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Ephemera

Ephemera

Joined March 2018

Fiction, non-fiction, whatever appeals
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Ephemera
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This is a book about the flat Earth movement. The first few chapters cover the originator of this belief and those who followed in his footsteps, up to the present day. As the book goes on, the author explains how this movement has also embraced a lot of other conspiracy theories and how conspiracy theories in general are enlarged on and spread via social media like Facebook, X, Instagram and chat rooms aimed at the gullible. Five stars.

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Ephemera
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The author is a Professor of American Studies at a university in Germany and though the book is only 163 pages long, it was a bit hard to get through. There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there: JFK‘s death, 9/11, and most recently Covid-19. The author explains how theories start and evolve over time, and why people buy into them. Some can be dangerous, as we know. All are improbable. Four stars

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Ephemera
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This book is a two-fer. You get a synopsis of a movie plus a detailed account of the criminal and the crimes that inspired the film. Starting with “M”, made in 1931, the book includes movies such as “Psycho”, “The Exorcist”, “The Silence of the Lambs”, “Scream”, and “Poltergeist”, to name a few. If you like scary movies, you might enjoy this book.

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Ephemera
The Wicked Boy | Kate Summerscale
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The wicked boy was a 13 year old lower class youngster who killed his mother in 1895 in London, England. An outrageous crime that gripped the local populace and furnished the local tabloids with an opportunity to rail against penny dreadful reading material, the boy was soon convicted but sent to Broadmoor asylum for the criminally insane. An excellent book and more than just true crime, it‘s a tale of redemption. Five stars

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Ephemera
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This is a non-fiction retelling of what happened when an English housewife suddenly began experiencing poltergeist activity in her home. This happened at a time when mediums and seances were popular in the UK and just prior to the first stirrings of WW 2. A prominent psychic investigator decided to look into the case. Lots of clever deception with Freudian overtones makes an interesting study of human nature. Four stars

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Ephemera
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If you are interested in forensics or crime, this is an interesting and informative read. The author worked as a medico-legal investigator in NYC. This job entailed making the initial determination as to cause of death whenever a body was found. Was cause of death natural, homicide, or suicide? Be aware that vivid descriptive writing may be upsetting to those with weak stomachs. Five stars.

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Ephemera
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This is quite an interesting book. It‘s non-fiction and was written by a man who traveled to the area in British Columbia known as the Great Bear Rainforest. He went there to talk to people who have seen Sasquatch, hoping, of course, to see one himself. But the book is about more than that, it‘s also a glimpse into the lives of the First Nation tribes who live there. Wonderful writing.

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Ephemera
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A friend gave me this book for Christmas and I enjoyed it immensely. Written by an American who moved to the UK to teach in a college there, it‘s interesting and funny. I‘m an Anglophile and have visited England twice and I love the peculiarities of British English. If you like any aspect of British culture, I think you would enjoy this book.

BkClubCare I work with a Brit; we would love this! 1mo
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Ephemera
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This is an interesting little book. Basically it‘s just an alphabetical listing of movies and TV shows that have set their stories in the Pacific Northwest. Each movie has a short synopsis and critique and mentions locations included in the movie. Two sections cover Seattle and Washington State, and Portland and Oregon. If you‘re a movie buff it‘s fun and informative. Short but fulfills its purpose.

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Ephemera
The Exhibitionist | Charlotte Mendelson
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Lucia is married to Ray. Both are artists, but Ray‘s star is fading. Lucia has always had to coddle Ray‘s fragile ego and put her career aside. This novel is about family dynamics and how narcissism affects everyone in the orbit of a narcissist. The author is British and the book is very good, but I found the ending to be rather disappointing. Still I give it five stars.

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Ephemera
Kill Show: A True Crime Novel | Daniel Sweren-Becker
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Although this is a novel, it calls itself a true crime story. The premise is that a 16 year old girl goes missing and a reality show producer swoops into town to cover the story. It‘s all too plausible that this could happen and how it affects the townspeople and the investigation rings true. Lots of twists in the story and tragedy too. If you read true crime, you might like this. Very telling about human nature.

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Ephemera
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This book was interesting. I live in Washington so the material was relevant to me. I learned a lot about local history, especially about Seattle, while reading this. It would be an excellent reference for anyone looking to explore haunted locations. A listing of cities and towns in Washington and the places that are haunted in each will guide the ghost hunters to a paranormal encounter, perhaps. Lots of photos too.

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Ephemera
Extenuating Circumstances | Joyce Carol Oates
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Another book of short stories by Oates. I think a good word to describe her stories is ‘unsettling‘. She doesn‘t seem to be writing conventional horror, her aim seems to be showing us the everyday weirdness and creepiness that exists in the world. Glimpses of the hidden facets of people‘s lives and personalities. These stories leave an impression on the reader that is often just as jarring as the horror of monsters. Five stars
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Ephemera
Zero-Sum: Stories | Joyce Carol Oates
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I haven‘t read any short stories by Oates and only one novel by her. She‘s quite prolific and is one of the most well known authors in the country. The stories here are unusual, I might even say creepy, but very good. I suppose they might fit into that genre of psychological horror, and many of her other collections land there too, if the titles are anything to go by. Highly recommend, five stars.

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Ephemera
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I‘m a huge Kate Atkinson fan, so of course I put this book of short stories on hold at the library as soon as I saw that it was coming out. I was not disappointed, it‘s a wonderful book. The stories are interconnected and full of twists and surprises. Naturally the writing is terrific. Atkinson never fails to please. If you‘ve never read any of her books, try this one just for fun. Five big stars.

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Ephemera
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We‘ve all seen ads on the internet or TV that push dubious ‘alternative‘ cures for every malady under the sun. This non-fiction book uses the quackery of seven people to illustrate their claims of having the ‘one true cure‘ and how their claims affected some of the people who believed their lies. The book is humorous at times, but it really is a cautionary tale about desperation, gullibility, and greed. Highly recommended.

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The Secret History | Donna Tartt
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I don‘t read a lot of fiction but I really enjoyed this book. It‘s been around awhile, came out in the 90s, when it was apparently a best seller. Set in a small liberal arts college in Vermont, it‘s the story of a small group of friends whose lives change forever after a local man is accidentally killed. Wonderful writing and interesting characters and an ending that jolts. A psychological thriller and a page turner. Five stars.

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Ephemera
Ghostwritten | Ronald Malfi
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This is a book containing four novellas and all the stories revolve around a book. I‘ve never read anything by this author, but he does seem to have quite a list of novels that have been published. Just based on these four stories I would surmise that his specialty is psychological horror and he does a passable job of it. If you‘re a horror fan you might like to check this out.

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True crime. This is an up to the minute account of the case of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, two Mormon fringe extremists who killed her two kids, her husband and his wife. It all began with Chad‘s supposed near death experience followed by his insipid books making him a prepper favorite. He had his own little cult going. It‘s a story that will anger you and appall you. It‘s also the kind of story that‘s common in the Mormon church.

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Ephemera
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The little gray bastards are aliens. According to Jordan Hofer, these big-eyed ETs have been abducting humans for thousands of years and mean us harm. They also kill us. Sorry, but I have a hard time buying into this theory and this book. He gives no attributions for his claims and there are no footnotes in the entire book. In fact, I thought it was parody for a few chapters. If they‘re so nasty, why not just subdue us and take over?

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Godfrey wrote a lot of books about cryptids and this is one of them. Most of the accounts in this book deal with people seeing upright canids resembling what we think of as werewolves. The author was once a newspaper reporter and thus very thorough in her investigations. She even had sightings of her own. Most people will dismiss this book as myth, but the world is full of mysteries like these. Five stars

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This is a book about a man who loved to manipulate others. It‘s quite a convoluted story but very interesting. His manipulations impacted lives in myriad ways, none of them good. Very well written and researched. If the internet didn‘t exist, he would have never been able to commit his crimes. Google the title and you can see what this guy looks like. Five stars.

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Hollywood: The Oral History | Sam Wasson, Jeanine Basinger
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If you are interested in the evolution of motion pictures, then this is a book you will want to read. It‘s called the oral history because each chapter consists of comments and remarks made by Hollywood notables, taken from interviews done by the American Film Institute. There are names here you will know and many you won‘t know, but all these people are part of the history of film in Hollywood. Five huge stars.

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Ephemera
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Just an okay mystery. The author seems to have blatantly stolen the writing style of the late Robert B. Parker, who wrote the Spenser series. Entertaining but derivative. Full of mayhem and Russian gangsters. Three stars.

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Ultimately this book is about human consciousness and how creative people receive inspiration. The premise is that consciousness is non-local and universal. So consciousness is like a limitless network that can be utilized by anyone who is able to quiet the left brain chatter and allow the right brain to access it. Of course this flies in the face of accepted science and is rejected by materialists. Perhaps God is an alien. Five stars.

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Death comes for us all, but what if death is not the end? This book is the result of what was learned during experiments conducted in the late 90s by a scientist at the University of Arizona. Five mediums agreed to participate and do readings for sitters they could not see and who could only respond with yes or no. The results were amazing and seem to affirm that human consciousness survives body death and they long to communicate with us.

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This is quite an interesting book. Written by a female professor of religious studies at UNC, it touches on parallels between religion and UFO encounters. The book also discusses how humans process visual material, what consciousness is and how it works, and how technology impacts our lives. Are some humans in touch with alien consciousness? Have you ever had thoughts or ideas you knew were not your own? Give this book a go. Five stars

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The author of this book is a retired senior Army officer and Ph.D. The book covers a wide range of phenomena that fall under the radar of scientific investigation and are generally dismissed by mainstream scientists. Ghost activity, UFOs, remote viewing, ESP, and psychic healing are just a few of the subjects he writes about. Though the book has some editing mistakes, it‘s fairly well written. Four stars.

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Some of you may be familiar with Val McDermid as an author of mysteries. This book, however, is non-fiction and very interesting. Because McDermid lives in Scotland, most of the examples she relates about crimes are from the UK, so I learned a lot about investigative methods used there. If you have any curiosity about the various branches of forensics, you will enjoy this book. Five stars.

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If you‘ve ever read any books on the UFO phenomenon, then you‘re probably familiar with the men in black. This book shares various theories about who or what the men in black may be. The list includes tulpas, tricksters, vampires, time travelers, and demons. The author, Nick Redfern, is a longtime investigator of paranormal subjects and he‘s done his homework. Quite interesting. Four stars

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Aurora is the name of the suburb in Colorado where James Holmes opened fire inside a movie theater in 2012, killing 12 people and injuring 70 more. This book relates the story behind the attack as told by a female psychiatrist who briefly treated Holmes just prior to the incident. It‘s a harrowing account of an appalling crime but crimes like this are all too common in our country now. Four stars.

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I have read many, many books about paranormal subjects over the years and this is the first time an author has theorized that everything paranormal originates from the same source. He calls it a spectrum. So ghosts, cryptids, UFOs, aliens and other examples of high strangeness are produced along this spectrum. It‘s an interesting approach. The section on peculiar visits is the best, very eerie. Worth a read.

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Ephemera
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I liked this book more than I thought I would. The title is a little dramatic and the cover art is too, but the author makes some good observations about this unknown creature and his credibility is good since he‘s a Sasquatch seeker in his home state of Ohio. He includes a few photos which purport to show Sasquatches in a forest setting, but the quality of these is very poor and probably should‘ve been left out. Four stars.

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No, they‘re not. This is an interesting book that traces the timeline around UFOs and all the theories that have grown up around them since the 1950s. If you‘re a skeptic on the subject, you‘ll like the debunking. The author is a scientist and she knows what she‘s talking about. As Mulder would say “the truth is out there” but it‘s not necessarily the truth you want it to be. Five stars

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Ephemera
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Many people have premonitions but what good are they? In 1966 a huge pile of coal mine slag rolled downhill and covered a school in Aberfan, a village in England, killing 144 people, many of them children. A doctor who responded to this emergency learned that people in other parts of the country had had a premonition of this event and established a premonitions bureau. This book is about both the doctor and the puzzle of premonitions.

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Ephemera
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If true crime is your thing, you should read this book. This book is about how a cold case double murder was solved using genetic genealogy, which is the process that was used to track down the killer of the four students in Idaho and also the Golden State Killer. The writing is terrific and the story is a page turner. Five big stars.

DocBrown This author just came to my town! 1y
Ephemera Very cool. The book is really well written and researched 1y
4 likes2 comments
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Ephemera
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This book about assisted dying was written by a Canadian doctor who decided to switch her specialty from obstetrics to assisted dying when Canada voted to allow medically assisted dying in 2016. It highlights the changes she experienced in herself as well as the changes in the Canadian medical system from that year up to 2021, when this book came out. Very informative and enlightening. Five stars.

DocBrown Have you come across this one? 1y
Ephemera No. The books I was interested in reading about assisted dying had many, many stories about how families and spouses dealt with grief and loss. But thanks for the suggestion. 1y
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Ephemera
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The story of death with dignity or assisted dying is often a story of someone with a debilitating diagnosis who can‘t use the assisted dying law in their state or country. This book tells the stories of four such people and how they dealt with their situation. It‘s a very good book and new; it came out in 2021. If you are curious about the right to die movement, this book will teach you a lot. Four stars.

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Ephemera
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This book was written by a woman whose father died a bad death. It wasn‘t peaceful or dignified and it was not the way her father wished to go. After this happened, the author decided to look into the way Americans deal with death. She became a hospice volunteer, but she also did a lot of research on aspects of our health system, the Death With Dignity laws, extreme measures after brain death and so on. A very good book.

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Ephemera
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This is a very good book written by a doctor in the UK who specializes in palliative care. She is very talented and compassionate in her interactions with patients who are terminal and their families. Every true story in the book teaches the reader something about dying and grief. I recommend this book for anyone who may have a family member or friend who is approaching the end of life. Five stars.

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Ephemera
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If you live in a state that has an assisted dying law, you might like to read this book. If you have a family member with a terminal illness who wishes to use an assisted dying law, you should definitely read this book. Just about every question you might have about assisted dying is addressed in this book. I live in a state with a death with dignity law and I will use it if need be. Very well written. Five stars.

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Ephemera
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This is a very good book. It‘s all about the different professions that deal with death and dying. I know that sounds morbid, but nothing here is offensive. As I was reading it, so many of the things she wrote jogged my memory. Very well written and very well researched. Five stars.

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Hollywood Horrors | Andrea Van Landingham
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Ignore the sensationalistic title. If you‘re interested in the history of Hollywood and the scandals involving big Hollywood names, I think you will enjoy this book. I was quite intrigued by the chapter on the Black Dahlia murder, and also the death of mob figure John Stompanato, the abusive boyfriend of Lana Turner. Lots of information here and pretty well written. Four stars.

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Shrines of Gaiety | Kate Atkinson
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I have read almost every book by Kate Atkinson and enjoyed them all. This book is another winner. Set in London in 1926, it follows the life of Nellie Coker and her adult children. Nellie owns five popular nightclubs frequented by the rich and famous. She has just been released from prison for violating the liquor laws as the book begins. Full of interesting characters and droll humor, the story is a page turner. Five stars. Go grab it!

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Ephemera
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I really enjoyed reading this book. Although I am not a ghost hunter or haunted house explorer, I do like to read about the experiences of people who pursue this kind of paranormal investigation. This book covers a wide range of subjects and at the end of it there are suggestions on how to become more open to psychic phenomena. The author is British and the writing is very good. Five stars.

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This book is a collection of articles written by Joan Didion during the 1960s. Being a Boomer, I could relate to a lot of her observations and anyone born after 1980 can read this book and get a good sense of what life in the US was like during those years. The writing is excellent, I can‘t say that enough. Didion had a wonderful style and incisiveness about her writing. Her voice was wholly her own. Five stars.

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Sleepwalk: A Novel | Dan Chaon
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I love Dan Chaon‘s work and this new book is excellent. Set in the US in some not so distant future, the main character is a 50 year old man named Billy who works for a mysterious company doing various shady chores. He has a dog named Flip and he travels in a small RV he has named Guiding Star. That‘s all I‘ll say except you should read this book immediately. Ten stars.

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True crime mixed with science. This book is by a professor of physiology so it includes a section in each chapter about how each poison works in the human body, at the cellular level. Famous murder cases are related and include the death of Georgi Markov, killed with a tiny hollow pellet filled with ricin, and Charles Cullen, the killer nurse who used digoxin. Quite interesting. Five stars.

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If you‘re a fan of dystopian sci-fi, I think you‘ll enjoy the stories in this collection. There are many permutations of the Apocalypse here by many good writers. Not all the stories are scary and sad, there are some filled with black humor. It‘s interesting to see what the writers came up with for the end of the world. Five stars.

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Ephemera
Miami | Joan Didion
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This book came out in 1987 and relates the ins and outs of Cuban exile politics as played out in Miami, Florida. After Castro removed Batista from power, a lot of Cubans fled to the US and most took up residence in Miami. Because this was during the Cold War era, it was expected that the US would provide the means to remove Castro and thwart communism there. These hopes were never fulfilled. Four stars