Meaningful reading

Great intro to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Revisado: 03-25-24

This was a very concise presentation on the Atlantic and Transatlantic slave trade. This book begins with the European expeditions which turned into slave trades and slave suppliers. It also focuses on perhaps what can be described as the root of these slave trades which were the African slave owners and traders. The book also describes the effects of slavery and its final abolishment. The performance was well read, specifically in its serious tome reflecting the subject matter. If you are looking for a short but impactful history on the transatlantic slave trade, give this a read/listen.

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Remarkable account

Revisado: 09-11-23

Tricia adds to the various NDE literature in this book with her own account. I like the courage of her conviction to put a story like this out, mainly because it questions everything we thought we knew about healing, medical science, and the actual abilities of our physicians and surgeons. What if there was divine intervention happening and we've been mistakenly giving all the credit to medical professionals? This certainly wouldn't underscore what medical professionals do, but we would certainly know that we as humans are not alone through trauma or tragedy. The performance was well done. I could hear the convictions in the reader's voice to the point of feeling their experiences. NDEs in my view are fascinating phenomena, and this story is nothing short of this.

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Detailed yet repetitive

Revisado: 09-11-23

I always wondered why President Obama did not act on his warnings after learning that Bashar Al-Assad used chemical weapons on Syrian civilians in 2012. This book provided various potential reasons but nothing definitive. If one was not aware of the brutal dictatorship of the Assad's, this book outlines them well. However, it becomes repetitive reading as these same details flow almost from start to finish of the audiobook. The performance was a bit dry. The reader was flat and monotone throughout the story, with no real emotion. Overall, the book does give insight to the chaos, but probably could have been shortened.

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Corruption through power well detailed

Revisado: 09-08-23

I believe that when most if not everyone who hears the name Gaddafi, a slick talking dictator who was killed by rebels automatically comes to mind. However, this book records the account of a young girl who outlines just how far this dictator went via his obsession with kidnapping, grooming, raping, and making slaves out of his own country's children. Through first-person accounts, the details of Gaddafi's abuse towards his female prisoners (many turned Amazonian guards) are stomach turning. The narrator's performance is well executed. Through her performance, it's as if you are with the victim and feeling her struggles. This book is a much needed addition to the character of the late President Gaddafi.

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Needed more of the Japan perspective

Revisado: 09-08-23

I appreciate any undertaking of telling the history of the A-Bomb and its use in 1945 on Japan. This account gives us an over 100 day countdown from the time FDR dies until the dropping of the bomb. Although I understand the American importance for carefully detailing that history, I would have liked to hear more from the Japanese perspective. The book does give insights to one or two Japanese survivors, but what was the Japanese response on the ground in the post bomb attack? How did the Japanese view America and Americans afterward? The performance of the story served its purpose but I suppose I'm use to hearing Chris Wallace's distinct voice speak from biased news sources so I kind of wished at times another narrator performed this story.

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Great journalistic work

Revisado: 06-29-23

I can recall exactly where I was on 7/17/1996. I was leaving a movie theater with family who came up to NJ to visit from GA. When we got home at about 9:30pm, on the news was a special report about a plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Weeks, months and years had then passed, and all anyone ever talked about was a bomb/missile being the cause. However, those who worked closely on the TWA 800 case did not reach this conclusion after exhausting all possibilities of a crime. Pat Milton was able to capture this through rigorous investigative journalism that involved combing through both FBI and NTSB information. In addition, the victims and their families take on personalities rather than unknown passengers and those related to them in this book. Milton shows all of the extensive measures the FBI used to determine whether criminal activity was used to bring down flight 800, as well as some of the infighting between the FBI and NTSB. The story is riveting overall and the reading fits the mood well.

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Great history and leadership

Revisado: 01-16-23

In the past, I’ve read snippets about King Abdullah II and came away impressed. Reading this book amplified my impression of the king. This book has great historical information both concerning the country of Jordan, as well as other Middle Eastern nation and their leaders. The accounts told here are riveting, and goes beyond the information presented in news broadcasts. In the end, King Abdullah only wants peace in the region, especially between Israel and Palestine. I believe that his view on how that could happen has strong potential if both sides could finally come to terms.

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Survivor/Resilient would be a more fitting title

Revisado: 12-23-22

I have always for some reason after watching Huma Abedin along with Hillary Clinton felt as though Huma played a huge role in Clinton’s success. Just the mere visual of Huma seemed to communicate hard worker, studious, and even perfect! This book demystifies those notions but certainly not in a negative way. The book actually shows how all of those virtues are true, but not without imperfect experiences, setbacks, hardships, and all the things a great leader or aide to a great leader must accomplish to determine if they can handle the heat or not. Starting as an intern and working her way up the ladder as a political aide, Huma gained what many would describe as the experience of a lifetime. She traveled the world, met with many top world leaders, was embraced by many, found romance, lost romance, had her career put in jeopardy due to her romance, experienced the harsh political divisiveness of the 2016 election and yet, she still managed to come out of it all stronger.

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A man with a dual nature

Revisado: 12-23-22

The author does a fine job with stitching together the interviews that were conducted with several people close to Saddam Hussein. In particular, the author’s description of the 12 military servicemen (The Super 12) who guarded Saddam after his 2003 capture at his palace are very intriguing. These accounts describe the opposite portrait portrayed by the US media and US government officials of a mad, murderous, western-hating dictator. Although those descriptions were not inaccurate per se, they certainly did not describe the totality of the character of Saddam Hussein. In fact, the Super 12 became so close to Saddam after engaging with him on several friendly topics they discussed, in addition to playing chess, smoking cigars, and exchanging gifts with the former Iraqi president, that after his execution and desecration of of his body, they themselves felt betrayed, hurt, and traumatized by it. This was due mainly to the fact that they had considered Saddam by this time a friend and perhaps even like family. This is a suitable book for anyone looking to learn about the complexity of a man who can embody evil in one minute, but embody compassion the next.

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Facts destroy fiction

Revisado: 12-23-22

This book destroys much of the mystique that the Jackson family has mesmerized the public with for years. Although the book is mainly centered on the author’s marriage to Jermaine Jackson, one gets a nice view into the rest of the Jackson family. Jermaine is depicted as a jealous, abusive (physically and psychologically), stubborn tyrant in this book. Many fans have always speculated that Jermaine was always jealous of MJ’s success, and this book certainly outlines this as well as the rest of his neurotic behaviors. The patriarch, Joe Jackson is seen as one to be feared (as most fans also suspected). This is clearly evident when the book describes a scene where Joe had his hands around Latoya Jackson’s former husband Jack Gordon’s neck. Latoya is seen as one who communicates the most and confides in the author. The matriarch, Katherine Jackson is seen as one who stands by her son Jermaine, despite the abuse the author is complaining to her about by his hands. In fact, she eventually hides from the author due to not wanting to fully address the abuse. The other brothers (and Rebbe Jackson) are seen as free-loaders, living off of MJ’s allowance money to his mother and refusing to seek employment, along with their wives. Janet and MJ are untouched with any negative press from the author. Janet is untouched due to not living at the compound with the rest of the family at this time so she is largely out of the picture. MJ is praised as being charitable, loving, and innocent.

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