Book - Living in Nazi Germany

Living in Nazi Germany (Exploring Cultural History)
Elaine Halleck, Peggy Parks
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This book was an OK read. Mainly a collection of papers/stories/reports of different aspects during the war. Quite informative.

Because of this book, I'm actually now pretty interested in the non-Jew "aliens" (like the story about that mixed/black child) during the time of the war. When we talk about WWII, automatically people think about the Holocaust and then the whole spotlight goes to the Jews. Not that I don't care about them, but honestly, I didn't realize that "Mixed race" (as in, minorities like Afro-European mixes, not inter-European race mixes) existed already at that time. I thought that was more of a modern thing really.

I can now branch out my interests!

Book - Travel, Sex and Train Wrecks

Travel, Sex and Train Wrecks
Julie Morey
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What does one do when they've suffered a bad break up, and are trying to "find" themselves, but aren't quite ready to deal with reality?

Travel, of course

And so begins my adventure, or should I say misadventure? Seven months taking on Southeast Asia trying to find the answers to life, God, relationships, and sex.

I'd spent the last five years overseas teaching English and was currently living in Taiwan. I was thirty three. My ten year marriage had fallen apart and I suddenly found myself single with no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I had questions with no answers and a divorce I didn't want to deal with.

So, I ran. To Thailand. To Cambodia. To Vietnam. To India. To Sri Lanka. I mean really if you're going to go on the lam can you think of a better place than the exotic beauty of Southeast Asia?

In Travel, Sex, and Train Wrecks I present the whole sordid story of my journey. Just to give you fair warning it does involve sex, hot men with accents, Pad Thai, and bizarre travel situations. And it will probably leave you with an uncontrollable urge to travel to Thailand.

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This was quite an interesting book. Can't comment or judge too much on it, as this is a really personal topic - this Julie decided to use travel for her therapy or way to find herself, so, it's cool.

It reads more like a diary/blog and probably wouldn't be much of a help as a travel guide. Though, I must say, she has now gotten me interested in the place called Pai in Thailand, that monk monastery place where she had her 10-day total silence retreat (I would LOVE to try that) and I'd really like to try volunteer work in these places.

But probably I'm just too chicken to make such a decision. hm...

Book - Valkyrie: The Plot To Kill Hitler

Valkyrie: The Plot To Kill Hitler
Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager
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When the Second World War broke out, Philipp von Boeselager fought enthusiastically for his country, leading a cavalry unit first in France and later on the Russian Front. However, when he discovered what the SS were doing to Jews and Gypsies in the summer of 1942 his enthusiasm quickly turned to disgust. Along with his brother Georg, he joined a group of conspirators in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. After several abortive assassination attempts, including one in which von Boeselager was supposed to shoot the Fuhrer with his own pistol, the plotters finally decided on a plan to blow Hitler up with a bomb. Von Boeselager transported the explosives and passed them on to Claus von Stauffenberg. He and his brother then moved their cavalry units to Berlin to take control of the city.

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I agree with one of the reviews on this book: yes, this was immensely interesting, but as there were a lot of military terminology and jargon, so I couldn't fully understand this book.

Moreover, the author made the conspiracy sound as if it's now a well known fact. Maybe it is, but I know nothing of it. An example would be, there is a part where he explains about the escape or retreat, and then says that, "that even would then lead to what everyone knows," and then branch off to talk about something else. But... I have no idea what this "everyone knows" is... and I'd like to know. But i don't even know how to search about it..

This book actually gave me quite a revelation. I had not known that the military originally had nothing to do with the Nazi party nor any party nor government for that matter. The author sort of digressed in parts to focus more on his brother - not a bad thing in itself, but it would make the title of the book seem moot.

Part of it could get pretty dry though, so, not a "light" reading material.