Finished: The Huntress (Quinn) A very good WWII story about a heartless female Nazi known as the Huntress, a spitfire Russian female war pilot, a male war correspondent with an ax to grind against the Huntress, and a teenager in Boston whose widowed father may or may not have just married an escaped Nazi with a new name. Nina is born and raised by a lake in the remoteness of Siberia by just her harsh father. All her siblings have already left and she is desperately trying to figure out what to do with her life to get her out of Siberia. When she sees a small aircraft land near the lake and rushes over to question the pilot, she knows she has discovered her calling. Through determination and skill she makes her way into the all female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment of Russia known by the nickname the Night Witches. She thrives in this environment, finds a family of sisters, and flies more than 600 missions before being forced to land across enemy lines in Poland. It is in her weeks of survival that she first encounters the Huntress. The Huntress is the mistress of a high ranking SS officer who is just as cruel and merciless as the male Nazi's were. One of her many atrocities...one day when she finds six escaped Jewish children on the road near her home, she takes them in and feeds them, and then takes them out by the lake and executes each one of them. When her cowardly SS officer kills himself when it becomes obvious that the war is lost, the Huntress kills a Jewish woman, takes her credentials AND the four year old daughter she had with her, and makes her way to America with false papers. Ian, the war correspondent has reported on wars in Spain, Europe, and landed in Normandy with the WWII troops. His magazine articles are very well read by followers in America. After the war he concentrates on hunting down Nazis until the Nuremberg Trials are over. After the trials, people in Europe start to lose interesting in finding the many more Nazis who have not been brought to justice. Ian loses his lust for writing after the trials and takes on the more personal mission of finding a singular Nazi who killed his U.S. soldier brother in cold blood after he escaped from a prison camp....the Huntress! Ian, along with his young partner and veteran of WWII, Tony, and Nina, who Ian shares a surprising history with, all head to Boston when they get a tiny lead on where the Huntress may be. Jordan, the daughter of antique dealer, Dan McBride, is a budding photographer and she's GOOD. She's a bit wary of meeting the woman her father has fallen for, but the woman couldn't be kinder or more accepting. They settle into an easy relationship and all is going well until Jordan accidentally finds a Nazi iron cross hidden in her soon-to-be stepmother's bouquet, after she and Dan have just said their I do's. The story goes back and forth from the viewpoints of Nina, Ian, the Huntress and Jordan and is very compelling! Needless to say, all their lives end up intertwining as the tale comes to a head. Very well written with great character development! I might search out more of Kate Quinn's books. :-)

 Finished: The Hunting Party (Foley) Another good page-turner from the author of The Guest List. A group of friends from Oxford have celebrated New Years Eve together for almost ten years, every year since graduating university together. Though friendships have waned and some relationships strained, they are always able to relive the "good times" from their past. They travel to a remote lodge in the Scottish Highlands where only the lodge keeper, Heather, and the grounds keeper, Doug, live most of the year. Needless to say, one of the nine guests ends up murdered and they are snowed in, so the authorities can't get to them. It's up to Heather and Doug to figure out what happened and keep the rest of the guests safe. A tale that unfolds as we hear the first person history of each guest and what his or her relationship was and is to the rest of the group. I'm pretty sure I liked The Guest List better, but this one still had a good twist at the end. :-)

 

Finished: Words in Deep Blue (Crowley) A wonderful book about loss, and love, and books, and sometimes having to write letters to people to get your feelings across instead of saying the words out loud. A story about a 17 year old girl named Rachel, who loves her best friend, a boy named Henry, but when her brother, 16 year old Cal, dies suddenly, she's not sure if there's any good in life left anymore. I can't say how much this book means to me. I lost my little brother when he was 36, and though he wasn't 16 like Cal, he might as well have been, or 5 or 10 or 21. I lost him at all those ages when I lost him for good. This book helps me remember what I already know...that he is alive in so many ways. In my memories, in my heart, in music, in his own written words, in his last spoken words, and especially in my own children, as I see so much of him in both of them. Words in Deep Blue is full of characters who will stay with me, Rachel, Henry, Cal, George, Michael, Sophia, Frederick, Martin, who all write letters to each other and leave them in their favorite books for the others to find and respond to. The books are in Henry's family owned bookstore, in a section of books that can only be read in the store and never sold. It is a beautiful story, and heartbreaking but life affirming at the same time. And, that is the blog, There's no "more on blog" this time. Go read the book! 

 Finished: Once We Were Brothers (Balson) The story of two twelve year old boys growing up in Zamosck, Poland right as Hitler is coming on the scene. Ben Solomon is Jewish and lives with his hard-working parents and sister. Otto Piatek is not Jewish, and the son of a down-on-his-luck father and a German mother who deserted him. Desperate for work and to get his son food, Otto's father goes to Mr. Solomon to ask for a job at his factory. Mrs. Solomon immediately takes Otto for food and a bath, and the father leaves Otto with them while he gets back on his feet. Otto ends up becoming part of the family, like a brother to Ben and Becca. They all go to school together, and grow very close. When Otto is 15, his German mother shows up at the door with the father, who had also eventually abandoned Otto. His mother wanted to take him with them since she now had a good job working as a secretary for Himmler, Reich Leader of Hitler's SS. Otto refuses to leave the Solomons, who he now considers family, to go with the people who abandoned him. His mother warns that she knows things and that it is going to get dangerous for the Jewish people. Otto stays and the world goes on. Hitler does gain more and more power and the Jewish people begin to lose their privileges slowly but surely. Despite all the warning signs, the Solomons are like so many Jewish families who really can't believe that things could escalate to dangerous proportions, so they don't leave Poland when they can. By the time Otto and Ben are 17, Otto's mother returns once again and is far more insistent that Otto comes with her. She has secured him a job under Himmler and he needs to get away from the Jewish family and take his rightful place. He refuses again, but then Ben's father talks with him and says maybe he should go so that he could at least be someone they would have on their side on the inside. That is the beginning of the end for everyone involved. Otto becomes part of the SS, and though at first he tries to get the Solomon family and friends food and other supplies, he eventually falls under the "charms" of the Third Reich and becomes one of them. Ben and his beloved girlfriend Hannah, Abraham and Leah Solomon and their daughter, Becca, and all their friends in Zamosc suffer the horrors of the Holocaust as we later learn from Ben who survived. As the story opens, Ben is 83 years old in 2004 and he has dressed up to attend an opera in Chicago with an ulterior motive in mind. He has recently seen a documentary about Chicago millionaire and benefactor, Elliot Rosenzweig and knows that he will be at the opera on the same evening. When Ben comes face to face with Elliot, he pulls out an empty WWII pistol and points it at Elliot's head. He accuses him of being a former Nazi SS Officer known as the Butcher of Zamosc...Otto Pietak! What ensues is a suspenseful, painful story as Ben hires attorney Catherine Lockhart to bring Otto Pietak to justice. However, Elliott denies being Otto and he has the money and power to see that Ben's accusations will never see a courtroom. Or does he? It's a heartbreaking book, as we hear every detail of what happened during the horrific time. Well written and such a compelling story, as all stories from the Holocaust are, but so horrifying to this day. It will never not be horrifying. 

 Finished: Sharks in the Time of Saviors (Washburn) Beautifully written story about a Hawaiian family who barely makes ends meet, but has a very close bond with each other and a very spiritual bond with the island they live on. Father, Augie, Mother, Kalia, oldest son, Dean, second son, Nainoa, and youngest daughter, Kaui are at a crossroads when the sugar cane factory Augie works at closes down and they must ask his uncle in the "city", Honolulu, for work. Before the life-changing move, Augie takes them on one of the tourist boats for one more day of family fun. During the boat trip seven year old Nainoa falls overboard. He is bobbing in the water as the boat gets further away, nine year old Dean struggling with his father to let him jump in, and Kalia, shoving four year old Kaui into a stranger's arms as she DOES jump in. As the captain turns the boat around, Kalia realizes she'll never get to Nainoa in time, as she watches him go under and not resurface. Suddenly, four sharks swimming together pass under her and towards Nainoa's location. Kalia is struck with fear and envisions the water turning the awful red of a shark attack, but to everyone's amazement, one of the sharks surfaces with Nainoa cradled gently in it's mouth. The shark swims past Kalia and back to the boat where Augie pulls his son aboard. The shark has saved Nainoa. Since he was a baby, animals have flocked to Nainoa, encircling him as if they are protecting him, as if he is special, but never like this. The story of the sharks and Nainoa spreads, and when Noa, as he is known, subsequently grabs the severely burned hand of one of Dean's friends and it heals, then Noa becomes a much sought after child. He is now the special one with more of a connection to the gods and land than anyone could imagine. He sees people who come for healing, but as we find out later, it rarely works again for the islanders. Dean and Kaui grow up in the extreme shadow of Noa's light, trying their hardest to be noticed by their parents. Their parents love them, but most of the family focus is on Noa's amazing abilities and his brilliance at school. Kaui excels at school as well, and Dean excels at basketball, but try as they might, they never feel as if their parents love them as much. Noa can't handle the pressure that is placed on him, especially when he feels like he's supposed to be doing more than just helping people in the neighborhood. He feels the calling so strongly, but feels that he is being called to "fix" the entire island of Hawaii, where they first lived. Fourteen years later, Noa lives in Portland as a paramedic, Dean has a scholarship to play basketball in Washington state, and Kaui has just begun studying at a university in San Diego to become an engineer. (Turns out she was truly the smartest one in the family!) They try to stay in touch by calling, but many of the old resentments between the siblings still exist. Their lives take turns that none of them expect. Noa can often feel a person's lifeblood and feel himself helping to heal them as he cares for people in emergencies. He still feels he has a much larger purpose, but doesn't know what it is. Dean has been kicked off the team for getting into partying and having an attitude, and his life goes downhill. And, Kaui, still the top of her class in everything, gets into drugs and climbing the shells of empty buildings, and discovers that she loves her female roommate. One day when Noa is called to the scene of a car accident involving a 36 weeks pregnant woman, he feels certain that by laying hands on her he can bring both the baby and the mother back, but he fails. He cannot get over the loss and gives up his job and goes back home. He's got to find out what more he is supposed to do, what the gods want of him, and how deeply he is supposed to be connected to the island. When tragedy strikes, the remaining family members, all try to find their true purpose back in Hawaii. You really grow to feel for each of these characters and to feel the essence of Hawaii. It's hard to just lay out a plot and not talk about the beautiful, spiritual sense of the book as well. It's just one you'll have to read to see what I mean. There is one passage that I really loved from the beautiful prose of this book. :-)

"How long was I stupid enough to believe we were indestructible? But that's the problem with the present, it's never the thing you're holding, only the thing you're watching, later, from a distance so great the memory might as well be a spill of stars outside a window at twilight."