I am now reading In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson. I heard an interview with the author on NPR and was intrigued by the subject.

FDR had trouble finding someone to be our ambassador to Nazi Germany. The American consul general describes the Nazi government as a “danger to world peace” and adds that some members of the government are psychopaths “who would ordinarily be receiving treatment somewhere.” A mild mannered professor becomes the US ambassador to Nazi Germany after several others turn down the job. This is further complicated by his free-spirited daughter who admires the “New Germany”, enjoys elite society, and has a series of affairs including one with the head of the Gestopo and another with a Soviet spy. I’m only about a third through the book but I am completely enjoying it and learning quite a bit of history never covered in school.