Between Shades of Gray / Ruta Sepetys / 338 pgs / Audiobook / Historical Fiction

"Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously - and at great risk - documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but [with] incredible strength, love, and hope..."

Wow. I have trouble gathering all of my thoughts on this book, because it's very powerful. There's so much about Stalin's rule that I never learned--that I think a lot of Americans have never learned--and this story is an example of that. I'm grateful to the author for writing about the Lithuanian people and their treatment at the hands of the Soviets. This is the story of her ancestors, and she chose to share it in a way that adults and young adults alike could read. Beautifully written and utterly tragic. I enjoyed the incorporation of Russian words into book and the meaning behind them. This is a book about mistreatment and survival, as well as love and grace in the face of starvation and death. It is about history, friends, family, pity, and respect. It is about so many things that I can't communicate. Let me just say that I cried and I felt as though my heart was being torn up, but it was worth it. Read this book.

The War Bride's Scrapbook / Caroline Preston / 224 pgs

What an interesting story of a young woman who gets caught up in a whirlwind romance and marries a man after only knowing him for 10 days, only for him to leave to go off to war in 1943. The story is told through letters, and other real artifacts of the time, all captured in a "scrapbook." The story had an end that wasn't as cheerful as I would hope, but it was realistic for the time, and I wondered how much of the story had basis in the truth, or the family history of the author. I recommend it for someone who would like a bit of a slice of what everyday life was for a woman during World War II, but not for someone who is looking for a neat, little packaged ending.

The Orphan's Tale/Pam Jenoff/342 pgs.

This book centers around a German circus, during World War II, and an unlikely friendship that develops between two women. Noa is a sixteen year old kicked out by her parents when she becomes pregnant by a German soldier. Astrid, Jewish, marries a German soldier, is divorced by him, and joins the circus that had once been in competition with her family's circus. The story is told in alternating voices between Noa and Astrid. This book is one of the saddest ones I have read, but gives a different insight, though fictitious, into the impact Hitler's regime had on the circus. Recommended.

Anna and the Swallow Man / Gavriel Savit / 230 pages / 6 discs

There are many books out there about World War II. Some are written for children while others are for adults. It is rare to have one crossover to where both audiences find gratification.
 The story begins in Krakow, Poland during 1939. The war has affected Anna and her father's lives and they have adjusted. He is still teaching his classes but then is taken. Anna is utterly alone. While waiting in the street for her father to come, a man stops in front of her and asks in several different languages "who are you?"
  This is the Swallow Man - as in the bird - and instinctively Anna trusts him. That is not to say he doesn't scare her but there is a quality to him that gives her hope. The Swallow Man begins his walk out of the city and Anna follows him. There are no words exchanged, no gestures but Anna has decided this man gives her a chance at living.
  What follows are their adventures wandering the countyside of Poland and into the Soviet Union tracking the invading German soldiers. Not all is fun and games. The Swallow Man teaches Anna the rules of staying alive and he also tries to teaches her about life. The plot becomes less important at this time and the journey seems to turn allegorical. The birds, the "Road", the conversations all help Anna toward an ending. What kind of ending? You must read the novel.

6 Degrees of Reading: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse, The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society / Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows / 274 pgs

This was entirely one of the sweetest, nicest books I have ever read. The story concerns Juliet, a woman in her early 30's who lived in London during WWII and wrote a newspaper column about a fictional woman living in London during the Blitz. The columns are turned into a book and she goes on a trip around the country in promotion of her book. However, Juliet is just a little tired and ragged after a long war, so when she receives a letter from a man on the island of Guernsey on the subject of one of their shared favorite authors, a whole new adventure for Juliet begins. The stories of the people living on Guernsey fascinate Juliet. Guernsey is an island in the English Channel that really was occupied by German forces for five years during WWII. In the book, one way the islanders dealt with the challenges of being occupied was to form the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. So, though the circumstances of German occupation really did happen, the characters in this book and the Society they formed are fictional. To tell you how such a society formed and how it got its name would be spoilers. You will have to read for yourself!

The entire book is comprised of letters between Juliet, her publisher, her friend in Scotland, and her new friends on Guernsey. I highly recommend the book if you want a fun read. To say its completely light would be wrong, because of the ravages of war are described within, but it is a heartwarming story and it has a happy ending.

This book fulfilled one of the categories in the ReadHarder challenge: Category #14: Read a book about war
It also fulfills one of the categories in the PopSugar Reading challenge: Category #3: Read a book of letters

The Girl from Krakow/ Alex Rosenberg/ 442 pages

The Girl from Krakow is the first novel written by Alex Rosenberg.  The story begins in the midst of World War II  in Poland.  It quickly back tracts to the life of Rita Feuerstahl just prior to the German invasion of Poland.  Rita is a Jewish university student in Krakow set on finding freedom through philosophy.  Before she can achieve that, she finds herself married to one man and in love with another.  As war comes to Poland, Rita finds herself under the control of the Soviets, evading the Germans and desperate to stay alive.  The book deals mainly with the daily hazards of living in an occupied country while trying to not be noticed.  Rita's journey from Karkow to Karpatyn, to Lvov, back to Krakow and finally into Germany itself traces the persecution of the Jews, first by the Soviets and then by the Germans.  Poland was in a bad way from either invader.  Along with the history, the novel also deals with the philosophy of communism, sexual identity and self preservation.  Over all it was  an interesting and thought provoking read.

Paris Architect / Charles Belfoure 367 p.

In German occupied Paris, architect Lucien Bernard is offered a project.  A paying commission he desperately needs is the prize for the hiding hole.  The project could get him killed and probably his wife too if he is discovered.  He is to design a hiding place for a wealthy Jewish man that is so undetectable even the most able of Germans and Gestapo cannot find it.  He finds he takes pleasure in outwitting the Nazi.  When a hiding place fails miserably, Lucien takes it personally.  He realizes just what is at stake.  

Paris Architect / Charles Belfoure 367 p.

All the Light We Cannot See/ Anthony Doerr/ 530 pages

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is set in France and Germany during WW ll.  It traces two lives, Marie, a young blind girl, and Werner, a slight, intelligent German orphan.  The story revolves around a French gem, a hand-built model of a small town and radio broadcasting.  Marie and her father relocate to the small town of Saint-Malo to stay with his brother.  Werner, and orphan in a small coal mining town feels is future is secure when he is accepted to an elite school for soldiers.  The story follows both as their lives approach an eventual meeting.  For more information see the SCCCLD website.

Life After Life / Kate Atkinson / 544 p.

When I first started listening to this book I wondered if I could get through what I deemed a tedious beginning. It was selected by my book club so I knew I would have to keep going.  So glad I did!

There is the historical aspect--I felt I got a clear picture of civilian survival during WWII.  Then there is the "spiritual" aspect as Ursula is continuously reborn.  It raises all sorts of questions about the meaning of life, religion and those intriguing "what-if's" in all of our lives.

And I am very glad I listened to the audio version. The narrator did a wonderful job with many accents and voices.  And I loved hearing the British pronunciation of so many words.  It made the characters very real to me.

All the Light We Cannot See/Anthony Doerr/531 pgs./March challenge

Two characters on converging paths: Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, living in Paris with her father, the locksmith for the Museum of Natural History; and Werner, living with his sister, Jutta, in an orphanage in Germany. Werner is quite brilliant when it comes to electronics--especially repairing radios. He is seen as an asset to the Germans as Hitler is taking a stronghold in Germany; as a result, Werner "earns" a place in the brutal Hitler Youth academy. Marie-Laure, now twelve years old, and her father flee the now German occupied Paris, arriving in Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great-uncle lives; her father may or may not be carrying with him an invaluable gem. Alternately, Werner is becoming a product of his Hitler Youth training. Years into the war, Marie-Laure's and Werner's paths cross--leading up to that point and its aftermath makes for a compelling and unforgettable read. Highly, highly, highly recommended!