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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated The Incidental Spy in Books

Apr 9, 2019

In the mid 1930's, Lena comes to Chicago in the United States to escape what was happening to Jews in Germany at the time. Quickly she learns English and get a job at the local University in the Physics Department. This is where she meets her husband, Karl. After his tragic death, Lena has to find a way to support herself and her young son. When she meets Hans and agrees to work with him she feels she has no other choice in order to survive and protect her family.

I wasn't sure where this book was going to take me, but I'm glad I was along for the ride. What would you do if you were faced with a situation where either choice seemed like the wrong answer? If I was faced with the same predicament, I can't say that I wouldn't have chosen the same as Lena. If you say no, you could lose your family, if you say yes, you can lose a whole lot more. Lena is brave and stoic in her efforts to keep her and her son alive. She finds help in unlikely sources and is able to keep herself and her son safe in the process.

Libby Fischer Hellmann writes a great story that keeps the reader hooked from the start. I can't wait to read more by this author.

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Charlie's Angels (2019) in Movies

Dec 4, 2019

Charlie's Angels (2019)

2019 | Action, Adventure, Comedy

6.2

(23 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Attempt to make the notably leer-tastic exploitation TV show into a piece of weaponised feminism ends up understandably conflicted, but it has bigger problems to worry about. Somebody wants to steal a maguffin with evil potential, Angels want to stop him, much whizzing about in Germany, Istanbul, and so forth.

Elizabeth Banks puts together a generic sub-Mission Impossible action thriller reasonably well, but when the gunfire and revving engines dies away you are just left with the sound of comic banter failing to spark and the occasional unsubtle you-go-girl message. The plot feels very familiar, and the rest doesn't do enough to cover up for this. Mixed work from the cast: Banks herself is working hard, Kristen Stewart proves she genuinely does have star quality, Naomi Scott can probably look forward to a healthy career playing the kooky best friend, and while Ella Balinska can deliver neither a joke nor a line of exposition to save her life, she is about nine feet tall which helps with the fight choreography. Patrick Stewart turns up and twinkles a lot; one presumes CGI has been used to erase the dollar signs in his eyes. Admittedly, I am probably not the target audience for this movie, but even so: too often this feels leaden when it should be light, and treacly when it should froth.

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Third Reich Victorious: Alternate Decisions of World War II in Books

Feb 24, 2020

There's been a certain tension when it comes to military history, pretty much since not long after the Second World War ended: pretty much everyone agrees that the Nazi Party was as close to evil incarnate as we will hopefully ever see, but many academics (amongst others) still harbour a sneaking admiration for the quality of the German war machine and its leadership. That tension is basically at the heart of this book; it's telling that several of the German victory scenarios outlines here are predicated on Hitler either being replaced or being markedly less of a genocidal bigot.

The what-ifs vary: what if Hitler served in the navy in the First World war, what if the Russians pre-empted Barbarossa and attacked Germany first, what if Turkey joined the Axis, what if the Germans got the atom bomb in 1944, what if Rommel defeated the D-day landings, deposed Hitler, and the war devolved into a one-front struggle with the Soviets? Most of these are interesting and seem to have been written with the general reader in mind; a few do suffer from getting bogged down with detail. On the whole it is engaging stuff, if recent military history is your thing, and you do come away with an improved awareness that the Second World War was a closer-run thing than most people realise nowadays.