high-brow vegan with a lot of gay friends and the famous writer or intellectual that I was so obviously meant to be)...all those things make me think I would at least not hate this book. Wrong. I actually hated it. And I know it's probably not healthy to have such strong negative feelings towards a book I just read, but it's definitely like that. The premise behind the story could have probably been much more interesting if she did not explain her entire outfit and her friends husband who is some rich, sleazy wh0 happens to be in a current, high profile lawsuit, but whatever. I do love how she gives a nod to her son and his life when she throws in there that she helped her son and his partner move into their apartment, and that information had no relevance to anything else that she was talking about but show more she did it so her son would know he was accepted and I think that's really cool. I don't know how the dad felt about this particular subject, on his monthly fishing trip with the guys the old fashions were piling up and someone says something off-putting about your son, so you catch him one time in the right eye and put him down, because he's gotta show the guys that his son didn't get any of that punk shit from him. And all of that could have been avoided without exposing the child for your own self-satisfaction. Other than that it was just bland and ok. show less

Interesting read. It's easy to tell that they are both being completely honest in all the topics they discuss. Maybe Tegan & Sara are bigger than I think are but when I saw that they had a book, I was immediately interested. Just because they happen to both be gay, the subject of sexuality is talked about with the same frequency as if they were discussing a heterosexual relationship. But, if you happen to be struggling with your sexuality or afraid to come out to the people around you, I strongly recommend taking the time to read this book. It was also cool because it made some rock stars like the 2 of them to write a book and seem so relatable to a lot of the feelings and thoughts they both share. I would like to know what a hardcore T&S fan thinks about this book, 5 stars because I couldn't find any reason to rank them any lower for any reason.

Even though I was already well aware of how this story would end, I still found the book really interesting, exciting and easy to read. After reading my first Jeffery Toobin book, it definitely wont be my last. Now if only we can keep him from masterbating on Zoom calls with his coworkers we'll be ok.

**spoiler alert** It wasn't the best book but it didn't suck either. There were parts of the book, even 2-3 pages long, that when you're reading it you feel like you are just reading a graph. I don't know but with so many consecutive numbers, it's impossible for me to fully comprehend what that would look like if they just put it in some kind of graph or even listed the sentences in bullet points or something. At Barnes & Nobles it was in the section with all the different $5 books and it's not like I expected it to be some banger of a book, just filler and I could have been reading something else. It wasn't as bad as this review makes it sound now that I'm wrapping it up.

I enjoyed reading this book from the beginning until the very last chapter. Not only do I like to be corrected on the fabrications I learned in my own history class and know what really happened as opposed to some white-washed, fraudulent bullshit. I also love how you touch up on history as a whole when reading something like this. What I'm trying to say is you learn who the original 4 G.W.'s Cabinet members were. A lot of people may be able to recite who they were and what department but I definitely couldn't before reading this book. I bet an even smaller number of people can tell you who was in his 2nd Cabinet, for 2nd term- with actually 2 departments having 2 secretaries due to death or resignation-and if they can well then I am highly impressed and in awe. The book covered a lot without going too far past its usefulness and having lots of filler to increase those page numbers. (I actually don't think professional writers/authors really have the size of the book/article at the forefront of their mind but I guess I'm projecting my high school/college papers and milking anything I could for page stretching. I digress....