Mara

Clearly well researched, engaging read, but not my favorite Larson book.

I feel like I know a decent bit about Germany of this era - not that I have any real level of expertise, but I have studied it as just about much as any historic era and place, and there is a wealth of information and scholarship out there on the subject. This book approached Hitler's Germany from an angle I hadn't considered, and brought numerous events that in my mind had just come to be one after another into a broader context. It showed the gradual rise of the Nazi regime, the events that led to some of those “inevitable” points of interest which are most often listed. There were many more people shaping events than are usually mentioned, and a shocking amount of it comes down to casual interpersonal interactions rather than rigid formal government actions.

It's hard to compare to Devil in the White City, at least in my mind, but when thinking of Larson's work in general, this has not quite as compelling a narrative as that one does. It's thoroughly researched and the history is presented in an easily approached manner, I just never quite got as invested in the “story line” of the main characters.

Listened to this as an audiobook.

The structure of this book was a little strange, because of the journey aspect. It felt like there were lots of smaller peaks spread throughout the book, that could have almost been fully separate stories. They did in the end all build up to the climax at the end, but during the events they felt fairly self contained. This book did what the second in the series did, it ended basically in the middle of a scene. I'm glad I didn't read these as they were released, that would have driven me absolutely insane. Cliffhanger-ish chapters are maddening enough, but when going from one book to the next, I would like at last some sense of closure.

The mammoth sex was um, quite a thing.

It's hard to say much bad about a book that got me to cry within the first chapter. I liked this book a lot.

I liked hearing more about Michelle's background than I'd known before, and that she was frank and open about her life leading up to the political spotlight. It lost me a bit once they were in the White House because I'm less of one for inspirational texts.