History's Greatest Mysteries and the Secrets Behind Them by Bill Price

History was second only to math in my most hated school topics. The way it was taught in my school it seemed to be like binging and purging - you cram as many dates and really similar names down your throat as you can and then regurgitate it when it's time to take the tests. Take 1066 for example: two of the major players are Harold Godwinson and Harald Hardrada. Then later you need to figure out how to separate the Roosevelts. If I ever get on Jeopardy, a sure way to make sure I don't win is to have a category on US Presidents. Once I finally got through with school, I gradually began to find history more interesting, so much so that I actually considered getting a degree in history (then quickly un-considered it).

It's books like this one that make history a delight to me now. Granted, this is a bit unusual, covering everything from the Neanderthals to Jimmy Hoffa. Price gleefully pokes fun at the more ridiculous of theories, and some of them are hilarious. Some people see conspiracies everywhere; the rest of us get to point at them and giggle. It's a win-win in my book.

Although it was published in 2012, there are some updates that need to be made - there's a guy out there who claims the Zodiac Killer was his father, and I'd like to have known how that worked out. There are also a lot of grammatical and spelling errors, which really annoy me, but luckily the book was entertaining enough that it made up for it.