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    Sky Gamblers Races

    Sky Gamblers Races

    Games and Entertainment

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    Take the challenge and build your reputation on the ULTIMATE WWII AIR RACE game! Leave your mark by...

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Alison Pink (7 KP) rated The Nightingale in Books

Jan 15, 2018  
The Nightingale
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.9 (61 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow! Just wow! This book was beautifully written. It is so full of heartbreak & evil but in the end the fact that love is what remained makes it beautiful. It felt so real, I don't doubt that there are women out there that did what Vianne & Isabelle did. They are 2 brave sisters who risk everything to help make the world a better place despite being surrounded by all the horrors of WWII. It has been a long time since I cried like I did at the end of a book. I'd have to stop reading several times in the last few chapters because I was so moved. What a beautiful story!
  
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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Lottery and Other Stories in Books

Mar 15, 2018  
The Lottery and Other Stories
The Lottery and Other Stories
Shirley Jackson | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
Jackson is the queen of turning normal people's lives into a horror show. This short story is dark, disturbing and chilling.

Written and published just after WWII, this clearly sends out as message to all those involved in the Holocaust. Just because something is being done by the masses, and has become a sort of tradition, doesn't mean its moral and right. This message translates to today's times too. As another reviewer perfectly put it, "there is value in tradition but beware blind faith".

This in no way surprised me, it's not that I've seen spoilers for it, I just happened to get it very early on, but that doesn't take away the effect of the horrific ending.
  
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Ali A (82 KP) rated The Bletchley Riddle in Books

Oct 14, 2024  
The Bletchley Riddle
The Bletchley Riddle
Steve Sheinkin, Ruta Sepetys | 2024 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his fourteen-year-old sister, Lizzie, share a love of riddles and puzzles. As WWII gets closer and closer to Britain, the siblings find themselves amongst the greatest secrets of all - Britain’s codebreaking facility at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins the country’s top minds to crack Nazi’s Enigma cipher, Lizzie transfers notes between departments in the park and tries to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother in her off time.

While the Novis siblings work hard on their tasks, messages and codes begin to arrive under their doorstep. It doesn’t help that while they try to figure out if the messages are truly for them (and possibly from their mother), that there is an inspector lurking outside the gates of the park, watching Jakob and Lizzie’s every move. They must figure out a way to put their bickering aside and work together to decipher the clues if they want to uncover the answers to the puzzle.

As usual, I will pick up anything Ruta Sepetys touches and learn about a part of history I hadn’t known about before I read the book. This book is no exception as we take a deeper dive into the codebreakers Bletchley Park during WWII. I knew there were codebreakers during WWII, but what I didn’t realize is that they consisted of mathematicians, chess champions, and librarians (which, as a librarian, this absolutely makes sense why they were needed!).

Though this book is aimed at middle grade, I will say it felt like it would be more for upper middle grade / younger high school age. Lizzie is fourteen and Jakob is nineteen so their voices were a little older, but nothing major or graphic happened that would make the novel need to be young adult.

Even as an adult, when it came to the description of the codes’ breakthroughs or the ins and outs of the Enigma machines, I would get lost, but overall I just assumed the characters knew what they were talking about and trusted them.

Overall, I loved the twists and turns that kept the pages moving for me. I know I had a hard time as an adult solving the clues, so young readers who like spies and code cracking, are sure to love this too.

*Thank you Viking Books for Young Readers and BookishFirst for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review