Berlin 1961

Initially I found this book daunting. The book's girth alone is intimidating; it weighs in at 579 pages.

Once I got past the length of the book and past the idea that the book's topic would be unapproachable, and I began to read, I found the book to be everything a person wants in a good nonfiction book. The book was well researched. The subject was fresh. The writing was inviting. And the story itself had a compelling pull on the reader; of course we know the world didn't blow up in Berlin of 1961, but it was breathtaking to walk with the author as Kennedy and Khruschev taunted each other to throw the first punch.

Deep-dive into Russia-US relations in JFK's first year in office. The most interesting part was to realize that Russia was influencing our US elections even in 1960 (by withholding release of POWs, which could have given Nixon the 100,000 or so votes needed to prevail). I didn't learn much about the Berlin Wall that I did not know already, but I did learn more about the men involved in the US/Germany/France/Soviet Union and how Berlin and Cuba related, and it did seem very relevant to our current saga