All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

★★★★

"So how, children, does the the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build us for a world full of light."

There is not too much that I can say about this book that hasn't been said before.  An instant best seller, still #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List almost a year and a half after it was published, and the winner more awards that I can count - including the Pulitzer Prize and the Goodreads Choice Awards to name a few.  

This novel is essentially about childhood and war and growing up in a world torn by war.  Marie-Laure  lives with her father in Paris. When she was six years old, she became blind and her father teaches her to learn to navigate the streets by building her an exact replica of their neighborhood.  She is twelve years old when the Nazis occupy France and her and her father flee to the country to live with Marie-Laure's great-uncle for the remainder of the war.  Werner is an orphan growing up in a small mining town in Germany.  He grows up with his young sister listening to the radio and dreaming of bigger and greater things than spending the remainder of his life as a minor.  When the Nazis begin to recruit for the Hitler Youth, Werner sees this as his only opportunity out.  He quickly gains a reputation as being the only one who can fix new instruments critical in the advancement of the Nazis.  As he receives one special assignment after another, Werner slowly realizes that cost that his work has on human life.  Work that will also one day lead him to Marie-Laure.

'All the Light We Cannot See' is a beautiful story of two children who grow up during the war.  Two children that grow up during unspeakable times having to make unspeakable decisions way beyond their years. The novel alternates between Marie-Laure in very short chapters, making the almost 600-page novel go by much faster than expected.  The imagery was wonderful and was, essentially, what makes this book such a masterpiece.  It was also what made it hard for me to rate this book as amazing instead of simply wonderful.  The writing was almost too beautiful - I kept thinking that I was missing something.  It was almost like reading literate poetry.  Breathtakingly beautiful, but a little hard to follow throughout an entire novel.  Especially since the chapters were so short and the development of each character's story was woven to intricately with the other.

I did really enjoy this book, but I don't think I was able to appreciate it in it's entirety.  I tend to read way to fast and so I wasn't able to grasp as much of the detail as I would have liked.  I think this may be one of the few books that I will have to re-read someday!

This book was #6 on my top ten list of 2015.

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb

★★★

The Nazi Hunters is the account of the case of Adolf Eichmann, an SS officer and the head of the Nazi final solution during World War II.  During the war, Eichmann was responsible for carrying out Hitler’s plan in murdering millions of Jews and other groups of people that were deemed “unfit” in the eyes of German citizens.  Even though he was a highly wanted criminal after the war, he escaped to Argentina with no remorse or remission for what he had done. This non-fiction book for young adults tells of the events and individuals who played a role in Eichmann’s capture including a holocaust survivor, a teenage girl, and a group of Israeli spies.  After over sixteen year, Eichmann is finally placed on trial.  His execution serves as both justice for those whose lives were impacted by the holocaust and as a starting point for the public to be made aware of the horrors of the events.   

I’m not a big reader of nonfiction, but as far as nonfiction books go I found the book to be very informative and generally easy to get through.  I have read a lot of books about World War II and the Holocaust (primarily historical fiction) and was surprised never to have heard of Eichmann.  The author did a great job of incorporating a lot of facts into a narrative that included an intriguing storyline and a lot of action.  I was a little confused by all of the characters at times, but the photographs definitely helped to keep everyone straight.  I wouldn’t generally read this book on my own, but I appreciate the author’s research and would recommend this book to young adults who are interested in learning more about World War II.

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian (audio)

 ★★★★

"She didn't care so much whether the world would ever forgive her people; but she did hope that someday, somehow, she would forgive herself."

I came across the book as I was going though the Chris Bohjalian audio books.  I read A LOT of World War II/Holocaust historical fiction, and I was surprised that I hadn't really heard of this one before.  I wouldn't say it was one of the best books I've ever read, but I did enjoy it.  

It's the beginning of 1945 and World War II is finally coming to an end.  Left in chaos, a group of Germans begin a journey to reach the allied forces near the Rhine.  The group includes Anna - a privileged daughter and her lover, Callum - a Scottish prisoner of war and Manfred - a Jew posing as a Nazi soldier after escaping Auschwitz.  Travelers also include Anna's mother and younger brother.  As the head away from the only home they have ever known, they begin to comprehend the horrors of the war as they fight to survive.

This novel painted an interesting perspective of World War II - that of a story of the German refugees.  War is never simple.  There is no "good" and "bad."  It's easy to classify the German Nazis as the "bad guys," but it's not that easy.  Many of the things that happened to aristocrats like Anna and her companions were similar to what the Nazis did to there enemies as well.  A lot of the detail about the horrors of World War II did not come out until the end of the war, and a high percentage of Germans didn't even know they were going on until years later.  The author did a wonderful job of capturing the time period and what the characters were going though.  A very powerful novel.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

★★★★

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

Goodreads Summary: On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

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This was somewhat of a difficult novel for me.  It was a bit confusing and I wasn't sure I "got" everything. Even though I struggled to get through it at times, there were many things that I loved about this book.  I read a lot of books, and I sometimes find myself reading the "same story" over and over again.  Kate Atkinson managed to take a simple concept (being born over and over again into the same life) and create a unique and complex story.

Each time Ursula is reborn, her life takes a slightly different path.  She managed to avoid one disaster after another, but then ends up with a different problem. I kept hoping that Ursula would finally "get it right," but that wasn't really the goal of the story. This novel is more about life more than anything and how it is effected by the everyday choices that we make.  I also loved the the novel was set in England during both World War I and II.  Usually books tend to focus on one war or the other.  I also really loved all of the different characters that Atkinson created to weave in and out of Ursula's life.

This book was #8 on my top ten list of 2014.