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206. The Alice Network

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Kate Quinn

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II

520 pages, published June 6, 2017

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

The Alice Network tells two parallel stories.  The first takes place in 1947 and focuses on college girl and American Charlie St. Clair who is pregnant, unmarried, and at a crossroads in her life.  She travels to England to enlist the help of the grizzled and standoffish former English spy Eve Gardiner in a desperate bid to find her cousin Rose who disappeared during World War II.  Also along for the ride is Eve’s assistant Finn, a handsome, and magnetic Scottish ex-con who Charlie finds her falling for.  The second story spotlights Eve’s time during World War I when she was part of the “Alice Network,” a group of female spies stationed primarily in France.  We follow the trio’s journey as they uncover the truth about Rose and Eve’s past during both of the World Wars and come to terms with themselves and each other.

 

Quotes 

“What did it matter if something scared you, when it simply had to be done?”

 

‘To tell the truth, much of this special work we do is quite boring. I think that’s why women are good as it. Our lives are already boring. We jump an Uncle Edward’s offer because we can’t stand the thought of working in a file room anymore, or teaching a class full of runny-nosed children their letters. Then we discover this job is deadly dull as well, but at least there’s the enlivening thought that someone might put a Luger to the back of our necks. It’s still better than shooting ourselves, which we know we’re going to do if we have to type one more letter or pound one more Latin verb into a child’s ivory skull.”

 

“Hope was such a painful thing, far more painful than rage.”

 

“It is facile to condemn the French for giving in to the Nazis too easily when many French citizens would have still borne the horrendous scars of the first occupation, would have clearly remembered having to stand back while German sentries robbed them of everything but the nearly inedible ration bread because the only alternative was to be arrested, beaten, or shot. The French survived not one but two brutal occupations in a span of less than forty years, and deserve more credit for their flinty endurance than they receive.”

 

“You think there are no idiots in the intelligence business, that your superiors are all brilliant men who understand the game? […] This business is rife with idiots. They play with lives and they play badly, and when people like you die as a result, they shrug and as ‘Risks have to be taken in wartime.’ You’d really march yourself into a firing squad for that kind of fool?”

 

My Take

While The Alice Network is an enjoyable read in the spy/World War genre, I found The Nightingale to be a much better book.  The characters fell a bit flat and the plot could have been more intriguing.  Not a bad book by any means.  There is just better material about World War I and II out there.

 

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184. The Remains of the Day

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Kazuo Ishiguro

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II

258 pages, published September 12, 1990

Reading Format:  Audio Book on Hoopla

 

Summary

The Remains of the Day is a compelling portrait of Stevens, the perfect English butler and of the changing landscape in England after World War II.   After devoting more than 30 years of his life to service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a drive through the English countryside to reconnect with Miss Kenton, who served for a period as the Housekeeper at Darlington and who was the closest thing to a romantic relationship for Stevens during his life.  As Stevens’ story slowly unfolds, a life of blind dedication, missed opportunities and chances not taken is revealed and we are left with the portrait of a tragic man who missed out on a bigger life.

Quotes 

“What can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services. What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.”

 

“If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.”

 

“The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”

 

“But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself to distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of ‘turning points’, one can surely only recognize such moments in retrospect. Naturally, when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one’s life; but of course, at the time, this was not the impression one had. Rather, it was as though one had available a never-ending number of days, months, years in which to sort out the vagaries of one’s relationship with Miss Kenton; an infinite number of further opportunities in which to remedy the effect of this or that misunderstanding. There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable.”

 

“He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lorship’s wisdom. All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can’t even say I made my own mistakes. Really – one has to ask oneself – what dignity is there in that?”

 

“What do you think dignity’s all about?’  The directness of the inquiry did, I admit, take me rather by surprise. ‘It’s rather a hard thing to explain in a few words, sir,’ I said. ‘But I suspect it comes down to not removing one’s clothing in public.”

 

“After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?”

 

“But that doesn’t mean to say, of course, there aren’t occasions now and then – extremely desolate occasions – when you think to yourself: ‘What a terrible mistake I’ve made with my life.’ And you get to thinking about a different life, a better life you might have had. For instance, I get to thinking about a life I may have had with you, Mr. Stevens. And I suppose that’s when I get angry about some trivial little thing and leave. But each time I do, I realize before long – my rightful place is with my husband. After all, there’s no turning back the clock now. One can’t be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.”

 

“It is sometimes said that butlers only truly exist in England. Other countries, whatever title is actually used, have only manservants. I tend to believe this is true. Continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the emotional restraint which only the English race are capable of. Continentals – and by and large the Celts, as you will no doubt agree – are as a rule unable to control themselves in moments of a strong emotion, and are thus unable to maintain a professional demeanour other than in the least challenging of situations. If I may return to my earlier metaphor – you will excuse my putting it so coarsely – they are like a man who will, at the slightest provocation, tear off his suit and his shirt and run about screaming. In a word, “dignity” is beyond such persons. We English have an important advantage over foreigners in this respect and it is for this reason that when you think of a great butler, he is bound, almost by definition, to be an Englishman.”

 

“The rest of my life stretches out as an emptiness before me.”

 

My Take

I saw the excellent film version of The Remains of the Day in 1993 when it was first released and was struck by how sad it was that the protagonist Stevens never dared to take even a small risk in the service of emotional connection with another human being.  The book version, which won the Man Booker Prize in 1989, is just as good and provides even greater insight into this emotionally stunted man.  It also provides a compelling portrait of post World War II England and how the class system is still alive and well, but changing fast.  The Remains of the Day is a powerful reminder that you need to live now and connect with your fellow human beings on a deep and personal level so that you don’t get to the end of your life and regret all the chances not taken.

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170. The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Heather Bohart

Author:   Jennifer Ryan

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II

371 pages, published February 14, 2017

Reading Format:  E-Book on Overdrive

 

Summary

The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir is set during the early days of The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet II in the bucolic village of Chilbury, England.  With many of the village men off to war, the ladies who remain in the village decide to ‘carry on singing’ as part of the “The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir.”  As they do, the war rages around them as Dunkirk is evacuated and the German drop bombs on their village.  The ladies suffer more than their share of loss.  However, they keep hope alive and life goes on with romances, intrigue and a bizarre and hilarious switched at birth story.

 

Quotes 

“Human nature defeats me sometimes, how greed and spite can lurk so divisively around the utmost courage and sacrifice.”

 

“I took a deep breath of the syrupy sweetness of summer, suffused with bees and birds, and I thought to myself how beautiful this world can be. How lucky we are to be here, to be part of it, for however long we have.”

 

“And I realized that this is what it’s like to be an adult, learning to pick from a lot of bad choices and do the best you can with that dreadful compromise. Learning to smile, to put your best foot forward, when the world around you seems to have collapsed in its entirety, become a place of isolation, a sepia photograph of its former illusion.”

 

 

“…we spoke about dying. [Prim] told me how she’d nearly died of malaria. She said that she didn’t mind the thought of death. That realizing you’re going to die actually makes life better as it’s only then that you decide to live the life you really want to live.”

 

Then I looked out onto the horizon myself and realized that loss is the same wherever you go: overwhelming, inexorable, deafening. How resilient human beings are that we can learn slowly to carry on when we are left all alone, left to fill the void as best we can. Or disappear into it.”

 

“If we don’t think about our death until we die, how can we decide how we want to live?”

 

My Take

During my thousand book quest, I have read a lot of books that take place during World War II (The Nightingale, The Girl You Left Behind, Life After Life, Going Solo, A God in Ruins, The End of the Affair, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Zookeeper’s Wife ) and for the most part, I have really enjoyed them.  The world at war, with the potential of a complete takeover by the Nazis, automatically raises the stakes in any book.  In a similar fashion to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir gives us the perspective of the British home front when invasion by the Germans felt imminent.  Jennifer Ryan is a skilled writer, creating a world that is easy to inhabit and characters that you want to get to know better.

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162. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Jamie Ford

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance, World War II

290 pages, published January 27, 2009

Reading Format:  Book

 

Summary

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is set in World War II era Seattle and tells the story of two star-crossed lovers (well actually friends who love each other):  Henry Lee, a 13 year old Chinese kid whose father is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American , and Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American girl whose parents are proud to be American but are becoming increasingly worried after war breaks out with Japan.  Both Henry and Keiko are “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary school where the two outcasts find each other while working together in the school cafeteria.  When the internment of American-Japanese families begins, Henry and Keiko are torn apart.  Fate separates them until forty years later, when newly widowed Henry contemplates finding his first true love.

 

Quotes 

“The hardest choices in life aren’t between what’s right and what’s wrong but between what’s right and what’s best.”

 

“He’d do what he always did, find the sweet among the bitter.”

 

“Henry was learning that time apart has a way of creating distance- more than mountains and time zone separating them. Real distance, the kind that makes you ache and stop wondering. Longing so bad that it begins to hurt to care so much.”

 

“I had my chance.’ He said it, retiring from a lifetime of wanting. ‘I had my chance, and sometimes in life, there are no second chances. You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward.”

 

“But choosing to lovingly care for her was like steering a plane into a mountain as gently as possible. The crash is imminent; it’s how you spend your time on the way down that counts.”

 

“I try not to live in the past, he thought, but who knows, sometimes the past lives in me.”

 

“The waitress brought a fresh pot of tea, and Marty refilled his father’s cup and poured a cup for Samantha. Henry in turn filled Marty’s. It was a tradition Henry cherished—never filling your own cup, always filling that of someone else, who would return the favor.”

 

My Take

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a quick and enjoyable read that does a fine job of demonstrating the staggering impact of the World War II internment on the Japanese families who were forced to abandon their homes, businesses and lives.  The characters are engaging and provide a sweet lens through which to view a historical atrocity.

 

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152. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  Sue Breen

Author:   Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance, World War II

277 pages, published July 29, 2008

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

Written as a series of letters, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society tells two stories.  The first takes place in 1946 Britain during the immediate aftermath of World War II.  London is emerging from the shadow of war and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. She finds 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 delves into her new subject, the second story of life on the Island of Guernsey, the only part of the UK occupied by the Germans during the war, takes shape and fascinates a curious Juliet.  Juliet is drawn into the eccentric world of this man and his friends and learns about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which originated as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.  Juliet begins a 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 travels to Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

 

Quotes

“That’s what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive – all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.”

 

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.”

 

“Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true.”

 

“I don’t want to be married just to be married. I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, someone I can’t be silent with.”

 

“Life goes on.” What nonsense, I thought, of course it doesn’t. It’s death that goes on.”

 

“She is one of those ladies who is more beautiful at sixty than she could possibly have been at twenty. (how I hope someone says that about me someday)!”

 

“I kept trying to explain and he kept shouting until I began to cry from frustration. Then he felt remorseful, which was so unlike him and endearing that I almost changed my mind and said yes. But then I imagined a lifetime of having to cry to get him to be kind, and I went back to no again.”

“Have you ever noticed that when your mind is awakened or drawn to someone new, that person’s name suddenly pops up everywhere you go? My friend Sophie calls it coincidence, and Mr. Simpless, my parson friend, calls it Grace. He thinks that if one cares deeply about someone or something new one throws a kind of energy out into the world, and “fruitfulness” is drawn in.”

 

“All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero and heroine were safely engaged — after all, what’s good enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. But it’s a lie. The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot. ”

 

“Friends, show me a man who hates himself, and I’ll show you a man who hates his neighbors more! He’d have to–you’d not grant anyone else something you can’t have for yourself–no love, no kindness, no respect!”

 

“If there is Predestination, then God is the devil.”

 

My Take

I really loved listening to the audio version of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a delightful book rich with colorful characters, especially protagonist Juliet Ashton.  The authors draw you into Juliet’s world and through her letters we can vicariously experience life on the island of Guernsey during and after World War II and life in post war London.  Juliet is intelligent, dedicated, witty, funny, but most importantly, she is kind hearted.  All of her traits permeate this book, making you wish that she was a real person you could know and befriend.  I recently learned that they are making a movie of this book starring Lily James (who was wonderful as both Cousin Rose on Downton Abbey and as Cinderella in the Disney live action movie version).  I think it was an excellent casting choice and I look forward to seeing the film version of one of my favorite books of the year.

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127. The Zookeeper’s Wife

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   

Author:   Diane Ackerman

Genre:  Non-Fiction, History, Biography, Animals, World War II

368 pages, published September 17, 2007

Reading Format:  Book

 

Summary

The Zookeeper’s Wife opens in 1939 with an examination of the idyllic life led by Jan and Antonina Zabinski, the zookeepers who run the Warsaw Zoo and also live on its premises with their young son Rhys and an assortment of adopted wild animals.  Their existence in Eden soon turns into hell when Germany invades Poland dropping bombs that destroy much of Warsaw including a large part of the Zabinski’s zoo.  With most of their animals dead, Jan and Antonina use their zoo as a safe haven and halfway house for more than 300 Jews who would otherwise be destined for concentration camps.   

 

Quotes

“Why was it, she asked herself, that ‘animals can sometimes subdue their predatory ways in only a few months, while humans, despite centuries of refinement, can quickly grow more savage than any beast.”

 

“God may promise not to destroy creation, but it is not a promise humankind made – to our peril.”

 

“Germany’s crime is the greatest crime the world has ever known, because it is not on the scale of History: it is on the scale of Evolution.”

 

“The faint pink coating the treetops promised rippling buds, a sure sign of spring hastening in, right on schedule, and the animal world getting ready for its fiesta of courting and mating, dueling and dancing, suckling and grubbing, costume-making and shedding-in short, the fuzzy, fizzy hoopla of life’s ramshackle return.”

My Take

I have read a lot of books about World War II in the past few years and wasn’t sure if I wanted to tackle another one.  However, I’m glad that I gave The Zookeeper’s Wife a chance.  While there is a lot of devotion to the struggle against the Nazis and the suffering of the Jews that it is present in many World War II themed books, The Zookeeper’s Wife offers a unique perspective on this tumultuous time and brings to life the heroic deeds of Jan and Antonina Zabinski.  I can recommend not only this book, but also the movie version starring the beautiful and talented Jessica Chastain.

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44. The End of the Affair

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Graham Greene

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, Romance

192 pages, published 1951

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

Set in London during and just after the Second World War, The End of the Affair examines the obsessions and jealousies within the relationships between three central characters:  writer Maurice Bendrix,  Sarah Miles,  and Sarah’s husband, civil servant Henry Miles.  The narrator of the book is Maurice, a rising writer during World War II in London based on Graham Greene, and focuses on his relationship with Sarah based on Greene’s lover at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated.   While Maurice and Sarah fall in love rapidly, he soon realizes that the affair will end as quickly as it began as he cannot contain his all consuming jealousy and frustration that Sarah will not divorce Henry, her kind but boring husband. When a bomb blasts Maurice’s flat as he is with Sarah, he is nearly killed.  After this, Sarah breaks off the affair with no apparent explanation.  Maurice is still consumed with jealousy and hires a private detective to discover Sarah’s new lover.  Through her diary, Maurice learns that when Sarah thought Maurice was dead after the bombing, she made a promise to God not to see Maurice again if God allowed him to live again. After her sudden death from a lung infection, several miraculous events occur, bringing meaningfulness to Sarah’s faith.  By the last page of the book, Maurice may have come to believe in a God as well, though not to love Him.

 

Quotes

“It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.”

 

“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”

 

“I want men to admire me, but that’s a trick you learn at school–a movement of the eyes, a tone of voice, a touch of the hand on the shoulder or the head. If they think you admire them, they will admire you because of your good taste, and when they admire you, you have an illusion for a moment that there’s something to admire.”

 

“My passion for Sarah had killed simple lust forever. Never again would I be able to enjoy a woman without love.”

 

“I measured love by the extent of my jealousy.”

 

“I became aware that our love was doomed; love had turned into a love affair with a beginning and an end. I could name the very moment when it had begun, and one day I knew I should be able to name the final hour. When she left the house I couldn’t settle to work. I would reconstruct what we had said to each other; I would fan myself into anger or remorse. And all the time I knew I was forcing the pace. I was pushing, pushing the only thing I loved out of my life. As long as I could make believe that love lasted I was happy; I think I was even good to live with, and so love did last. But if love had to die, I wanted it to die quickly. It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death; I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.”

 

“I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.”

My Take

The End of the Affair is the first book that I have read by iconic British writer Graham Greene and it did not disappoint.  I especially enjoyed listening to the Audio Book version narrated by Colin Firth (an actor I like quite a bit) who does a great job with the material.  Greene brings to life the misery, insecurity and jealousy that is the ugly underbelly of Maurice’s all consuming, obsessive love for Sarah.  A fascinating, albeit depressing, book that I can unreservedly recommend.

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24. The Nightingale

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:  Summer Youngs  

Author:  Kristin Hannah

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II

Info:  440 pages, published February 3, 2015

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

The Nightingale tells the tale of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, and their experiences in rural France during World War II.  After her husband Antoine joins the French army at the start of the war, Vianne is left to manage on her own with her daughter Sophie and soon finds herself billeting a German officer with a softer side in her home.  Vianne eventually starts to shelter Jewish children after their parents are deported to a concentration camp and even adopts three-year-old Ari, the son of her best friend Rachel.  Vianne’s younger and bolder sister Isabelle joins the French Resistance and becomes the Nightengale, an integral part of the underground network that leads Allied soldiers through the Pyrenees to safety in Spain.  As the war progresses, the sisters’ relationship and strength are tested.  With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Vianne and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.

 

Quotes

“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.”

“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”

“Today’s young people want to know everything about everyone. They think talking about a problem will solve it. I come from a quieter generation. We understand the value of forgetting, the lure of reinvention.”

“But love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us.”

“I am a mother and mothers don’t have the luxury of falling apart in front of their children, even when they are afraid, even when their children are adults.”

“Tante Isabelle says it’s better to be bold than meek. She says if you jump off a cliff at least you’ll fly before you fall.”

“She wanted to bottle how safe she felt in this moment, so she could drink of it later when loneliness and fear left her parched.”

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Read more

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1. Life After Life

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Tina Hirshland

Author: Kate Atkinson

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II

Info: 560 pages, published March 14, 2013

Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

Every time Ursula Todd dies, she is born again. Each successive life is an iteration on the last, and we see how Ursula’s choices affect her, those around her, and the fate of the 20th-century world.

 

Quotes

“What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

“He was born a politician.  No, Ursula thought, he was born a baby, like everyone else. And this is what he has chosen to become.”

“No point in thinking, you just have to get on with life. We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it right, but we must try.”

“Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.”

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