Imagine that you are a young woman in 1940's Russia. You are a mother raising a young son alone as you work in a library and study to gain your degree. You are forging along in everyday life when suddenly your country is invaded, and you are facing a world at war. In this riveting novel, Kate Quinn gives a look into the life of Mila Pavlichenko, a young history student and mother who joins the Russian military and becomes a world-famous sniper.
I found this book to be very intriguing. Mila is a young woman who married way too young when she found she was pregnant. She is raising a young son and trying desperately to get a divorce from her older and emotionally abusive husband. This is not easy in 1940's Russia. She is a passionate history student and loves her studies. Then Hitler invades the Ukraine and Russia, and she feels compelled to sign up to protect her homeland.
Mila is a strong woman who does nothing partway. When assigned the task as a sniper, she becomes the best and shoots over 300 of the enemy. Her talents gain her fame, and she is sent on a good will tour of the United States where she befriends Eleanor Roosevelt. This friendship and the dangers that come with it made this one of the best books I've read in a long time.
The book is based on a true story and most of the people and many of the events really happened. In the author's notes at the end of the book she details what parts were true (based on Mila's memoirs) and what parts she fictionalized. I found this very interesting and would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery, historical fiction and intrigue.
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This book was introduced to me by a friend who read it for her book club. She said it was a book all the club enjoyed. After reading it, I can see why. It has everything I like in a story: history, romance, secrets and true to life characters. The story is inspired by the true life story of Claude and Blanchette Auzello. Claude was the French director of the Ritz and Blanche was his American wife.
The Story Line
This compelling novel takes us to the glamor of the Ritz and introduces us to all the wonderful characters who enter its doors. We see bits with Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, F. Scott Fitzgerald and many more memorable characters from the 1940's.
The story begins in the 1920's when Claude Auzello meets Blanche, an American who has come to Paris in the hopes of becoming an actress. Claude sweeps Blanche off her feet and they settle into life at the Ritz, where Claude becomes the director. Life at the Ritz is glamorous and the guests are pampered by Claude and his staff. Blanche enjoys meeting all of the memorable characters in the Ritz bar.
Life goes along at the Ritz with the glamor of the place and the work of Claude putting a tamper on their marriage. Blanche and Claude get along but sometimes their differences also draw them apart with each of them living their own lives and keeping secrets. Everything changes in June 1940 when the Nazi's invade Paris and take over the Ritz as their headquarters. The Ritz staff is kept but moved to the back of the building and now must cater to the Nazi's every wish, all the while being afraid of every move they make.
I don't want to spoil more of the plot but the French Resistance plays a big part in the rest of the book and secrets are kept, even from those they are closest to.
The Book on Amazon
My Thoughts on the Book
I really enjoyed the book. It is the first book I had read by Melanie Benjamin, and I will certainly check out more of her books. I highly recommend this compelling book.
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The Beekeeper's Promise is a work of historical fiction that takes place in the World War II era. It portrays two women of courage. The first is Eliane, who lives in a small town in France during the the war and the second is Abi who visits that small town in 2017. The chapters in the book alternate between Eliane's story and Abi's story.
First Storyline
Eliane lives in rural France and we hear her story starting in the late 1930's near the beginning of World War II. She lives on the Count Comte's Bellevue estate and she is employed as a kitchen assistant in the main chateau. One of the duties she loves is taking care of the many beehives. She does an excellent job and the Count arranges for some additional beehives to be moved from a nearby farm for Eliane to also mange. When the beehives are moved Matthieu oversees the move and Eliane and Matthieu soon develop a close relationship.
The story then evolves as the chateau is taken over by the Nazi's and the Count moves out to a side cottage. Eliane continues on with her duties with the bees and in the kitchen. Without giving away more of the story I will say that Eliane and many of the others become involved in the war effort. The French resistance is very much a part of this novel and the courage of those involved is evident. I found it to be a very interesting and educating book.
Second Storyline
Abi, who lives near London, is recovering from an accident and severe depression. Her friend talks her into attending a Yoga retreat in a small French town. During the retreat Abi wanders off into the French countryside and gets herself lost. A storm comes up and Abi is rescued by Sara who is driving by in the area. Sara brings her to her home to wait out the storm. It turns out that her home is the former estate of Count Comte. Sara and her husband Thomas have turned the estate into a wedding venue. It is the height of the wedding season and a key employee has taken ill. Abi stays to help and during her stay Sara tells her the story of Eliane. Through this story, which is told gradually over the weeks that Abi is working at the wedding venue, Abi realizes that she too can be strong and face the future.
My Recommendation
This was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact I think I will recommend it for my book club to read. I loved all of the characters and the author, Fiona Valpy, did an excellent job of making me feel that I was part of the story. It was one of those books that carried the characters with me long after I had finished reading.
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In this delightful historical novel by David Biro, a young boy from a small town in Italy is discovered to have leukemia and can only be helped by a bone marrow transplant. The search for a donor brings up secrets from the past and stretches across the ocean to a rabbi in the USA. I found this to be another one of those novels that I couldn't put down and wanted to keep reading. It is also one where the characters come alive to the reader and linger long after you have put down the book.
Characters from the Book
Luca- A fascinating young boy who comes down with a dreaded disease. Luca has a wonderful imagination and a "friend" he talks to that only he can see. His parents were killed when he was very young and he lives with his grandparents in a small Italian village.
Giovanni- Luca's grandfather who loves his grandson dearly, but is haunted by a decision he made years ago during the war when he found his son Paolo (Luca's father) and brought him home to raise him as his own.
Nina- A young nurse who is very dedicated and helps to lead the search to find a donor for Luca. This search turns into a life changing event for her.
Rabbi Joseph Neiman- A rabbi in Brooklyn, New York who is struggling with his faith. When he works to help a young girl in his community find a bone marrow donor, he has his own marrow tested and finds he is a match for a young boy in Italy. What secrets will be revealed to show how a young Catholic boy can have Jewish genes?
Sarah- The wife of the rabbi who has very bad feelings toward anyone from Italy, where her grandparents were captured and sent to a concentration camp during the war.
Samuel- The son of the rabbi. Samuel makes friends with the young boy from Italy.
The Book on Amazon
Lessons from the Book
The book is a work of historical fiction, which contains lessons for us all. The book challenges our identities and shows how as humans, we are really more alike than we are different. This is a wonderful novel which I highly recommend.
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I've visited World War II Europe in my readings on numerous occasions in books like Cilka's Journey, The Girl They Left Behind and The Nightingale. This month I revisited the era via Ann Mah's 2018 novel, The Lost Vintage. I enjoyed the trip though of course, the situation was not always a pleasant one.
The Lost Vintage travels between current day California and France and World War II France, where one family did as best they could to survive the German occupation.
Living on a prestigious wine domaine in the Burgundy region of France, they managed for a while to avoid drawing attention to themselves by keeping their heads down but eventually they were drawn into the war in one way or another.
The mystery that drags the current generation down in the modern day part of the book is whether or not members of the family were Nazi collaborators or members of the resistance. The idea that our ancestors were on the right side of history is an interesting one that cannot be true for all of us.
Because this book is well written, I had no problem switching back and forth between the different time periods. I was a bit less enthusiastic about the inclusion of the occasional French phrase, sometimes translated and sometimes not. I expect the French was included to give a French feeling to the book and translation is not necessary but I did find the practice intrusive.
As the back of the book says, this story contains a mystery, a love story and of course, a history lesson. It is packed with French food, culture and of course, wine. It is well written and it is easy to read. If you enjoy historical fiction, wine and/or reading about France, I believe that you will enjoy The Lost Vintage. You may even find yourself needing to read "just one more chapter", wanting to drink a bit of wine and desiring a trip to France.
Without giving away the secrets of this book, I will mention that it deals with a little discussed part of the story of France. That is, what happened to French women when the country was liberated from the Germans. French women were often treated as traitors and found guilty without a trial by what was really mob justice. No allowances were made for varying situations like the difference between women who slept willingly with German soldiers and those who were raped.
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Across the Winding River was another one of those books I couldn't put down once I started reading it. The author did a wonderful job of intertwining a story from World War II Germany and present day San Diego. When Beth is helping her father go through his WWII mementos she discovers a photo of him and a mysterious women in Germany who is obviously pregnant. Who is this woman and what if any part did she play in her father's life.
Link to Book through Amazon
Main Characters
Max- Max is a dentist, who served as a medic in World War II. He met several German resistance members whom he helped whenever he could.
Beth- Max's daughter. We meet her in the present day after her mother has died and she is taking care of her invalid father. She wants to spend as much time as she can with him and engages him in talking about his time in the war.
Johanna- We first meet Johanna just before the war when Hitler is just starting to rise to power. Johanna and her family have been able to hide the fact that she is one quarter Jewish through a grandfather who has since passed away.
Harald- Harald is a professor who marries Johanna. During the war he is pressed into service for a cause he does not believe in.
Margarethe (Metta) - Metta is a younger sister who marries a strict Nazi, before she realizes his true character. She sneaks away whenever she can to work for the resistance.
Ansel- Ansel is Metta's husband and a very cruel person who is loyal to the Nazi cause.
Jonas and Heide- They belong to the German resistance. When Jonas is wounded, Metta meets an American medic in the forest and brings him to help Jonas.
My Thought on the Book
I really loved the book. It was easy to read and clearly marked whether you were in the present day or the World War II era. Each chapter completed a section on one of the times. There were several side stories on Beth, that endeared her to me. She was a very likable character as was her father Max. I found myself really routing for them and hoping they could solve the mystery that had lasted for over 50 years.
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Told in three narratives, Kate Quinn's book, The Huntress, dives into Nazi-era Soviet Union and post-war Boston. It follows the post-war efforts of a small company whose purpose is hunting for and bringing to justice war criminals.
The main characters include Ian, a proper British journalist who was on the ground in Europe during the war and who turns postwar away from journalism to the task of finding war criminals. His purpose becomes a bit clouded by vengeance when he searches for the elusive target for whom this book is titled. That is, the Huntress who ruthlessly lured and killed men, women and children.
The second character is Nina, a woman who grew up dirt-poor and savage in Siberia. As an adult she becomes a pilot for the Soviet Union and a member of the all-female Night Witch bomber regiment who, during her time on the ground during the war, has an encounter with the Huntress.
Finally, we have Jordan, an ambitious teenager who lives with her father and sister in Boston. She wants to become a photographer and to break out of the societal requirement for a woman of the times that says she must get married, settle down and have children.
In the end, all are brought together by the Huntress.
THE HUNTRESS OFFICIAL BOOK TRAILER
Here’s a peek via the official book trailer from publisher Williams Morrow:
REVIEWS
Readers on Goodreads gave The Huntress a 4.27 out of 5 stars and 91 percent of Amazon readers gave it a 4- or 5-star rating. That’s pretty good.
On the back cover, Booklist says that this book is “An impressive historical novel sure to harness WWIIi-fiction fans’ attention.” I agree.
The Washington Post calls this book a “compulsively readable historical novel” and says that it is a “powerful novel about unusual women facing sometimes insurmountable odds with grace, grit, love and tenacity.” I agree.
WHO SHOULD READ THE HUNTRESS?
Fans of World War II fiction, which by the way comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me, will enjoy this book. In particular, if you would like a look into the hunt for war criminals, Russian folklore and the lesser-known world of the Night Witches, you will want to pick this book up. If you enjoyed Kate Quinn’s The Alice Network or Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz you will want to read this book. It quickly becomes a thriller and a page turner demonstrating how war changes people and the costs of seeking justice.
You should know that this book has numerous adult themes, which is what you naturally comes with a book about war crimes. Those themes include abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol use, war and sex.
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Armando Lucas Correa’s The Daughter's Tale starts out in modern times in New York City but most of the story is set in the years of World War II in Berlin, Germany and in the south of France.
The novel is based on a real Jewish child who survived the war because of the efforts of her father and her mother and because of the help of others.
STORYLINE
It is a heartbreaking story told mostly without overly graphic descriptions though it cannot help but mention the atrocities of the war. It includes the horrific 1944 Nazi massacre of all the inhabitants of Oradour-Sur-Glane, a small village in southern France. It references the sailing of the MS St. Louis full of German-Jewish refugees that was refused docking in Cuba and elsewhere. However, those are pieces of the story, which is really about a series of impossible choices that a family had to make in an attempt to save their children. It is a story of love, of survival and of hope.
MY COMMENTS
I definitely had quibbles with the book. I questioned why the mother could not leave on the ship with her children. I wondered if a young child would have been so very knowledgeable about the war and the resistance. I found it a bit odd that the children spoke and thought like adults. In the latter part of the book, I was disappointed when the same child suddenly had the ability to foresee events almost in a psychic manner. Finally, I found it hard to believe that an 80-year-old woman, who spent her whole life feeling guilty about things she had no control over as a child, did not seek out the story of her family and childhood.
Despite these issues, I enjoyed the book and here is what a few others thought.
REVIEWS
Readers on Goodreads gave it a 3.9 out of 5 stars and 72 percent of Amazon readers gave it a 4- or 5-star rating. That’s not bad.
Booklist says that author Correa presents, “a gripping and richly detailed account of lives torn apart by war.” I agree with that.
The New York Times, on their Summer Historical Fiction Reading list for 2009, said that The Daughter’s Tale is “better written and more tightly edited than most books in this genre, and the story line is breathtakingly threaded together from start to finish with the sound of a beating heart.” Is that overly generous? In my view, it may be.
I believe that people who enjoy historical fiction will enjoy this book even if it is not my favorite nor the best of the many World War II themed novels available. If you want to check it out for yourself, you can buy your own copy of The Daughter’s Tale on Amazon by clicking right here.
If you do read it, be sure to come back and share your thoughts with us. If you enjoy it, you might also like Armando Lucas Correa’s previous novel, The German Girl.
See you
At the bookstore!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda
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A friend told me that Kristin Hannah’s novel The Nightingale was an excellent book and it was. Though I know this book is a work of fiction, it does deal with real situations that happened during the time period that France was occupied by Germany in World War II.
I know things that happen in this book happened to real people in France. I have always read books set in this time period. However, what happened in that war is still hard to believe. Truly unbelievable. Despite knowing that people were treated in this manner, I still managed to come away in disbelief saying to my husband things like, "How could anyone treat people the way they did?" and "How did the French people manage to survive in those conditions?" We are not talking about one or two crazy people here, right? We are talking about an 'army' of people mistreating people.
Anyway, in my opinion, Kristin Hannah has crafted a wrenching story with a family and with characters that you will come to love. Yes, you are likely going to shed some tears. Yes, you will be upset by the violence and the cruelty and the sexual situations in this book though I must say that it is far from the worst book that I have read in those matters though perhaps more disturbing because it feels so real.
The Nightingale deals with the contributions made to World War II by women. Unfortunately, those important contributions like the women depicted in this book who joined the French Resistance or who managed despite incredible odds to feed their families, have not been as widely acknowledged or recognised as those of men.
Here is the book trailer. I do not know if it is official or not but it does give a good idea of the things that happen in this story:
This book is well done and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me and by many others. If you love a book that shares a great story about women’s lives and that is historically based you will enjoy The Nightingale. It is riveting. You will not even notice that it the hardcover book is 440 pages or that the paperback is 600, particularly if you read it as an ebook.
By way of further recommendation, you might take the fact that, according to The New York Times in 2016, this book had sold more than two million copies. This book has drawn both men and women as well as young and old readers. As one who has always been captivated by World War II novels it comes as no surprise to me when the Times stated that people are drawn to them. However, I was interested to learn that this book has drawn a younger generation of readers who perhaps relate to this novel because of how young people were drawn to the French Resistance.
If you are interested in reading The Nightingale, you can find it in all formats including eBook, audiobook and traditional paper book, on Amazon by clicking right here. I’ve just noticed on the cover that this movie is to become a major motion picture. There is not much information available as I write this other than a rumoured movie release date of 2017, which means that once you have read the book you have a movie to look forward to.
If you like historical fiction, you might also enjoy these reviews on Review This:
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Set in Poland in 1944, Andrew Gross’ The One Man tells the story of a man and his family rounded up and sent to a Nazi concentration camp after a failed escape attempt. Alfred Mendl carries with him his important research but that work is promptly burned on his arrival at the camp.
You have likely guessed that Mendl is not just another prisoner. It turns out that his knowledge in the realm of physics is information that only two people in the world know. The other man with this knowledge currently works for the Nazis and the Americans are desperate to gain Mendl’s knowledge so that they can win this war.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Nathan Blum works steadily away at decoding messages from occupied Poland. Previously, he had escaped the Krakow ghetto. Because his entire family was executed after his departure from home, Blum wants to reap revenge for his family and eventually agrees to go back to Poland to break INTO the concentration camp with the end goal of helping Mendl escape and bring back his physics research. Of course, breaking into a concentration camp is unheard of but getting out is really the difficult part.
This book is part historical fiction and part thriller and it is definitely a page turner. It is emotional and it will take you on a horrifying journey. I don’t think it is a spoiler if I say that I finished reading this book with tears running down my face, which is pretty unusual for me. Yes, The One Man comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me for anyone who enjoys World War II fiction and a gripping story.
Author Steve Berry says, “Haunting and thrilling…A masterful blend of family and duty laced with heroism and characters that are intriguing and richly drawn...You must read it!" You can read more about The One Man on Amazon here.
Do you enjoy historical fiction? Will you be checking out The One Man?
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The women wives in this book arrived from around the world. They came from different lifestyles, backgrounds and situations. Their average age was 25. Their educational backgrounds varied from those with doctorate degrees to stay at home moms to dancers. Most did not know exactly where they were going or what awaited them when they arrived in Los Alamos, New Mexico. These women were forced to come together to create a life for their families in New Mexico.
TaraShea Nesbit's The Wives of Los Alamos is the story of the women who supported the men who worked on one of the biggest research projects in World War II. Unknowingly, these families would be tied to a huge development that changed the course of history.
Their lives during the time they spent in Los Alamos were tough but they had even bigger challenges ahead when their experience was over and they had to weigh their contribution to the creation of a hugely destructive development of the 1940s known as the Manhattan Project.
Is The Wives of Los Alamos a True Story?
Here a 9 minute video in which Nesbit shares a bit of the real story which she writes about in the book:
Would I Recommend This Book?
The story is told by all of the women together in one voice. That is, the book is written in the first person plural a method that I personally did not care for. Here's an example from the beginning:
"We were European women born in Southampton and Hamburg, Western women born in California and Montana, East Coast women born in Connecticut and New York, Midwestern women born in Nebraska and Ohio, or Southern women from Mississippi or Texas, and no matter who we were we wanted nothing to do with starting all over again, and so we paused, we exhaled, and we asked, What part of the Southwest?"
That voice was okay for the first while but eventually I would rather have had the story told by a single individual. I can, however, see how this voice allowed many viewpoints to be expressed in each situation but there are many who could not get past the author's style. Others, however, really enjoyed this book and the style it was written in.
At the end of the book, I was left with a lot of thinking to do. How did those individuals cope with knowing they had made such a horrific contribution to the war effort? How would you cope? How would I?
Yes, I would recommend this book because it is a novel about a very significant scientific development in world history that takes place in the United States. You might want to read it for that fact alone and you never know, you might enjoy the style, too.
You can buy your copy from Amazon by clicking right here. If you do read it, be sure to come back and let us know what you think about the style and the story.
Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”
