The Winter Fortress – How Nine Norwegians Saved the World!!

The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb – Neal Bascomb The Winter Fortress recounts the tale of the 1942 sabotage of the Vemork hydroelectric plant in Norway. The plant was one of the few places in the world that produced heavy water. Nazi Germany wanted all the heavy water that Norway could produce.. Heavy water was a key element for the production of an atomic bomb. I never had really heard of the mission before reading the book, but now I feel that I lived through it! Bascomb did a great job researching and writing The Winter…

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The Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in the US in 1915!

  Dark Invasion:1915: Germany’s Secret War & the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America – Howard Blum The Beginning of World War I The hunt for the first terrorist cell in the United States had its beginnings on June 28, 1914 when….. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, visit Sarajevo in Bosnia. A bomb is thrown at their auto but misses. Undaunted, they continue their visit only to be shot and killed a short time later by a lone assassin. Believing the assassin to be a Serbian nationalist, the Austrians target their anger toward…

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Grover Cleveland Marries in the White House – June 2, 1886

Grover Cleveland’s Bride Frances Folsom is 27 years his junior!!   On June 2, 1886 Grover Cleveland became the first US president to be married in the White House and guess what it was kinda’ creepy! At the time of his marriage, Grover Cleveland was a forty-nine  year-old bachelor. The woman he married Francs Folsom was 22 year-old. She was the daughter of Cleveland’s late best friend and law partner Oscar Folsom. Frances, at the time of their marriage, had known Cleveland  from birth. In fact, she used to climb on his knee and call him “Uncle Cleve”. Frances’ father…

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The Presidents’ War – Chris DeRose

The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them       Chris DeRose (Book 18 of 2015)   Through the years,I have read many books about the Civil War. Most of those books center around the battles and the Generals. Until I saw the book The Presidents’ War I never thought or knew about the former Presidents who were alive during the conflict. As a matter of fact, the book’s author Chris DeRose writes in the Acknowledgments of the book ….I had never known of the former presidents who lived to see the Civil War…

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Book 8 of 2012 – A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland

  Imagine a presidential candidate is accused of fathering a child out of wedlock! Oh, yeah, we had that with John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. Only this candidate admitted paternity, the child was named after his best friend and he still was elected the 22nd president of the United States! The story of this scandal and others form the foundation of Book 8 of 2012, Charles Lachman’s  A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland. The book claims to reveal for the first time the true story of Maria Halpin the young woman, who according to the…

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Book 5 of 2012 – American Emperor – David O. Stewart

So most tines when I read non-fiction I start out well, then get bogged down and end up only reading a third to half of the book. Well, I decided to stick with Book 5 for 2012 American Emperor:Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America by David O. Stewart and I finally finished it tonight! I renewed the book from the library about three times! The book follows Burr’s life basically from the duel with Alexander Hamilton through to his death and focuses mainly on Burr’s plans to conquer the Spanish possessions in Florida and then invade Mexico and set himself…

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