WWII – …on the B.L.

Escape from Paris by Stephen Harding

September 1, 2019August 30, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Yes
Length 288
Quick Review Joe, an American soldier, and Yvette, a young French woman in the resistance, fall in love at Les Invalides under the most unusual circumstances during World War II.

In front of The Water Wall in Houston, Texas. | Escape from Paris by Stephen Harding | Dress | Purse | Shoes | Earrings |

Escape from Paris | Dress | Shoes | Purse |

Available October 8, 2019

The world has an obsession with World War II. It was a new kind of war revolutionizing economies and industries around the world. The devastation and impact it had is still remarkable. With so many history books, novels, documentaries, TV shows, movies, and more, it can be easy to forget the individuals impacted by each decision, battle, success, and failure. People won the war. People lost the war. People lived lives during the war. Stephen Harding puts faces to these stories in Escape From Paris.

Harding focuses on the 94th Bomb Group, a United States Air Force unit based in England flying missions over Germany and France.

I’m going to be completely biased, I found the French part of this story far more interesting than the American aspect. This has nothing to do with the writing and everything to do with my personal interests. As a francophile and history buff, I am drawn to the French bits.

Joe is an American, who enlisted in the Air Force when the war began. His bomber went down over Northern France during an air raid along with several other planes. Most did not survive, but Joe and several other did. Finding the resistance they ended up in Paris at Les Invalides.

Georges and Denise had been the caretakers of Les Invalides for many years when the war broke out. They joined the resistance along with their daughter, Yvette. There were resistance groups working separately and together throughout Europe. This family was in a unique situation as “the “caretakers of Invalides” literally carried the keys to what was arguably one of the safest hiding places in the country” because Les Invalides had been taken over by the Germans during the Occupation, which, counterintuitively, gave this family more freedom to aide the resistance effort while housing and hiding soldiers. It was a dangerous and brilliant plan due to the fact “the Germans never thought to search what they assumed was a completely secure facility.”

There’s a love story in Escape from Paris, but I find it the least interesting bit about this book because personal taste. I did find it a little redundant because Harding felt the need to continually point out that this is a love story and that it’s not just about war, it’s about love too. I get it. He’s building up the human aspect of the story, but it’s not that interesting. The repetition borders on frustrating. The humanity is abundantly clear in his portraits of the people inhabiting this story. They lived lives before, during, and after the war. These were people who loved each other and their country. They fought in any way they could to protect what they believed in. The love story is sweet, but it’s the least impactful part of the story. If it wasn’t in the title, I probably would have forgotten it was in the book. Joe, Denise, Georges, and Yvette were incredible and brave people standing up for what they believed in.

Escape from Paris is riddled with historical facts, airplane terminology, logistics, and more. If you’re not familiar with these terms and this kind of history book, you’ll want Google handy. I enjoyed reading this interesting and well researched book. It’s definitely one to read if you like WWII.

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Title: Escape From Paris; A True Story of Love and Resistance in Wartime France
Author: Stephen Harding
Publisher: De Capo Press (Hachette Book Group)
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780306922169

Books, Fiction

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald

July 7, 2019July 5, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Yes
Length 416
Quick Review A love story conquering time and obstacles set in 1940’s Grand Central Station. A great light read for summer vacation.

Lisa Grunwald is a beloved author of six novels. She returns with her latest novel Time After Time. Grand Central Station is the setting for a fantastical love story beginning in the 1920’s and lasting through World War II and after.

Nora Lansing and Joe Reynolds meet under the gold clock in the main concourse of Grand Central Station on a crisp winter morning of 1937. They come from very different backgrounds but are drawn to each other anyways. Nora is an early 20s socialite in a dress that doesn’t quite befit her class. Joe is a leverman from a working class family in Queens. They don’t meet again until 1938, but Nora disappears suddenly. Joe is intrigued by the mysterious woman in the unusual dress. It’s not until two years later Nora reappears and they fall in love.

Lisa Grunwald narrates Time After Time in the third person told mostly from Joe’s perspective but Nora’s as well. In the beginning, the book jumps from their present to their pasts, but it is mostly chronological for the majority. The book consists of five parts.

I liked Nora as a character. She’s strong, vibrant, and determined during a time women were not allowed to be quite as free. Joe is a traditional man from Queens. I don’t like him much. He’s old fashioned and controlling. I can’t imagine a woman like Nora falling in love with a man like that under any other circumstances than set in the plot. She’s trapped and Joe is kind of the only option as far as relationships go.

The plot is slow but not boring. Time After Time is littered with clues, so I found the plot incredibly easy to guess. It’s not a bad book. Just a bit slow.

Memorable Quotes
“…Nora had come to understand the difference between infatuation and love. Infatuation was weather. Love was climate.”

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Title: Time After Time
Author: Lisa Grunwald
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780812993431

Books, NonFiction

Code Girls by Liza Mundy

October 23, 2018 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 448
Quick Review Women are incredible, and they have been forever. During WWII, women were finally able to contribute and show their worth as code breakers. They were so integral to the war effort, for the first time in the United States, they were actively recruited.

I have been wanting to read Code Girls by Liza Mundy for awhile, but I have been busy reading other things. This has finally come to the top of my reading list. Women have often been underrated and underutilized throughout history. During WWII, women were finally able to prove their worth as all the men went off to war.

Code Breaking was not a field of prestige. In the United States, it was hardly a field of study at all. Women were able to participate in code breaking due to the lack of barriers. When WWII broke, there was a scarcity of men. The military looked to the prestigious women’s colleges and school teachers. These women were smart, unattached, and usually had sturdy moral centers. They moved to Washington, overcame numerous obstacles, worked hard, and proved trustworthy. These women proved to the military, men, and the country they could be just as vital to the war effort as the men.

Liza Mundy explores the history, the impact, and the women in Code Girls. I really loved this book. It wasn’t a dry read. The personal stories of the women involved were beautiful. These women were vivacious, smart, funny, and complicated. They yearned for the same things we yearn for today. These women were taking part in making history. They were paving the road for women to have independence, jobs, and money of their own. The Code Girls were the first generation of women to truly have independence in their own right.

Some of my favorite parts about in Code Girls was the innate feminism that comes with women paving the way. The war turned gender roles right around. The men were the ones itching to get married, while the women were turning them down to pursue careers and independence. There was a huge variation in acceptability between the Army and Navy code breaking units. For instance, pregnancy was not tolerated in the Navy even for married women. The Army cared not at all. It’s also interesting to think about the logistical mess that was happening. Housing, feeding, transporting an army of people new to Washington was a mess. I couldn’t help but feel bad for anyone in need of housing.

Code Girls is such an empowering book. If the women during WWII could find success in an openly hostile environment, than we can continue the fight for equality. I highly recommend!!!

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Memorable Quotes
“Women were more than placeholders for the men.”
“All the girls were writing letters, often to lots of soldiers, and many received three or four or five letters a day.”
“”It’s Q for communications; you know, the Navy can’t spell.””

Title: Code Girls
Author: Liza Mundy
Publisher: Hachette Books
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780316352543

Books

Lilac Girls

May 11, 2018 RaeAnna

Read: Yes
Difficulty: III
Length: IV
Notable: New York Times Bestseller
Genre: Fiction – Historical Fiction
Quick Review: Based on a gut wrenching true story, Lilac Girls follows three women impacted by WWII and somehow involved with the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp.

I was a little hesitant about this novel. It could have gone either way from the description. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is an impressive historical fiction novel following three women’s complicated journeys during and after WWII.

Three women of varying ages tell their stories in alternating chapters. Caroline, an American working at the French consulate in New York, is in her late thirties when the war breaks out. Kasia is a teenager experiencing love for the first time when the Germans invade her country, Poland, putting their headquarters in her hometown before she is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Herta is a young doctor and staunch supporter of the Nazi cause, but blinded by the propaganda, she doesn’t see the truth until she begins working at a concentration camp.

Ravensbruck was the only female concentration camp during Hitler’s reign. A group of Polish women from the camp were medically experimented on forever changing their lives. Their legs were mutilated. These women became known as The Rabbits because they hopped around the camp and they were the Nazi test rabbits. Several died from the experiments. Lilac Girls centers around these events.

Caroline (a real woman) helps from the US by sending care packages to orphans and helping the families she can in the US. She ends up in Paris as the war is winding down where she finds out about the Ravensbruck Rabbits through her advocacy work. Kasia (a composite of several real women) was a survivor of Ravensbruck and the cruel experiments. Herta (a real woman) is a German doctor. Due to Nazi regulations, she had a difficult time finding work as a doctor, so she took a position at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. The characters are all very complex and strong women. They each have their own motivations personal and environmental, which pushed them into the lives, decisions, and actions they made for themselves. They were flawed and survivors. Reflecting humanity: it’s complicated.

I would describe more, but the plot is complex and very intertwined. If I say too much, I will be giving a lot of things away. Although if you’re a history buff like I am, you’ll probably already know a lot of the facts because Hall Kelly does a very good job researching the history, women, and everything in between. Do remember this is historical fiction, so a lot of things have been changed to make it an engaging work.

It is incredibly well written. Each woman has her own style, thought process, and narrative. There were a few grammatical mistakes throughout, but they do not impede the reading in the slightest. There are a great deal of feminist themes, which I appreciated. Hall Kelly explores the often overlooked Anti-Semitic attitudes the US had during the time. I found the supporting characters to be more relatable than the main characters, but they were not placed in the difficult situations the main characters found themselves in. At times, the anti-semitism was nauseating, but that is exactly how it should be.

I found Lilac Girls to be an impressive novel exploring lesser known experiences of WWII. Though it is not a light read, it’s the perfect book to dive into over a summer vacation because you’ll want to invest some time in it.

Memorable Quotes:
“No one said they were selling items taken from the Jews, but we all knew.”
“”Somewhere in the corner of our hearts, we are always twenty.””
“Why does a woman’s women’s voice so often not command the respect it deserves?”

Title: Lilac Girls
Author: Martha Hall Kelly
Publisher: Ballantine Books (Random House/Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781101883082