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

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Unbroken, perfectly titled. But I think forgiveness should have been in the book title too.

I found this book to be the most eye opening book reading experience ever. It's so hard to try to imagine the horrors the Pacific theater POW's experience yet alone read it. You can't make this stuff up. It's so, so sad that I found myself getting a little down. But I was pleasantly surprised by the end that that is where I ended up in tears. I think I was just too shocked for tears before the end.

I'm so glad I finally read this book. I've wanted to since it came out. I think everyone should read this book to obtain a great understanding of the WWII POW experience. They and other war veterans deserve more respect than our government has given them. WAY more.

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Winter of the World (The Century Trilogy #2)

Winter of the World by Ken Follett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not quite as gripping as the first in the series, but still amazing!

This book is primarily about the children of the characters from the first book. This book felt more scientific and historic and a little less dramatic and was primarily about WWII. I still learned a lot, though I do not rely on it to be perfectly accurate! It's enough to quench my thirst for history.

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All The Way Home

All the Way Home by Ann Tatlock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall the story (stories) were decent. It felt like two books, almost like it could have been a series, but it was a two part book. The first half of the book took place with the two main characters as children living in southern California leading up to and during WWII. Sunny is a second generation Japanese American who has an incredibly loving and supportive family who feel they are as American as anyone else. Augie comes from a broken family and quickly comes to love Sunny's family when they quickly become best friends.

World War II erupts and Sunny's family is forced to leave their lives behind to live in Japanese internment camps. Augie is devastated as she had become so much a part of Sunny's family, she even thinks of herself as Japanese at heart.

Augie and Sunny's family lose contact and Auguie thinks they have abandoned her and is devastated by what she sees as betrayal.

Fast forward twenty something years and Sunny, now Helen, finds Augie and invites her to her home to write a magazine article about anti-civil rights Mississippi. Augie is shocked to learn that the invitation to Mississippi is from her childhood best friend; there is a weird twist there I won't spoil.

Augie is there to write a story about a school that prepares African Americans to register to vote. She meets a really great guy...blah blah blah, he turns out to be something completely different than she thought...blah, blah, blah...the KKK are everywhere, they are bad, horrible people. I do not mean to demean what happened there, it's disgusting, but the story dragged on too much for me to read every fine detail.

The second part started out good, but then I just lost interest. It could have been shortened substantially. I skimmed over many pages just trying to get to the end quickly.

Great basis for a story, just not as interesting as I think it could have been. And have I mentioned how much I HATE reading accents? It is one of the more annoying parts of this book.

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Fall of Giants (Century Trilogy #1)

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy cow. By far the best book I have ever read and I hear it’s not his best!! I am hooked on this guys writing. It's a 985 page, hard back book...very heave to carry around.

The main characters are from Wales, Russia, Germany, and The United States of America. They come from different classes in life, from always hungry thieves to overindulgent earls. Most of their paths cross at some point or another, either before World War 1 starts or during the war itself. Each person is very passionate about the war whether for or against it. In common they all have a fear of what the war will bring them, or worse, take away from them.

The main characters are fictional but they interact with real historical figures, like Woodrow Wilson, Josef Lenin, and Winston Churchill to name a few. The author explains at the end of the book that the interaction may have been fictional, but what the real historical figures said was in fact something they actually did speak or write about.

I can see how this book could anger some people. I don't know whether the book was biased in any way, I will admit I am not as well informed about worldly topics such as World War 1. But the author seemed to have a stereotype for each of the character's home country. Like Russians as alcoholics, thieves, and communists. Germans as hard headed louts, English as pompous aristocrats, and Americans as self ascribed domineering world police. I think there is a bit of truth to each of the descriptions, but there are truly a lot of well intentioned people in the book too.

I learned so much from this book. What I mean is that I found myself putting the book down and looking up more information on my iPad about World War 1. I had no idea what started WW1. I had no idea that Germany and Austria-Hungary were diminished to mere blips on the map after the peace treaty. I feel a bit ashamed that I knew so little about it, but I do know a lot more now. The very basics at least.

His next book, Winter of the World, takes place with the children of the main characters of this book. It sounds like the lead up to World War II. I really look forward to reading it but I need a light reading break in between. It's a huge book; my little wrists need a break!


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The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm pretty conflicted on how much I liked this book (Three or four stars?). It was beautifully written, no question about it. A very talented author with an incredible imagination! However I think it just comes down to the fact that it wasn't as thrilling as I felt it could be. I think perhaps the ending didn't quite sit right with me either. It seemed like we were taken through so many years and got to know so many characters so well, that I felt a bit let down how it came to an end.

This was a slow read for me. I found I could easily set the book aside when the chapter changed time periods. In a way I appreciated that because I could think on it a little bit, but also a wee bit annoying.

I do like the concept of the book, I liked the magic and use of alchemy, I just wasn't as impressed by the story itself as it appears others were.

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The Shoemakers Wife

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

FAAAAAAN-tastic!

There was so much to this book and spanned so much time, it was a journey I will not soon forget! Lovely, lovely story.

This beautiful tale starts in the early 1900's in the gorgeous and airy Alps of Italy. Two children, Enza and Ciro, are living a few miles apart but don't meet until a tragic event brings them together ever so briefly at 15 years old. Before this new found crush can come to fruition, Ciro is sent to America to avoid a work camp as an unfair punishment for something he witnessed in a Catholic church. Enza, who did not know why Ciro left or where he went, heads to America too to help her family earn money to build a home back in Italy.

Through a series of chance run-ins in New York City, Enza and Ciro are never in the right place to make a go of the feelings they have for one another. It isn't until what seems the worst time for them to come together that Ciro steps up and risks his heart to claim her heart as his. Is Enza willing to give up the glamour of New York and The Met? Is she willing to risk an unknown life with this great man who claimed her heart so many years ago on the mountain?

Family tragedy, a near death sea voyage, a war, these two struggle through good times and bad to find what love really is.

I found myself reading this entire book with an Italian accent in my head. Ha ha! The writing was so beautiful and descriptive and I had no problems whatsoever picturing the mountains, The Met, and all the characters clearly in my mind.

An absolutely amazing, brilliant, heartwarming love story that will surely become a classic.


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The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ay yi yi, I don't know what to give this book. There is no denying that narrating a book by Death was both creepy but ingenious! He narrated the book during WWII, in Molching, Germany about an orphan girl named Liesel Meminger who is sent to live with foster parents during the height of Hitlers reign. She was not Jewish nor were her foster parents, but they were sympathetic towards them. Her story starts and ends with Death but this book focuses mostly on her few years with her foster parents. From dealing with being an orphan, making friends, protecting a Jew, discovery of books, Hitler youth, bombs, she deals with a lot in her youth; a side of WWII that I had not yet read about.

I tried reading this book a year or two ago and was so confused at the beginning that I stopped reading it. It's so highly rated that when I saw an audio book version was available, I borrowed it from the library.

Once I got over the initial weirdness that started with Death's narration and what he meant by the colors of the sky upon people's deaths, then I started following it just fine. Well, I mostly understood it, but I still got lost a time or two because it jumped around so much in time and place and characters. I couldn't remember what the current topic was and would have to scan backwards to figure it out.

The narrator was fantastic. I really enjoyed his voice, the books emotions were clearly conveyed by him. But oh my stars, I was getting annoyed by all the "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph" and "Crucify Christ" exclamations. It was almost a little offending. That's the book for you though, it had a lot of swearing. It fit for the theme of the book though.

I guess as far as how much I personally liked this book, I'd give it a three. For the creativity, I'd give it a five. So I guess averaging that out, I'll give it a four. Such a strange, strange book.

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Bridge of Scarlet Leaves

Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic! I love a book that can teach me something about history while maintaining an incredible story line.

The setting in the beginning of the book takes place in California just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor which then of course was the start of WWII. The story revolves around three main characters, Maddie Kern, her brother TJ Kern and TJ's best friend Lane Moritomo who is the son of Japanese immigrants.

Lane and Maddie fall in love but hide it from TJ. Due to Lane's Japanese heritage his parents plan to bring a bride from Japan to California for him to marry. Lane doesn't agree with all that goes along with his parent's customs so he refuses and convinces Maddie to elope with him. Nobody knows of their arrangement because interracial marriage is not only frowned upon pre-WWII, it's illegal in 30 states.

As they are having their quick weekend honeymoon in Seattle, Pearl Harbor is attacked. Lane quickly realizes whites are blaming him for Japan's bombing the United States. Maddie and Lane make haste back to California where TJ discovers what they did and demands they divorce.

When Lane returns home he finds the FBI in his house arresting his father simply because he works at a bank in California that is owned by the Japanese. Lane, his mother and sister are forced to one of the many internment camps made for those with as little as 1/16 Japanese heritage. Lane files for divorce simply to save Maddie from the embarrassment and criticism he's sure she'll suffer for being married to a Japanese man.

Maddie refuses to sign the papers and tracks Lane down to his internment camp and resides with him and his family. TJ on the other hand, he's had enough, between his sister marrying his best friend and the anger he feels for that betrayal, he joins the Army and is shipped off to the Pacific.

Lane is embarrassed of his and his families conditions, anger at the country which he loves so much, angry that Maddie is willing to sacrifice so much for him, it hurts his pride. He too joins the military for intelligence, to put his language to good use for his country. To prove himself...to find himself.

The book continues on as Maddie, Lane’s mother and sister move on to another location. Lane is also shipped to the Pacific. What effect will the war have on these three characters? Read to find out! Amazing, wonderful book.

This book is easily five stars for me. As I mentioned, a book that teaches me so much with such a fantastic story is a winner. The book was well researched and the fact that the author is the daughter of a white American mother and Japanese immigrant father gives her a lot of credit too. I have not read her other book Letters From Home, but look forward to doing so. If you liked, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I can nearly guarantee that you will like this book too.


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Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, hmm. I suppose I listened to Jacqueline Kennedy's oral history out of sheer curiosity. I had read Mimi Alford's Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath and became a little curious as to what Jackie Kennedy had to say after the death of her husband.

This audio recording stretched from March 1964, four months after JFK's assassination, to June 1964. There are seven conversations in total.

She came across as a doting wife who supported her husband in whatever venture or thought he had. She made it seem that his every thought was her thought, they agreed on nearly everything, he was such a good husband and truly cared about her. Historical recollections of others tells a completely different story. Perhaps he did love her, perhaps not. I'm sure he loved her beauty and poise and her rich background, but being married, I'm not convinced that JFK, whom I think was a scoundrel, liked being married. It was a political front I think.

I think a lot less of JFK, not that I had anything really to judge him on before. I think Jacqueline Kennedy worked with what she had but I think her eyes truly opened up in the years after his and Bobbie's deaths. They were political machines who had dirty agendas that were hidden from the unassuming public.

Going back to Jackie Kennedy's oral history, there was a lot of information that bored me. I hadn't heard of many, many of the people she and Mr. Schlessinger discussed nor did I really care. It was a gossip session of, "what did Jack think of so and so, or this or that". There were a few juicy bits and the one that I was most surprised by was her candid dislike of Martin Luther King Jr. She thought he was a horrible man because he often had orgy's. She thought him a fraud, phony. I had never heard that before! I find it ironic she thought him lowly for that, yet her husband had more romps than a rabbit in heat.

I can't imagine having these conversation so quickly after her husbands death. There is no doubt she was mortified and devastated by his death but there had to a great strength to be able to talk at that point of time. She never did discuss that horrific day or anything really leading up to it. No thoughts about it. I imagine it would be too soon for that.

In the recording you can hear the kids, their TV in the background, planes flying over head, her continuous lighting up and smoking and even the clinking of ice cubes in glass. I wonder what was in there? A stiff drink perhaps? I would need one!

Overall, I suppose I'm glad I listened to her oral history because I do like the subject. Did I come away feeling smarter and able to feel as though I knew Jackie Kennedy? Nope. Would I recommend this read to anyone. Not really. I think you'd have to be a real history nut or be looking for some gossip about the Kennedy white house years. I'm a little of both.

It makes me a little sad that Jackie Kennedy nearly completely withdrew from the public eye after JFK and Bobbie's death. I can't blame her though, but my curiousity is itching to know what she thinks of JFK looking back in the years before her death in 1994.

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