
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson, the period before Word War II is a period of fascination for me. It’s the hindsight realization that they could not see the impact of their answers, but we can. It’s the story of William E. Dodd, who was appointed ambassador to Germany at the beginning of the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, and the struggles Dodd’s family had while watching the every-growing grip on Hitler’s Nazi party on Germany. I liked this book by Larson better than The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, which I read in November 2011.
My August list, will look because I’m more than half way through two Dick Couch books Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior and Sua Sponte: The Forging of a Modern American Ranger.