Winter Garden

Author: Kristin Hannah

Pages: 391

Rating: PG-13 (There is some language, some sex is discussed as well. Mostly, it's just a very mature subject matter, I would rate it high school and above.)

Summary:
Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family business; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, these two estranged sisters will find themselves together again, standing alongside their disapproving mother, Anya, who even now offers no comfort to her daughters. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise: Anya will tell her daughters a story; it is one she began years ago and never finished. This time she will tell it all the way to the end. The tale their mother tells them is unlike anything they’ve heard before—a captivating, mysterious love story that spans more than sixty years and moves from frozen, war-torn Leningrad to modern-day Alaska. Nina’s obsession to uncover the truth will send them all on an unexpected journey into their mother’s past, where they will discover a secret so shocking, it shakes the foundation of their family and changes who they believe they are.

My Thoughts: A good historical fiction novel always leads me to do my own research on the time period to learn more than I could from the book. This novel was no exception. I found myself on Google many times during and after my reading, looking up pictures, stories, facts, etc. This book is about Stalin - controlled Russia going into World War II, specifically the siege of Leningrad. I knew next to nothing about this subject before I started reading. Now, my curiosity has been awakened and I want to learn more!  I knew Stalin was bad, but I never really knew HOW bad. I had never read any accounts of what happened. Although this book is a work of fiction, it is historically accurate as far as the author could make it, and many (if not almost all) of Anya's experiences are things that happened to real people.

This book was truly moving, inspiring, all the other really good words you can use to describe a book. It was thought-provoking and it caused me to ponder and reflect on my life experiences and how they related to the lives of the characters. I almost always put this book down with a profound feeling of gratitude for the freedoms and luxuries I enjoy just because I live in the United States in the 21st Century.

This book is also about forgiveness, understanding, and being unafraid to love. It was just so so good. Highly recommend it.

And There Was Light

Author: Jaques Lusseyran

Pages: 282

Rating: PG (there is no language and he doesn't even ever get super descriptive about violence either. However, this is definitely an adult book because the writing is too...dense? for a younger audience. It's very deep and intense)

Summary:
When Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the world around him. In 1941, when he was seventeen, that world was Nazi-occupied France. Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty-two boys and used his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually, Lusseyran was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters. He was one of only thirty from the transport to survive. His gripping story is one of the most powerful and insightful descriptions of living and thriving with blindness, or indeed any challenge, ever published.

My Thoughts: I found this book...a little tough to get through. There is very little dialogue, and some of the philosophical ideas the author expounds upon went a bit over my head. The story was very interesting, that's for sure, but I felt like he spent way too much time on his childhood and very few pages on his work with the Resistance and subsequent imprisonment. I did enjoy the many reflections on how although he could not see with his eyes, he could still see in many other ways, and most of the time he did not consider himself handicapped at all. I think his general attitude about life is incredibly admirable and worth emulating. He also was one who survived the concentration camps by focusing on helping others instead of on his own difficulties. He fully believed in God the entire time, and realized the importance of just letting each moment of life be what it is and just accepting it.

I think in order to get the full effect of this book you have to pause a lot to reflect on what has just been said. It's not a book you can just read through quickly (like I did). It was definitely a different perspective than I have read before though and was very good!

The Nightingale

Author: Kristin Hannah
Pages: 438
Rating: PG-13 (It's war, it's intense, there are 2 F-bombs, and a few other scattered bad words, but not many, most of the swearing is done in French, so unless you know French swear words, it's not a big deal. A woman is raped, there is some torture and of course, people are killed.)

Summary:
In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.
FRANCE, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France … but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can … completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

My Thoughts: I loved this book. World War II is my favorite period of history to read about because I am just constantly amazed at the bravery and toughness that carried these people through such a difficult time. I loved this book because it was all about the "women's war." Towards the end of the book there is a quote that I thought was so awesome. "Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over." I just loved that. Men went out and fought the war, but women fought in their own way. The war was terrible for everyone, not just those who had to fight or who got sent to camps.

I love the realistic-ness of the characters. I felt that they were real people with real stories. Vianne's story is so heart wrenching because she is forced time and again to make the choice over whether to protect her family or try to save her friends and others. She does her best, and sometimes her choices are difficult and cause her a lot of guilt.  Nazi-occupied countries were not fun places to live. The Germans took all the food and resources for themselves and left the people of the countries they occupied to starve and freeze. It was no picnic.

Then there's Vianne's little sister Isabelle, who is determined to do ANYTHING to resist the Nazi's and help free France. She sometimes makes rash decisions, but she is so incredibly brave. She ends up helping to create an escape route for downed Allied airmen that allows them to get safely into Spain and from there, back to England or another Allied country. The one thing I missed in this book was an afterword explaining which parts of the story were true, so I looked it up. It seems as if Isabelle's story was loosely based on a woman named Dedee de Jongh, who really did help hundreds of airmen escape from France. You can read about it here. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501218.html

This book is also about love, and about families. Vianne, Isabelle, and their father have never had great relationships with each other. But the war teaches them what is really important and that they truly do love each other and want to help and protect each other.

I highly recommend this book. It's so good you won't hardly be able to put it down, and when you finally do, you'll have a new appreciation for how good your life really is. You'll wonder if you could have been so brave, if you could have endured the kinds of things Vianne and Isabelle had to endure in this book. Even though they are fictional characters, the events that transpired are real, the things they endured really happened. We can't ever afford to forget that.

All the Light We Cannot See

Author: Anthony Doerr
Pages: 530
Rating: PG-13 (There is a little bit of language from soldiers, and a group of girls gets raped by Russian soldiers near the end, but the description is very vague)

Summary:
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.
 
My Thoughts: I can't say that this book was life-changing, but it was definitely very interesting and enjoyable to read and it gave me a lot to think about. I felt like the author really knew each of his characters and what they were going through. Sometimes the descriptions of things were confusing and I wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about. I will say that I loved that this is a work of historical fiction that seems as if every sentence could have been fact. I sometimes lost sight of the fact that this was a work of fiction and I wanted to tell people about it as if Werner and Marie-Laure actually lived.

The book is organized into very short, 2-3 page chapters that go back and forth between Marie-Laure's and Werner's perspectives, with an occasional interruption from another minor character. This I liked because it made the book easy to read in quick spurts. The book ALSO jumps back and forth in time. There will be several chapters in a row about the end of the war, and then several chapters in a row about Werner and Marie-Laure's childhood. I didn't feel like this was confusing, however. I kind of liked it.

I think my favorite part of this book was the perspectives it showed. I've read a lot of World War 2 books, both fiction and non-fiction and most of the time, the books I've read focused on those who ended up stuck in Germany's horrific concentration camps. This book tells the story of a young boy forced into service in the German military, and a young, blind, French girl dealing with the occupation of her country. I particularly liked Werner's story. Although fiction, it resonated with truth. Werner is happy that his skill with radios saves him from working in his town mines and allows him to attend an elite school for German youth. However, this school is not without its brutality and cruelty, as the boys are taught to hate any sign of weakness in anyone, even their own countrymen, and to believe wholeheartedly in the superiority of the Aryan race.

When Werner is finally sent to war, his skills with the radio again save him from any real fighting, as he is on a task force that travels through Germany's conquered countries and tracks down any illegal radio transmissions. Whenever they find anyone with an illegal radio that they are using to broadcast information, they kill them. Werner voices his discomfort about this, since he has been taught that these people are all ruthless terrorists and highly organized criminals, but all he ever sees are simple people in simple dwellings. I just loved that this book portrayed the fact that war is a terrible tragedy for everyone involved, no matter which side you are on. Not all Germans were bad. Not all German soldiers believed in what they were fighting for.

The ending of this book was sad, and surprising. I didn't think it was going to end in the way it did. But I feel like it was very realistic. War devastates countries and lives, and you just do the best you can to keep moving, to keep living and I felt like that's what the ending of this book portrayed. I would definitely recommend this book if you are interested in history.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Pages: 406
Rating: PG-13 (It's war. It's graphic. It's violent. It's mature. However, there is another version of this book that is written specifically with a teen audience in mind, if you want your kid to read it but don't think they can handle this version.)

Summary:
In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

My Thoughts: This book was FASCINATING! In the author's note at the end, Hillenbrand makes the point that when we learn about WWII in school, the main focus is on the European war, which is kind of strange considering that it was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that got the US into the war, and our atomic bomb drops on Japan that finally and officially ended the ordeal. How come we never really learn about the war in the Pacific? I had no idea all the crazy stuff that was going on. I mean, yes, Hitler and his minions were pure evil and they were doing terrible things, but crazy crap was going down in Japan and the Pacific Islands too. Here are some amazing things I learned that just shocked me.

1. "Between November 1943 and May 1945, 70% of the men listed as killed in action died in operational aircraft accidents, not as a result of enemy action." How sad is that? We lost tens of thousands of men before they even left for foreign soil, just in training accidents or routine practice flights. The book says that in the air corps, 35,946 men died in non-battle situations. So, so sad.

2. Being in the air corps back then was basically signing your own death sentence. An airman was required to fulfill 40 missions before finishing their tour of duty. There was a 50% chance of being killed before completing that tour.

3. Japan was a BRUTAL enemy. Their prison camps I think were actually worse than Hitler's concentration camps. Although Japan didn't have gas chambers in which they routinely gassed prisoners, they did have doctors conducting gruesome medical experiments on prisoners, and they had something called the "kill-all order." If it looked like the Allied forces were getting close to whatever island a Japanese POW camp was located on, the guards would murder every single prisoner. And in several camps, that's exactly what they did, sometimes in gruesome and sadistic ways.

Louie (from the book) made it farther than most airmen that crashed in the ocean. He survived being adrift at sea for over a month. But then he got stuck in a POW camp, and your chances of survival there were slim to none. One particular guard was so brutal that he would beat men until they passed out, then revive them by throwing water on their faces or patting their foreheads with a damp cloth, and then continue the beatings. Another time, when Louie was caught for a minor infraction, this guard required all the prisoners to punch Louie square in the face. If the prisoner did not punch hard enough, he had to keep punching until this guard was satisfied with the force. The only thing that saved Louie from the "kill-all" policy was the atomic bomb. The war ended just weeks before the prisoners in Louie's camp had been told they would all be executed.

It's just an incredible story, and I think everyone needs to read it. These men went through so much, and it continued after the war. We know a lot more about PTSD now than they did back then, and these poor men suffered without relief. Many turned to alcoholism or drugs. Some committed suicide. The war did not end in their minds and in their dreams. I can't even imagine having to go through such a difficult trial.

And we as Americans currently have no idea what it's like to be in such a crisis. We don't know what it's like to have everything rationed, because the war is taking over every resource. Back then, almost every family in America had lost a father, son, brother, uncle, or cousin to the war. I sincerely hope we never have to go through something like that again. But, we need to not forget what those people suffered. And Louie's story is repeated over and over again for each of the thousands of men that suffered through WWII, whether they survived or not. We don't even know the stories of many of the men who died, what horrors they experienced. It's very humbling.

As I said, I was thrilled to discover that there is another version of this book written especially for teens/young adults. I would highly recommend that to you if you have a teenager or if you just don't want to invest yourself in this longer version. But seriously, read it. It's incredible.

The Secret Keeper

Author: Kate Morton
Pages: 481
Rating:  PG-13

Summary:
During a picnic at her family’s farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson witnesses a shocking crime, a crime that challenges everything she knows about her adored mother, Dorothy. Now, fifty years later, Laurel and her sisters are meeting at the farm to celebrate Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this is her last chance to discover the truth about that long-ago day, Laurel searches for answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past. Clue by clue, she traces a secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds thrown together in war-torn London—Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy—whose lives are forever after entwined. A gripping story of deception and passion, The Secret Keeper will keep you enthralled to the last page.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed reading this book but it went a little bit too slow for me. I didn't enjoy how it kept going back and forth between Laurel's life in the present and Dorothy's life during WWII. I would have preferred just reading long stretches of Dorothy. And by the way, the crime is...Laurel watches her mother stab a man with a knife and kill him. The scary thing was, the man knows her name. I still really did enjoy this book, it was really interesting. And I do have to say, the ending was not what I expected. I got to a certain point and I thought, ok, ok, I know how this all pans out. But I was dead wrong. It will surprise you.

Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust

Author: Michael Korenblit and Kathleen Jander
Pages: 300
Rating: PG-13 (It's the Holocaust, some scenes are a little traumatic but there was nothing I considered to be overly graphic)

Summary: 1942. A small town in Poland. Two Jewish families flee to hiding places, hoping to evade deportation by the Nazis. At the last moment, 17-year-old Manya makes the heart-wrenching decision to leave her family and join her sweetheart, Meyer, also 17, with his family. For three long years, Manya and Meyer endure the loss of their parents and siblings, separation from each other, and the horror of concentration camps, including Auschwitz - but are helped at key points by courageous Polish Catholics and are constantly sustained by their faith and their love for each other. Co-authored by the couple's son Michael, this absorbing and suspenseful narrative reads like a novel, yet tells a true story of love and horror, sacrifice and courage, with a conclusion that is truly miraculous.

My Thoughts: I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK. I believe it was one of the first Holocaust books I ever read, and got me completely hooked on reading survival stories. I was just so amazed at this incredible story. Manya ends up bringing her brother Chaim with her to hide with Meyer's family, saving his life. Her family's hiding place is discovered and her entire family killed. The really miraculous part is that Manya loses contact with Chaim and neither is able to find each other after the war. For 30 years, they each assume they are the only surviving members of their family, until Manya's son stumbles upon Chaim living in England. Meyer's family also goes through several losses, and he retains only one brother. Their story is so incredibly amazing. In a time where so few Jews were lucky enough to stay alive, somehow, this pair manages it, and they find each other in the end. I can't even imagine going through something so terrible, losing my entire family, and wondering if I will ever see the people I love ever again. It's just incredible. If you're going to read any book about the Holocaust, seriously, read this one. Manya and Meyer beat the odds when the odds were unbeatable. And it never ceases to amaze me.

Edith's Story

Author: Edith Velmans
Pages: 239
Rating: PG - Edith never goes to any of the camps and doesn't have to witness many horrors
Summary:
In 1940, while the Germans occupied Holland, fourteen-year-old Edith van Hessen was filling her diary with the intimate, carefree details of a typical teenager's life — thoughts about boys, school, her family, her friends, her future. By 1942, as Edith was contemplating her first kiss, the Germans had begun to escalate their war against the Jews. Soon this bright, fun-loving girl was grappling with one of the most unfathomable events in human history. Edith's family — assimilated Dutch Jews — were caught in the cross fire of the Holocaust, and Edith began a bitter struggle to survive.

In this extraordinary work, Edith Velmans weaves together revealing entries from her diaries with reminiscences and letters smuggled between family members during the occupation. Edith's Story stands as a profoundly important addition to the literature of the Holocaust, documenting one girl's grief, loss, courage, and ultimate triumph over devastating tyranny and despair. For as Edith is hidden in plain sight by a Christian family, we witness how a young woman must deny, bargain with, and finally face the horrors of war — and how, confronting evil as a child, Edith survives to become an extraordinary woman.

My Thoughts: Edith Van Hessen has been called "The Anne Frank who lived." I felt like this was a very fitting description for her because, like Anne Frank, Edith kept a diary for a large part of the war, and she was also extremely optimistic. There's a quote from Anne Frank's diary where she says something about how she strives to see the good in everything and everyone, and that's very much how Edith was. She did her best to keep a sunny outlook and cheerful disposition, trying to find the best in every situation, no matter how difficult her life became.

I personally loved this book because it was so different from the other Holocaust survival stories I've read. Edith and her familiy had managed to secure visas to America before the Nazis occupied Holland, but they didn't leave because they were unable to get a visa for their grandmother and they couldn't bear to leave her. Edith had two older brothers, and it was decided that the oldest would go. Edith is hidden with a friend's family, in plain sight. She is explained to the neighbors as a family friend who came to visit just for the summer, but then her parents were both in the hospital, so they couldn't bear to send her home. No one suspects a thing, and Edith survives without any difficulties. However, she goes through the guilt and the horror of surviving and living just fine when her family members are having to deal with unkown horrors. She has no idea what is happening to them, and will not find out about it until after the war is over.

I really just enjoyed this book a lot. It was amazing to see how Edith refused to succumb to hoplessness and despair even when everything around her was crumbling. She kept her head up and rarely asked "why me?" It was inspirational.

While We're Far Apart

Author: Lynn Austin
Pages: 408
Rating: PG (nothing is really graphic or too detailed for younger kids, but it is about war, so....)

Summary:
In an unassuming apartment building in Brooklyn, New York, three lives intersect as the reality of war invades each aspect of their lives. Young Esther is heartbroken when her father decides to enlist in the army shortly after the death of her mother. Penny Goodrich has been in love with Eddie Shaffer for as long as she can remember; now that Eddie's wife is dead, Penny feels she has been given a second chance and offers to care for his children in the hope that he will finally notice her and marry her after the war. And elderly Mr. Mendel, the landlord, waits for the war to end to hear what has happened to his son trapped in war torn Hungary. But during the long, endless wait for victory overseas, life on the home front will go from bad to worse. Yet these characters will find themselves growing and changing in ways they never expected and ultimately discovering truths about God's love. . .even when He is silent.

My Thoughts: I really enjoy Lynn Austin's novels. A lot of times Christian novels have that one character who is so annoyingly perfect in their faith that they seem completely unrealistic. And they're constantly reciting phrases like, "Just trust in the Lord, honey, and it will all be fine." Austin's characters are a lot more believable to me, and they also often are struggling with their faith.

But, let me start at the beginning. This book is NOT a love story. Although Penny thinks she is in love with Eddie, she's really not, and the story is more about the children and Mr. Mendel dealing with the difficulties and uncertainties of war than it is about anything else. Mr. Mendel is a Jewish man who has been struggling with his faith. His wife died in a car crash a year ago, and his son is trapped in Europe during the most dangerous time possible. Mr. Mendel doesn't understand why God has allowed such terrible things to happen to him. Soon, Esther and Peter, the children who live upstairs from him, become his friends, and they begin to help each other with their sorrows and problems. I love that the author chose to weave together Mendel's Jewish faith with the childrens' Christian faith. Mr. Mendel tells the children the stories of Esther and Joseph from the Old Testament, helping them to understand that God is working in the background even when it seems he is not there. I loved that Austin brought out the commonalities in the two religions and created a bond between her characters with it.

I happen to love World War II era novels, and this one was another great one. Each character is presented with such clarity and they each have their own obstacle to overcome. Penny, for instance, grew up in a household that was so strict and overprotective, that she has very low self-confidence. Her mother always told her that she was not smart or capable, and is furious with her for deciding to take on the care of Eddie Shaffer's two children. She thinks Penny will not be able to do it. Penny is a great character who gets the opportunity to discover so many things about herself and about life in general once she sets herself free from the prejudices and fears of her parents.

I highly recommend this book. It's just really good, and as is typical of Lynn Austin, the religiousness of the book never feels forced. It just belongs there as naturally as anything. 

The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak
Pages: 550
Rating: PG
Summary:
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

My Thoughts: First of all, whether you've seen the movie or not, GO READ THIS BOOK! I have not seen the movie, but I already know I don't have to see it to know the book is absolutely worth reading. This is one of those books that while the story itself is moving and captivating, you read the book for the way it is written. Zusak is a master of figurative language, and he spins sentences so beautiful you have to read them twice just to make sure you are absorbing the full meaning of it.

"The words were on their way, and when they arrived, Leisel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain."
"Two giant words were struggled with, carried on her shoulder, and dropped as a bungling pair at Ilsa Hermann's feet. They fell off sideways as the girl veered with them and could no longer sustain their weight. Together, they sat on the floor, large and loud and clumsy."
"The reply floated from his mouth, then molded itself like a stain to the ceiling. Such was his feeling of shame."
"The guilt was already there. It was moist. The seed was already bursting into a dark-leafed flower."
"Her nerves licked her palms."
"The wind showered through her hair. Her feet swam with the pedals."
"A graze struck a match on the side of her face, where she'd met the ground. Her pulse flipped it over, frying it on both sides."

See what I mean? You just can't get that from a movie. It's incredible. As for the actual story - I really enjoyed reading about World War Two from the perspective of a young, relatively safe German girl, whose family ends up hiding a Jew. She and her best friend end up really hating Hitler, because their lives are miserable. They are poor, hungry, and their fathers are forced into service because they don't always agree with everything the Nazis say. Leisel is a foster child, who watched her brother die on the train on the way to her foster parents' house in another part of Germany. When she arrives, she does not know how to read, but her foster father Hans painstakingly teaches her until she is obsessed with books and reading. She lives an extremely difficult life, but in the process she learns kindness, love, and selflessness. She never buys in to the German propaganda that Jews are the enemy. After all, the Jew they are hiding in the basement has become one of her closest friends.

Another favorite thing about this book is that Death is the narrator. It's a different perspective that's for sure. He is not vindictive or gleeful. He is simply an observer, and he sometimes is quite sorrowful at all he is required to observe. He says that war is not his friend. It is more like a boss that keeps demanding that you work even harder than you ever have before, and is never pleased with your performance. Also, Death doesn't believe in suspense. He pretty much tells you the ending multiple times before it happens. The ending isn't important, it's the journey to get there that he wants to tell.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Don't just watch the movie. You MUST read this book. It's incredible.

Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America

Author: Glenn Beck (in case you couldn't tell since his name is twice as big as the title....it annoys me when authors do that)
Pages: 256
Rating: PG-13 (the title tells you why. Massacres)

Summary:
Thomas Edison was a bad guy— and bad guys usually lose in the end.

World War II radio host “Tokyo Rose” was branded as a traitor by the U.S. government and served time in prison. In reality, she was a hero to many.

Twenty U.S. soldiers received medals of honor at the Battle of Wounded Knee—yet this wasn’t a battle at all; it was a massacre.

Paul Revere’s midnight ride was nothing compared to the ride made by a guy named Jack whom you’ve probably never heard of.

History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half of the word suggests, about the story. And, told in the right way, it is the greatest one ever written: Good and evil, triumph and tragedy, despicable acts of barbarism and courageous acts of heroism.

The things you’ve never learned about our past will shock you. The reason why gun control is so important to government elites can be found in a story about Athens that no one dares teach. Not the city in ancient Greece, but the one in 1946 Tennessee. The power of an individual who trusts his gut can be found in the story of the man who stopped the twentieth hijacker from being part of 9/11. And a lesson on what happens when an all-powerful president is in need of positive headlines is revealed in a story about eight saboteurs who invaded America during World War II.

Miracles and Massacres is history as you’ve never heard it told. It’s incredible events that you never knew existed. And it’s stories so important and relevant to today that you won’t have to ask, Why didn’t they teach me this? You will instantly know. If the truth shall set you free, then your freedom begins on page one of this book. By the end, your understanding of the lies and half-truths you’ve been taught may change, but your perception of who we are as Americans and where our country is headed definitely will.

My Thoughts: I thought this book was fascinating. If you like history at all, you'll enjoy this collection of stories as well. They are written as stories, not a collection of facts, and if you really care, at the end of the book, Beck lists which parts of the stories were fabricated for the sake of creating a coherent story line, and which parts are solid fact. I appreciated this, and thought it was pretty interesting.  

My husband didn't like the fact that each story is told from varying viewpoints, and it switches back and forth. I didn't mind it, but just wanted to put that out there.

Personally I learned quite a bit about history from this book, and how the US is certainly not perfect. That being said, I don't think Beck was trying to turn our country into some secretive bad guy, I just think he wanted to expose stories that the government tried to hide or at least gloss over for a while. There are also several stories about bravery and heroism that you just may not have heard of.

My personal favorite story was "Saboteurs: In a Time of War, the Laws are Silent." During World War II, Germany decided to send 8 "spies" over to America to bomb some key factories and bridges and hopefully make things more difficult for the US. The Nazis chose these "spies" based on the fact that they had previously spent time in the United States and would easily blend in to the environment. Unfortunately, they didn't think to check the loyalties of these men, who had no intention of following through with their mission. After a Nazi sub dropped the men off a few miles off the US coastline in the middle of the night, one of the men went straight to the FBI and told them everything, including that he and his comrades had no hard feelings towards the US and that they would like to help the US win the war. However, the United States felt that its citizens needed the morale boost from hearing that 8 would-be saboteurs were captured and kept from their mission. The men were arrested and put in prison, and ultimately, 6 were executed, including one man who was actually a US citizen. The other two were sentenced to 30 years in prison, but only served about 6 of those years. The war ended and a new president freed them and sent them back to Germany.

To me, the ultimate lesson I gained from this book is that you can't always trust every news story or press release you hear. People in power are very good at twisting the truth and convincing unsuspecting listeners that an entirely different truth exists. In at least two of the stories, the American people were convinced that the government was doing the right thing, blissfully unaware of the truth.

But you may get a different message. Like I said, not all the stories are about mistakes. I would give this one a read. It's very interesting, and a pretty easy read too, since the stories are told in a novelistic fashion.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Author:  Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Pages: 274
Rating: PG (It's a post-World War II novel, and some of the wartime descriptions are a little too graphic for it to be rated G)

Summary:  January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

My Thoughts: This book was recommended to me by both my sister and a former roommate, so I knew I had to eventually pick it up. I really enjoyed it! Sometimes I get annoyed with books written entirely in letter format, as this one was, but it really worked for this novel. The worst part is that there are no "chapters" so there's nowhere good to stop! I pretty much binge-read this book. I am already a sucker for novels and books about World War II, so of course, I was automatically interested.

This is a different novel than you have probably ever read about the War. It's all about this eccentric group of friends from a little island off the coast of England, who had to deal with the German Occupation of their Island in the best way they could. They were completely cut off from any news or contact with anyone from mainland England for the entire 4 years the Germans occupied their island. They had very little food, and eventually, the Germans didn't have any either; they were resorting to killing and eating stray dogs and cats. The only thing that kept these island friends sane during this Occupation was their Literary society. They did not have many books (most of the books on the island ended up being burned for fuel after all the wood and other methods of fuel ran out) and some members of the society read the same book over and over again. However, they were able to spend a few hours every few weeks discussing these books and ideas, and forgetting about the war.

I loved this book a lot because it was a simple and easy read, but you really got a feel for these people, who, although fictional, could just as well have been real. It's been so long since we have suffered from such a terrible war that my generation doesn't know what it is like, and we take all of our blessings for granted. For example, just to have good flour and sugar to bake a cake was an unheard-of luxury for most during the dark years of the war. The "Potato Peel Pie" part of the name of the society came because the society wanted to serve refreshments at their meetings. Having no sugar or other such necessities for sweets, a member of the club made up a pie made of mashed potatoes sweetened with strained beets with potato peels for crust.

Another aspect of this book I liked was that the members of the society were able to separate the collective character of the German Army from that of the individual officers. In fact, they made good friends with one officer, who was very friendly, and not at all supportive or pleased with what his country was doing during this war. They also related the small acts of kindness some German soldiers would discreetly and quietly carry out: "accidentally" pushing a few potatoes off the back of a cart for the starving children following behind, delivering desperately needed medicine to a woman with a sick child in the village, helping a man in a churchyard dig a grave.

This one I definitely recommend. I gave it the PG rating because some of the descriptions of wartime activities and the way the Germans treated their prisoners can be intense. Not terribly bad though, and it's not something they dwell on a lot in the book. Happy reading!

The Berlin Boxing Club

Author: Robert Sharenow
Pages: 400
Rating: PG - a few bad words, mild violence

Summary:

Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew; after all, he's never even been in a synagogue. But the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin don't care that Karl's family doesn't practice religion. Demoralized by their attacks against a heritage he doesn't accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth.
Then Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German hero, makes a deal with Karl's father to give Karl boxing lessons. A skilled cartoonist, Karl never had an interest in boxing, but now it seems like the perfect chance to reinvent himself.
But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: family protector. And as Max's fame forces him to associate with Nazi elites, Karl begins to wonder where his hero's sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his boxing dreams with his obligation to keep his family out of harm's way?

My Thoughts: I happen to love novels about Nazi Germany. I think the entire period is just completely facsinating. I love the different tilt to this novel, with Karl being someone who not only doesn't practice any religion, he doesn't even look like the stereotypical Jew. He feels like he shouldn't have to suffer through all the difficulties of his time, because he doesn't consider himself Jewish. Boxing is the way he feels he will prove himself to the world.

This is a really great novel, mixing the world of sports and one of the most difficult historical periods in history. I would recommend it to anyone, even if you're not interested in boxing. You don't have to be to enjoy this novel of a young boy just trying to prove his worth and understand the confusing world around him.

Bliss, Rememberd, by Frank Deford

Pages: 351
Rating: PG-13 (This book actually rates itself. In the book, one of the characters actually says, "I give it a PG-13." There are two F-bombs but they're in the same paragraph and then there's no other language really, just some sexuality, but it isn't graphic at all, and there's a little talk about body parts, but again, it didn't make me uncomfortable at all. The story is set in 1936, and it's not very scandelous really.)

Summary:At the 1936 Berlin Olympics the beautiful Sydney Stringfellow begins an intense love affair with the son of a Nazi diplomat, but the affair abruptly ends when political forces tear them apart. Back in the US, Sydney is left healing her broekn heart when a striking American begins to pursue her -- but can she ever really forget the handsom young German who first took her heart?

My Thoughts: I could hardly put this book down! I read it in like 2 days. I was hooked immediately. There are funny parts, sad parts, happy parts, surprising parts. Towards the end, you think you have it all figured out when suddenly it changes, and then you think you have it figured out again, and it changes again. Full of unexpected twists and turns, and just the right amount of suspense, you'll hardly even believe you're reading a love story. But it's a fantastic love story at that!

So since the summary I found on Amazon gives us absolutely nothing to go off of, basically, the story is set up by Sydney as an old woman about to die, finally ready to tell her son Teddy all about her adventures when she went to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Up to this point in her life, she has refused to talk about Berlin and all that she experienced there. I love the way it's told because you get lost in the story but then get brought back to real life, and old Sydney is hilarious. She gets off on these tangents that you can totally imagine some old lady going off on about the old days and it's terribly funny. Here's a teaser quote. "There are no surprises left. You can tell on the phone who it is before you pick it up. All the children are on that Facebook thing, so there're no blind dates left. Just peek-a-boo dates. Everybody has to know what sex their child is hardly before they're out of bed and through conceiving. no, no, no, we think we're so clever, but we're a poorer world without surprises."

This is one of those books where the characters feel really real. Since some of the characters in the book that Sydney meets (like Elenor Holm, an Olympic swimmer, and Leni Riefenstahl, a German filmmaker) are actually real people, and some of the events in the book actually happened, I kept forgetting that Sydney is not a real person. I kept thinking she was real and I was so excited to find out how her life turned out. It was the kind of book that you immediately want to read again once you've finished, because knowing how it all turned out, you could look at every instance in the book entirely differently. It would almost be like a different book. It's also one of those books that you'll find yourself mulling over and thinking about long after you've finished it. This one is highly, highly recommended.

A Woman's Place, by Lynn Austin

Pages: 448

Rating: PG(it's a very clean book but there is a little bit of violence in it)

Summary:They watched their sons, their brothers, and their husbands enlist to fight a growing menace across the seas. And when their nation asked, they answered the call as well. Virginia longs to find a purpose beyond others' expectations. Helen is driven by a loneliness money can't fulfill. Rosa is desperate to flee her in-laws' rules. Jean hopes to prove herself in a man's world. Under the storm clouds of destruction that threaten America during the early 1940s, this unlikely gathering of women will experience life in sometimes starling new ways as their beliefs are challenged and they struggle toward a new understanding of what love and sacrifice truly mean.

My Review: This is one of my favorite books. This was actually a second read, I read it a few years ago and wanted to read it again. Now it's on my wish list so one day I'll maybe have it in my own personal library. The book follows the lives of four women who are very different from each other, and have each chosen to work in the shipyards for their own personal reasons. They become close friends and they begin to help each other through various difficulties in their lives. For instance, Ginny feels like she is unneeded and that her husband no longer loves her. She works in the factory without his knowledge or permission. Jean has a boyfriend back home who is pressuring her for marriage, but she has always dreamed of going to college first. Rosa feels extremely out of place in such a small town, and feels that everyone is expecting her to be someone other than who she is. Helen has had a harsh life with very little love, even though she never lacked money. She has never really had friends before, and finds herself being drawn into the other women's lives. There is a strain of religion in the book. Helen is struggling to even believe in God anymore, and Rosa is learning about God for the first time.

 Even though this book is rather long, it doesn't feel long at all. It's an easy read, and enjoyable too. I mentioned earlier that there is some violence. The book also deals a little bit with civil rights. The women try to get a black woman hired in the factory, and all hell breaks loose. The foreman is threatened and some violence happens in the shipyards against all those that sympathize with the black workers. It's not terribly graphic or anything, but it's there. It's a really great book, with a surprise towards the end about Helen's childhood love.

The main theme of the book is that women can be useful in places other than at home, and that's what I think the book is really aiming at, but I love it a lot anyway. it's a great, perfectly clean story.

I Gave My Heart to Know This, by Ellen Baker

Pages: 321

Rating: PG-13 (The F-bomb is dropped 5 or 6 times throughout the book. There is a little sex, but it only just vaguely hints at it, and never goes into any kind of detail.)

Summary: In January 1944, Grace Anderson, Lena Maki, and Lena’s mother, Violet, have joined the growing ranks of women working for the war effort. Though they find satisfaction in their jobs at a Wisconsin shipyard, it isn’t enough to distract them from the anxieties of wartime, or their fears for the men they love: Lena’s twin brother, Derrick, and Grace’s high school sweetheart, Alex. When shattering news arrives from the front, the lives of the three women are pitched into turmoil. As one is pushed to the brink of madness, the others are forced into choices they couldn’t have imagined—and their lives will never be the same. 

More than five decades later, Violet’s great-granddaughter, Julia, returns to the small farmhouse where Violet and Lena once lived. Listless from her own recent tragedy, Julia begins to uncover the dark secrets that shattered her family, eventually learning that redemption—and love—can be found in the most unexpected places.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. It was so hard to put down. I kept wanting to flip forward and find out what was going on. There were so many shocking discoveries and secrets that you have to wait almost the entire book to figure out. The book is more about individuals trying to overcome tragedy than it really is about World War II and the work women did. That's part of the story, but it's really just the background. I really felt for the characters, and found myself almost on the verge of tears because of all the sufferings and difficulties they had. It's definitely not a light read. It's intense and there's a lot of letting go and moving on that has to happen in the book. It's a story of regret and mistakes, and trying to do the right thing, and real life, how difficult it is, and trying to make it all right in the end.

Like I said in the rating, the F-bomb is dropped a few times, but only by Julia's brother, Danny, when he comes to visit. He is the only person who uses such language in the book, and he's not a very prominent character. Just be warned that when Danny comes into the picture, you're going to have to watch out for the language. 

Ellen Baker is a great writer. She really helped me to feel the emotions of the characters and I felt sympathetic for all of them, except for maybe Lena. I feel like there wasn't enough of Lena's story in there. All the other characters get to say their piece and redeem themselves, and you understand how they feel and how they got to where they are, but Lena is kind of left a mystery.