The Last Train to London

 The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton    464 pages

I expected a lot after reading the Amazon blurb for this book: “a pre-World War II-era story with the emotional resonance of “Orphan Train” and “All the Light We Cannot See,” centering on the Kindertransports. Those are two of my favorite novels in recent years.

This novel covers 1936 to 1940 as Truus Wijsmuller and her efforts to smuggle Jewish children out of Nazi Germany. The story is told through two viewpoints and short chapters. Truus and fifteen-year-old Stephan Neuman.  

All Stephan want to do is write plays, go to the theater and hang out with his new Zofie-Helene, a Christian girl he meets through his barber. Zofie is a math prodigy. I didn’t understand what she was saying half of the time, and I think contributed to my unfavorable reponse to the story.

As the story opens, Stephan and Zofie live in Vienna, a city on the edge with the imminent threat of a Nazi invasion. The wander through the city, mostly through a complex cave system, popping up here and there, that seemed a tad ludacrious to me.

Truus, a member of the Dutch resistance, begins to smuggle children out of Germany, making more and more trips into the occupied country. Maybe this is my twenty-first century perspective talking, but I found that the way she instructed all the children to call her Tante Truus (Aunt Truus) creepy. I understand that it was necessary given the unforeseeable encouters they would have, but it made me extremely uneasy. Also, I found her sections lacking tension; she never seemed to be in real danger, even when she was escorting thirty children across the border. And that is my biggest complaint of this novel---lack of tension. Never did I feel thatStephan, his five-year-old brother Walter, Zofie, Truus or the children were in life-or-death situations.

Because of the short chapters, I never felt a real connection to any of the characters.  The most positive aspect of ready this lengthy novel is that the name Truus Wijsmuller may now be recognized for the great work that she did. Truus is credited with saving over 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazi horrors.

Due to its lack of tension and the inability to make me connect with the character,  “The Last Train to London”  receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Winemaker's Wife

 

The Winemaker’s Wife  by Kristen Harmel   400 pages

Part of this story takes place in the Champagne Region of France. It’s set in 1940 and begins just before the Nazis invade France. Then the timeline and the location shifts to 2019 and New York. Dualing timelimes…one of my favorite plot structures!

In the 1940s sections, the Maison Chauveau is one of, if not the, best Champagne houses in all of France. The house is owned and operated by Michel Chauveau and his new wife, Ines. Also heavily featured in these sections are the chef de cave, Theo, and his wife, Celine. No matter the danger they are in from the aiding enemy army, there is a bigger threat to the house’s stability. Celine is half-Jewish. Word of the real purposes of the “work camps” is just beginning to be discussed. Michel puts them all in danger, but especially Celine, when he begins running munitions for the French Resistance. Michel is so worried, and so preoccupied,  that he begins to ignore Ines, hoping her ignorance of his activities will keep her safe. Then there is the attraction Michel feels for Celine that puts a monkey wrench in the whole situation.

In New York, Liv has lost everything. Right before she and her husband, Eric, had started their third round of in vitro fertilization, he convinced Liv to quit her job, to stay home and focus on getting pregnant. Little did Liz know that it got her out of the way while he had an affair. Now divorced, Liv is depressed. There’s a knock at her door

Her 99-year-old grandmother has arrived from France to get her. Liv isn’t interested in returning to Paris. But Grandma Edith is a tough cookie, still, and won’t take no for an answer. Plus she has an agenda that will shock Liv, and give her the purpose she needs to move on with her life.

I enjoyed “The Winemaker’s Wife.” Author Kristen Harmel does an excellent job in keeping the characters’s secrets until the end. There was one question that I had that wasn’t answered and that is, “Did the Nazis find the hidden room in the underground cave system where Michel and Theo his their best champagnes?” Otherwise, the story is a fascinating look at the cave system where Maison Chauveau hid their products, the small things that were done as part of the Resistance, and family secrets. 

The Author’s Notes provided insight into the book’s creation, which was also fascinating.  “The Winemaker’s Wife ” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Spies of Shilling Lane

The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan   368 pages

When I sat down to start this novel, I expected a fast-paced ride with menancing undertones. What I got instread was a rather comical cozy-mystery vibe. Not that that’s bad, it was out of left field for me.

Mrs. Braithwaite is having a rough year. Her husband has divorced her, creating quite the scandal. Couple that with her demotion as head of the local Women’s Volunteer Service in Ashcombe Village, England, well, she’s feeling kinda low and sorry for herself.

She doesn’t have a close relationship with her daughter, Betty, who left for London as soon as WWII broke out.  Although she has sent five letters, Mrs. B. has not received a single reply. So Mrs. B. decides to go visit.  During the Blitz.

When she finally arrives, Betty isn’t home and Mr. Norris, who owns the home where Betty rents a room, hasn’t seen her in quite a while. He has no idea when she could be coming back or even if she has survived the nightly Nazi air raids. Author Ryan does a great job in taking readers to the tunnels during the air raids and how Londoners coped. When Mrs. B. and Mr. N. spend one night in a church’s catacombs, it’s quite creepy

Eventually, Mrs. B., accompanied by Mr. Norris, locates Betty, tied to a chair in the basement of a garage. Then it becomes good-guys versus bad-guys. The story that follows is rather humorous, but stereotypical.  Like sluggin the bad-guys with her purse, taking turns with Betty getting captured by the bad-guys, and ultimately saving the day.

 “The Spies of Shilling Lane” was okay, and that is why it receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Second Winter

The Second Winter by Craig Larsen    416 pages

I have read a lot of World War II novels, but Craig Larsen’s is one of the most realistically brutal that I have encountered. It’s a great read with a lot going on. Larsen has adapted wonderfully Guy de Maupassant's 1884 short story, “The Necklace.”

The story opens in East Berlin in August 1969. Angela Schmidt is a violinist, who, along with other members of an un-named orchestra, are returning to West Berlin. Their bus is searched. It’s an intense scene that sets up this powerful novel. Angela’s nerves are testd as she is smuggling a diamond necklace that bears the Romanov crest along with some photographs that had belonged to her father. Angela’s story comes up now and again throughout the story, but in all honesty, that part could have been left out.

Then the story moves to Poland where a teenage girl, Polina, is taken by the Nazi’s and forced into prostitution. The story shifts again to the main protagonist, Fredrik Gregersen. It’s now the second winter, a harsh winter with brutally cold temperatures, heavy snows and howling winds of the Nazi’s occupation of Denmark. I swear sometimes I could feel how cold it was.

Fredrik is a farmer who is barely getting by. He lives on a farm with his son and daughter. Life is brutal, made even more so by the Nazis. In addition to eeking out survival on her farm, Fredrik is involved in transporting Jewish refugees out of country. During one such event, an Old Jewish man is forced to leave a bag filled with jewels.

This is as far as I’m going to go with the plot as I’m afraid I might give it away if I haven’t already. I enjoyed this novel a lot. I wish there had been a list of characters as there were many and sometimes I had to refer back to previous chapters in order to keep them all straight.  But Polina, the young girl who appears in the beginning and the end, offers a searing portrait of what life was like under the Nazi occupation.

The Second Winter receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Nightingale

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah   440 pages

In love we find out who we want to be.

In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

These are the first words on the dust jacket and truly sum up this marvelous novel.

Vianne Mauric lives in a quiet village outside Paris with her husband, Antoine, and their eight-year-old daughter. Antoine has been called into service, but no one in the village believes that the Nazis will invade. Well, we know how that turned out.

Vianne’s younger sister, Isabelle, is eighteen, rebellious and searching for passion. When the young man she falls head-over-heels in love with betrays her, she vows to take an active part in freeing France from the Nazis.

In this incredible story, readers have a chance to witness “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.”

Author Hannah made me feel like I was in France, both trying to eek out a living as Vianne was doing or joining the Resistance with Isabelle. I had trouble putting this book and was sad when it ended.

I give The Nightingale six out of five stars. Of the 65 books I’ve read this year, The Nightingale is one of the best.

Nightingale

Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
440 Pages

The tale of two sisters Vianne and Isabelle during WW II in France.  When war breaks out, Vianne's husband Antoine travels to the front leaving Vianne and her daughter Sophie in their small village.  Her sister Isabelle is living with her father in Paris and as the Germans invade, is forced to leave Paris and live with her sister.  Each sister must find their own way to survive the war and fight on their own terms.

A well rounded novel about a women in wartime.  Hannah presents character-driven narratives in a novel full of emotion.

Those Who Save Us

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum, 482 pages

I have a fascination with anything pertaining to World War II and this was some of the best historical fiction about it I have read. Those Who Save Us tells the story of Trudy, a middle aged German history professor, herself born in Germany during the war, and her mother Anna, who has come to live with her after a fire destroys the farmhouse of Trudy's childhood, where Anna was still living. Trudy has always had a strained relationship with her mother and she has never been told the story of what led up to herself and her mother coming to live in America with an American soldier.
The book alternates between present day, which is the late 90s, and the late 30s early 40s, when Anna was around the age of 20, living in Nazi Germany.
Trudy embarks on a project for work in which she interviews Germans about their experiences during the war. Her goal in the project is to see if any Germans feel any remorse or responsibility for the tragedies of the Jews.
Trudy learns much in these interviews, including things about herself and eventually, the details from when she was young.

*One of the fun details of this story was that Anna worked in a bakery in Germany when she was young. Many delicious sounding German cakes and breads are mentioned, and the mouth waters just reading about them.

Hellsing Volumes 3-10

Hellsing volumes 3-10 by Kohta Hirano, 1607 pages

 This concludes my reading of the manga Hellsing. I really enjoyed reading this and am disappointed that this was the end.

This series has everything an action manga could need. Copious amounts of blood that is completely out of proportion to the body it came from? Check. Vampire armies? Strange and unusual weapons, and the sword and gun play needed in any action novel? Attractive heroines in tight fitting clothing? Check, check, and double check.

To sum up the rest of the series a Nazi major who has been hiding out in South America since the end of World War II has launched an attack on London, and namely the Hellsing agency. The attack quickly turns to all-out war when the Vatican decides to join the fray. Through this all Integra, Seras, and the immortal Alucard try to save London and stop the invaders. But the Nazis have a plan that might prove Alucard is not as immortal as he thought.

If all manga follows along this same vein, I am going to need to read more. Everything is extremely well drawn and detailed. Having read more than a couple books, I would like to retract my previous statement about it not being in color. It doesn’t need color. It conveys everything it needs to and lets your mind fill in the color details. Though I can’t help but wonder if there is an anime for this out there somewhere.

Prisoner B-3087

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Grantz, 260 pages

Based on a true story by Ruth and Jack Gruener, the book follows young Yanek Gruener, a Jewish boy who is twelve years old when the Nazis invade Poland.  He struggles to survive while being tortured and starved through ten different concentration camps.  Although nearly all of his relatives and friends are killed during WWII, somehow Yanek manages to live.  This is an amazing story.

Moonraker

Moonraker by Ian Fleming, 256 pages

Moonraker is the third James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. Fleming works hard to incorporate both of his previous books into Moonraker. He mentions the dark tan/sunburn Bond got in Live and Let Die, along with Bonds famous card playing skills from Casino Royale. The book is divided into two main parts each involving a popular millionaire name Sir Hugo Drax.

 In the first part Bond is called upon to investigate a claim of cheating in a bridge game at the elitist gambling club Blades. Much like Fleming did in Casino Royale with the baccarat game, he walks you through the playing of the hands. Despite my minute knowledge on the playing of bridge Fleming manages to make the walk through not only interesting but in a way thrilling. Unlike my learning of baccarat from Fleming in Casino Royale I still have no idea how to play bridge. Bond quickly learns how the culprit is cheating and repays him in kind.

The second part of the novel involves Britain’s first attempt at making a nuclear missile capable of reaching most of Europe’s capital cities. When the head of security for the project is killed at a bar under mysterious circumstances Bond is brought in to make sure the project is not in danger. Bond being Bond quickly finds himself drawn to the attractive Gala Brand and with her help they uncover a plot that could change the world.

Moonraker is the first novel that has given us a deeper understanding of how Bond spends his time. Fleming describes everything from target practice, to chatting with secretaries, and even mundane paperwork at the office. While it was mentioned previously that there are only three double-oh agents at a time, Fleming reveals that the current three are 007, 008, and 0011. It is also mentioned that Bond only makes £2000 a year which seemed very low to me until research showed that in today’s values it would be closer to £300,000.

Overall Moonraker is a good book but is slightly off the pace of Flemings first two. While deduction and skill were heavily relied upon in the first two, this one seems to rely entirely on luck and a blind eye from the government. This didn't make the story less thrilling, just less believable.